Multimillionaire Charles Keating was an American athlete, lawyer, real estate
developer, banker, financier, and activist, but most likely he will be best remembered for his role in the savings and loan scandal of the late 1980s.
He’ll also be always remembered by those of us whose ad agency represented
his Lincoln Savings & Loan company just prior to that scandal as a
megalomaniac and the most tightfisted and hardest-to-please client we ever did ads for.
Thankfully, we didn’t work for him long. When we became aware of his mounting legal problems, we resigned the account, though not soon enough to avoid the scars of the mental abuse he heaped upon us during that six-month period.
Shortly after we parted ways with him, Keating was convicted in both federal and state courts of multiple counts of fraud, racketeering and conspiracy. He served four and a half years in prison.
A year after he left prison and returned to his cushy Paradise Valley life, I spotted him in a Phoenix restaurant and went up to say hello -- not because I had an iota affection for him but just to see if a federally convicted felon looked any different in person than on a TV crime show. Even after telling him my name and reminding him that my agency had worked for him, his face showed not the slightest glimmer of recognition. Nonetheless, he was polite and shook my hand.
As to how he looked … exactly the same as the guy who had once called an emergency meeting in the dead of the night to berate us agency guys for an ad that he had approved but then decided he didn't like.
Thankfully, we didn’t work for him long. When we became aware of his mounting legal problems, we resigned the account, though not soon enough to avoid the scars of the mental abuse he heaped upon us during that six-month period.
Shortly after we parted ways with him, Keating was convicted in both federal and state courts of multiple counts of fraud, racketeering and conspiracy. He served four and a half years in prison.
A year after he left prison and returned to his cushy Paradise Valley life, I spotted him in a Phoenix restaurant and went up to say hello -- not because I had an iota affection for him but just to see if a federally convicted felon looked any different in person than on a TV crime show. Even after telling him my name and reminding him that my agency had worked for him, his face showed not the slightest glimmer of recognition. Nonetheless, he was polite and shook my hand.
As to how he looked … exactly the same as the guy who had once called an emergency meeting in the dead of the night to berate us agency guys for an ad that he had approved but then decided he didn't like.
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