Fugitive Lives in Plain Sight for 52 Years | Theodore Conrad (Thomas Randele) Case Analysis

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of theodore conrad who was also known as thomas randall just a reminder i'm not diagnosed in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first i'll look at the background this case and offer my analysis theodore conrad was born in denver colorado on july 10 1949. his father edward was an officer in the navy and the family moved frequently conrad had one sister in 1958 his parents divorced and his mother settled in lakewood ohio which is a suburb of cleveland conrad's mother remarried shortly afterward conrad graduated from high school and enrolled at new england college in new hampshire his father was a professor at that college things didn't work out for conrad there after completing one semester he moved back to cleveland and attended a community college conrad took a job as a teller at society national bank in downtown cleveland in january of 1969. one of his jobs was to deliver cash to bank branches and other tellers when a branch needed more money he would package it and drive it out to them he was handling hundreds of thousands of dollars every day thomas became fascinated with the 1968 movie the thomas crown affair he saw the movie at least six times this film stars steve mcqueen as a bank executive who steals 2.6 million dollars simply to prove that he could do it conrad became fascinated with the idea that he could get away with crimes he started shoplifting simply to prove he could get away with it he started imitating steve mcqueen's character from the movie he played golf drank expensive alcohol spoke french and drove an mg sports car it would appear that he became lost in fantasy conrad would tell his friends how the money of the bank was not well protected he could easily steal it if he wanted to if he took money from the bank on friday no one would notice it was missing until monday on july 11 1969 which was a friday and the day after conrad turned 20 conrad called one of his friends and said he had selected that day to steal money from the bank his supervisor was having surgery that day and would not be at work during a break at work conrad made his way to a nearby liquor store and purchased a bottle of canadian club whiskey and a carton of marble cigarettes the items were contained in a brown paper bag at 4 30 pm surveillance cameras caught conrad exiting with the paper bag he had filled it with 215 000 in cash from the bank vault in today's dollars this is equivalent to about 1.6 million conrad returned to his apartment he departed at 7 26 pm in a taxi which took him to cleveland hopkins international airport once there he boarded a flight for an unknown destination conrad told his girlfriend that he was flying to a rock concert in erie pennsylvania later he sent her letters that were postmarked from airports in washington dc and los angeles he admitted that he was guilty and expressed remorse for his decision he thought that the statute of limitations would run out and he could simply return to cleveland this would have been true if he was never identified but everyone knew who he was he was actually indicted so the statute of limitations did not apply the fbi started investigating after the bank reported the theft they interviewed family and friends of conrad they looked all over the place for him but they had no success finding him it was like he disappeared into thin air investigators believe that conrad initially traveled to washington before flying to los angeles based on the letters that he sent to his girlfriend he then moved frequently to various places throughout the united states the last credible sighting occurred in october of 1969 a married couple reported that they had a conversation with a man at a bar they later realized this was theodora conrad conrad had told him he was living in an apartment near the honolulu zoo in late 1969 conrad communicated with a friend of his and indicated that he had changed his appearance radically this was the last clue the authorities received in reference to the case of theodore conrad the case went cold we now know that conrad made his way to boston massachusetts in january of 1970 and changed his name to thomas randall boston happens to be the location where most of the thomas crown affair was filmed conrad met a woman named kathy not long after moving to boston they married in 1982 and would go on to have a daughter conrad really didn't do a great job of differentiating his new identity from his actual identity many of the lies that he perpetuated to create thomas randall were close to the truth conrad indicated that his date of birth was july 10 1947 and that he was born in denver his real birthday was exactly two years later and of course he was born in denver conrad attended new england college as thomas randall the same place he had attended under his real name years before he told people the real first names of his parents he just changed the last name to randall while in boston conrad worked at a luxury car dealership for over 40 years he sold volvos and land rovers ironically conrad avoided the horrors of prison only to sentence unsuspecting land rover buyers to years of maintenance nightmares conrad liked to play golf and one of his favorite tv shows was ncis one of his friends was an fbi agent who would later state that he had no clue who conrad was conrad never did anything that indicated he could have been some type of criminal in 2014 conrad and his wife filed for bankruptcy the couple was carrying 160 000 in credit card debt and didn't have much in the way of assets it's not clear what happened to all the money that conrad had stolen investigators believed he may have lost it through bad investments at some point conrad developed lung cancer before his death in 2020 at age 71 he confessed to his family that he was the notorious theodore conrad the family members never told the authorities but investigators noticed the obituary and became curious about the names of conrad's parents and other clues the authorities visited the family and they admitted that conrad had told them he was responsible for the bank robbery investigators said that the family members would not be charged for failing to report conrad's admission now moving to my analysis let's take a look at the description of conrad's personality offered by people who knew him as thomas randall he was described as a gentleman a good man well-spoken polite a gentle soul they said he had good control over his emotions he did not get angry very often overall there's this impression that everybody really liked him he was a great guy who fit into the community very well the only thing that people noticed that was a little off was the fact that conrad would never talk about his childhood his parents or extended family members it was like his life didn't start until he moved to boston moving to the next question how did conrad manage to get away with his crime he was never arrested for the bank robbery he was never arrested for anything in his life it was almost like he just walked away and started over no one was able to stop him investigators were at a disadvantage from the very beginning with this case for a number of reasons conrad committed his crime on july 11 1969 which was a friday the money wasn't detected missing until monday july 14. just two days later on july 16 apollo 11 launched into space on its way to the moon at 9 32 a.m the media coverage was heavily focused on this historic event and not on some kid who walked out of a bank with money in a paper bag conrad did not use a weapon he didn't hurt anybody he didn't cause any damage of any type the theft didn't even get attention in cleveland much less anywhere else in the country in 1969 it was not difficult to obtain a new identity it's fairly difficult these days but back then it did not require any special skill to do there was no internet in 1969 this was to conrad's advantage in a number of ways at the least of which is it limited how effectively law enforcement could get information about the case to the public the bank where conrad worked and helped himself to some cash did not fingerprint the employees conrad did not have a criminal record so his fingerprints were not available anywhere once conrad was in boston he lived a fairly low profile existence he did make some key mistakes like using his parents first names attending a college where he had previously attended and only moving his birth date by two years but for the most part he really didn't attract attention it sounds like conrad had a very friendly and likable attitude there was no reason for anybody to be suspicious of him he's the last person anyone would have expected to be responsible for such a crime i find it interesting that conrad did leave some clues and take some chances it's almost like he really didn't want to give up the identity of theodore conrad he wanted to hang on to who he once was even though he was living as thomas randall his choice of careers car salesman put him in touch with the public on a daily basis this is not the best career choice for somebody on the run from the law i think the conrad's secret was something that weighed heavy on him there was no need for him to make a deathbed confession but i think he wanted to clear the air i don't think he was worried about people figuring out who he was after he died maybe this was actually his fear that no one would know he was actually theodore conrad it was better for conrad to identify himself and be remembered as a man who made some poor choices and to be misidentified as thomas randall he did not want his friends and relatives believing something that was untrue he wanted them to love him and remember him as he truly was theodora conrad and not thomas randall in a sense in his last moments he paid his family and friends a compliment he offered them the truth something he hadn't offered to anybody in 50 years conrad had been unwilling for many years to take responsibility for his crime but that doesn't mean he enjoyed living a lie some people are angry at theodore conrad because he escaped responsibility because he beat the system but i don't think he beat it completely he paid the price of being separated from everyone he knew everyone he loved he lived his life with these sort of damocles dangling above his head wondering if each moment of freedom would be his last he had to look over his shoulder all the time he had to lie to everyone continually ever since he committed the crime conrad did have the ability to end his isolation and deception he could have turned himself in he would have been convicted of a felony and probably spent less than five years in prison i find it interesting that he chose to live on the run his entire life instead of just doing his time he took the money believing he could beat the system when he realized that he couldn't he committed to that life on the run now moving to my final thoughts theodore conrad escaped the criminal justice system and lived a fairly normal and productive life i think the story underscores the flawed nature of the criminal justice system if conrad had been sent to prison his employment prospects would have been limited the contribution he could make to society restricted he would have been forever defined by one bad act perhaps this case is a reminder that the criminal justice system's harsh punishments and permanent records may bring satisfaction to victims but they destroy the potential good and the perpetrators the balance between punishment and rehabilitation is delicate and not always clear-cut those are my thoughts in the case of theodore conrad please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 126,599

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Id: 0hWQD4ivp5o

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 06 2022