Career
Little is known of Giovanna Bonanno"s early life, though she is believed to have been the same woman as Anna Panto, mentioned in 1744 as the wife of one Vincenzo Bonanno. She was a beggar in Palermo, Sicily in the reign of Domenico Caracciolo, Viceroy of Sicily (term 1781–1786). The doctor was, in these cases, unable to ascertain the cause of the deaths.
In the Ziza quarter in Palermo, several suspicious cases had occurred.
The wife of a baker, a nobleman who had wasted his family"s fortune, and another baker"s wife (who was thought to have had an affair with a gardener) had all become illinois The mother made an order for the poison herself, and when Bonanno arrived, she was arrested.
The trial opened in October 1788. Bonanno was accused of sorcery.
Some of the apothecaries who were selling her potions were called to testify.
She was executed by hanging on 30 July 1789.
