Ever wondered where history's most wanted criminals hid from justice? From Pablo Escobar's tropical retreat to Jesse James' clapboard refuge, these clandestine homes offered sanctuary to notorious criminals when law enforcement was hot on their heels. Let's go undercover and infiltrate the hideout homes of some of the world's most infamous fugitives. Click or scroll for more...
The most notorious drug lord of all time, Pablo Escobar is estimated to have been worth up to $30 billion during the early 1990s, which makes him the richest villain in history. At the height of his powers, the Colombian criminal was said to have supplied 80% of all of the cocaine in the USA.
While his main residence was in Colombia, the King of Cocaine owned this idyllic hideaway in Tulum, Mexico during the 1980s and would go there to hide out and elude the FBI and Colombian police. Secluded and shielded by dense foliage, this beachfront estate was kitted out with bulletproof walls and would have been heavily guarded.
Despite these precautions, the Colombian cartel boss was shot in his hometown of Medellín on 2 December 1993. Following Escobar's death, the tropical estate in Tulum was pretty much abandoned to the elements and left to rot.
In 2012, the estate was discovered by New York art dealer Lio Malca. The avid collector acquired the property and set about turning it into a lavish five-star art hotel. The 71-room Casa Malca opened its doors to paying guests in 2015 and is now regarded as one of Mexico's finest hotels.
Highlights of the hotel include an array of secret features, including an underground swimming pool, which is located beneath the main outdoor pool and wows with mood-enhancing lights that change color. Escobar is said to have hidden vast amounts of his illegal profits in the subterranean space.
Other impressive USPs of the drug lord's former retreat include artworks by the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons and KAWS, not to mention a Keith Haring-themed bar, two restaurants serving exquisite Yucatán cuisine and a blissful beach garden complete with swings and hammocks.
A notorious figure in the murky criminal underworld, gambling kingpin Lester Ben 'Benny' Binion spent around 40 years running Las Vegas casinos. The Texas-born gangster began his crooked career in Dallas overseeing bootlegging operations and illegal lotteries before establishing operations in the gambling capital where his empire expanded.
Over the years, he's been linked to a whole host of criminal enterprises but for much of his life, he managed to dodge the law. According to testimony by the FBI's Agent McIntosh reported in the Missoulian, Binion engaged in everything from alleged murders and kidnappings to money laundering. When he wasn't presiding over his Vegas turf, the gangster liked to lie low in Fincastle, a remote estate in Athens, Texas.
Owned by Binion's business partner, Dallas mobster Ivy Miller, the real-life gangster home was reportedly used as an underworld hideout and gambling den by Binion and his associates, according to the property's listing from 2019. The storied estate sold in 2020 for the significant sum of $12 million.
Stretching over 1,300 acres, the secluded lot, featuring three cabin-style homes, is almost invisible from above thanks to the dense surrounding woodlands. Inside, this rustic dwelling features an impressive pitched ceiling and swaths of wood paneling – we wonder what these walls have witnessed... Wherever Binion went, law enforcement was never far behind. In 1931, he pled guilty to the murder of a bootlegger, but claiming self-defense, he was only given a suspended sentence.
Having already committed five homicides, Depression-era outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow moved into this unassuming garage apartment in Joplin, Missouri, on 22 March 1933. They lived there with Clyde's brother Buck, his wife Blanche and Barrow gang member William Daniel Jones. Constructed in 1927, the modest building served as their hideout for several weeks.
Though they were on the run, the ruthless twosome and their gang were anything but discreet during their stay at the apartment. The group would come and go at all hours and went through a case of bootlegged beer a day. Fueled by all the booze, they stayed up most nights till the break of dawn playing rowdy card games.
The outlaws gathered in the apartment's small living room to get drunk, play cards and put together jigsaw puzzles. During the daytime, Bonnie would lounge around in her kimono dressing gown writing poetry. Once other members of the gang had hit the sack, Jones slept on a mattress on the floor.
The gang stored their guns and ammo in a cabinet in the room and polished their guns there. On one occasion, Clyde accidentally fired a Browning Automatic rifle while cleaning up. Needless to say, all the commotion coming from the apartment didn't go unnoticed by the neighbors, who became increasingly suspicious.
One neighbor eventually had enough of the incessant noise and reported the group to the police. Five officers arrived to investigate on 13 April 1933. When law enforcement turned up, Blanche was playing solitaire in the kitchen while Bonnie was in the bedroom penning poetry. The men were outside. Then all hell broke loose.
The Barrow brothers and Jones opened fire, killing one of the police officers instantly and fatally wounding another. They then got into their car with Bonnie and Blanche and made a speedy getaway. The law eventually caught up with Bonnie and Clyde, who died in a shootout the following year. More recently, the garage, which was restored by a local minister, has been available to rent on Airbnb.
Kate aka Ma Barker was the matriarch of the terrifying Barker-Karpis gang, which like the Barrow outfit operated in Depression-era America. Though she was described by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in the 1930s as "the most vicious, dangerous and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade", her involvement in the criminal activities of the gang has been questioned.
The gang went on a horrifying crime spree from 1931 to 1935, perpetrating a string of robberies, kidnappings and murders. Branded 'Public Enemy No 1', Ma Barker and her cronies sidestepped the law by retreating to this lakeside home in rural Ocklawaha, Florida.
The Barkers and their Karpis associates rented the property using the fake name 'Blackburn', and remained undetected until 8 January 1935 when Ma Barker's son Arthur was arrested in Chicago. The FBI discovered a map he was carrying with details of the Florida hideout and made a beeline for the Sunshine State.
On the morning of 16 January 1935, federal agents surrounded the property. At the time, only Ma Barker and her son Fred were present – the other gang members had left the house several days prior. The FBI ordered the couple to surrender but Fred fired his gun and a protracted shootout ensued.
The standoff lasted for around four arduous hours. When nearby residents got wind of the gunfight, they reportedly came to watch the shocking event unfold, bringing picnics and treating it – rather macabrely – as a fun day out. The FBI fired 2,000 shots in total, eventually killing Ma Barker and her son, who were holed up in one of the bedrooms.
Following the brutal shootout, the house was left much as it was in 1935 and bullet holes can still be seen in some of the walls and furniture. The property went on the market in 2012 and after moving it from its original location in Ocklawaha to the Carney Island Recreation & Conservation Area in October 2016 the local county turned it into a museum.
Bruce Reynolds was the brains behind the Great Train Robbery, which was the UK's largest heist at the time. The audacious plunder of a Royal Mail train that was traveling from Glasgow to London on 8 August 1963 netted the kingpin and his gang a record $3.3 million, which works out at around $67 million in today's money.
Not long after the robbery, the criminal mastermind escaped to Mexico with his family, and spent time in Canada and France, before returning to the UK in early 1968. Settling in the English Riviera, Reynolds rented Torquay's Villa Cap Martin under the pseudonym 'Keith Hiller'. It wasn't long however before the police came knocking on his door.
Reynolds just couldn't resist getting in contact with his former associates in London's criminal underworld and the police, who had moles in all the right places, soon worked out that the mysterious Hiller was, in fact, the most wanted thief in the country.
The home by the sea was snapped up in 1972 by Philip and Su Laureston. The couple extensively renovated the property, which had fallen into disrepair. The floorboards, for instance, had been torn up by the police who were searching for hidden stashes of cash. The Laurestons also installed a stunning indoor pool.
Boasting spectacular views, Villa Cap Martin went on the market in 2017 via Purplebricks with an asking price of $1 million, which was no doubt inflated by the home's association with one of Britain's most infamous criminals.
With a posse hot on his trail, James moved with his family to the house in the November of 1881. By this point, law enforcement had all but wiped out his gang with James and his brother Frank among the few survivors.
James asked newly recruited gang member Bob Ford and his brother Charley to move into the house as protection, and the pair duly accepted. Unbeknownst to James, Bob Ford had entered into covert negotiations with Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden and was planning to turn his boss over to the authorities and collect the bounty.
On 3 April 1882, James ate breakfast with the Ford brothers before retiring to the living room to prepare for a robbery in Platte City. Though James had grown suspicious of the Fords, he unaccountably put his guns on the table and went to clean a dusty picture that was hanging over the mantelpiece.
Bob Ford, who had a feeling James had realized he would be betrayed and presumably thought his number was up, drew his pistol and shot the unarmed bandit. James died instantly. The bullet hole was preserved for posterity and framed. The Fords surrendered after the cowardly killing and were indicted for murder.
After pleading guilty, they were swiftly sentenced to death by hanging but were pardoned by Governor Thomas T. Crittenden. Bob Ford only received a fraction of the promised reward and fled Missouri not long after. James' house has since become a tourist attraction. Currently a museum, the infamous time capsule home has been moved twice and is now located two blocks from its original location.
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