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Final violent act stuns neighbors of Jim Blanning

By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 2, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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For seven years Jim Blanning came and went quietly, climbing the green carpeted stairs to his third-floor Denver apartment with a bundle of morning newspapers under his arms that he would distribute to his neighbors.

Thursday morning inside the entryway to the Rhapsody Apartments, 1590 Wolff St. near Sloan's Lake, the papers lay willy-nilly in a pile against the wall. And Bill Sanders stood, shocked and subdued at the thought that Blanning, the man who lived next door to him and brought him his paper each morning, was at the center of a bizarre bank robbery turned bomb scare turned suicide that gripped Aspen and ended New Year's Eve festivities in the ritzy ski town.

"That is just incredible," Sanders said as he tried to absorb the news that Blanning, his quiet neighbor who parked his green Jeep Cherokee out back, was dead by his own hand after planting four bombs in Aspen, two inside banks.

"That's unbelievable," Sanders said, "for someone to live here - why would he go to Aspen to rob a bank?"

Blanning, 72, was friendly, Sanders said, and never gave Janice Jackson, the apartment manager, any trouble.

"No problems at all - not at all," Jackson said Thursday. "I'm shocked and in a daze. I just can't believe it."

But there was another side to Blanning, one that his family and longtime friends - and various Aspen officials - had seen for years.

"It finally caught up with him, I guess," said his younger brother, Bill Blanning. "He's been kind of threatening for a while. It didn't surprise me too much."

No tranquil life

James Chester Blanning Jr. was the son of a West Point graduate and the oldest of three boys. His father was captured on Bataan by the Japanese, held captive for four years, and ultimately died on a prison ship in the waning days of World War II.

His mother, Virginia "Sistie" Blanning, brought Jim and his younger brothers, Bill and Dick, to Aspen after the war ended. For a time, the young widow and her sons lived in the Hotel Jerome.

Mary Eshbaugh Hayes, a writer for the Aspen Times, covered Jim Blanning and his classmates on the high school ski team.

"I taught them in Sunday school, and I covered them for the paper," Hayes said. "He was just a very likable kid."

Jim Blanning graduated from Aspen High in 1954, and did a four-year stint in the Air Force, his brother said. After the military, he returned to Aspen, where he drove a truck for a time for Hayes' husband. Hayes recalls firing him because he was unreliable.

But he did not live a tranquil life. He married and divorced four times, and his son and daughter ultimately were raised by a stepfather and had little to do with him over the years.

In the early 1990s, Jim Blanning began battling with various Pitkin County officials over land deals tied to a series of ancient mining deeds that he asserted were up for grabs and, ultimately, claimed for himself.

Then, in 1994, came an incident that would be long remembered in Aspen.

Blanning, embittered by his clashes with the county and the suicide death of a friend, climbed onto the roof of the historic Pitkin County Courthouse, tied a noose around his neck, and threatened to jump. For eight hours, he held authorities at bay in a spectacle that involved reporters climbing out of attic windows to talk to him.

"One way over the edge or one way walking," he told a local radio reporter before, ultimately, surrendering without hurting himself.

Jim Blanning was not charged with a crime in that incident. But in 1996, his mining claims and land deals led to a series of criminal charges - racketeering, organized crime, fraud and larceny - and a 14-year prison sentence.

Katherine Sanguinetti, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, said Blanning entered the prison system on Sept. 13, 1996, and was moved to a community corrections program on Feb. 1, 2001. He was formally paroled on Oct. 18, 2005.

During his time in the prison system, he was never disciplined, Sanguinetti said.

Once out of prison, he moved into apartment 307 in the complex a block off of Colfax. There, other residents said hello in the halls, but they didn't pry - and he didn't offer to fill in the blanks of his life.

"We never really had a conversation about who he was, what he did for a living," said Sanders, whose apartment was next to Blanning's.

Money issues

Three years ago, Hayes - who still writes the Around Aspen society column - was in Denver with her husband when they stopped at a convenience store.

"We were in a 7-Eleven and here came Jim," she said.

He wore an ankle monitor, but he seemed well, she said.

Privately, he struggled.

Bill Blanning said his brother constantly asked for money, and Jackson, the apartment manager, said he did not pay his rent in December. He had been unable to pay the rent last July, she said, but he came up with it a few weeks later, and she figured he'd do it again.

On Christmas Eve, Bill Blanning stopped to visit his brother.

"He said all these people owed him money and he couldn't get any money out of them. He was pretty depressed. I gave him some money."

During the conversation, Bill realized his brother's mental state was deteriorating.

"He was carrying on about how there was going to be riots in the streets and people killing each other and stuff," Blanning said. "I could see it coming."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments

  • January 2, 2009

    2:06 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    happymike44 writes:

    This is the sad end to a life.
    We should all pray for him so he may find peace after all.
    This could be anyone of us or someone we love in our family.

  • January 2, 2009

    10:18 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    sweetater writes:

    Yes, Happymike we all should and hope that his family can find peace and forgiveness also.

  • January 2, 2009

    11:12 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    neverbeenbetrayed writes:

    well tatertots and happyjacks aside
    What shall I ever do upon death when it is found my peace found or lost AND peace and forgiveness has been denied my mother and son...because Mr Blanning passed on first.He passed on and forsake me not Gawd he was my ticket it to peaceful yup yup
    wow.
    Sweetater and Happymike44 thank you so much. truth be told.
    You are freaking my freak out.
    Miss D. I. Masonn
    Arizona, USA

  • January 2, 2009

    11:31 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    neverbeenbetrayed writes:

    well it is not confirmed
    however it is not hard to want this to not be true
    for the sake of all out selves,our country, the children.......nevermind
    two presidents USA share
    One forefather on family tree
    When forefather was kicked out from west point along with two unnamed others
    right about the time of the beloved professors suicide
    it turns out many were said to say what a cad
    of course they may have known this oh so crafty fellow
    was the man called dad to a little gal who grew into the wife of
    an Ohio State ohio supreme court judge

    and of course who are we to wonder if they were ever verdicts thrown down ffudged up purposefully to stike out claims in the way of the family well being AKA any children in that family ever go hungry for reason other than perhaps vanity

    oh it shall refrain from saying it is a fairy tale cus I am writing and wondering if there is anyone else who knows and shall confirm that or perhaps better yet can you get em all to deny and call it out as slanderous? : please?

  • January 2, 2009

    7:47 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    localyokal writes:

    @#3&4=====I don't understand what your point is. I think your logic has betrayed you

  • January 3, 2009

    3:30 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    AspenFreePress writes:

    Jim Blanning was a home-grown Aspen legend, albeit a highly controversial one. I imagine Brad Pitt will play him in the movie.
    Sterling Greenwood/Aspen