Crime With My Coffee

In Cleveland, Ohio on July 11, 1969 was an adventurous day for bank employee Theodore Conrad. At just 20 years old, he walked into work after lunch like always, left like normal, and then disappeared. It was discovered the following Monday that $215,000 had disappeared with him.

Thomas Randele was making a quiet peaceful life for himself in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He got married, helped raise a daughter, was a fixture around his town. Sadly, he lost his fight with cancer in 2021.

Shortly afterwards, the FBI came knocking on the Randele door to speak with Thomas' widow. What they would reveal to each other would surprise many.

Sources for this episode:
CBS News - Friends, family stunned that Thomas Randele, Boston car salesman, was fugitive bank robber wanted in Cleveland for 50 years
Find A Grave - Theodore John "Thomas Randele" Conrad
Cleveland - Mystery solved: Theodore Conrad vanished after robbing Cleveland bank where he worked in 1969; marshals traced him to Boston suburb
NBC Boston - Inside the 50-Year Manhunt for a Cleveland Bank Robber
New York Post - Infamous Ohio bank robber who vanished 50 years ago ID'ed as dead manSupport the show

In August of 1955, 14 year old Emmett Till left his home in Chicago, Illinois and traveled with his uncle and cousin to Money, Mississippi for a visit. While he was there, a white woman claimed that he had offended her in some way which led to two white men tracking him down and kidnapping him in the dark hours of the morning a couple of days later. His mutilated body would be found just a few days after he was kidnapped. Listen in this week to hear about how the kidnappers court date went and how Emmett Till would open people's eyes to the way that African Americans had been and were still being persecuted in America.Sources for this episode:
sources to be updated soonSupport the show

In August of 2009 in Brunswick, Georgia, 22 year old Guy Heinze, Jr. came home and found the nine other people that he was living with massacred in their home. Turned out that two of the nine people who had been beaten were still alive when first responders came. One of those would succumb to their injuries the next day, and the 3 year old would go on to make a full recovery. Guy was arrested and later charged with the eight murders of his father and those that he considered his uncle, his cousins, and his cousin's boyfriend. Listen in to hear about the case, the evidence, and then weigh in and tell us what you think about this one.

Sources for this episode:
The Florida-Times Union - five pages of links of articles about this case
Murderpedia - Guy Heinze Jr.
Criminal Behaviors - Guy's Voice
Justia - Heinze v. Georgia
Wikipedia - Brunswick, GeorgiaSupport the show

On July 4/5, 1990, Eric Breazeale doused Natchez, Mississippi resident, Nellie Jackson, with gasoline after she refused him entry into her brothel because he was drunk. Miss Nellie would lose the fight for her life a few days later, but her life up to that point had been one she fought hard for and she built a life that she was very proud of.

Sources for this episode:
Clarion Ledger - 'She will always be a legend around here.' The life of Mississippi Madam Nellie Jackson
Bruce L. Hartman - Looking Deeper Before We Judge
Newspapers.com - Clarion Ledger article titled Suspect in fatal Natchez brothel fire dies
Newspapers.com - Clarion Ledger article titled About 100 attend funeral of Nellie Jackson, Natchez brothel owner
Wikipedia - Natchez, Mississippi
Mississippi Madam: The Life of Nellie JacksonSupport the show

Lester Gillis, better known as Baby Face Nelson, was a bank robber in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He became a well known member of several different gangs of the time, and was even named Public Enemy Number One by the FBI at one point. Listen in this week for more details of his life, and his eventual death.

Sources for this episode:
Wikipedia - Chicago
Wikipedia - List of people from Chicago
Wikipedia - Baby Face Nelson
FBI.gov - Lester Gillis ("Baby Face" Nelson
New York Times - WIFE LYING IN DITCH SAW NELSON SHOT; She Says She Took Him to a House Near Chicago Where He Died 3 Hours Later. HELPED TAKE CODY TO ROAD Federal Agents Visit Him of Bandit's Mother After Sister Retells Story of Death
Britannica - Baby Face Nelson
Wikipedia - Little Bohemia LodgeSupport the show

In Savannah, Georgia back in 1734, young teenaged Alice Riley, and indentured servant from Ireland, and Richard White, also from Ireland, turned against their master, William White. It was said that they drowned him after taking all of the abuse and sexual advances from him that they could take. After a quick trial, they were both found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Alice Riley would become the first woman to be publicly executed in Georgia.

Sources for this episode:
Murderpedia - Alice Riley
Ghost City Tours - The Ghost of Alice Riley
Wikipedia - Savannah, Georgia
WikiTree - Alice Riley
Nightly Spirits - A Savannah Ghost Story: The Ghost of Alice RileySupport the show

In the summer of 2002, Scott Shanahan disappeared from the public eye in his small town of Defiance, Iowa. His wife, Dixie, told everyone that asked that her abusive husband had up and left her after she got pregnant with their third child. Eventually someone would contact the authorities and mention this super strange absence. You won't believe what their investigation turned up.

Sources for this episode:
Wikipedia - Defiance, Iowa
Murderpedia - Dixie Shanahan
Des Moines Register - Who is Dixie Shanahan Duty and why did she murder her husband?
Oxygen - A Mother Shoots Her Habitually Abusive Husband, Hides Body Under Blanket In Bedroom For Months
Dixie's Last Stand by John FerakSupport the show

In May of 1999, Martha Hart, the wife of WWF professional wrestler Owen Hart, received the phone call that no wife ever wants to get. Her husband had been hurt during a live pay per view show in Kansas City, Missouri. She would receive a call shortly after that first one informing her that her husband, sadly, did not survive his injuries. Shortly after his funeral, she would file a wrongful death lawsuit against the WWF and other people and companies involved in this failed stunt.Sources for this episode:
Wikipedia - WWE
Owen Hart Foundation
Owen Hart KCPD File
Broken Harts: The Life and Death of Owen Hart by Martha Hart
Wikipedia - Owen HartSupport the show

During the 1970s in Lexington, Kentucky Andrew Carter Thornton, II was living his best life. He was a police officer for the Lexington Police Department, he joined their Narcotics Division when it was formed, he held a degree in law enforcement and he was a lawyer. In the early 1980s, he quit the PD and went into private security with a friend of his. It wasn't long after that that his drug smuggling ways would come to light. In September of 1985, while coming back from Colombia with a load of cocaine, he would dump some of the cargo over the Chattahoochee National Forest before setting the plane to autopilot to crash in the mountains of North Carolina and jumping out over Knoxville, Tennessee. His body was found in a driveway the next morning, and some of the dumped cargo would be located the following December, along with the carcass of the bear that ingested some of the cocaine before it died of an overdose.

Sources for this episode:
Lexington Herald Leader - Who was Andre Thornton, Ky. officer whose drug smuggling plays a role in 'Cocaine Bear'?
Washington Post - Drew Thornton's Last Adventure
Knox News - 'Cocaine Bear' tells a wild story, and Knoxville plays a role
The Bluegrass Conspiracy by Sally Denton
KYforKY - Meet Our New Mascot: Cocaine Bear
Investigation Discovery - 5 Things To Know About Drug Officer Andrew Thornton And The Real Story Of The 'Cocaine Bear'
New York Times - The Real Story of 'Cocaine Bear'
Independent - Cocaine Bear: True story of infamous bear who consumed duffel bag of cocaine and got Hollywood treatment
WAVE3 - 'Cocaine Bear' at Lexington store is not the real bear; sources confirmSupport the show

Theresa Cross Knorr, 5 times a bride and once a widow, went on trial for murdering her first husband when she was 18 years old, with a baby and another on the way. She was acquitted as the jury believed she acted in self defense. Over the next several years she would remarry 4 more times, have 4 more children, and abuse them while they were with her. She even caused the death of two of her daughters then enlisted the help of two of her sons to dispose of their bodies.

This episode discusses child abuse.

Sources for this episode:
Mother's Day by Dennis McDougal
Murderpedia - Theresa Knorr
The Cinemaholic - Is Terry Knorr Dead of Alive? How Did She Die?
The Cinemaholic - Where Are Theresa Knorr's Sons Now?
Find A Grave - Theresa Marie "Terry" Knorr Walker
Medium - Theresa Knorr: Mother Most EvilSupport the show