By John Seewer and Jennifer McDermott -
The Associated Press
Just before Thomas Randele's death, his wife, with whom he had been with almost 40 years, asked his golf buddies and colleagues at the car dealerships to stop by.
They met to say goodbye to a man they considered one of the friendliest people they had ever met: a devoted family man who was full of compliments to his daughter, a golfer who never broke the rules, a friend of so many who a week later there was a line in front of the funeral home.
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On her last visit, in May at Randele's home in suburban Boston, lung cancer had robbed her of her voice.
And they all left without knowing that their friend, with whom they spent countless hours exchanging stories, never told them his biggest secret.
Photos, a driver's license, the original warrant and other items from a 1969 Cleveland robbery involving Ted Conrad.Ken Blaze / AP
For 50 years, Randele had been a wanted fugitive in one of the largest bank robberies in Cleveland history, living in Boston under a new name that was created six months after the heist, in the summer of 1969. Not even his The wife or daughter knew it until he told them in what authorities described as a deathbed confession.
This is how he was able to leave a family behind and create a new life, while evading a policeman and his son, who never gave up on finding him.
Cleveland's biggest heist
Ted Conrad quickly realized that security was quite weak at the Cleveland branch of the Society National Bank where he began working as a teller in January 1969.
He told his classmates,
"It would be very easy for me to get away with all the money,"
Russell Metcalf, his best friend from high school, told The Associated Press news agency.
But everyone thought it was a joke when he brought it up a few more times.
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The day after his 20th birthday, Conrad walked out on Friday at closing time with a paper bag full of $ 215,000 from the vault, a loot that today would be worth $ 1.6 million.
When the lack of money was detected the following Monday, Conrad was already flying across the country.
Letters sent to his girlfriend showed that he had made stops in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles during the first week.
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Conrad reportedly cut off contact with his entire family, including his three siblings and his parents, who were divorced.
Some family members eventually left him for dead, according to his nephew Matt Boettger, whose mother was Conrad's older sister.
Her mother was very relieved to learn that her brother had lived a happy life.
"She thought she was going to go to the grave and she would never know," Boettger said.
The 1969 bank robbery did not attract the attention of the country, not even the city of Cleveland.
Everyone else was focused on the historic Apollo 11 flight to the Moon that week.
Agent Peter J. Elliott in December 2021 at the Carl B. Stokes Courthouse in Cleveland with items related to a 1969 bank robbery.Ken Blaze / AP
But for Deputy Sheriff John Elliott, it
was personal.
He and Conrad were coming from the same side of town.
Elliott used to take his family to the ice cream parlor where Conrad worked.
They shared a doctor.
Elliott traveled all over the United States looking for Conrad, and even after he retired in 1990, he would come to the office almost every week and pore through the files, said his son, Peter Elliott, the current chief sheriff's office in Cleveland, who has devoted himself to searching for Conrad for almost 20 years.
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His father died in March 2020, before investigators gathered the details of Randele's obituary and the signatures of his past.
Then in November, Randele's family confirmed that just before he died he told them his true identity and what he had done, Elliott said.
"It was always on my father's mind," he
said.
"We kept this case because it was important to him," he added.
A movie theft
Why Conrad committed the robbery has been analyzed over and over again.
“It wasn't about the money. He always wanted to impress people, ”
said Metcalf, his high school classmate, who recalls how Conrad once stole a deck of cards just to show he could.
"I was not afraid," he added.
Investigators believe it was inspired by the 1968 film
The Thomas Crown Affair
, about a bank executive who took $ 2.6 million and turned the heist into a game.
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Conrad watched the movie at least six times and copied the character of Steve McQueen, who drove sports cars and drank expensive liquors, according to friends.
After the real-life Cleveland robbery, Conrad ended up in the Boston area, where much of the movie was shot.
It's very possible that he chose his new first name "Thomas" based on the film, Elliott said.
"He modeled his entire life after the movie," he
said.
The man known as Thomas Randele was born in early January 1970, researchers have discovered in recent weeks.
That's when Conrad walked into a Social Security Administration office in Boston, asked for an identification number with his new name, and grew up two years older, according to Elliott.
Photos, a driver's license, a death notice and other items from a 1969 robbery involving Ted Conrad.Ken Blaze / AP
At that time, it was not unusual to wait until you were of legal age to complete this procedure, so your request did not raise suspicions.
With a new ID, he was able to open a bank account, get credit, and create his new life, according to Elliott.
In the 1970s, Randele worked as a golf assistant, teaching at a country club outside Boston, and later became its manager.
He spent a few winters playing golf in Florida, according to his obituary.
He also met his future wife shortly after arriving in Boston and in 1982 they married.
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Around this time, he began working in the automobile industry, selling Land Rovers and Volvos at a handful of dealerships until he retired after almost 40 years.
What is not yet clear is what happened to the money.
The Marshals Service is investigating whether it was initially lost to bad investments.
Although Randele and his wife, Kathy, lived most of their years in a nice Boston suburb, they filed for bankruptcy in 2014. Court records showed they owed $ 160,000 in credit card debt at the time and had few assets.
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His wife told Cleveland.com in November that her husband was a great man and that he was still grieving.
No one would have guessed that Randele, who was 71 when he died, was someone trying to hide from the authorities.
"He was a gentle soul, very educated, very well spoken,"
said Jerry Healy, who met Randele at a dealership in Woburn, Massachusetts, where they spoke daily for years.
His former co-workers said they never heard Randele say a bad word about anyone or raise his voice.
Everyone said he was the best golfer they knew.
Everybody wanted him on their side when there was a tournament.
He was not a heavy drinker and never made bets while playing, said Bob Van Wert, who met Randele through golf and later worked with him.
Matt Kaplan, who ran two dealerships Randele worked for and played golf with him every Sunday morning for many years, called it
the definition of a gentleman.
"The only thing that makes sense is that at that age I was just a kid, and it was kind of a challenge
," Kaplan said.
"Not that he became a professional bank robber," he added.
"If he had told us a long time ago, I do not think we would have believed him because he was not that type of person," he concluded, "the man was different from the child."
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In the first days after Randele's identity was revealed, his friends couldn't believe it.
But now looking back, there are a few things that make sense.
That he always had a beard.
The photos of him in dark sunglasses on the golf course.
Her reluctance to talk about where she grew up or her family.
“In all the years that I knew Tommy, I never heard him mention a sister, a mother, a brother or a father.
It was all a bit generalized, ”Healy said.
"You could never get anything out of him," said Brad Anthony, another close friend.
"I figured maybe she had a bad childhood and didn't want to talk about it," she added.
Still, he said it's almost impossible to believe.
"It seems so out of place for the Tom I knew," he said.
All his friends agreed that what happened a long time ago has not changed how they feel about him.
"The man I knew was not suddenly changed by something he did a lifetime ago
," Healy said.
“He was a good man, he was my friend and I think of him no less today than before all this came to light.
And I would love to go play a round of golf with him, "he said.
