All small towns have their secrets. Secrets that oftentimes are the subjects of gossip and innuendo. It’s just human nature.
But perhaps the biggest secret in Lynnfield that never saw the light of day for more than 50 years is the story of Thomas Randele.
In 2021, the Carter Road resident made a confession shortly before he died that stunned his wife, Kathy, and daughter, Ashley. Tom, beloved in the community by nearly everyone who crossed his path, wasn’t Thomas Randele at all. He was Theodore “Ted” Conrad, a young guy from Cleveland who became a fugitive from justice after robbing a bank where he was employed as a vault teller.
It was July 11, 1969, the day after Conrad’s 20th birthday. While at work at the Society National Bank, he entered the vault, put $215,000 — $1.6 million in 2021, according to “My Fugitive Dad” podcast co-host Alex Jonathan Hirsch — into a paper bag, and walked out to begin a new life, far, far away — in Lynnfield.
While the brazen robbery made headlines all across the United States, it took federal marshals more than 50 years to finally put the pieces together after receiving an anonymous tip.
But it’s the way it all happened that is the real story, as told by Ashley on “My Fugitive Dad,” which was produced by Neon Hum Media for its “Smoke Screen” series and first aired in December. Ashley created the show and serves as co-host and producer.
It was 2021, a day just like any other according to Ashley. In declining health, Tom was in the last stages of a battle with cancer.
“It was a pretty unassuming day, we were just sitting around in the living room watching ‘NCIS’ on TV, and in his very Tom-like way suddenly said, ‘I should probably tell you something,’” Ashley said.
He said that when he moved to Lynnfield, he had to change his name for a reason.
“He then said, ‘And the authorities are still looking for me and so just in case that should come up, I wanted you to know,’” Ashley said. “I remember thinking, what now? Back to ‘NCIS?’”
It never occurred to Ashley that it could be something really big. After all, she adored her father.
“Honestly, he’s my dad, he’s boring, he’s just a suburban dad who golfed. It sort of sounded like a dad story. It’s like oh, OK, yeah,” Ashley said. “The authorities are after you? Sure Tom, sure they are.”
A day or two later, she realized she needed to have a conversation with him. She told him she deserved to know his real name and demanded he tell her.
“He told me if he did tell me, I had to promise I wouldn’t look into it or tell anyone,” Ashley said.
She agreed. After he told her his name was Ted, she asked for the last name.
“It felt like that question hung in the air for days,” Ashley said. “He looked pained, like, ‘Please don’t ask me to tell you.’ He finally said ‘Conrad.’”
Ashley thought she could honor the promise she made to keep it private.
But that’s not what happened.
“It just started to eat away at me,” she said.
She tossed and turned in bed that night. Finally, at 2:30 a.m., she did something that would change her mother’s and her world. She conducted an internet search, a search that revealed that, as her father had said, Ted Conrad was the fugitive that authorities had been searching for all these years.
“No exaggeration, I nearly fell off the bed,” Ashley said. “I still didn’t believe it at first. This is not my dad. What do you do with that info?”
Ashley knew she had to tell her mother. She told her to enter Conrad’s name on her iPad. Kathy’s reaction was similar to Ashley’s.
“All she could say was, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,’” Ashley said.
Ashley started doing research. She read every article she could find about Ted Conrad. She read that he had siblings and parents. She compiled a list of questions. Why did he change his birthday? Do you know where your family is? She felt like she didn’t know who she was anymore.
Although Tom only had weeks to live at that point, Ashley told her father she didn’t listen to him and that she knew the truth about his other life. Ashley said he looked shocked, “almost afraid.” When she told him that they had to tell Kathy, he said he couldn’t bring himself to tell her, but Ashley persisted, saying, “We cannot keep this secret from her.”
When they did, “he seemed so relieved once he knew he didn’t have to carry the burden of his secret anymore,” Ashley said.
Weeks later, Tom died. The date was May 18, 2021.
We know who Ted Conrad was, but who really was Tom Randele, and why did he do it? His obituary as published in The Daily Item (remember that obit — it plays a key role in this story) said he was the son of Edward and Ruthabeth (Krueger) Randele and that he was born in Colorado, later moving to the East Coast. He was a golf professional at Pembroke Country Club and lived the life of a typical pro, wintering in Florida where he played professionally and returning north when the golf season opened. Second only to golf, Tom loved cars and he crafted that passion into a 40-year career as a luxury salesperson at several local dealerships.
By all accounts, Tom was a devoted family man, especially when it came to Ashley’s school and sports activities. Kathy was well-know about town. She worked in the Planning Board office for many years.
Select Board member Dick Dalton said that he knew Tom only casually, but he worked closely with Kathy during his 15 years on the board.
“She was a sweetheart who was always happy, a typical working mother who talked about her daughter who she adores, and her family, just a really solid, salt-of-the-earth-type family,” Dalton said.
Lynnfield realtor Ellen Crawford bought a car from Tom.
“Tom was professional, courteous, and knowledgeable,” she said. “I trusted his advice which proved to be a great decision, that car was a perfect fit and he was so honest.”
Nan Hockenbury was extremely close with the family. She was a classmate of Kathy’s at Lynnfield High. Years later, the families became neighbors on Carter Road.
“He was just a great guy, the best, kind, generous, anything you think of a perfect person,” Hockenbury said. “When Kathy told my husband (Joe Miglio) and me about it, we were surprised, but it didn’t matter to us — Tommy was just always Tom to us. The robbery was a way out for him. If you could get the money, you just do it and disappear. I believe that’s what happened.”
Ashley agrees. She made it clear that, while many theorized the bank robbery was Conrad’s attempt to emulate the main character in “The Thomas Crown Affair,” a 1968 film about a wealthy Boston businessman pulling off a bank heist, her father’s motive had nothing to do with the movie. Instead, it stemmed from a desperate desire to escape an abusive stepfather and start a new life.
“My dad’s motivation really was because he was in such a bad spot… He was always looking for a loving, stable family and that’s what he built,” she said.
Unfortunately for Kathy and Ashley, that stability went up in smoke after Tom died.
“Mom and I decided to wait about a year (before going to the authorities) because maybe the grief would be a little bit less,” she said.
She said she knew Pete Elliot, the U.S. marshall for the Northern District of Ohio, was still on the case. He had inherited the case from his father, U.S. Marshal John Elliot, who spent decades chasing tips only to run into dead ends.
While Ashley felt “bad”and “guilty,” she and her mom thought it was best to keep Tom’s secret to themselves before revealing it to the authorities.
“I knew we had to eventually because the investigation had to stop. It was the right thing to do,” Ashley said.
But they never got that chance.
“Somebody tipped off the marshals,” she said.
Out of the blue that fall, Pete received an email from a woman named Jane Ann Turzillo, an writer well-known in the Cleveland area for her pieces on unsolved mysteries and crimes. Turzillo revealed on the podcast it was from an anonymous sender and included the obituary of Thomas Randele. She recognized that the names of his parents resembled the names of Ted Conrad’s parents, so she forwarded the email to Pete. He compared signatures from a recent bankruptcy proceeding the Randeles had filed with Conrad’s college-admission applications. They matched.
The feds arrived at the Randele home on a chilly morning in November 2021.
“It was a Tuesday and Pete came to the house on Carter Street, knocked on the door, and identified himself,” Ashley said. “He said he wanted to talk with mom ‘about her husband,’” Ashley said.
He assured Kathy and Ashley that they weren’t in any trouble. Pete said he was shocked when he saw stacks and stacks of bills cluttering the home. He — and his father — had always imagined Conrad was living it up on an island, driving fast cars and living a life of luxury. Not this.
A press release announcing the news to the world was issued on Friday. From that day forward, everything changed for Kathy and Ashley.
But one thing is clear: neither holds any animosity for the Elliots. They still talk regularly with Pete. Ashley believes that had Pete and Tom met on the golf course or in the showroom, they would have become great friends. Ashley holds Pete is such high esteem that, prior to moving forward with the podcast, she even sought out his advice.
“He’s such a stand-up, good guy. He’s the epitome of what you hope all good law enforcement are,” Ashley said.
On the podcast, Pete said he believes that at some point, Tom regretted what he had done and “became a great family man and friend.”
What happened to the money isn’t certain. When asked Hirsch if it was safe to presume the money was gone by the time Tom got involved with Kathy, Ashley said yes. She said he didn’t spend money on himself, so she has no idea where it all went.
Ashley’s reason for creating the podcast was simple: She wanted to set the record straight on “who my dad was.”
“Once the story went public, Google searches simply erased the name Tom Randele,” Ashley said. “I felt like I was losing my dad all over again. I refused to let my dad be erased. The name didn’t even show up as ‘Tom Randele aka Ted Conrad.’ I felt my dad’s story needed to be told. He was more than just July 11, 1969.”
She said she is privileged to have had great parents and a great childhood, but, even now, when she thinks about her father, she has mixed feelings.
She’s angry that he let his life-insurance policy lapse and didn’t tell Kathy until days before he died. She’s angry that he led “a messy life” and left it in their laps to sort out. And, while she loves her father and always will, she’s angry he left her mother with financial worries.
For now, Ashley, who moved to Wakefield a couple of years ago and lives next to her mother, is keeping busy with fielding requests from people all over the country who are pitching various projects about her father. She recently was in Los Angeles filming a segment for “America’s Most Wanted” with program host John Walsh. The segment was scheduled to air in late February.
Looking back, Ashley said living with his secret for months was “unnerving.” After he died, instead of focusing exclusively on grieving, they were consumed with the question of whether they should go to the authorities. In the end, all of that didn’t matter once that obituary landed in Pete’s hands and the secret was out.
“I was terrified the day Pete Elliot knocked on our door, but at least it was over,” Ashley said.
Well, not quite. There is one piece of unfinished business, at least for Ashley.
The identity of the person who sent the obituary to Turzillo has never been disclosed.
“It’s the one secret I may never know,” Ashley said.
