Bank robbery suspect spun web of aliases, records show

A middle-aged man walked into a Richmond bank just before Christmas 2008, placed a zippered bag on the counter and handed the teller a note on a carbon check slip.

Give me $2,000 in large bills, it read. You have one minute to comply. Give me back my note.

That, authorities say, began a nearly two-year binge of at least 25 bank robberies that spanned 13 states and earned the balding and bespectacled robber the nickname "Granddad Bandit."

Now the man identified as Michael Francis Mara is headed back to Virginia, where his criminal record dates to 1981, including convictions in 1995 of breaking and entering and grand larceny in Chesapeake.

FBI agents arrested Mara at his home Wednesday in Baton Rouge, La., after an hours-long standoff.

Mara waived extradition in

federal court Friday, said Laura Taylor of the U.S. Attorney's Office. No hearings will be set until he

arrives in Virginia, which could take two weeks, she said.

Patsy Mara was working in a shelter for Hurricane Gustav evacuees when she met the "Granddad Bandit," she said in an interview at the couple's home. Mara wore an EMS uniform; he would wear the white shirt and paramedic's badge on their wedding day in June 2009.

Court records show Mara worked for a vehicle transportation company. He told his wife he'd helped with the Sept. 11, 2001, cleanup. Soon after they married, he claimed to get a job with FEMA working in disaster recovery.

Mara painted a similar image of himself years ago, said retired Chesapeake Detective Robert Lunsford, who arrested Mara in 1995.

While interviewing Mara's then-wife, Lunsford said she thought her husband was a volunteer with a Red Cross disaster team. He had even used the Red Cross letterhead he received in response to a question to write a glowing report of his work, he said.

Minutes before Lunsford learned Mara had been arrested, he said he saw surveillance of the "Granddad Bandit" and wondered whether it might be Mara.

"I remembered something he told me: The way he liked to disguise himself was by shaving his hair and gaining weight," Lunsford said.

A search of Mara's van at the time turned up a police badge, uniform and lights, long knives and duct tape, as well as stacks of photographs of families and children, Lunsford said. "You could tell he was following them and taking photos. There were a number we were really concerned about. We sent them around the country to see if they were OK. As far as we know, we never got anything back."

The search also turned up notebooks of aliases with background stories, Lunsford said. Under an entry for Michael Mara, he wrote that his wife died the day he was arrested outside their home with a gun.

Another alias indicated Mara was married to a woman who had also died, he said, but police could not determine who she was or whether she existed.

"Through the years he had created so many different identities he wasn't even sure who he was. He liked the name Michael Mara above all else," Lunsford said.

Chesapeake court records from 1995 show he has two children and include two aliases: Jeff Book and David Bowman.

Mara was sentenced to a decade in prison that year; he was released after nine years. Local authorities have wanted him since last May for a probation violation.

Mara's wife Patsy described him as a loving husband who was "Grandpa Mike" to her grandchildren. She said she knew nothing of his criminal past.

"If he was an actor," she said, "he would have gotten an Academy Award for his performance."

The Associated Press and Pilot writer Lauren King contributed to this report.

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com