The clerk robbed his bank and disappeared without a trace: he was searched for 52 years and was found after his death

A humble clerk robbed his bank and disappeared without a trace. He was found 52 years later, when he had already died. BBC.

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One of the most high-profile bank robberies in America is finally revealed: after a 52-year search, they managed to find the robber's trail, law enforcement officials said.
But it was too late to arrest him.

Ted Konrad worked as a cashier at the Society National Bank in Cleveland, Ohio, and robbed his employer in July 1969.

He stole $ 215 - roughly $ 000 million in today's figures.

Investigators found that after the robbery, Konrad did not throw money around and lived a quiet and modest life.

Just took the money and disappeared

Theodore Konrad was born in Denver, the son of a naval officer who traveled extensively around the country. In 1958, when Konrad's parents divorced, Ted settled in Lakewood with his mother and sister. His mother got married again.

After graduating from high school, he entered New England College, but after the first semester he returned to Cleveland. He later attended classes at the Cuyahoga Community College.

In January 1969, he took a job at the Society National Bank.

For work, Konrad often had to be in the vault of the bank. When cashiers and branches needed cash, Konrad packed and delivered bills. As the records show, he had access to hundreds of thousands of dollars a day.

According to police, Conrad allegedly told friends about his plans to rob the bank and bragged about how easy it was to do - if he stole the money on Friday, he would have a two-day head start before it was discovered missing.

He is said to have loved the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, starring Steve McQueen, about a bank robbery. Conrad watched it more than a dozen times while preparing for his heist.

According to friends, Conrad behaved like McQueen's hero - he bought a sports car, drank expensive gin and regularly appeared at the local golf club and bowling alley.

Konrad was only 20 years old at the time of the crime. He did as he was going to: put the bills in a regular brown paper bag on the evening of Friday, July 11, 1969 and just took them out of the bank.

It also helped that his boss was absent from work that day - he was scheduled for surgery.
Konrad headed home, got into his car and drove to the airport.

When the bank employees discovered the loss on Monday, it had already disappeared.

Quiet life

They had been looking for him for more than half a century. The Cleveland robbery was regularly discussed on television shows such as America's Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries.

After the robbery, Konrad fled first to Washington, then moved to Los Angeles and generally wandered around the country a lot, if you believe his stories to friends on the phone and the postmarks on the letters he sent them.

In 1970, he settled in Lynnfield, a suburb of Boston, about a thousand kilometers from the crime scene. Apparently around the same time he changed his name to Thomas Randell.

In Boston, he met his future wife, whom they married in 1982. A few years later, they had a daughter.

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Investigators say he subsequently lived a quiet and humble life, having spent the last 40 years working in a used car dealership and playing golf professionally.

While Konrad lived in Massachusetts, law enforcement agencies hunted him unsuccessfully. FBI agents across the country were looking for him, typing materials on 20 folders.

The search for Konrad lasted 52 years, detectives followed his tracks in the District of Columbia, California, Texas, Oregon and Hawaii.

At the same time, Konrad led a law-abiding lifestyle, and he was in good standing with the local police. This made it difficult to find him, moreover, there were no fingerprints in his file.

Russell Metcalfe, Konrad's best friend back in Lakewood, claimed he had heard rumors about where Konrad might be hiding.

For years, he said, the FBI and marshals believed that if Konrad got in touch with anyone, it would be Metcalfe. However, this did not happen.

The case remained unsolved for decades until investigators who saw Randall's obituary in the newspaper were able to match the documents he filed in the 1960s with the recent papers he signed.

Curiously, these were documents from Randall's 2014 Boston bankruptcy case.

In the obituary, his parents' and college names were the same as Konrad's. Randall's signature also matched Konrad's.

Thomas Randall was indicted and would have been arrested if found, as there is no statute of limitations for bank robbery crimes.

His family members will not be charged for not alerting the authorities to his confession.

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Peter Elliott was one of the leading investigators in this case, which he inherited from his father, who worked on it for the rest of his life.

“My father never gave up searching for Conrad and wanted to investigate this case before his death in 2020,” Elliott said. “I hope my father is happy today knowing that his investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service have finally solved this mystery.”

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