Robert C. Whitney, 39, consistently confused the words "dye" and "die" in robbery notes given to bank tellers, police said.
A note used in the Gainesville robbery read "If a die pack blows, so do you," said police Sgt. Keith Kameg.
The same wording had been used on notes in two Volusia County robberies, he said.
"If anything says education is important to your future, this case says that," Kameg said. "As simple as spelling one word wrong was instrumental in solving three bank robberies."