four days before his passing thomas
randall's family learned his big secret
he was wanted by the u.s marshals for
robbing a bank in 1969. just like how
any family would be they were in shock
it all started with a steve mcqueen
movie thomas was born in cleveland ohio
he grew up in the 50s and late 60s
idolizing cool big screen actors like
james dean and marlon brando of course
dean and brando often portrayed morally
gray characters doing somewhat immoral
things but none of these characters had
the same effect as steve mcqueen's
character and the thomas crown effect
the film is about a billionaire named
thomas crown who steals 20 million
dollars from a bank in boston it came
out when our thomas was 19 years old he
watched one of his idols live out the
romantic life of a bank robber thomas
crown lived in boston a more well-known
city than cleveland ohio where randall
lived but steve mcqueen's thomas wasn't
cool because of where he lived or what
he did he was cool for how he did it
which was why thomas idolized the
character in real life thomas crown
didn't steal because he needed the money
he stole for fun he treated it like a
game randle saw him play bank robber on
the big screen and wanted to play too he
wanted to be like steve mcqueen he
wanted to know what it felt like to pull
off a heist however thomas needed to
take baby steps and work his way up to
professional bank robber if he wanted to
be like mcqueen's character he'd have to
start acting dressing and drinking like
him too according to the us marshals
report from 1969 thomas drove an mg
sports car sipped expensive gin and
showed off his prowess for golf and
billiards when he turned 20 thomas got a
job as a low-level bank worker everyone
expects a bank robber to be a gun-toting
masked criminal waving a burlap bag at
whimpering employees thomas knew he
could not recreate this steve mcqueen
heist instead thomas plan was to rob the
bank from the inside his job made the
heist like stealing candy from a baby or
in this case stealing money right out of
the vault when the tellers needed more
money and they're registered thomas's
job was to go into the vault and get it
so if someone saw him pillaging through
the bank vault they wouldn't ask any
questions as far as they knew thomas was
just doing his job thomas bragged to his
friends about how easy it would be to
rob a bank of course they thought his
claims were outlandish and borderline
delusional most heist ended badly for
the heistee after all they probably
assumed thomas was all talk but he
wasn't on a lovely morning in 1969
thomas randall known then as theodore
conrad walked into the society national
bank of cleveland and only a few minutes
later walked out with 215 000 in a brown
paper bag he also had a carton of
cigarettes and a bottle of whiskey in
true mcqueen fashion according to bank
records thomas divided the money
carefully he took 1500 100 bills 1200 50
bills and 250 20s today thomas's payload
would be worth around 1.7 million
dollars the bank didn't even notice they
were missing any funds until monday when
thomas didn't show up for work in the
morning they soon discovered he was
missing along with 215 thousand dollars
they alerted the us marshals who
launched a manhunt for young theo his
face was plastered in newspapers all
around ohio the fbi even put him on the
most wanted list where he would appear
quite frequently as dozens of law
agencies across the country searched for
him some people thought theo now thomas
fled to three likely locations
california paris and hawaii however none
of these locations were proven by law
enforcement they were just false alarm
sightings of thomas one ohio couple
thought they saw him in hawaii three
months after the heist they told police
that they were sitting at a tiki bar in
the princess kauilani hotel on waikiki
beach when they had a strange encounter
with a fellow guest the couple was
relaxing and trying to enjoy their
vacation so they began chatting with a
man at the bar a few minutes into their
conversation the couple mentioned
cleveland ohio suddenly the man's
attitude changed he excused himself to
use the bathroom and never came back not
long after meeting the strange man the
cleveland couple saw a picture of thomas
in the papers they called the police
telling authorities they had seen the
wanted bank robber at their hotel only a
couple days ago although he probably
wasn't still in the bathroom the local
authorities in waikiki searched
everywhere for the man at the bar
eventually they got a lead at an
apartment complex near the hotel but the
man had left already the landlord said
the man paid with cash which of course
the police couldn't trace they still
aren't 100 sure if that was thomas or
just someone who resembled him so where
did thomas go what kind of life did he
lead as a wanted man the incident in
hawaii was the only lead u.s marshals
would find on thomas's location for
decades they still believe he was there
but escaped and went back to the united
states mainland after the hawaii
sighting the marshals received more tips
from all around the us one came in from
washington dc another came from
inglewood california the marshals even
got a call from oregon saying they'd
seen thomas he apparently showed up in
the picturesque outlaw country of west
texas if the marshals got a call they
dropped everything and went to that
location however he never once stopped
to check the city thomas was actually
living in the city where he spent 30
years hiding from authorities boston it
made sense though the thomas crown
affair was filmed in boston and randall
even lived a few blocks away from the
filming location he could probably sense
mcqueen's presence thomas did hop around
a bit but eventually he settled down in
the boston area he started a family
built a career and became a well-liked
member of his suburban community the man
in the proverbial wanted posters was
theodore conrad the audacious bank
robber he changed his name to thomas
randall who by contrast was an innocent
suburbanite who lived a remarkable life
thomas quickly realized that he couldn't
live off his heist money forever as he
started running out of cash he searched
for work in the area he didn't find
anything substantial he must have known
where people were looking for him
because thomas went to one of the few
regions u.s marshals dint florida he
found work in the prestigious pembroke
country club he started off as a golf
instructor and worked his way up to
teaching pro yes thomas was technically
a pro golfer he held the secondary but
still esteemed title of assistant golf
pro thomas played in the winter tour for
one year he retired early to a
comfortable management position at
pembroke where he earned a steady salary
for several years according to his wife
and children thomas genuinely loved golf
becoming a pro golfer probably wasn't
the best career choice for one of the
most wanted men in america but it was
worth the risk after all what would
thomas crown do randall eventually quit
his job at pembroke and pursued his
other mcqueen inspired passion cars
thomas retired from golf in the 70s and
stayed in boston full-time where he
started a luxury car dealership he named
the business woburn foreign motors
through woburn thomas sold all kinds of
vehicles but he especially loved working
on and selling range rovers and volvos
he spent nearly 40 years in the car
business until his forced retirement in
2021 cancer forced him to hang it up a
disease that plagued the last few years
of thomas's life thomas spent those
years caring for his wife kathy and his
daughter ashley of course they were
still blissfully unaware of their father
and husband's criminal past they only
knew thomas randall not the wanted bank
robber theodore conrad thomas was a car
salesman who loved to cook for his
family he'd spend hours in the kitchen
experimenting with new recipes when the
family of three sat down for dinner he'd
always ask them if he should make the
dish again unfortunately and somewhat
ironically thomas was not good with
money in 2014 he filed for bankruptcy by
the time he passed away in 2021 thomas
was flat broke his family could never
have imagined their loving family man
was once rich in stolen bank money that
was until he told them the truth thomas
revealed his 1969 bank heist four days
before he passed away his family chose
to admit the crime from his obituary of
course that didn't stop the news from
getting out the u.s marshals released
their findings in a public report which
finally closed the case that had gone
unsolved for over 50 years and was led
by two generations of marshals u.s
marshal john k elliott nearly spent his
entire life looking for thomas in 1969
elliot was a marshal in cleveland and
was the first person the bank called
when they discovered the robbery elliot
chased every lead he could get but as we
now know those leads were just the
breadcrumbs of a wild goose chase elliot
started on the case in 1969 and hunted
thomas until 1990. however elliott's son
peter j elliot says his father never
stops searching for thomas after his
retirement peter says he remembers his
father keeping up with any leads the u.s
marshals had on thomas he even
investigated some leads himself peter
recalls his father telling him how
thomas or theodore as he knew him was
the one fugitive who got away elliot
passed away in 2020 one year before
thomas confessed his crimes so
unfortunately elliot never got closure
on the case that spanned his entire
career and life before elliott died
however the us marshals currently on
thomas case shared some news with the
retiree they were getting close to
finding thomas they told elliot they'd
found a connection between two documents
in thomas's name peter was the marshal
leading the investigation and remembers
telling his father the news personally
the news also came with a word of thanks
elliot had compiled most of the research
used in the conrad investigation
including a document signed by thomas
randall the signature on the pre-69
document was compared to the signature
on a more recent version marshalls
compared the t in thomas and theodore
and determined the same hand must have
written both signatures it took peter
and his team about a year to make the
connection by that point thomas was
already on his deathbed and he'd confess
to the crime arresting thomas would have
been pointless peter knows his dad will
rest easier knowing they found him
regardless of whether or not thomas was
prosecuted thomas randall lived the life
he always dreamed of before passing away
on may 18 2021 who could ask for
anything more click here to watch one of
these next videos and let us know in the
comments section if you could
successfully steal 10 million dollars
but you had to be on the run for the
rest of your life would you do it