South Tyrolean ‘escape king’ Max Leitner has died at the age of 66. The serial robber was found dead in his apartment in Merano, his lawyer confirmed. The cause of death was initially unknown, but the South Tyrolean was in poor health. He escaped from prison five times.
Leitner, who comes from the Eisack Valley and is responsible for several armed robberies in Austria and Italy, was released from prison for the last time last December.
The Bozen supervisory court had lifted all probation conditions for health reasons. However, Leitner was not allowed to leave the municipality of Meran and was under medical care due to his state of health.
A total of 26 years in prison
Max Leitner’s list of offenses is long: he has spent a total of 26 years in prison. He was last arrested on the night of September 17, 2021 after two shots were fired at a prostitute’s car in Bolzano.
Gunfight during a robbery of an ATM van
Leitner had more than lived up to his reputation as the “escape king” in the past. In August 1990, near the Innsbruck-Süd exit of the Brenner motorway, he and his accomplices attempted to rob a cash-in-transit van loaded with 90 million shillings. However, the coup was thwarted by a special gendarmerie unit, Leitner was captured after a shootout and eventually sentenced to twelve years in prison by a jury. He managed to escape a few days later. He described the conditions in prisons in Austria as “medieval”.
Leitner managed to escape five times
Leitner continued his imprisonment in Bolzano, where his behavior was, according to the prison guards, “exemplary” – until one day he went downstairs with sheets and ran away. In May 1993 he was arrested again – temporarily. However, during a prison leave in 2002 Leitner did not return to the maximum security prison in Padua. After a bank robbery in 2003, he was arrested by a large contingent of carabinieri in a cornfield near Bruneck after a sensational escape that lasted for days. He was convicted and taken to the prison in Bergamo – again only temporarily.
An escape in December 2004 came to an abrupt end with an arrest in Morocco. In October 2011, after his release, he did not return to the prison of Asti in Piedmont. In December of the same year, he was finally recaptured.
In September 2016, Max Leitner was sentenced to house arrest in Elvas in Brixen for the remainder of his prison sentence until June 2019.
Source: Krone
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