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Aqua Tofana is the name of a colourless, odourless poison that was named after a notorious female poisoner from the 1600’s, Giulia Tofana. It’s generally believed that the poison was created by her mother, who was hanged for the death of her abusive father. After her mother’s death, she moved to Rome where she opened an apothecary selling the poison to women in abusive marriages as a means of escaping their situations.
There are at least 600 deaths attributed to her poisons in the two decades between her arrival in Rome and her execution. She went undetected for as long as she did because the poison imitated symptoms of common illnesses like influenza.
Today, the concept of Aqua Tofana represents freedom from gender-based oppression and domestic violence.