(HorizonPost.com) – When a person watches a movie, it lets them experience another person’s life and, at times, wish they had lived like the main characters. After watching “The Thomas Crown Affair” several times, Theodore John Conrad decided he would play the role of Steve McQueen and rob a bank in Ohio in 1969. He eluded US Marshals for over 50 years, but authorities finally identified the perpetrator of one of the most successful bank heists in the area of all time.
Conrad took $215,000, changed his name to Thomas Randele, and moved to Lynnfield, Massachusetts, where he lived a regular life — for 52 years.
Federal marshals have finally discovered the identity of a man who vanished after pulling off a major bank theft in Cleveland in 1969. They were a few months late: Theodore John Conrad, who had been living in Massachusetts under a fake name, died in May. https://t.co/mclPGZTjjt
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 15, 2021
On July 11, 1969, John Conrad walked into his bank teller job at the Society National Bank in Cleveland, filled a paper bag with cash, and strolled right out the door for the weekend. By the time the bank realized the theft, the employee had already been on the run for two days. It wasn’t until 2021 that Marshals finally discovered that Thomas Randele, aka John Conrad, was the outlaw they had been looking for all these years.
Unfortunately, the authorities were a few months too late to confront Conrad because he died of lung cancer in May. US Marshal Peter J. Elliott, whose father tried to close the case for more than 20 years, said he hopes his father is resting easy now that the mystery has been solved.
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