ASPEN, Colo. -- The suspect wanted in connection with New Year's Eve bomb scare in Aspen has been found dead, police said Thursday.

The body of James Blanning, 72, was found east of town. Police said he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Jeep Cherokee. Officials identified the suspect as Blanning late Wednesday night.

The discovery ended a night of terror in the star-studded mountain town, as crude bombs were found at several banks. Police said Thursday the motive was attempted bank robbery and extortion.

Aspen police said the homemade "bombs" consisted of bladder containers of gasoline, wired with cell phones and a crude anti-tamper device made from a mousetrap.

The Aspen Times newspaper 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.

The note said a fifth bomb was "hidden in a high end watering hole." Linn said Aspen bars had been searched but that no additional bomb was discovered.

On the outside of an envelope containing the note, Blanning handwrote what he called a "last will and testament" leaving three Denver properties to two men. He gave no motive, but he wrote, "I was and am a good man."

Blanning's notes said he was targeting four banks. Later, police found two similar packages in a downtown alley atop a black sled. All four boxes contained homemade bombs made of gasoline and cell phone components.

We believe the suspect abandoned his plan halfway through," said Assistant Aspen Police Chief Bill Linn.

Police said at least 16 blocks of downtown Aspen were cleared New Year's Eve after a Wells Fargo bank employee called police around 2:30 p.m. to say they received a threatening note. Soon after, a nearby Vectra Bank received a similar threat, prompting an evacuation.

Police cleared a 16-block area of the resort town Wednesday afternoon after two banks reported receiving bomb threats and packages wrapped in holiday paper. Police also found clear plastic boxes containing holiday wrapped packages and pizza boxes on a black sled in a downtown alley.

The area that was ordered cleared included The Aspen Times newspaper and some homes. By Wednesday evening, police released surveillance tape from one bank showing Blanning and asked the public to help find him.

Dasaro said the man was recognized quickly by police as a native Aspen resident, though he had been living in Denver since 2003.

Blanning was known to Aspen police. They said he threatened a public suicide by hanging about 15 years ago.

According to public court records, Blanning was sentenced in Rio Blanco District Court in 1996 to 16 years in prison for racketeering and a series of white collar crimes encompassing forgery of deeds and wills, fraudulent security sales and forged money. He was ordered to pay restitution of $624,552. In 1994, he was charged with theft in Pitkin County but pleaded guilty to criminal mischief.

He was serving parole in Denver for the Rio Blanco conviction when he killed himself, according to court records.

Wednesday's bomb scares put a damper on festivities in the resort town, a popular New Year's Eve destination. Tens of thousands of people turn out each year for the fireworks over Aspen Mountain and a traditional bonfire in Wagner Park. Many bars, restaurants and nightclubs that had planned festivities to ring in the New Year fell in the evacuation zone and had to close.

Approximately 190 people from the Aspen Police Department, the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office, Basalt Police Department, Carbondale Police Department, Silt Police Department, Avon Police Department, Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, Glenwood Springs Police Department, Snowmass Village Police Department, Snowmass Village Fire Department, Vail Police Department, City of Aspen and Pitkin County employees, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Grand Junction Bomb Squad, the Red Cross, and Salvation Army responded to assist in investigation of the incident and to ensure the safety and well being of community members.

Police lifted the evacuation order at 4 a.m.

Linn said the evacuation and bomb scare cost police between $150,000 and $200,000 and that the cost to downtown Aspen business would be much higher.

"I think it's pretty easy to say it's in the millions," Linn said of the losses to business planning holiday dinners and parties.

Aspen residents recalled Blanning as an eccentric who grew up fascinated by Aspen's past as a silver mining town. People who knew Blanning say he became disenchanted with his hometown as it turned into a holiday playground for the rich.

Mary Eshbaugh Hayes, who pens a weekly society column for The Aspen Times newspaper, knew Blanning as a boy in the 1940s and once employed him as a driver for her trucking company in the 1960s. Hayes recalls firing Blanning, a noted skier in high school, because he was unreliable.

"He was a very good skier, but he didn't really fit into the new Aspen," Hayes said Thursday.

In 1994, according to police and newspaper accounts, Blanning climbed atop the Pitkin County Courthouse with a noose and threatened suicide. Blanning tied the noose around his neck but was talked off the courthouse after seven hours and was not charged.

Blanning told reporters after the courthouse standoff that he was protesting the "elitists" of Aspen and that he was angry about a 1990s Colorado Supreme Court ruling about a mining claim.

Read more about the effect on Aspen and its downtown businesses by clicking here to read a story in the Aspen Times.