Harvard Janitor Held as Suspect In Bank Hold-Up

A Harvard janitor was arraigned in East Cambridge Municipal Court Saturday for Tuesday's $1875 Harvard Square bank robbery.

The suspect, 62-year-old James Farrell, was arrested Friday night after a 20-year-old woman bank teller spotted him in the subway, followed him to a Boston restaurant, and from there called police.

Farrell, an employee of the University's Buildings and Grounds Department, had $1100 in his possession when arrested. He claimed that the money was his own, but the Boston police charged him with the robbery of the Reliance Cooperative Bank in Cambridge and with two other recent bank hold-ups in, Boston.

Spotted on Subway

Miss Emily Caldeira, a teller at the Reliance Cooperative Bank, was on her way to the doctor's when she spotted Farrell on the subway. She was with her boy friend, and they followed Farrell as he got off at Boylston St. and walked into a restaurant.

From a phone booth at the restaurant Miss Caldeira called Capt. John Granger, chief of the Cambridge detective bureau. Granger phoned the Boston police, who went quickly to the restaurant and made the arrest for Cambridge. Farrell was reported to be gentle and cooperative at the arrest. He bummed cigars off the officers and addressed each as "Sir,"

The police discovered while booking Farrell that he had last been arrested in 1996 on, as mention! charge of unarmed robbery, Farrell served a four year sentence at that time but his record since had been, with minor exceptions, unblemished.

Miss Caldiera had been in an adjoining teller cage on Tuesday when a man, keeping his right hand in his pocket, walked up to the counter and presented a robbery note. He received $1875, and then proceeded to drop $500 of it while hurrying out of the bank.

The robber was described at that time as "middle-aged, with an old, green rain-coat similar to what you'd see a professor wearing." Miss Caldeira claimed he was the same man who had come in a week before inquiring about deposits. She said at that time that she could easily recognize him if she saw him again.

Farrell was freed on $5000 bail Saturday by the East Cambridge Municipal Court after being ordered to stand trial in ten days.