The story of the thief identified by the United States after 50 years of searching

The United States announced one of the most surprising news of the year. Ted Conrad, author of one of the most important bank robberies in the history of the American state, was identified (but not captured) after 52 years of searching. Conrad worked at Society National Bank, a bank located in Cleveland, Ohio, where he carried out the famous robbery.

That was in July 1969, more than half a century ago. Conrad stole $215,000 from his boss, which would take inflation and other criteria into account, Almost 1.5 million euros today. After this crime, the fugitive “disappeared” from the face of the earth and nothing has been heard of him until today.

According to the United States Marshall Service, In these 52 years, the fugitive lived a peaceful life, without luxuries or pretensions Despite the huge amount in his possession. Maybe because it didn’t attract attention, or maybe because it was the way of life he loved the most. However, the real reason will never be known, since then Conrad died last May of lung cancer.

bad security

Conrad was 20 years old when the “Big Bang” hit. He worked in the bank for a short time when, despite his young age, He took advantage of the weak security in the bank and came out with all the money in a brown paper bag. He did it in front of everyone, any Friday night when the office was closing, and no one noticed.

When the bank employees realized there was a lot of money missing, Conrad would have disappeared forever. This case was very popular in the United States, and the search, which lasted for more than 52 years, was unsuccessful, since they were never able to catch him. He is so famous that his story has been told on TV shows. as “America’s Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries”.

According to the circle of the aforementioned fugitive Marshal He told his friends about his plans to steal money, and even bragged about how easy it was to carry out. Apparently, he got the idea from the 1969 movie The Thomas Crown Affair, starring Steve McQueen, whose story is about the perfect heist. Konrad was obsessed with this movie (He appears to have seen her more than a dozen times) and traces his theft from her.

After committing the crime and disappearing, Conrad changed his identity to that of Thomas Rundle. He spent his next years between Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, until he finally reached a neighborhood in Boston, 1,000 kilometers from Cleveland. as New York timesAnd The fugitive has spent the past 40 years working as a professional golfer At a used car showroom.

Conrad’s identity explodes

The Ted Conrad case has been cold for decades due to a lack of evidence revealing his whereabouts. however, Case investigators found Randall’s obituary months ago, the false identity of the protagonist, in a local newspaper. Thanks to this, they were able to compare the documents he submitted during the 1960s with other, more recent papers. Sarcastically, These documents included a bankruptcy case brought by Randle In a Boston courthouse in 2014.

Peter Elliott was one of the lead investigators on the case. The Marshal inherited this position from his father John, who lived a maniac Find out where Conrad is. “My dad never stopped looking for him and always wanted the case closed,” Elliott said. His father John passed away in 2020.. So Peter wants his father to rest “a little easier with the knowledge that his investigation and his Marshal Service put an end to this decades-old mystery.”