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Hey, Chameleon listeners, Ashley Randall

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here, host of the latest

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installment of the hit true

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crime podcast series, Smokescreen, My

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Fugitive Dad. Like

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Chameleon, each season of Smokescreen

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reveals the hidden secrets behind

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complicated criminals. And on My

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Fugitive Dad, the criminal

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in question just happens to

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be my father. My

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dad, Tom, was by all accounts

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a normal guy. He

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was an amazing father, a loving husband

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to my mom, a car

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salesman, and an unbelievable golfer.

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But on one unforgettable day, my

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dad took me aside and

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revealed a shocking secret, a secret

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he told me to never share, a secret

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that would not only turn my world

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upside down, but would

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send federal law enforcement into a

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complete frenzy. And

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on this season of Smokescreen, I'm

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going to tell you all about it for

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the very first time. Join

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me and my co-host, Jonathan Hirsch, as

1:09

we retrace the steps of my father's double

1:11

life and try to find

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the truth beneath a sea of lies

1:15

dating back over half a decade. Take

1:18

a listen. Okay, I guess if

1:20

we're going to tell the story from the top, we

1:23

kind of need to start with the movie. You

1:25

got to give the people what they want. The

1:33

Thomas Crown Affair was released in 1968. It

1:37

was one of the most iconic heist films ever

1:39

made. Go.

1:49

In the movie, Thomas Crown is a

1:51

clever and charming businessman who pulls off

1:54

an elaborate and inimitable robbery of a

1:56

bank in Boston, Massachusetts. Steve

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McQueen. Queen is the lead. His

2:02

character is already rich. He

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does it seemingly because he

2:06

can. The

2:14

getaway car, a wood paneled station

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wagon, exits the Massachusetts turnpike, canvas

2:19

sacks of money in the trunk. The

2:21

driver drops them off in a trash can at

2:24

the Cambridge Cemetery. A

2:26

little while later, McQueen arrives in a black Rolls

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Royce to pick up the sacks. He

2:31

drives home. His butler asks him about

2:33

a day. Fine.

2:36

Just fine. He tells

2:38

him, go home early. Thank you, sir.

2:41

He walks into the ante room, pours himself

2:43

a drink, looking sharp with his

2:46

crew cut of golden blonde hair and tailored

2:48

suit. He

2:51

catches himself in the mirror for a

2:54

cheeky moment of primordial narcissism and

2:56

toasts his own reflection. Then

2:59

reclines on the couch, biting into a

3:01

thick cigar and is unable

3:03

to control his laughter. He's done it. And

3:14

that's really where the film starts as

3:16

law enforcement and a special investigator slash

3:18

love interest played by Faye Dunaway are

3:20

hot on his trail. It's

3:23

one of those summer blockbusters that kids of the

3:25

era must have flocked to. The

3:27

flashy thrill of the chase and a

3:29

leading man all the boys wanted to

3:31

emulate. But

3:33

there was only one young man watching

3:36

that film among the millions who must

3:38

have seen it that summer in small

3:40

towns and big cities across America that

3:44

took his obsessive admiration for Steve

3:46

McQueen a bit too

3:48

far. He

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was a kid from Cleveland, Ohio named Ted

3:57

Conrad. He loved them.

3:59

movie went time and again to see it in

4:02

the theater. He loved it

4:04

so much that he tried to

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pull off his own heist. And

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the crazy thing is, he

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did it. He stole

4:13

hundreds of thousands of dollars. This

4:17

is the story of a crime that

4:19

impacted two families in profoundly different ways.

4:22

One desperate for the truth and

4:25

the other unwittingly living a

4:27

lie. A

4:29

cop with a life's mission to find answers,

4:32

a family with no idea that they hold

4:34

the key to solving the case, a

4:37

key that once unlocked would

4:39

transform their lives. It's

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been over half a century since

4:51

Ted Conrad stole a fortune from

4:53

Society National Bank. And

4:55

the real story of what happened has

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remained a mystery. Until

5:00

now. From

5:06

Neon Hum Media and Sony Music

5:08

Entertainment, this is Smoke Screen, my

5:11

fugitive dad. I'm Jonathan

5:13

Hirsch. I

5:18

thought I knew my dad, but

5:20

that was before I found out he'd been a

5:22

fugitive for decades. You

5:25

should probably introduce yourself. Yeah, I'm

5:27

Ashley. I'm actually Ted's

5:31

daughter. But you weren't always aware

5:33

of that. No. Could

5:37

you have ever imagined your dad was a

5:39

criminal mastermind? That's a

5:42

no. He was absolutely

5:44

unfeasible. I would never

5:46

have guessed how many secrets he

5:48

had. You and your dad weren't

5:50

usually close though, right? Like, you weren't

5:52

just his only child. You

5:54

were also sort of his confidant. Yeah,

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I think he would tell me things because

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he either thought that I... I could handle it better than my

6:01

mom, or that I just

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have this really terrible gift of being

6:05

able to compartmentalize things and put it on

6:07

a shelf and tuck it away. Maybe

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he would give her 10% of the story and

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then I might get 30%. He

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would never give me a 100%, but I

6:16

was definitely getting more than she did. But

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now at 38 years old, she found

6:22

herself asking, what percentage

6:24

of the story he told her was

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a lie? Was it all

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a lie? I

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deserve to know my father's name. I

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deserve to know my name. She

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also deserves to know why. Why

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did Ted take off with the money and

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leave his whole life behind? This

6:46

burning question was how

6:48

Ashley and I found ourselves on a journey

6:51

in search of the real Ted. He

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wasn't a wise guy. I mean, he'd look

6:55

you straight in the eyes. The

6:58

only time I saw him was sad when he was saying

7:00

that his

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parents were killed with his

7:04

twin brothers in a car accident. He

7:07

was Ohio's most infamous fugitive.

7:11

Some people portrayed Conrad as a

7:14

Robin Hood, and my dad called him

7:16

nothing but a thief. He

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kept plenty of secrets. And

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he said, if I tell you,

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you have to promise that

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you will not look into it. I don't

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want you looking into anything. I don't want you telling anybody.

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Ted Conrad, it turns out, was

7:35

a mystery, even to those who

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knew him best. And we'll

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tell you at long last, not

7:42

only how he did it, but

7:44

why. Search

7:54

for smoke screen, my fugitive dad,

7:57

wherever you get your podcasts. So

7:59

start listening. today. Get

8:01

new episodes every week or

8:03

subscribe on Apple Podcasts to

8:06

binge all episodes ad-free today.