The U.S. The U.S. Marshals Service has identified one the most wanted fugitives 52 year after the man committed one of the largest bank robberies ever committed in Cleveland, Ohio.
According to federal law enforcement agencies, Theodore John Conrad was a former bank teller who showed up at the Society National Bank on the 11th of July 1969. The 20-year old man left the bank with $215,000, which is approximately $1.7 million in 2021. He then took a bag of paper and disappeared.
The case had been cold since then, until the U.S. took over. Marshals Service investigators from Cleveland traveled to Massachusetts to discover that Conrad, also known as Thomas Randele, had lived in Boston since 1970.
After investigators found connections between Conrad's 1960s records and documents Randele filed later, including a 2014 federal bankruptcy filing, authorities positively identified Randele to be Conrad. In a Friday news release, the Marshals Service stated that Randele was Conrad.
Image: Theodore John Conrad, formerly Thomas Randele (USMS), had lived in Boston suburbs since 1970.
Also, records show that Randele was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in Lynnfield (Massachusetts) this May. Randele was born July 10, 1947. Conrad was actually born July 10, 1949. The U.S. estimates that Conrad would have turned 71 by the time of his death. According to the Marshals Service
The man was located near where "The Thomas Crown Affair," a 1968 heist movie starring Steve McQueen, was shot. U.S. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, Conrad was so obsessed by the movie that he watched it over a dozen times. McQueen's character in the film steals $2 million from a Boston bank.
The U.S. reported that he told his friends how easy it was to get money from the bank, and even said he would do it. The news release stated that the Marshals Service was involved.
Over the past 50 years, Conrad's fugitive investigations have astonished many investigators. This case was featured on television shows like "America's Most Wanted", and "Unsolved Mysteries".
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Investigators pursued leads across the country over that time span, including Washington D.C. and Washington, D.C., California. Texas. Oregon.
John K. Elliott was one of the investigators, and he is the father of Peter J. Elliott, Northern Ohio U.S. Marshall.
Peter stated in a statement that Conrad's father "never stopped looking for Conrad" and desired closure until Conrad's death in 2020. "We were able match some documents my father found from Conrad's college days, 1960s with Randele documents that led to Conrad's identification."
He said, "I hope my dad is resting a bit easier today knowing that his investigation and his United States Marshals Service brought closure on this decades-long mystery."
