Rita Atria

Rita Atria (; September 4, 1974 − July 26, 1992) was a witness and key collaborator in a major Mafia investigation in Sicily. She died by suicide in July 1992, a week after Cosa Nostra killed prosecutor Paolo Borsellino, with whom she had been working.

Family background Rita was born into a Mafia family in Partanna, 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.

After her father's death, Rita became closer to her brother and his wife, Piera Aiello. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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."

On July 25, 2008, Piera Aiello was nominated president of the anti-mafia association "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.

In 2007, Amenta reworked the documentary into the film The Sicilian Girl ("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."