Letterman's Quiet Life Interrupted Again

March 18, 2005 — -- When it comes to keeping his private life private, David Letterman is not kidding. The trappings of celebrity have made his quest for peace anything but a joke.

On Thursday, the CBS late-night talk-show host and his girlfriend, Regina Lasko, thanked FBI and local law enforcement officials in Montana for thwarting a plan to kidnap their 16-month-old son, Harry. "We will be forever grateful for their tireless efforts and determination to vigorously pursue this situation," the couple said in a statement.

Police say Kelly A. Frank, a 43-year-old painter who had been working on Letterman's 2,700-acre ranch in Chonteau, Mont., was scheming to hold the boy and his nanny for $5 million ransom. Frank was arrested and charged with felony solicitation after allegedly telling an acquaintance of his plan.

Now, Letterman, who rarely comments on personal matters, will try once again to lead the quiet life -- a desire that's led him to spend an increasing amount of free time at his Rocky Mountain home after several nightmarish episodes at his East Coast homes.

For many years, Letterman was targeted by mentally ill fan Margaret Ray, who broke into his Connecticut house multiple times and became nationally known as a celebrity stalker.

Ray's obsession began after attending a taping of NBC's "Late Night With David Letterman" show in 1988. Soon after, she swiped Letterman's $80,000 Porsche from his home in New Canaan, Conn. She took off with her 4-year-old son at her side.

Police stopped her in New York City, near the Lincoln Tunnel, when she was unable to pay the $3 toll. "I'm Mrs. David Letterman," she told officers, "and this is our son."

Over the next four years, Ray would be arrested six more times for trespassing on Letterman's property, once while sleeping near his tennis courts. In other visits, she left cookies and an empty whiskey bottle in Letterman's foyer and a book about meditation and letters in his driveway.

Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Ray served 10 months in prison and 14 months in a mental institution. After her release, she developed an obsession with astronaut Story Musgrave, who had led a spacewalk to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. She bombarded his home with letters and phone calls, and faked her way into an interview with him by posing as a journalist.