By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DOWNTOWN - A fashion faux pas gave away the man suspected in Cincinnati's latest bank robbery.

Detectives arrested Franklin Branham Tuesday in the Oct. 24 robbery of a Fifth Third branch, which was held up just two days after Branham got out of prison for a 2000 bank robbery.

Branham, who has been arrested 56 times in his 44 years, was wearing the same green sweatshirt and matching green sweatpants in the bank robbery that prison officials gave him to wear home, authorities said.

Branham was released from the Ross Correctional Institution just two days before the bank at Court and Main streets was robbed. Branham had been in prison for robbing a downtown Fifth Third branch in 2000.

"He always gets back out,'' said Lt. Steve Kramer, commander of the Major Offenders Unit whose detectives tracked Branham down. "Then he goes right back in."

Investigators started with a tip about a possible suspect. Detectives William O'Brien and Donald Brichler talked with a colleague, who said he thought the bank's surveillance picture looked like Branham. But the detectives thought Branham would still be in prison.

One call to Branham's parole officer cleared that up: He had missed an appointment. Authorities found him at a relative's house, Kramer said.

Branham has spent much of his life behind bars, for things including theft and drug abuse. He was sentenced to three years for the last Fifth Third robbery, but got out after serving two years and three months.

Investigators don't reveal how much money thieves take from banks.

But Kramer said when investigators found Branham, he had spent all the money he stole.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com