A 72-year-old Denver parolee who built four gasoline bombs and delivered two of them to Aspen banks on New Year’s Eve in a failed $240,000 extortion scheme shot himself to death, authorities say.
The body of James Chester Blanning Jr. of Denver was discovered early today in a green Jeep Cherokee on a mountain road in Pitkin County, said Bill Linn, spokesman for the Aspen Police Department. The SUV was stocked with a rifle, a handgun and ammunition, he said.
Blanning placed suspicious packages at two Aspen banks just after 2 p.m., which led to the evacuation of the downtown area on one of this legendary party town’s most festive nights.
Two additional plastic containers intended for two other banks were discovered in an alley after the suspect apparently abandoned his extortion plans. In threatening notes, he had demanded $60,000 in used $100 bills from each bank.
A package with a note was discovered about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Wells Fargo bank at 119 South Mill St. Minutes later, a similar package showed up at the Vectra Colorado branch at 534 E. Hyman Ave. Each of the notes contained threatening letters, promising “mass death” if his extortion demands were not met, Linn said.
“He was on a suicide mission,” he said.
One letter was hand-delivered to a bank official.
“You had better be a very cool individual and not start a panic, or many in Aspen will pay a horrible price in blood,” the note said.
The note indicated several people were working in concert, keeping the banks under surveillance, but Linn said all evidence indicates that Blanning operated alone.
His letter warned that if a “very big fire cracker” was removed from the plastic container, “unique” electronics and chemicals would explode.
The letter instructed bank officers to place the money in a white box within 20 minutes and that if any dyes or trackers were used, it would trigger a disaster.
Bank officials instead immediately called police.
Although the extortion scheme didn’t net Blanning any money, it proved costly to downtown Aspen businesses.
“I think it’s easy to say it was in the millions,” Linn said of the losses.
Overtime costs for local, county, state and federal agencies involved in the operation ran about $190,000 alone, he said.
Although it is unclear whether any of the homemade devices were functional, one of them exploded into a “small fireball” as a bomb team attempted to defuse the device, Linn said. No one was hurt.
Each bomb consisted of a plastic container with about five gallons of gasoline, a cellphone triggering mechanism and a mousetrap — intended to ignite the bomb if anyone tampered with the device. The packages were wrapped in Christmas paper and had pizza boxes underneath them, said police officer Stephanie Dasaro.
Blanning’s letters also referred to a fifth bomb hidden in a “high-end watering hole” to allow the bank robbers time to get out of town. Authorities notified bartenders about the threat, but no other packages were found.
“At this point, we think that was a bluff,” Linn said.
Surveillance pictures got a clear image of an older man leaving the packages Wednesday afternoon, Linn said.
When Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis saw the surveillance video at 8:17 p.m., he instantly recognized the suspect. He had talked Blanning down from the roof ledge of the Pitkin County Courthouse in July 1994. At the time, Blanning had a miner’s hat on his head, a noose around his neck and threatened for seven hours to kill himself.
An officer discovered Blanning’s body just after 2 a.m. Bomb squad officials examined the Jeep for explosives but did not find any, Linn said.
Blanning has a criminal record. He was sentenced in Rio Blanco District Court in 1996 to 16 years in prison for racketeering and a series of white-collar crimes, including forgery of deeds and wills, fraudulent security sales and forged money, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.
He was on parole when he killed himself, according to Colorado Department of Corrections records.
Some people Wednesday night went to evacuation centers set up at schools, but most visitors were holed up in hotels outside the evacuated 16-block area, said Aspen resident Bridgett Bowers, who lives about five blocks outside the evacuation zone.
Witnesses said the evacuation zone stretched from Original Street on the east to Monarch Street on the west, and from Main Street on the north to Cooper Street on the south.
Venues in the fashionable city are typically packed on New Year’s Eve with wealthy and sometimes famous tourists and residents. Thousands turn out each year for the fireworks over Aspen Mountain and the annual bonfire in Wagner Park.
When asked whether officials overreacted, Linn disagreed.
“There were actual bombs in downtown Aspen,” he said. “How do you quantify how dangerous that was? Dangerous enough.”
Aspen’s fireworks display was postponed until tonight because of the bomb threats.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
