Giovanni Corbeddu Salis

Nicknamed Il Re della macchia (The King of the bush) for the authority conferred on him by other criminals, he was a bandit who rampaged in Barbagia, in the center of Sardinia.

In that place, abandoning any criminal activity, he began to play the role of peacemaker and arbitrator in disputes and was reputedly possessed of wisdom.

In 1894 Corbeddu collaborated with the authorities as a mediator for the release of two French timber merchants, Louis Paty and Regis Proll, who had been kidnapped in the territory between Seulo and Aritzo.

[3] In 1898 he was surrounded by the carabinieri on the mountains of Orgosolo together with another fugitive, Antonio Congiu, and a shepherd boy of fifteen years.

Louis Van Gasteren reports that one day Corbeddu met a man who was working hard late at night and asked him why.