28. “Inheritance Potions”
Tofana’s clientele was mostly wives seeking widowhood, but not all. She also sold Aqua Tofana to men and women who saw the deadly concoction as a means of settling disputes, eliminating business and romantic rivals, or paying back those who had given them offense. Moreover, not all wives who turned to Tofana for help in murdering their husbands did so in order to escape marital abuse: some were motivated by simple greed, and wanted to come into an inheritance. Indeed, so often was the poison used in Italy back then to speed up inheritances, that concoctions such as Tofana’s were nicknamed “inheritance potions”.
Aqua Tofana’s main ingredients are known: Atropa belladonna, also known as “deadly nightshade”, combined with arsenic, and lead. However, while the chief components are known, the manner in which they were blended has been lost to history. What is known is that the final product was a colorless, odorless, and tasteless liquid, which was almost impossible to detect when added to water or wine. Only a few drops were needed, broken into a few doses, to kill a victim.
