Massachusetts man confesses carrying out five-decade-old Ohio bank heist to daughter in deathbed shocker

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Thomas Randele was on his deathbed suffering from lung cancer in March 2021 when he called upon his daughter Ashley Randele to make a confession.

After his first chemotherapy session, Thomas told Ashley that he had been a fugitive for more than half a century since he robbed $215,000 from a bank in Ohio in his 20s. He also revealed his real name to be Theodore Conrad.

Though he implored his daughter not to dig into his past, Ashley told CNN that she could not help herself.

"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.’ And there were hundreds and hundreds of articles about him.”

Who was Thomas Randele?

Thomas Randele was a car salesman and a country club golf pro in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. He loved his wife and only daughter and attended the latter's soccer games in khaki pants and fast cars.

Ashley said that her father also donated to local police charities and was an avid viewer of crime shows such as 'NCIS.'

However, the man was known as Ted Conrad in Cleveland, an elusive bank robber who had pulled off one of the largest heists in the history of Ohio.

Conrad's 20-year-old face was plastered on wanted posters, and his heist and escapaded was shown on episodes of 'America’s Most Wanted' and 'Unsolved Mysteries.'

Ashley Randele revealed her father's secret to her mother Kathy Randele

After reading up on Conrad, Ashley told her father, "I looked you up. And there are a million articles about you. And they’re also still looking for you, in case you didn’t know. And we have to tell Mom."

When she finally opened up to Kathy, the latter was shocked by the revelation.

"She was reading through the articles online, and she just kept saying, ‘Oh my God! Oh, my God!,’ for like 10 minutes. She’d known him for the better part of 40 years, and to learn this massive secret — I can’t imagine how traumatizing that was for her.”

How did Theodore Conrad rob the Ohio bank?

Conrad's heist of 1969 was simple yet elegant.

He showed up to work as a teller at Society National Bank in Cleveland on July 11 that year. The day was Friday and happened to be his birthday weekend.

During his break, Conrad bought a bottle of whiskey and a pack of cigarettes. Finally, at the end of the day, he stepped into the vault, quietly stuffed $215,000 into a paper bag, and walked away.

The robbery was not caught by the bank until the following Monday, which gave Conrad two days head start to cover his trails.

He had sent two letters to his then-girlfriend, one from Washington and another from Los Angeles before the case went cold and authorities could no longer trace him.

Theodore Conrad died as Thomas Randele in May 2021 at the age of 71.

In a recent podcast 'Smoke Screen: My Fugitive Dad', Randele discussed her struggle caring for a dying father while grappling with his life of lies.