US Marshals Say They Solved 52-Year-Old Robbery Case

Man who died peacefully at home was the culprit, they say
By Liz MacGahan,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 14, 2021 4:29 PM CST

A 20-year-old bank teller in Cleveland walked out of work with $215,000 in a paper bag in 1969, then disappeared. Ted Conrad was indicted but never found. Tom Randele died of cancer in May 2021 in Massachusetts, surrounded by his loving family. The US Marshals Service says they’re the same guy, the New York Times reports. Peter Elliott, a US Marshal, said his late father, also a Marshal, was obsessed with the case and died in 2020 still wishing he could close it. Back in 1969, Conrad’s friends said he was obsessed with the heist film The Thomas Crown Affair told his friends the theft would be easy. Indeed, it wasn’t discovered for two days, and Conrad was already gone.

Conrad apparently changed his name to Tom Randele and moved to the Boston area, working there and in Florida as a golf pro, and then a car salesman. He eventually confessed his secret to his family on his deathbed, the Times reports. His family didn’t turn him in—and authorities won’t charge them for covering for him. Somehow, though, Randele’s obituary found its way to Elliott, who finally closed the case. He noted some similarities between Conrad’s and Randele’s biographies and traveled to Massachusetts to meet with the Randele family. "I hope my father is resting a little easier today knowing his investigation and his United States Marshals Service brought closure to this decades-long mystery," Elliott said, per the BBC. (More weird crimes stories.)

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