Secret hideouts of the world's worst criminals from Bonnie and Clyde to El Chapo

They are the boltholes of the world's "most wanted" - and now we can reveal all about the secret hideouts used by criminal masterminds.

One of the most recent cases involves the Italian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who was caught in 2023 after 30 years on the run. He had spent his time lying low in a Sicilian den stuffed full of condoms, Viagra, luxury clothes and jewellery.

Police later found a second hideout used by the Cosa Nostra Godfather, a bunker full of gems and silverware hidden behind a wardrobe with a sliding door. But he's not the only elusive villain to have used a cunning lair.

Getaway farm

On August 8, 1963, a gang of 15 masked men stopped a Royal Mail train in Buckinghamshire, beat the driver over the head, and made off with 2.6million. Afterwards the Great Train Robbers, led by Bruce Reynolds, holed up in Leatherslade Farm just 30 miles away.

Tipped off by a local, police eventually found what became known as Robbers' Roost. By then the gang had fled, but the property had not been burned down as planned.

Evidence left behind, such as fingerprints on a Monopoly board and ketchup bottle, helped track down and convict most of the culprits, with the ringleaders later sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Bonnie and Clyde

Notorious loved-up bank-robbing duo Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow rampaged across Depression-era America with their gang. After killing five people, the wanted pair and their associates sought refuge in a humble garage apartment in Joplin, Missouri, in 1933.

But thanks to rowdy card games, neighbours reported eported them to police who raided the hideout. Two cops were killed in the ensuing gunfight. The gang got away but left behind incriminating photos. These helped track down Clyde who, after committing more murders, were killed in a police ambush the following year.

Phantom in the Forest

Electrician and outdoor survival expert Barry Prudom, 37, shot dead a policeman in Yorkshire in 1982 and then went on a burglary and murder spree, killing a homeowner and another cop.

It sparked one of Britain's biggest manhunts, but he continued to evade capture in the local countryside and was dubbed the "Phantom in the Forest". Ex-SAS soldier "Jungle" Eddie McGee was brought in to help, after police found a copy of his survival book at Prudom's home in Leeds.

He managed to track the killer, even using disturbed dew on some grass to find his hideout - a shelter just 300 yards from the police's HQ in Malton. Prudom was shot dead there after firing on officers.

Hot properties

Mexican kingpin El Chapo was known for running the Sinaloa drugs cartel, brutally murdering rivals, and his daring prison breaks. Cops found Joaqun Guzmn holed up in Los Mochis after he ordered takeaway tacos, which were picked up by his crew in a van known to the authorities. A raid left five associates dead, but El Chapo fled in a secret tunnel. He was finally picked up and jailed for life in the US in 2019.

Cocaine baron Pablo Escobar, shot dead in 1993, was known for his lavish Colombian ranch, but also had a secret hideout in Tulum, Mexico, which boasted bulletproof walls.

Mountain retreat

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were among the most wanted Wild West outlaws in the 1890s, as the famous movie tells. With their Wild Bunch gang, the pair pulled off a string of bank and train robberies before escaping with their loot to a secret stronghold called the "hole in the Wall", in the mountains of Wyoming.

They used a secluded log cabin in a remote pass which was easily defended from the authorities. But, as their infamy grew and with detectives hot on their trail, Butch and Sundance eventually fled to South America. They died in a gunfight in Bolivia in 1908.

Cabin killer

Maniacal maths boffin Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, carried out a 17-year campaign of terror with explosive devices which left three people dead.

He eluded cops by going off-grid to live in a remote 10ft by 12ft cabin in Montana, US. FBI agents linked him to the crimes when his brother recognised the style of writing in letters he sent to a newspaper.

In 1996, they tricked Kaczynski into thinking he was opening the door of his rundown hut to a forest worker. He was bearded and bedraggled, with a live bomb ready to be mailed. He was given multiple life sentences.

Lurking terror

After masterminding the 9/11 Islamist terrorist attacks on the US in 2001, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden became the subject of a 10-year manhunt.

He was responsible for many other atrocities, but frustratingly remained a fugitive, until US intelligence finally found him living in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. It was nearly windowless, with an 18ft, razor-wired wall where bin laden lived a shadowy low-tech lifestyle with his family. On May 2, 2011, US Navy Seals raided the site and shot him dead.

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