Birthday Boy Bank-robber

Flying Squad. I'm renting a car with Kelly Slater and Marshawn Lynch and we're going and then the rest of the papers torn off. So that's it. I don't even know what that means. So that's ridiculous. Um, right, do you have a ridiculous crime that you want to tell me about? I mean, we're here, you know I always travel with uh with a whole list of ridiculous crimes. But um, hang on, it's on this piece of paper that I was using to play mash. So let me

just unfolded here, perfect let's see. No, not that one. Definitely not that one. Okay, here we go. How about the story of a college kid turned bank robber who was inspired to commit his crime by a Steve McQueen movie and gets away with it for fifty years, only to confess on his deathbed. WHOA, yes, give it to me. This is ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers and cons. It's always murder free and one hondo

p ridiculous. I'm ze Oh wait no, I'm Dave Kustin, and with me in this imaginary blanket for it is Elizabeth Dutton, along with our interns. Hey interns, hey interns. We do not know where Zarin is. Uh So I'm just gonna take this and I'll try not to let you down. I have faith in you. Thank you, Elizabeth. I want to tell you about a nineteen year old community college student in the late nineteen sixties, his name

Theodore Conrad Teddy. Teddy walks out of a bank in Ohio on July eleven, nine sixty nine, in broad daylight with over two hundred thousand dollars of the bank's cash. So that's the equivalent of one point seven million dollars today. Oh my god. Wait, just walks out of a bank. He walks out, He's got it in a brown paper bag. Uh And that's kind of all he's got on him, and it's not that he slipped out without anyone seeing him. He actually waves as the security guard. Security guard waves back.

They share a smile on his way out. Wow, okay, so he's nineteen. He's nineteen. He just pulls off the caper. Okay, so he's got his his bag of cash. He goes back to his apartment. He waves to his landlady. He calls his girlfriend and apparently tells her he's going to Pennsylvania to attend a concert. Well, he's got the cash for it, I guess, Yeah, he's Uh, he's ready to go. So he hops in a taxi from there, heads to the airport and like disappears for the rest of his

long life. Kid, Yeah, that's it, um, And almost immediately everyone knows who did it too. In fact, he gets indicted by a grand jury just two months after the robbery, but by then it's too late. They have no idea where he is, and he's in the wind. Really did they ever? They find him? They find him because, as I said in the intro, he he confessed at the very end. Oh my god. But it's not until after he's dead that they actually track him down. Uh, and

it's really like a complete disappearance. He never talked to his friends and family again. Um, he lives to seventy two or seventy three something like that. Wow, we've talked before about guys who can't seem to like hide out. This guy is the antithesis he had. He hit out. Yeah, I mean he got it done. Like as far as I can tell, he basically fulfills Zaren's three elements of the crime. Right, He's gonna be so bummed's I know

this is kind of made for him. Right. So, as I mentioned, the only reason we know about what happened to Teddy is because he confesses. He confesses to his wife on his deathbed. Um, but it's not for lack of trying. There's this marshal who dedicates his entire life to sniffing Teddy out. Marshall's name was John Elliott. And when he's done and ready to retire from the Marshals, his son, Peter Elliott, also a marshal, picks up the thread.

It's like a total family blood feud. Yeah yeah. And of John's son Peter, And one the articles about Teddy's death is quoted and I quote, We'd be at dinner and he would say, past the mashed potatoes, and what do you think ted Conrad is? His whole life is like this, like his dad is just absolutely like filling out the crossword puzzle sitting there and like every word

is Theodore Theodore, Theodore Theodore. Oh my god. And to make the story even weirder, the Marshal John Elliott even knows Teddy Conrad by sight, Like didn't witness this the crime, but it was just small town connection. So like his name, he knows his what he looks like, he knows his name, he knows what he looks like. How did he rob the bank? Are you going to tell me that? Later? I will tell you. Yeah, we'll get but yeah, so uh,

Elliott and Teddy share the same doctor. The Marshal used to go to the same ice cream parlor where Teddy works before his bank job, So like we really knew each other, knew each other. Yeah, a lot, a lot of cross paths. He died in one, and by now it is known how he did it, which is even more ridiculous than you know so far, Um, the marshals know why he did it, which is I think even more ridiculous than that. And we also know where he ended up for the bulk of his life after the

Big Highest. But even knowing all that, there's still a ton of unanswered questions that I couldn't find any answers to. Oh my god, I'm so excited for this. So let me set the stage a little bit before I tell you about our nineteen year old criminal mastermind and what his crime looked like. We're now, Remember we're in July of nineteen sixty nine, and I would say the country had a lot on its mind, right, Like we've talked about the Summer of Love several times on this show

and traced various crimes and events, um. But until I dug in for the research on this, it didn't really all connect up in my mind that this is all happening all at the same time, like in the same three months span, basically, right, Can you name just a couple of things that we're going on in nine? Summer of sixty summer? Yeah, in the six when the first beautifully saying about the original sixty I bought it at the five and dime? Uh wood stock right with stock

happened that summer? Um moon landing? Yes, right, and then the reason then when I say moon Landing, it makes me think of Summer of Soul, that Quest Love documentary. So those concerts were going on totally. That's June through August. Right in the middle, you also have the Beatles Get Back makes Number one, Okay, Stonewall Riots, so yeah, yeah, yeah right, Give Piece a Chance also came out, and John and Yoko end up in the hospital after a bad car wreck. July eight, U. S. Troops are withdrawing

from Vietnam. Oh yeah. And then also in music, You've got the Rolling Stones released honky Tonk Woman, Dave the Bowie releases Space on it E July eleven, the same weekend, you're kidding, Oh my god. Yeah. So then like July thirt Russia launches there on Man Rocket to the Moon. It's just like goes on and on going on. The first death of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Um, oh, you're kidding. Was that summer? Yeah, it was was July.

U you moved to the July. Muhammad Ali is convicted of avoiding the draft, which you know later his conviction movie Overturned. Right July next dang day, Teddy Kennedy pleads guilty to leaving the scene at chap a quickic that killed Barry Joe Popette. Wait, this is like, this is so tumultuous. Isn't this amazing? I'm understanding like that, Oh my god. Um. Then you have Hurricane Camille, which is a Category five hurricane that kills more than two and

fifty people in Mississippi and Louisiana. We can't Here's This is something that I think about a lot, is that everyone always feels like they're in the end times exactly. You know, if there's the Yates poems second coming, that basic you know, helps us understand that that we always feel like we're in the spin out part of things.

But people have been feeling that for a very long time. Yeah, I mean I know I felt that at times in sixteen and times and was like, oh, this is just especially with Twitter, you just see like more and more and more things happening. Oh yeah, And and I mean I would think that with with the power of all these things and we only I only got through a small fraction of all the stuff around the world that's going on, that you would read it in the paper.

I mean like that some things would get like a little postage stamp, but still you would have that view of all these things. Yeah, we've talked about people who have robbed banks before. I would say more than a few of them. Quite a few. We've got are no Funke, We've got redond fied hatt and garden folks Attila. Do you have a a? Do you have a third favorite bank? Crop? Right that we've covered? Who is my third favorite? I don't know? Uh? Did he robbed banks? Like I said?

He wrote he robbed the trains only minor? Yeah, robbed banks because it was like, you know, bank property. I like it, and he had the whole like he invented stick them up right, Oh yeah, totally. So put your hands in the air, I wave them just like you don't care. Man. But they didn't know what that looked like back then. They're like, well what he did? What if?

They were like hey he And then it was lost to history and then it was part of spiritus moondy and then we all collectively came back around to it without knowing are you going rebel yell? I mean like it's in all these books, like yeah, they waived them like they just don't care and trying to reconstruct. That's what happened. You gotta admit it is a wily crew, and a pretty diverse crew of of that we've covered. I don't know if there's like I don't think there's

a stable and consistent profile across all of them. So like they've been bank robbers in every era. But I'm not sure if you send an invitation and got them all together for an annual meeting, like what that would look like if they would get along, like a reunion, yeah, or like they've got business to do every year, like they got to vote on the Proxy s convention, like a bank robbers convention. I'll go to that. I would say that a lot of days in a minimum security

prisoner bank robbers fair, very fair. So when we look at Teddy his mom, famous concert violinist who had grown up in Deadwood, Deadwood, Deadwood, Yeah, yeah, which kind of like tells you how close together things are in history that we think are very far apart. Right, But I mean, obviously I hold on, so this isn't the sixties, so yeah, she's not like she's not like Calamity Jane. Don't know it was still around, but it wasn't. Yeah, because they

got married in like the forties. Maybe what a place to be born and grow up. Yeah right, pretty cool. Um, and his dad is a decorated naval officer. Okay, so it just like a straightforward all American Yeah, yeah, like major dad, like Gerald McCraney. I'm thinking his dad was Gerald McCraney. Yeah. And it's you know, it's hard to know through newspapers what people's private lives were like back then, so who knows if he was a happy kid or not. But in later interviews, his friends say, you know, he

was quiet, he was articulate. Everyone says he was nice. Yeah. It sounds like yeah, but something must have happened in the transition to college, because the one thing we do know is after less than a year at this place called New England College, which was a small school that had started like not too long before, and he was elected class president in his first semester. M hum. He was there for for just less than a year, and then he transfers to Cuyahoga Community College back home in Ohio.

So hard to get's hard to go off to school? I guess, yeah, I mean, or maybe it was. Here's another fact that maybe this is why his dad was a professor at New England College. Okay, I can maybe understand a little bit more why he bailed out. Do you think like it was just like dad like, well, it's like a small college. I've never I'm not familiar with it. Um. It sounds kind of generic New England College,

like Hudson University on the Law and Order franchise. Um. But yeah, you go across from you know, where was the Ohio? You said? Yeah, so then he goes to generic New England his dad. Yeah, i'd get out of it too, dude. So well, here's what I want to do. I'm giving you the pen. Yeah, I want you to tell me why he chose to transfer. Oh okay, So he signs up for a class and finds out it's his dad's class. Now, how about this, he doesn't know his dad as a professor. Now, okay, let's say he knows.

He goes in his dad's class and his dad is just like, you know, just harping on him and in embarrassing him. So he's like I'm out here, or his dad's trying to help him really hard, and he transferred to a community college because he was failing. That's probably more likely thing there. But yeah, either way, he got out of town. Something happened. Yeah, So he gets back to Ohio. He hooks up with a steady girlfriend, Kathleen Einhouse, and he gets a job as a teller at Society

National Bank. M M curious. Yeah, and right now it's early okay. I was going to ask you when that was. Okay, So he goes back. He's working, he's going to the community college, working as a teller. Okay. And there's one thing that we know catches his eye in this time period, which is the Steve McQueen movie, The Thomas Crown Affair. Uhha, have you ever seen it? I have? I have great movie, awesome,

really beautiful movie too. According to an interview with his friend at the time, this guy Russell Metcalf who will visit with later you, um, he must have watched Teddy. Must have watched that movie at least six times. Well, and in those days, that means he went to the theater six times. It wasn't like, oh I always had it on at the house type thing. Yeah. Well, I like to thank he got there for like the mattinee and he's like, ah, this was amazing. Walks out, walks

back in, he just sits there. Now, he doesn't walk out. He hides under the seat, like on the sticky floor. So that's at least three viewings. And then he goes home and he's like, uh, you know that was good. You know what would really hit the spot right now, Thomas Crown Affair one please be so he you know, just zones out in this movie. He comes back and he starts to brag to his friends that he could pull off something like the elaborate bank robbery in the movie.

You know, it's not really that hard at all. So the next thing he does is he wants to show off, to show his friends that he's like, you know, big and bad and Steve a queenish. So he shoplifts a deck of cards. Nothing's says, I'm cool like Steve McQueen, like shoplifting all those movies Steve McQueen is in or he's like and all the shoplifting he did in those movies. The best Steve McQueen movie was called The Five Finger Discount. Um. So yeah, like, I guess that's the kind of thing

that impresses young well off twenty year olds. They're like, he had no fear, like, oh yeah, he had no fear. He did it to impress his quote unquote friends. He seems like a nice kid, though, and it's not entirely clear to them what he means when he keeps saying like, oh yeah, I could rob a bank. Um, I think I think they should take him literally. I mean, you know, hindsight, let's take a break, maybe dream about relieving a large financial institution of a tiny fraction of its holdings. I

always do. And when we come back, I will tell you, Elizabeth, about how and why young Teddy Conrad broke himself off something good and where he went from there. I can't wait. Okay, we're back, Hey Dave, Hey Elizabeth. Let me give you a little bit of details on the Thomas Crown affair so that folks listening, if they haven't seen it, will get a sense of, first of all, how amazing this movie is, but also how it relates to this crime.

U and uh. And just to be clear, we're talking about the original nine one, not the remake reboots starting Pierce Brosn In which Mary may not be good. I don't know. I've never seen that one. Yeah, I've never seen it. I also, I don't believe we're talking about another Steve McQueen movie, Twelve Years of Sleeve, nor the Five Finger Discount Steve McQueen. So Thomas Crown affair. It's about an already rich bank executive who pulls off a really well planned bank heist on his own bank, basically

for the love of the sport. The bank exactly is played by Steve McQueen, who comes across in the big screen and this and other movies as pretty much the coolest guy on the planet ever. Totally, totally, and there are a couple of interesting things about the movie that

I'd like to draw folks attention to. First, there's a famous scene where insurance investigator Vicky Anderson played by the incredible Fade Dunaway, asked Tom Crown why he's planning a second big heist to hit the same bank, you know, the one that employs him. This is his reply, it's not the money. It's not the money, it's me. It's me and the system, the system, you know. And then he trails off and we don't know, like what he really means. What does his answer mean to you? I

think that you know this idea. It's me in the system. He's part of the system, but he doesn't feel part of the system. And you know that that was my That's how I took it that. It's just like he knows he's a part of it, but he also wants to stick it to that system, and he can afford to, so why not. Yeah, it's like I don't know, like he's a board rich dude, and and maybe, you know, maybe this is stretching. I don't know that maybe he wants to prove that he's free from the bureaucracy that

was suddenly creeping into everyone's lives. Oh yeah, you know, and like maybe his job had changed and now he's you know, has to actually report things to the FBI or something. Um. Because you know that that is starting to pop up as a theme in culture, in movies and TV and in everyday life. And there are lots of movies from that period where you can see the same desire, like the one I think of his Easy Writer.

Oh yeah, that's a good that's a good example. Same year, and it's that like I want to break free from society and culture and being civilized or you know something like that. Yeah, yeah, they just they want to get loosted. Another thing I want to draw everyone's attention to is the morality play in this movie. So you know, if you're like me, expected the cops to be relentless and maybe crooked like some Serpico action, Yeah exactly. Um, and

especially you've got this like main character struggling against the system. Um. But in this movie, the cops are totally by the book. And I don't know if you remember, like while they do pursue Thomas Crown, it kind of feels like they don't expect they're going to close the case. They're just

kind of going through the motions. Yeah. Um. And on the other hand, as soon as the insurance folks arrive on the scene, they're the ones who want you to know they're relentless and they will use their power anyway they want. Oh yeah, yeah, there's money involved. There's money involved, and it's their money. Yeah. And apparently what they say and that as as they first show up, is any insurance agents who closed the case also get a solid

percentage of whatever they recover in their own pocket. Right. It's kind of like the the long history of private police, private security, pinkertons all that, where they're they're mercenaries and they just want the money. Yeah, commission um and they pretty quickly do break the law um too. During the course of the investigation, they track down one of the people Thomas Crown used to take down the bank, even though he went to great pains to make sure nobody

knew each other. They take this guy who's just like some guy. They kickap his child to lure him out of hiding, and then they shake him down for whatever information they get from Like they hold his kid hostage and they're like, if you don't tell us what we want to know, like, we're gonna hurt your kid. So so in the movie. You don't see that in enough movies.

You really don't. But it's like, you know, it says something to me about also, like this other force that's emerging, this kind of like you know, companies can can be much more threatening than even the cops can be. Like maybe it's like a creeping fear people are starting to have. Yeah, I think that, Yeah, you're seeing expanding corporization things at that time. Makes sense. So, like I said, like I think this is kind of a peek into the psyche of the time and the growing power of the FBI

and other dark, unseen bureaucracies. Well, and this is what's this is what's driving Teddy right, Like he's watched this movie six times now. You said, yeah, and that's okay. So yeah, he's like under its sway at this he's just feeling it. He's like, yeah, yeah, like I also, And maybe you know, after leaving school, he was feeling a little bit like an outcast. Um, maybe he should have watched Easy Rider because then he wanted just that he'd be a whole lot cooler. But right now he's like,

it's me and the system. Baby, Yeah, that's it. So in addition to Teddy's friends saying he loved this movie, they said he sort of embodied the Thomas Crown character for a while. And they say he was like drinking expensive gin's, driving fancy sports cars, like showing off on the golf course. Wait, really, trouble picture. I like to think he also died his hair blonde and brought an eight hundred dollar three piece suit and a watch. Fob year old is twenty year old, like drinking you know, Scotch,

playing golf in Ohio. He's like impressing all of his friends with his knowledge of like he's also yeah, he's impressing him also by shoplifting a deck of cards. Make those make sense? Is he then like like in the movie, he's driving like exotic dune buggies on picturesque beaches like Ohio. He flies on ultra light to the bank in Ohio and then frogs with his glamorous co star. He was very, very meticulous in his his mimicry. And it's nineteen sixty nine, baby,

so is he also hosting naked fondue parts? Who is to say? And we know he's got a job at a bank, right, we know he managed to steal a whole bunch of money, but we don't know what happened in there. Yeah, I'm desperate to know how he wound up strolling out with a bag of a paper bag of cash. Okay, then what I would like you to do? It's closed your eyes as close. I want you to picture it. M hmm. You're in a completely deadened, soundless,

empty room. Nothing is happening, nothing will happen. Just relax and breathe. I have now removed the burden of me having to do sound design for a picture at segment. Yes, I win. That was alright, cool, alright, done, all right, all right, thanks for joining us. Check that one off. Okay next time, Okay, frill though, frial though, picture for real free. Alright, we're there. It's a Friday, it's noon time. It's July nine. You are a twenty year old works

at a small time hardware store. It's your friend Teddy's birthday, and you're sharing your lunch break to celebrate. You and Teddy are at a boot in a chrome laden diner, choking down hot dogs. Maybe you're sucking down chili dogs. I'm not sure. You're choking on a hot dog. Uh. Black girl sweeting some fries uh, and you're sucking down a black cow, which is the chocolate shape made with vanilla. I was like, I don't know what what impression you have of me. This is not a this is not

a parallel nine, This is real nineteen. You're looking over a Teddy. His hair is slipped back, he has on suspenders with a gun holster over a black turtleneck. His transformation to Steve McQueen is nearly complete. Between slurps, Teddy stirs the shake, shoots you a furtive glance, and says to doos the day. At first, you're like, why are you talking like that? And you have no idea what he's talking about. But then he puts his finger to his nose and you remember, oh wow. You say, oh wow,

oh wow again, oh wow. Thank you. After you both finish up and pay, you accompanied Teddy to the package door in the corner. You stand behind him as he buys a fifth of Crown Royal and a carton of smokes. He grabs a bag of funns for you. You look hungry. Hell yeah. The cashier is handing him the booze and smokes on that trail, not the cashier the product. Oh. I was like, what is going on in? I lost you? So he asked for a bag or a bag as it sounds in midwaister needs. The cashier hands him a

small paper bag, the bigger one. It's my birthday, Teddy says to the teller, gonna have a real big night. His voice just cracked like he couldn't keep doing the husky thing. I need a big birthday bag. I'm a big boy. Now. Birthday boys get a birthday bag. Um. So you and Teddy partway is outside the package store, him with his big birthday bag. I'm just gonna go sit behind a dumpster and eat the Fians like a

raccoon and wipe their hands on your pants. Uh. So you head back to your job at the hardware place. Your mind is racing with what's about to play out. You're thinking like today's the day? Yeah, what does that mean? So Teddy heads back to Society National Bank, where you remember he works as a teller along with his partner pen uh I. Was way up the front steps he sees the security guard Mike, Mike with ice running through

his veins. Teddy hoists the paper bag, pulls the neck of the crown bottle out, and then the top of the smokes carten. He's got a big grin on his face as he shouts to the security guard, it's my birthday, Gonna have a real big night. Oh god. It's a line he had practiced at home for hours in front of the mirror. No. Mike smiles back and says, okay, kid,

do it up birthday and take care of yourself. Mike feels so bad for Teddy all the time, because like this is the third time this month that he's come up and said it's my birthday. And to have a big night. Don't you pity me, Teddy. You don't know it's my birthday. I haven't have a big night. Just me, me, a bottle of Crown Royal and a curtain of smokes. Enjoy it, Me and Parlain, Funkadelic and the Royal Craft.

But Teddy's guinea. He lightly vaults up the rest of the steps and heads back to his station at the bank's birthday. Now, Teddy wasn't just any teller working front of house. Teddy was a vault teller. What that means is he and his colleague pen are alone with all the money pretty much all day. Yeah, they fulfill orders to the customer facing tellers, got it. So they're like, you know, dream of green backs. They're just they and they stand there surrounded by it all day in a

big vault. Yeah, and like you know, I'm sure they've done at least one Scrooge mid up dip. Right. I was just going to say, they're like dito it? Okay. So now it's around three pm. It's been quiet at the bank. There's nothing going on because everyone's glued to their sets at home waiting for news from NASA about the moon. Mission. Oh yeah, yeah yeah. So Teddy says to to Pen, why don't you knock off early? I got this, I'll close up for the both of us.

His coworker scurries off, and that's kind of it. Clock hits closing time. Teddy grabs as many cheddar stacks as we'll fit in his outside bag with the smokes and the liquor, which ends up being something like two thousand dollars, and he leaves a cloud of dust as he hits for the door. So it's like a big grocery back. That's what I'm saying. It's a birthday back, happy birthday.

Like they probably handed him a bag that covered the the flask and he's like no, no, no, no no no. And then they handed him a bag that covered the smokes and he's like no, no, no, no no, no no. He You know what, Like, I think every school had a kid who their parents would occasionally send them send them to school with their lunch in a giant grocery

size bag. Do you ever have that? Like I I never struck out that way because if we didn't have lunch bags or like a lunch box or whatever, my grandma would put them in those blue New York Times newspaper from morning do Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, he's got like a big old lunch up in there. I always think of the big ones as like the John Bender Doo bitch bags from Breakfast. Yes. Yes, the prop master did such a good job with that thing, like it looked like it was Oh yeah, yeah, So that's kind

of what I'm imagining him carrying here. So you know, as we know, on the steps, he runs into Mike the security ard again. He waves, Mike waves back, and he's gone. So my question to you is, does Mike shout something like very nineteen sixty nine back at this time he like throws he throws up a piece symbol. Would that be like keep on trucking? Yeah, he was, And he's wearing platform shoes and billbo trucking and then just rainbows fly out from him and then stars appear

all illustrated in this. Yeah, this is just this whole thing is just a dream. Hey kid, you drop some And instead of me and Joe Green giving him his uniform, the security guard gives him his uniform. That's exactly what it was. So what does Teddy do next? Where too? But Teddy heads to the giant, brutalist federal building in Boston that houses the region's Social Security administration. So Teddy walks in and he says something like, hey, i'd like

to sob security card and stuff. It's my birthday. Yeah, it's my birthday. And see this bag um just being nineteen sixty nine. They're like, of course, my good man will type it up right now, what is your name? But you know what, like they ironically they have the same computer system. Now that that's right. Uh, So Teddy gives Thomas Randell as his name and Patsy's age by two years. And if he's a new person, he could just walk in and be like, I need a Social

Security card. It's my birthday. I'm Teddy, And as far as I can tell, that's it. Like he didn't like do the whole thing of like let me find a dead person. It was just like, um, Thomas Randell, Like I didn't find that name until Teddy pops up. Wow, I'm gonna try it and I'll do like bodycam footage and we'll see how that goes. So I go into the Social Security building about it's me. I thought you were saying you're going to give the name bodycam footage

as your name, yeah, man, and my new name. I'm gonna go into the Social Security office and like I need a Social Security card. My name is bodycam footage and you're like, ma'am, this is an Arby's um. So let's let's just like stop and think about this for a second. Does this sound like the movie Thomas Crown Affair at all? No? No, no, no it doesn't. I mean only in the sense that, like he got away

with the bank robbery of his own bank. I mean, there's that it sounds like because he said his name was Thomas on the new card, and I wonder where Randell came from? Is that, like I have no idea, Like he he had a prophecy that there was gonna be a football player named Antoine Randall l and then he was like there is uh so we're not sure

how long Teddy now Thomas roams around. There are some leads along the way for Marshall John Elliott, some spottings in Hawaii and elsewhere that may or might not have been real, But eventually we do know. He settles for good in the town of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, and the newspaper stories from around his death make a big deal out of how he decides to live so close to where the Thomas Crown Affair took place and was films. But to me, I mean, yeah, it's close, but it's not

back close Like no, not really. Most of the action of the film takes place in downtown Boston proper Um, and in Beacon Hill and in Cambridge Cemetery, which is in Cambridge, Cambridge. Yeah, exactly. Lynnfield is by the North Shore or North Shaw as you would say to you, there seventeen miles north of all that. Well, here's the thing, like he his crime really wasn't like the Thomas Crown affair. It was like t c A adjacent, So he's t c A adjacent in his relocation, like it's always it's

like a bad cramp drawing version of everything. That's a good way to put it. Yeah, this is close enough, and you know, from what I could glean, he lives a pretty nice life. Over time, he becomes a local golf pro. He's giving lessons at the clubs around Boston. He's participating in regional tournaments, all things that you know Steve McQueen would do in a Steve McQueen movie. For sure, totally for work. Get ready for this. He becomes a luxury car salesman. Oh I got Mini Coopers for over

forty years. No, no, not even anything as exotic as that. Volvos and land Rovers. Huh okay, So like the suburban set, it's kind of like the reverse of uh, you know, the whole thing of like hard men said that they are used car dealers. He does his crime and then says he's like and he's like adjacent. So he's like, I'm actually a luxury car new cars, So I heard something about car dealer. He does do a good job

keeping a low profile. So the first mentioned anywhere on newspapers dot com, by the way, a fantastic source for anything you're looking for the greatest thing ever. I got so lost in there and uh and I will tell you in this episode just how amazing it is. Wait for it. Here's a hot tip for anyone interested in dabbling with newspapers dot com. Put in your home address, like your number and your the name of your street in the local paper and you'll find out, like history,

everything that went down at your house. That's a great call. I didn't even think I'm a I'm a I'm a special investigator. What can I say? So the first time he pops on newspapers dot com is in in golf tournament results at Halifax Country Club in the Boston Globe. So like, what is that? Uh? Six six years? Yeah, six seven year or something like that. Um. And the only things I could find in the newspaper from that from this fifth year stretch were from his golf career.

And the only photo I found was from the AP when he attended the US Open golf tourney. And I wonder if he was like, yeah, could you guys like not post that photo he's got like one hand over the side of his face or at that point it's been like forty seven years, or is he like what does he care? He's like, no one cares. Who knows who cares? Um? But there is one anomaly that I just can't figure out. I will tell you about it as soon as we come back from this year break cool,

Elizabeth David. I'm not Zaren. I'm still not Zaren. I thank you for getting my name right though. Hey, I pay attention, and you know what, I'm going to ask you what your ridiculous takeaway is when this is all over, better. I better get cribbon on that. Uh. So we were talking about man at t C A adjacent c t C A adjacent. I keep getting the names crossed t c A adjacent Thomas Randell. I always want Thomas A

Teddy a k A Teddy Conrad ak birthday boy. And we know, like you know, there are good life uh. And he was around for over fifty years golf pro slang and sweet Volvos before you were so rudely interrupted by ads. They were really good though. You have to admit that was a hot crop right there. Choice there's one piece of the story that I haven't been able to figure out, and I want your help figuring it out.

You got it. So Thomas got married in Lynnfield to a woman named Kathy Mahan m h A n. Which would almost be like in Rhode Island, if someone said Kathy Mahon, you would think they were meant Kathy Maharn there, I would think if it's m and it might also be Mayhan. Oh, it could be yeah, Kathy Mayhan, Kathy Mayhem.

That that's her actual name. Everybody Kathy Mayhem. Uh. They own a home, nothing crazy, pretty standard suburban Boston home, but in they filed for bankruptcy protection and I was able to look it up on PACER, which is you know, a place where you can find court uh court proceedings UM and bankruptcies are you know, public? You have to file stuff for people like me to find. So this was all public information. I'm just saying that I didn't go UM. If you did, I'd be so proud of you.

So the court records show they had a ton of credit card debt, like hundred and sixty thou dollars and very few assets. They had a couple of economy cars, dad, some pretty standard jewelry, a second mortgage, nothing extravagant. So my question to you, Elizabeth Crime is where did all the money go? Well? Are you sure it was all credit card debt? Do you think they had medical debt? It didn't specify. I mean it did say it was revolving credit. I'll let you in on a little secret.

In my past life, there was a time when I worked for a bankruptcy trustee and I used to have to go through the bankruptcy schedules that people would file and pull out all the pertinent information and you'd see, like you know, and then we'd get ready for what they call the m see the meeting of creditors, where the creditors would come and explain why they had to

get their cash back. And really the only ones that would ever show up would be like Sears for Sears cards and they'd interview the person who's declaring bankruptcy and like where is that that toaster? Oven? I gave it away as a gift, um, but like, yeah it is. Don't both sleep on me. I'm imagining that scene, like I'm imagining someone from Sears and the Sears showing up. It's amazing. It's it's a really bizarre thing that they do.

But a lot of what I saw was medical debt, and so you know, people would wrack up credit cards and especially like you know, there was a time when it was way easier to get a bunch of credit cards and a fewer kind of consumer protections on them, um, and so you know, people like just spending like crazy on these store credit cards and regular credit cards. But then it was the medical debt that did it to

people horrific. If it's not looking like it was from uh, you know, a medical provider on the bankruptcy listing stuff that you saw it probably isn't, but that's in my experience. What I saw is most people were declaring bankruptcy not because of bad spending habits or extravagant living or whatever.

Like they'd get sick and there either didn't have insurance or their insurance wouldn't cover what happened, and they have like hundreds of thousand dollars of de Yeah, I know that makes sense, Like I know even like yeah that today, um, people either like they have to set up go fund me is or like one big bad medical thing happens and you're just done. Yeah. So maybe like he had a bunch of stuff and he put it onto cards.

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, um, the Marshall said there were still stacks of unpaid bills on their table after he died. It's really sad. So yeah, where did that money go? Because it was two d something that well, I mean the thing is if he's just kind of goofing around being a golf pro for a while, maybe he's not making money and you can see how I

can see how you'd burn through it. My Yeah. My two theories were one when he was young, in those six years before he ended up in Lynnfield, like he basically blew it all and we'll never know about it, like had a really good time and then save just enough to buy the house. Or here's here's the here's the cliffhanger. What if he felt really bad about the crime and so he buried it and then like on his deathbed when he's confessing to his wife, he's also saying, oh,

and here's where the money, here's where it is. That's a cooler version of this. I like that, um, or you know, he could have just thrown the trash. He was like, you know what, I feel terrible at having this. I'm just gonna take this bag and shove it. That could be too. This guy's a loose candid Yeah. Uh, we don't know who who knows in this case? I do care, so I'm not gonna use your line. I care, but don't care. Um, so not to bring the house down. But but the way he dies is through lung cancer.

And it's pretty bad as it usually is. Uh, he was buying a cart in the smoke, so that time, I'm sorry that was rude. And yeah I remember like he's been on the lamb for fifty years. No one has any clue that Thomas Randell is Teddy Conrad. Yeah, the son Marshall Peter Elliott was quoted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer in two thousand and eight, so a while before they find him. One of the reasons I stayed after this guy is that some people thought he was some kind of a hero or Robin Hood. He's not.

He was nothing but a thief, A young, smartass thief who managed to elude law enforcement for all these years. Hopefully we can bring him to justice soon. Oh and that's the sun who's carrying don Well, here's the thing that you did mention. He's on the lamb for fifty years. Like, I don't think it's ridiculous to have him declare bankruptcy at that point, because that's fifty years is a long time to be riding on that cash. Yeah, I think it was gone pretty quickly, Okay. And I like your

idea of that lost six years before he moves to Linfield. Yeah, I mean, we don't know, like other than that he was in Boston initially to get his to get a Social Security card. You know, he's just he's just you know, trapes and a rounds, spending his money on liquor and tarts. Maybe he fell into like a cult of some kind and donated a bunch of it to them. Yeah yeah uh. Or he found like some brotherhood of of Ganja or something. Yes,

that's another possibility. Um. So. Peter's dad, Deputy Marshall John Elliott, did not live to see this case closed. He died um and according to the New York Post quote, he never stopped searching for Conrad and wanted closure until his death. So he was like cheering his son on from the side. Yeah.

And I know Peter was hitting the case real hard, in part because while I was doing my research on newspapers dot com, when I got to the original newspaper that printed the indictment in nine Elizabeth, guess what I found next to it? Oh my god what The article had already been clipped by a newspaper dot com user named Peter Elliott. The digital foot prints. This is the stuff we lived. Oh my god, you're walking in the

footsteps of heroes. Who would you lose it if you were like looking for a story and you saw that they clipped something that you were looking at before you Oh, most definitely the person in the story. That's what I would, I would totally lose it. I thought, you're gonna go Anthony keytis Well that I really lose it if it was or if yeah, yeah, no it's for Shante. I mean that's when I would lose my mind. I feel like I didn't give enough of a beat here, Like

how wild is that? That's yeah that you're what you're looking at this and you're watching that the son of the man in the article has has clipped it. That's incredible. And you also like to think like, oh, the marshals have their own like you know, badass databases and stuff. No, they also that was some home investigation stuff like that's like sitting at home on a Friday night, you know, deep and deep in your study of conspiracy string. So

that's amazing. Yeah, so he got his closure. Let's get ours. There's a guy off off camera who's like, wrap it up. But I have so much good stuff it's so hard to know what to cut. I mentioned at the top that Teddy confessed to his wife as he lay dying he had made a ton of good friends, including some in law enforcement, which is brazen as hell, right, but

his wife kept a secret until after he died. Good for her till death do us part legit His friends when they found out about all this, they were stunned. I think both the lung cancer and the bank robbery. They all thought the world of him, so they didn't even know that he had lung cancer. He yeah, Wow, it's secretive, secretive, proud guy. Yeah, a little sneaky squirrel. I pulled some of their recollections from a CBS news piece. Um,

I'll just read you a couple of these. His former co workers at the dealership said they never heard Randall say a bad word about any buddy or raise his voice. They all said he was the best golfer they ever knew. Everyone wanted him on their side when there was a tournament. Uh. One of his co workers, Bob van Wert, said he wasn't much of a drinker and never put down any side bets while playing. I guess those are like the marks of of a like mean golf. You're a drunk

and you're betting on the side. They remember kept it clean, he worked clean. Uh. They remembered he could always control his emotions and rarely got upset, even on the course where he had such a pretty swing that he once bested Hall of Fame golfer Johnny Miller at a charity event. His former boss remembered a pretty swing, he got a real pretty sing. And also Johnny Miller, not actor Johnny Lee Miller who has a pretty face, and not Johnny Miller. King is that king of the road. Uh, Roger Miller,

Roger Roger. It's Roger Miller's brother. Matt Kaplan, who is his boss and managed two dealerships where he worked golf of them every Sunday morning for many years, called him the definition of a gentleman. Well, and I quote, the only way it makes sense is that at that age he was just a kid and it was a challenge kind of thing. Kaplan said, It's not like he became

a professional bank robber that we know, right. Uh. And then he says, you know, the man was different from the kid, and and we just didn't think he was that kind of guy. Uh. Someone else said, you know, all the years I knew Tommy, I never heard him mention a sister or a mother, or a brother or a father. Everything was kind of generalized. He's like, yes, I love my family. And finally, when asked about the

motive for the robbery. His friend Russell Metcalf, who we met in that coffee shop, said it wasn't about the money, So is that too cute? By half? It wasn't what what was it about? Russell? He said? He was like, I'm trying what he said. He said something like, you know, he did it for the thrill. Well, so that's the Thomas Crown part of it. I guess that it's not about the money. It's just for the action. But it doesn't seemed like he felt him in by society, right,

it was just like I'm aboard you know what. Well, it was the part of Thomas Crown that's like, I'm a rich bank executive and I don't know how to have fun anymore. Yeah, but he's adjacent to that. So he's a young bank teller who doesn't know how he doesn't know how to have fun anymore. That's right. What you call it, t c A, it's the uh so. Yeah, instead of the bank executive, he's the bank teller exactly, just a little bit off. And instead of personal glasses,

he's got ray band glasses. So this brings us to how the case was cracked. It's a little mysterious. There's still there's a little mystery here too. Shortly after Randell's obituary appeared in local paper Marshall, Peter Elliott got a tip that he should read this obituary because it might help him was something he's investigating. M Um, I was going to read the obituary here, but I'm just gonna We're gonna post it in the instagram. But I'll tell

you it was the mostly true tale of Theodore Conrad. Uh. It listed his parents real names, had the dates off by two years, but otherwise it all squared. So Pierre Elliot's reading this bills go off in his head. He puts it all together, and in order to confirm, he pulled the records from the bankruptcy filings in and compared the signature to Teddy's college application. Whoa deep dive, it's a match. Yeah, things you can't find on newspapers dot com. Right,

So he did some of his own leg work. Dang. So the only thing left to do was to follow up with Cathy Thomas's wife. She gets a knock on the door six months after his death. Thankfully, in this case, the Feds were merciful, okay, and she didn't get accessory after the fact. No, they confirmed the details with her. She's still in mourning and the FEDS decided to drop the charges against Randell's slash Conrad. They're like, yeah, what's he's dead? So I ask you, what's your ridiculous takeaway?

My ridiculous takeaway is that every criminal, because I like, we look at he has Thomas Crown affair, he's t c A adjacent and then Riddon Fight was Michael Man adjacent. I think every criminal should have some sort of filmography that they're a chase too, just a little off, make it, make it fun for us. And I also want to go to a bank robbers convention. It seems like it worked pretty well, right, like having a having a movie be your theme. Like, yeah, so so tell me, Dave,

what's your ridiculous takeaway? Thank you for asking? No problem. I would say, it's interesting to me that he transforms from like would be cool dude, coolest dude into a local golf pro, luxury car dealer, kind of a herb. But well, I don't know a nice guy like you know, with all respect to his widow who still lives like he seems like a really good dude. Through and through, but style wise, you know, it's definitely not what he was imagining when he was imagining Steve McQueen. Yeah, very true.

So my question is is that the price he pays for dreaming big and going after that dream to not be Steve McQueen. Well, like you get it, like you you did the crime, you got away with it, but you can't be Steve McQueen because Steve McQueen is deep. Yeah, only Steve McQueen, Steve McQueen or Steve McQueen the film director can be Steve Steve. That's right. There are but two and maybe the Faustian bargain is like you can do cool things, but you can't be cool. You're gonna

have to be kind of a nerd. Yeah, well, you can't just decide you're gonna do cool stuff and it'll make you cool. You just have to be cool, you know. It's Yeah, it's not a can't be that that constructed and yeah, in order to sad, you have to start gold exact to bring it back to has poseful and h The second ridiculous takeaway I have is and we've

you know, there's this Bob Dylan lyric. We've discussed before offline from Absolutely Swee Marie off of Blonde and Blonde, which came out of nineteen sixty six, so Teddy could have heard it. The line is to live outside the law, you must be honest. Yep, exactly, And wherever his erin is again, I know he's kicking himself because this was

like a part of his upbringing. Now, Bob Dylan was a legendary trickster, and it's hard to know so often whether his lyrics are profound or if they're totally empty of meaning, just sounding smart and deep but actually or that he played characters he played. He definitely played characters. But this one kind of sticks with you. I think, oh yeah, it definitely does. So Elizabeth, in this story, do we have a one time criminal who went on to live an honest life outside the law and got

it done? I would say yes, yeah, right, Like he left his old identity behind. He never spoke to his family again, he never told anyone anything meaningful about his past. It's like he followed the ten Crack commandments and good on you, Good on Teddy. And other than racking up massive consumer debts, he seems to have lived very much by the book. Yeah, and his past never caught up with him. So maybe that's good advice from old Bob exactly. I love it. Well, that's it from here. Finally, I

am Zaren Burnett. Well kind of, you're Zarin Burnetta. Jason, I'm Elizabeth Dutton. I guess you're more Zaren Burnette than I am, but we're all. Everyone's got a little Zaren Burnette to them. You can find us all of us on Instagram at Ridiculous Crime All one Word. We post photos from the goings on in the episode on Instagram Stories, and each episode gets a main grid post where you can read about it, tell us what you thought, and any lingering questions or theories. We also have a presence

on Twitter at Ridiculous Crime all one Word. You can leave out the all one word part, which is how a lot of people have found out about the show. So not a verified account, though that's true, we're not. We're too bucks a month. Uh So, for as long as Twitter exists and as long as our posts aren't the prioritized, you can find it that way. Yeah. You can also email us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.

Thanks for joining us. That's it for today. Ridiculous Crime is usually hosted by Zarin Burnett and Elizabeth Dutton, and sometimes also by Dave Custon. It's produced and edited by luxury used car dealer Dave Custon. Research is by insurance company investigator Rissa Brown. The theme song is by local club golf pro Thomas Lee and social security administrator Travis Dutton.

Executive producers are Ben Chesterfield Bowland and No Parliaments with the Cardboard Filter brands say it one more Time, We Dequeous Crew. Ridiculous Crime is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.