San Diego

A San Diego man who threatened to blow up four downtown banks if he did not receive $200,000 from each of them turned himself in to the FBI when his plan fizzled Wednesday, the FBI announced. Russell Thomas Hartsaw, a 44-year-old unemployed bookkeeper, apparently had left notes in the four banks’ night deposit boxes Tuesday night threatening that bombs would explode at each on Wednesday unless his demands were met, an FBI spokesman said. The notes, delivered to California First Bank, Great American First Savings Bank, First Interstate Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, had specified that the money was to be left at a particular site. When that did not occur, Hartsaw turned himself in to FBI agents and admitted that no bombs had been placed in the banks, the spokesman added. Hartsaw was booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center on suspicion of extortion.