The news that fugitive Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano spent 42 years evading capture living in the Sicilian village of Corleone suggests that the Godfather movies aren't very popular among the Italian police force - particularly Godfather Part II, in which Mafia boss Michael Corleone goes into hiding in the Sicilian village of Corleone. Or does it reveal a wily strategy to remain at large by holing up somewhere so obvious that the cops don't even bother to ring the bell? How many other missing persons could be hiding right under our noses?

Lord Lucan, missing aristocrat: "I laid low for a bit, but eventually I moved back to Mayfair and got a job behind the bar at Annabel's, where I could trust most of the members to keep mum. Then one night Taki runs in shouting, 'The home secretary is here!' and I think, 'Oh well, this is it: the game's up.' Turns out the fellow's blind! Somebody up there likes me. In retrospect, agreeing to do Celebrity Big Brother was my big mistake. Who knows? Maybe deep down I wanted to get caught."

Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida founder: "The caves of Tora Bora are OK in summer, but when October came round I put on a blindfold and stuck a knife in a big map of the world, and there it was: Guildford. I thought, 'It's so crazy, it just might work.' I'd heard it had good transport links, although your money doesn't go very far if you want something with more than two bedrooms. People would stare, of course, but they were too polite to say anything. Still, I was nervous. When the police finally arrived the other day, I confessed everything straight away. Then I found out a neighbour had shopped me for using the hose."

Elvis Presley, presumed-dead singer: "In the beginning I got work as an Elvis impersonator, figuring, you know, it was the perfect disguise. Plus I was good at it. Then, on a whim, I applied for the job in the Graceland gift shop, which incidentally used to be my closet. They were taking on a lot of retired people at that time. I've been working here for 20 years and nobody has noticed. It must be the glasses."

Radovan Karadzic, indicted war criminal: "It's funny, I was always in the phone book, but nobody could ever remember how to spell my surname. I was in Pale the whole time. I was actually the mayor for two years. It just shows how little interest people take in politics these days."

JD Salinger, reclusive author: "In hiding? Please. I was at the Vanity Fair Oscar party this year. There was even a photograph in the magazine, but the caption just said, 'Jessica Simpson and friend.' And what about that diet book I did for charity, full of recipes collected from my celebrity pals? You didn't know about that? Sometimes I'm, like, 'Does anyone read my blog?' "