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Vallanzasca of Alto Adige Max Leitner | |
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Born | Brixen, South Tyrol, Italy | 27 May 1958
Died | 23 July 2024 Merano, South Tyrol, Italy | (aged 66)
Max Leitner (27 May 1958 – 23 July 2024) was an Italian criminal, most known for having escaped from prison five times. Dubbed the "Vallanzasca of Alto Adige", Leitner first became infamous through a series of robberies carried out in the 1980s in South Tyrol and other areas of northern Italy.[1]
In 1990 he attempted to attack an armoured vehicle carrying 90 million shillings while in Austria, but was caught and sentenced by a jury to twelve years in prison.[2] Unable to tolerate the living conditions at the Austrian prison, he escaped after a few days and turned himself in to the Italian police at the state border in Prato alla Drava , declaring that he preferred imprisonment in Italy rather than in Austria, where the prisons, he said, were "medieval".[3]
Leitner died on 23 July 2024, at the age of 66.[4]