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Rita Atria (; September 4, 1974 − July 26, 1992) was a witness and key collaborator in a major
Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of ...
investigation in
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
. She committed suicide in July 1992, a week after Cosa Nostra killed prosecutor
Paolo Borsellino Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; scn, Pàulu Borsellino; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying t ...
, with whom she had been working.


Family background

Rita was born into a
Mafia family A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in Italian organized crime and especially in the Sicilian Mafia and Italian American Mafia, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activi ...
in
Partanna Partanna is a town and ''comune'' in province of Trapani, south-western Sicily, southern Italy. It is south-east of Trapani Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on t ...
, Sicily. In 1985, at the age of 11, she lost her father, Vito, a shepherd, who was shot dead by a hit man from a rival Mafia family. Her brother, Nicola, vowed to avenge his father and probably knew the identity of the person who had killed him.Longrigg, Clare
"Where talking is met with deadly silence"
''The Independent,'' September 21, 1992. Accessed July 19, 2014.
After her father's death, Rita became closer to her brother and his wife,
Piera Aiello Piera Aiello (; born 2 July 1967) is an Italian police informant and politician known for her stand against the Mafia. She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. In 2019 she was named as one of the BBC's 100 Women. Biography Anti-mafia testimo ...
. Since her brother was also a Mafioso, Rita was privy to detailed information on the doings of the Mafia in Partanna. At some point, she also dated a boy who also had a role in the criminal underworld.Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 325-26 In June 1991, the Mafia killed Nicola Atria. A month later her brother’s widow, Piera Aiello, went to the police and told them what she knew, thus initiating her collaboration with the judicial authorities.Rita Atria – la sua storia in breve
Associazione antimafia Rita Atria


Anti-mafia testimony

In November 1991, at the age of 17, Rita decided to follow in her sister-in-law's footsteps, hoping to obtain justice for these murders from the legal system. The first person she gave her testimony to was magistrate
Paolo Borsellino Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; scn, Pàulu Borsellino; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying t ...
, who took her under his wing much like a paternal figure. She gave Borsellino the names of bosses in the most powerful families and disclosed information about the war between the Mafia families of Partanna, in which 30 people died. She also disclosed the names of the men who had killed her father and brother. Rita’s mother had Rita leave the family house when she found out that her daughter was collaborating with the police. She would not care that her daughter was trying to bring her own son's killer to justice; in her opinion – and the deep-rooted Mafia culture she belonged to – the police were on the wrong side of the law. Rita was then moved into a
safe house A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is, in a generic sense, a secret place for sanctuary or suitable to hide people from the law, hostile actors or actions, or from retribution, threats or perceived danger. It may also be a metaphor. Histori ...
under witness protection, an apartment on the seventh floor of a building in the outskirts of
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, where the only people she knew were her police guards. Borsellino became the only person she trusted and relied on. The evidence provided by Rita and Piera, together with further testimony, led to the arrest of various Mafiosi and to the launch of an enquiry on politician Vincenzo Culicchia, who at the time had been mayor of Partanna for thirty years.Pickering-Iazzi, ''Mafia and Outlaw Stories from Italian Life and Literature'', p. 166 Information obtained from Rosalba Triolo, a woman from the rival Mafia factions in Partanna, independently confirmed the testimonies of Rita and Piera to be accurate.


Suicide

After losing all kind of support and understanding from friends and family, both Rita and
Piera Aiello Piera Aiello (; born 2 July 1967) is an Italian police informant and politician known for her stand against the Mafia. She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. In 2019 she was named as one of the BBC's 100 Women. Biography Anti-mafia testimo ...
turned to Borsellino for emotional support. They referred to him as "Uncle Paolo" and called him whenever they needed him. In turn, he visited them whenever he was in Rome, even after their collaboration had ended. Borsellino used to pinch Rita on the cheek and poked fun at her tough, street-wise behavior, calling her a "mafiosa with a skirt." On July 19, 1992, Borsellino was killed when a bomb exploded on Via D'Amelio. The assassination took place less than two months after colleague
Giovanni Falcone Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
was also killed by Cosa Nostra near
Capaci Capaci () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. In 2011 the comune had a population of 11,045, with a density of 1,804.7 people per square kilometre. The A29 ''autostrada'' running from Palermo to Punta R ...
. Rita wrote in her diary: "You have died for what you believed in, but without you, I too am dead."Apperly, Eliza
"Italy anti-mafia film sparks anger with relatives"
''Reuters'', March 26, 2009. Accessed July 19, 2014.
A week later on July 26, Rita locked herself in her apartment and wrote a note which read: "I am devastated by the killing of Judge Borsellino. Now there's no one to protect me, I'm scared, and I can't take it any more." Shortly after, she killed herself by jumping out the window.


Legacy

Many people regard Rita as a heroine because of her willingness to sacrifice everything, including the affection of her mother (who after her daughter's death destroyed her tombstone with a hammer) in order to pursue justice. She grew from a desire for revenge for her losses to one for justice. Like Piera, Rita was not a former Mafia criminal turned informant (
pentito ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
), and she could not be designated as a “pentito”. Because of this, she is referred to as a "collaboratore di giustizia" (someone who collaborates with prosecutors from the vantage point of being close to members of a criminal organization), a title that has been legally recognised in Italy by the law of 13/2/2001 n. 45. Rita wrote in her diary: "Before fighting the Mafia you must first examine your own conscience, and only after defeating the Mafia inside yourself can you fight the Mafia that's in your circle of friends. We ourselves and our wrong way of behaving is the Mafia."Pickering-Iazzi, ''Mafia and Outlaw Stories from Italian Life and Literature'', p. 161 On July 25, 2008, Piera Aiello was nominated president of the anti-mafia association "Rita Atria".RITA ATRIA
, Associazione antimafia Rita Atria


Film

Rita’s story was the subject of a 1997 documentary, ''One Girl Against the Mafia: Diary of a Sicilian Rebel'' ("Diario di una siciliana ribelle"), directed by
Marco Amenta Marco Amenta (Palermo, 11 August 1970) is an Italian Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and photojournalist. Biography After attending the Liceo Classico Umberto I in Palermo, Amenta started his career at ''Il Giornale di Sicilia' ...
."Movie Review: The Sicilian Girl (2009): An Angry Soul From a Hard Island"
''The New York Times,'' August 3, 2010

UNAFF 99
In 2007, Amenta reworked the documentary into the film ''
The Sicilian Girl ''The Sicilian Girl'' ( it, La siciliana ribelle) is a 2008 Italian film directed by Marco Amenta. The film is inspired by the story of Rita Atria, a key witness in a major Mafia investigation in Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , p ...
'' ("La siciliana ribelle") with Veronica D'Agostino as Rita. Rita's family has condemned the film. Rita’s niece, Vita Maria Atria, and the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia Association, complained that faces and voices in the 1997 documentary were not sufficiently altered as agreed, endangering her and her mother. In addition Amenta had not returned family footage "entrusted to him in good faith" for the documentary, according to Rita's niece. Vita Maria Atria, who has been in hiding since 1992, said she was tired of "seeing speculation about her aunt's memory." She said: "I don't believe that any of this helps to commemorate my aunt, but only serves economic ends which I really do not consider appropriate."


See also

*
List of victims of the Sicilian Mafia This list of victims of the Sicilian Mafia includes people who have been killed by the Sicilian Mafia while opposing its rule. It does not include people killed in internal conflicts of the Mafia itself. 1890s 1893 *February 1 – Emanuele No ...


References

*Pickering-Iazzi, Robin (2007).
Mafia and Outlaw Stories from Italian Life and Literature
', Toronto: University of Toronto Press * Stille, Alexander (1995). ''Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic'', New York: Vintage


External links


Official site of the Antimafia association Rita Atria
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atria, Ria 1974 births 1992 suicides People from the Province of Trapani Antimafia History of the Sicilian Mafia Suicides by jumping in Italy Italian children