Daughter spreads story after father’s dying confession

CLEVELAND (WJW) — Ashley Randele holds on to her dad’s memory, with pictures from the past. She misses him every day, despite what happened at the end.

“My dad was always someone I could talk to and I thought he could always talk to me,” Randele said.

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Describing her childhood as the classic American upbringing, Ashley said her dad was a car salesman. The family was never rich, but Thomas Randele provided the best he could.

But money never mattered to Ashley Randele, it was more important to have her family stick together, and they did just that for decades.

That is until a couple of years ago when life took a drastic turn.

“My dad was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer in March of 2021,” Ashley said.

Knowing he was near the end of his life, Thomas Randle decided it was time to confess a secret he had kept to himself for 50 years.

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“And that’s when he told me his name was Ted Conrad,” Ashley said.

Not wanting to share details, Ashley’s dad told her to search for his real name on the web. Article after article appeared, sharing his past as Ten Conrad, the Cleveland bank teller who pulled off a heist at his workplace and then disappeared.

“I thought this is terrifying, this is crazy and my life is a movie,” Ashley said.

Immediately after the robbery in 1969m Ted Conrad became Thomas Randele. He moved to Boston and started a new life, with millions of dollars in today’s money.

However, his daughter believes her dad was broke by the time he settled down with the love of his life.

“By the time they met, he was living in a small apartment complex in Quincy and had a full-time job,” Ashley said.

The heist became a decades-long search, growing in status the longer it remained a mystery.

It wasn’t until Ted’s deathbed confession in 2021 that anyone other than the man himself knew where he had gone.

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Ashley said she is learning to lean into her father’s past. She’s been on network TV and also helped host a popular podcast about her fugitive father.

“Telling his whole story. Not just July 11, 1969,” said said.

Along the way, she’s learned a lot more about Ted Conrad. But, she also gets a chance to share stories of the man she knew.

“How I am moving forward is making sure people know who Thomas Randele was. That he wasn’t a fake person. That he was incredibly complicated,” Ashley said.

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