Chased by scores of green-uniformed rural policemen, who were already widely considered to be corrupt and who were further disliked for being Franconians who could not speak the local Upper Bavarian dialect, Kneissl became a folk hero to the local population because of his repeated humiliations of the police.

[1] According to German forensic scientist Mark Benecke, Mathias Kneissl never saw himself as a Robin Hood figure and was, in reality, "just a man who went astray with no way of getting back.

The mill was "a strategically remote location", and was often used as a secret meeting place for local criminals.

[3] When he was 12 years old, a school report card wrote about Kneissl, "He is not totally devoid of gifts, but he is lazy beyond imagination.

His father was arrested for plundering the pilgrimage shrine of Herrgottsruh at Friedberg in 1892 and died soon after while in police custody in the town of Dachau.

At his trial, which was followed by the media with great attention, Kneissl said, "As my bad luck would have it I had to go to the same school right up to my 17th year, just because Pastor Endl could not stand me and kept harassing me.

However, the court found him guilty of murder, premeditated bodily harm with fatal consequences, extortion and for aggravated robbery.

Sentenced on a Monday, Kneissl allegedly sarcastically remarked: "Well, that's a good start of a week."

Judge Anton Rebholz appealed by letter to the Ministry of Justice, which confirmed Kneissl's death sentence.