LETTERS : CONNING POWER

Harold Jay Kaplan (“Confidence Man,” by Trip Gabriel, Oct. 10) missed his calling. With all his natural talents, he should not work outside the law when he’d profit much more within the law. That’s where he’d find the much greener pastures that await those who know how to be sincere--whether they mean it or not.

With his charm, generosity, brass and guile, his love of liquor and sex, his talent for nonstop flattery and, most important, his skill at making his victims not feel like victims, he could gain fame and fortune by running for public office. If he signs up with the right party, he’ll find that constituents are a forgiving lot.

Ask not, Hal, what a few friends can do for you; ask, instead, what a grateful nation can do for you.

ROBERT HAWKINS, Santa Barbara

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Say, this Kaplan/ Lansky/ Lawrence is quite a guy. Why not promote him as a new kind of radio voice dispensing advice to L.A.’s lovelorn ladies?

He has the experience (nine marriages, give or take), the undeniably dulcet tones of persuasion (bilked wives not even pressing charges of fleecing and forgery) and overflowing generosity (limos, diamonds, fancy restaurants and Mercedes two-seater SLs), albeit with other people’s money that he “forgot” to pay back.

And with his virtuosity at invention--never telling the same story twice about the same event--consider the thrills and chills he could deliver daily over national radio from his cell in Connecticut. Or if all else fails, lovable Hal could produce audiotapes titled “Hal Kaplan’s Super Secrets of the Schmooze, Booze and Lose technique.” After all, he does have a penchant for being caught.

RAY CONSIDINE, Pasadena