The story of Thomas Randeles could be a film. The man, who died in 2021, led a double life for more than five decades. And only when he was about to leave did he tell his daughter everything.
Thomas Randele, a simple father from Lynnfield, Massachusetts, died of lung cancer in 2021. This news from a supposedly ordinary man would not in itself shock the world, but the discovery of one of the greatest secrets of his life required an investigation.
Two months before his death, Thomas called his daughter Ashley, 38, and made a surprising confession: He was a refugee and had been for more than five decades. When he was 20 years old in the 1960s, Thomas stole $215,000, the equivalent of $1.7 million today, from a bank in Ohio and even changed his own name when he fled. Thomas Randele was actually Theodore Conrad.
In a recent conversation with CNN, Ashley said her father begged her not to investigate the case, but her curiosity got the better of her. As he searched for “Missing Ted Conrad,” hundreds of articles about the robbery appeared, and the past of a father he never knew was explored.
In the town where he lived with his family, in Massachusetts, Thomas Randele was a simple car salesman and golf pro who donated to institutions, but in Cleveland, Ohio, he was Ted Conrad, the man who committed one of the greatest robberies of the History of the North American state, inspired by his favorite film “The Grandmaster of Crime” from 1968.
And not only was it inspired, the robbery itself looked like something out of a movie. As CNN reports, the robbery occurred on July 11, 1969, the Friday before Thomas Randele’s birthday. That day, Ted Conrad showed up for work at Society National Bank in Cleveland and, on his break, bought a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of whiskey to celebrate another year of life. At the end of the day, as if he didn’t want the thing, he went into the bank vault, put the $215,000 in a paper bag and left work.
It wasn’t until the following Monday that the bank found out about the robbery, and the 20yearold’s face was printed on posters and aired in several episodes of “America’s Most Wanted” and “Unsolved Mysteries” as well as several military programs catch. However, the case ultimately failed because there was no trace of the perpetrator. The following week, the Apollo 11 space flight landed the first humans on the moon, making this historic mission the subject of all the newspapers.
So, despite several people behind him for more than five decades, the former Ted Conrad began building a new life as Thomas Randele in Massachusetts, and Ashley confessed to CNN that she believed her father liked the 1968 film so much that he chose him new name in honor of the main character.
Although he didn’t exactly live in secret, as he took his daughter to school every day and accompanied her on college visits, the smallest details began to make sense to Ashley after he discovered her father’s past. When he was younger, Thomas didn’t have a beard in photos, but since he can remember his father, Ashley has seen him unshaven and never took off his hat in public, now he thinks it might be to hide his face.
Thomas also never wanted to leave the country, although his daughter and wife asked him several times and claimed that he was not a fan of traveling abroad. “He always said there were so many interesting things to see in the United States that he didn’t need to leave the country,” Ashley told CNN.
When Thomas decided to tell his past in March 2021, the daughter told her mother Kathy what was going on and together they decided not to share their secret with the authorities as the last thing they wanted was to kill the 71st yearolds to see. Oneyearold Thomas is taken to prison. “At the time I couldn’t be mad at him because it felt unfair. I tried to get as much information from him as I could just because we wanted to know… I could be angry after he died,” Ashley told CNN.
Two months later, in May, Thomas Randele died. The two made a pact and decided to mourn the man they lost for a year and decided to notify the police in June 2022. However, the authorities had expected this.
In November 2021, authorities stood at the door of the Randele family home and ensured that no charges would be filed against the two. They explained that after Thomas died of lung cancer, his obituary was sent to a crime reporter in Ohio with a note explaining that the body might belong to Conrad, which was eventually confirmed. Among the soldiers present was one named Elliot, whose father, John Elliott, had spent much of his police career searching for Conrad.
After discovering her father’s past, Ashley Randele decided to join the podcast “Smoke Screen: My Fugitive Dad,” which covers some investigations into cases similar to hers. Her season premiere begins this Monday, December 4th, and Ashley will discuss the struggle of caring for a dying father while simultaneously feeling confused by the lies she has unknowingly lived with her entire life. Thinking that the robbery would be more than just a passion for a movie, Ashley ended up meeting some of her father’s old friends and girlfriends who shared stories about him and helped her fill in some gaps from her youth.