Annalisa Durante

Who was Annalisa Durante?

Annalisa Durante was a 14-year-old Italian girl and an innocent victim of the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia. She was killed in the Forcella quarter of Naples, during a clash between two rival Camorra clans. While chatting with a friend and cousin outside her home she was grabbed as a human shield, and hit in the back of the head by a bullet. She died after being in a coma for several days.

The local priest accused the state of leaving the neighbourhood to the mercy of the Camorra. A message on a bouquet of flowers left on the mean street where Annalisa was shot appeared to speak for many in the neighbourhood: "Free us from these monsters, Goodbye Annalisa." Thousands turned out for the emotionally charged funeral. Many mourners were in tears as they packed a parish church to pay tribute to Annalisa.

The death of Durante finally induced Roberto Saviano to write his much-acclaimed book Gomorrah about the Camorra. In the book he describes her friends at the funeral: 'Many of these girls will soon marry Camorristi... Many will bear children who will be killed ... But for now they are just little girls in black. They weep for a friend ...