{{Short description|Italian criminal (1958–2024)}} {{Expand Italian|topic=bio|Max Leitner|date=July 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox criminal | name = Max Leitner | honorific_prefix = Vallanzasca of Alto Adige | image = Max Leitner.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1958|05|27|df=y}} | birth_place = Brixen, South Tyrol, Italy | death_date = {{Death date and age|2024|07|23|1958|05|27|df=y}} | death_place = Merano, South Tyrol, Italy }}
'''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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 September 2021 |title=Le molte evasioni di Max Leitner |url=https://www.ilpost.it/2021/09/17/max-leitner-evasioni/ |access-date=25 July 2024 |website=Il Post |language=it}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Max Leitner |url=https://www.derstandard.at/consent/tcf/1319181566862/Trentino-Suedtiroler-Ausbrecherkoenig-Max-Leitner-erneut-getuermt |access-date=25 July 2024 |website=derstandard.at |language=german}}</ref> 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 {{III|Prato alla Drava|lt=Prato alla Drava|it|Prato alla Drava}}, declaring that he preferred imprisonment in Italy rather than in Austria, where the prisons, he said, were "medieval".<ref>[http://www.gazzettino.it/articolo.php?id=168707&sez=NORDEST Escapes by Max Leitner] Archived 4 November 2011 at [https://web.archive.org/web/20111104090019/http://gazzettino.it/articolo.php?id=168707&sez=NORDEST the Wayback Machine], on gazzettino.it</ref>
Leitner died on 23 July 2024, at the age of 66.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 July 2024 |title=The Life and Death of Max Leitner, the King of Escapes |url=https://www.ilmessaggero.it/en/the_life_and_death_of_max_leitner_the_king_of_escapes-8259942.html |access-date=25 July 2024 |website=www.ilmessaggero.it}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leitner, Max}} Category:1958 births Category:2024 deaths Category:People from Brixen Category:20th-century Italian criminals Category:Robbers