Lincoln S

The whole savings and loan imbroglio, notably our own Lincoln S&L;, reeks of rottenness and corruption, of illegal deals and shameless politicians. The Lincoln Savings & Loan fiasco has taken money from thousands and thousands of good, hard-working, decent Southern California citizens, and the entire savings and loan mess will cost the taxpayers billions of dollars.

I consider M. Danny Wall, the federal bureaucrat in charge of overseeing savings and loans, and Charles H. Keating Jr., Lincoln S&L;’s boss, to be criminals . . . white collar, perhaps, but nevertheless criminals.

The Oct. 26 testimony by two other federal officials damns Wall and Keating, and I find no reason to disagree with them (Part A, Oct. 27).

Keating is a despicable human being, a man grown rich on the misery of others. I would like to see him fined tens of millions of dollars, and to have to put in 10,000 hours of community service, sweeping the streets of the people whose money he stole. I have no idea if Wall profited from his own actions in aiding the Lincoln S&L; to get even further into debt, or whether he was merely criminally incompetent, but he should certainly be pushing a broom alongside.

CLEMENT SALVADORI, Laguna Beach