A bank robber stole $215,000, changed his name, and escaped justice for 50 years. He only told his daughter the truth on his deathbed.
- A bank robber stole $215,000 and escaped justice for 52 years, per the US Marshals Service.
- Theodore Conrad "pulled off one of the biggest bank robberies in Cleveland, Ohio history," it said.
A bank robber who changed his identity and escaped justice for 52 years after stealing $215,000 only told his daughter his real name when he was dying, according to CNN.
Theodore John Conrad, who for decades went by the name Thomas Randele, made the confession in March 2021, as he was fighting lung cancer in a hospital in Boston, per the outlet.
The confession sent his daughter, Ashley Randele, into a state of disbelief, prompting her to look for more information about her father's well-kept secret, the outlet reported.
"I'm alone in my childhood bedroom, and I Googled 'Ted Conrad missing,' and the first thing that came up said something like, 'Vault teller robs bank.' I was like, 'Oh my God, this is my dad,'" she told CNN.
Conrad was a bank teller in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1969 when, as a 20-year-old, he stuffed $215,000 in cash into a paper bag and fled, the US Marshals Service said in a statement in 2021.
Conrad "pulled off one of the biggest bank robberies in Cleveland, Ohio history," it said.
Conrad escaped justice for 52 years, living an "unassuming life" in the Boston suburb from 1970 onwards, the US Marshals Service said.
Over the years, his case gained prominence on true-crime TV programs like "America's Most Wanted" and "Unresolved Mysteries."
After finding out about her father's past, Randele proceeded to share it with her mother, Conrad's partner of almost 40 years, who was also caught off guard.
My mother "was reading through the articles online, and she just kept saying, 'Oh my God! Oh, my God!,' for like 10 minutes," she told CNN.
Randele, who has gone on to create a podcast series about her father, says he didn't act as if he was in hiding from the police. He'd drive her to and from school and go on school trips as a chaperone.
He did, however, always wear a beard and "rarely took off his baseball hat in public," she told CNN.He also refused to leave the country, even when they begged him to go to France on a family trip, she said. This was likely because of him living under a false identity.Conrad died in May 2021, two months after he confessed to his daughter.
The search for Conrad lasted for so long that Peter J. Elliott, the son of John K. Elliott, the deputy marshal who led the initial inquiry, took over the case in 2003. He eventually identified Conrad in 2021, per the US Marshals Service's statement.
Randele told CNN that her father was finally identified after someone sent a copy of his obituary to a crime reporter in Ohio. The family had decided to hold off telling authorities until a year after his death, to allow a period of mourning, she told CNN.