DENVER  The ski resort of Aspen was virtually shut down on New Year’s Eve after two homemade gasoline bombs with threatening notes attached were found at two banks and two more were found in an alley.

Hours later, a suspect  a longtime Aspen resident who an acquaintance said was bitter because he had not profited from the community’s transformation from a rural mining town into a luxury resort town  killed himself with a gunshot to the head, the authorities said.

The body of the suspect, James C. Blanning Jr., 72, a convicted swindler, was found early Thursday in a car on a rural county road, the Aspen police said.

The police said they believed Mr. Blanning left the bombs, which were disguised as holiday gifts, at the banks on Wednesday afternoon, along with threatening notes that promised “mass death” unless two Aspen banks turned over $60,000.