FBI nabs alleged 'Groucho Bandit' in bank heists

A Chicago-area man has been charged with being the bank robber whose bushy fake mustache made him known to FBI agents for the last six weeks as "the Groucho Bandit," federal officials said Wednesday.

Michael William Staadt, 37, was arrested Tuesday night after an employee of a North Clark Street bar called the FBI and said the man depicted in Groucho Bandit press release photographs was a patron.

Agents arrested Staadt as he left the bar to smoke a cigarette, according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.

Earlier, two relatives of Staadt had identified him as the person depicted in the FBI's photos of the Groucho Bandit, officials said.

Staadt was charged in a criminal complaint with just one bank robbery. But the affidavit said he was believed to have committed seven others and attempted to rob still another bank in an alleged spree that began on May 29.

He was dubbed the "Groucho Bandit" because the thick fake mustache apparently gave him a resemblance to old-time comic Groucho Marx.

Staadt appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow on Wednesday morning and was held without bond pending a July 23 hearing.

Attorney Hugh Reed, who described himself as Staadt's family lawyer, described the situation as "a family tragedy and now we just want to get some help for Michael." He said the family had been trying to get Staadt "some help for months."

Reed said the family had complained to the Chicago police department that Staadt had been stealing from his own family, to no avail.

"If the Chicago police department had done its job we probably wouldn't even be here now," Reed said.