inference n.: illation

Pat Swindall is in prison in Atlanta where it is costing the taxpayers over $25,000. He is no threat to society. And, his family is [missing a] godly father. I didn’t know Pat personally in the days when he got into trouble with the law, but I can assure you that the illation [that he is] even remotely involved with drugs or drug money, as several local and national papers infer, is pernicious and unfounded. (James Keffer, Gwinnett Voices: Readers’ Letters, Tell Us What You Think, The Real Tragedy Behind Officer’s Death, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 04/21/1994, p. J4.)