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Aspen Bank Bomb Plot

Suspect found dead, bombs destroyed

• Aspen Police Department
• AP/Aspen Daily News
• AP/Aspen Daily News
• FNC
• Aspen Police Department
• FNC
• AP/The Aspen Times

• Dec. 31, 2008: James Blanning is seen on surveillance footage from the Vectra Bank in Aspen, Colo. Police said Blanning planned to use four homemade gasoline bombs in a botched robbery of four banks that ended with the man's apparent suicide.
• Jan. 1, 2009: Federal agents and members of the bomb squad from the Grand Junction, Colo., search a Jeep Cherokee owned by a suspect in two bomb threats in Aspen, Colo., after the vehicle was found just outside the tiny resort town in the Colorado mountains. The suspect, 72-year-old Jim Blanning, was found dead in the vehicle following the bank robbery and extortion attempts.
• Jan. 1, 2009: Federal agents and members of the bomb squad from the Grand Junction, Colo., search a Jeep Cherokee owned by a suspect in two bomb threats in Aspen, Colo., after the vehicle was found just outside the tiny resort town in the Colorado mountains. The suspect, 72-year-old Jim Blanning, was found dead in the vehicle following the bank robbery and extortion attempts.
• James Blanning seen in a 1996 booking photo from the Colorado Department of Corrections. Police said Blanning planned to use four homemade gasoline bombs in a botched robbery attempt at two banks on New Year's Eve in Aspen, Colo., which ended with the man's apparent suicide.
• Dec. 31, 2008: Suspicious packages in holiday wrapping paper later destroyed by Aspen police, who said they contained cell-phone detonators, plastic bags of gasoline and mouse traps.
• Dec. 31, 2008: Suspicious packages in holiday wrapping paper later destroyed by Aspen police, who said they contained cell-phone detonators, plastic bags of gasoline and mouse traps.
• This scanned image shows a 'last will and testament' allegedly written by James Chester Blanning, who police suspect of leaving four packages in holiday wrapping in two banks and in an alleyway and which held dangerous bombs made of gasoline and cell phone parts in Aspen, Colo., Wednesday Dec. 31, 2008. The Aspen Times reported that Blanning left a typewritten note at the newspaper's offices Wednesday evening. The profanity-laced note, which appeared to match those Blanning left at banks, said 'Aspen will pay a horrible price in blood' if his demands were not met. On the outside of the envelope containing the note was Blanning's handwritten 'last will and testament,' shown here, and which left three Denver properties to two men.