Whatever Happened To... Robert Latta


On January 20, 1985, long before Michelle Ann Holt (now Michaele Salahi) and Tareq Salahi ever knew that they would become known as “this week’s balloon boy” the Reagan White House was on low alert when a Denver man wandered inside and gave himself a 14 minute tour that ended when the Secret Service sauntered in on him and took him down.

It was the day of Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration and Washington was abuzz with distractions. Latta took advantage of the hubbub and followed the Marine Corps Orchestra past security into the White House. He wasn’t wearing a uniform, and he didn’t have an instrument, but he did have his overnight bag. Security may have figured him to be the Marine Corp Orchestra’s sloppy civilian manager. Why not?
Latta was questioned by the Secret Service, turned over to DC police who booked him on unlawful entry, and interviewed by psychiatrists. Amid the legal goings-on Latta at one point had been committed to St. Elizabeth’s hospital, having divulged a previous stay in a psychiatric ward. According to the meter reader, he had voluntarily committed himself after hearing voices in his head saying “you blew it.” Incidentally, St. Elizabeth’s hospital is where Reagan assassination attempter John Hinkley still spends his days. This writer’s father also worked at St. Elizabeth’s as a young lab tech. That was back when Eisenhower parked it at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Ahead On The Left is not an investigative journal and though the title of this post suggests a brief on the current status of Robert Latta, the only information available on Latta in Wikipedia covered events prior to and around the arrest. The article ended without so much as a word on what the final outcome of the case was. Come on Wikipedia. I’ll donate that dollar when you complete your articles.

What I personally can account for was the rapid saturation of Latta into the stream of popular culture. Of course they babbled about him on the morning shows. He may have even been on a couple. He was portrayed on Saturday Night Live by Rich Hall, though only a feature player, by that time Hall had established himself on the comedy map as the originator of the word (but not quite the concept of) Sniglets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniglet).

I remember the jokes rampant in the black community: “If that was Rasheed Latta, they woulda shot that n***** before he got off the subway.”

As a nation, we may have at first thought Latta was a jerk – the kind of guy who touches paintings in museums or licks things he doesn’t want other people to take. Then the notion of peculiarity set in evoking feelings not too far from underdoggery. In America we believe in going far doing the things we’re crazy about. Latta got far just by being crazy. That’s closer to the American Dream than a lot of people are going to get. Plus, he was awkward so we could tell he didn’t think he was better than the rest of us.

This was before the wasteland of reality television was even the size on a flattened gumwad on the sidewalk. Robert Latta was not looking to be in the new cast of “I’m A Dysfunctional Mess. Gimme Money.” If he sought any fame for his trespassing he went about it the wrong way, but I don’t believe he was trying for fame. This was clearly more of a spur of the moment thing than a precision operation. In the ranks of stealthy Japanese assassins he’d be a nonja.

Meanwhile, the Salahis, unbeknownst to them, are pioneers in the reinventing of reality television as people who end up on the news as a result of a hare-brained scheme to get on a reality show and then burn out before they even pay their restitution. That wouldn’t be enough punishment as far as I’m concerned though. I wish what happened to Latta including incarceration and psychiatric evaluation could have been on the fare for the Salahis. That’s reality television I’d watch.

So I wonder what did happen to ole Robert Latta?

Latta is not to be confused with U.S. Congressman Bob Latta from Ohio.

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