Spiro Agnew

Biography

Spiro Agnew was born in Baltimore in 1918 to a Greek immigrant father and an American mother. He began studying chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, switched to night classes at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and worked as an insurance clerk. Drafted in 1941, he served as an officer with the 10th Armored Division in Europe, including the siege of Bastogne, and earned the Bronze Star.

After the war he completed his law studies and entered Republican politics, winning election as Baltimore County executive in 1962 and as governor of Maryland in 1966, where the law-and-order stance he took after the unrest of 1968 drew national notice.

Richard Nixon chose him as running mate in 1968, and he served as vice president from January 1969, often acting as the administration's attack voice against its critics, including the television networks. He was re-elected with Nixon in the 1972 landslide.

In 1973 federal prosecutors in Maryland found that he had taken kickbacks from contractors as county executive, governor and vice president. On 10 October 1973 he pleaded no contest to a single charge of tax evasion and resigned, the second vice president to do so. He spent the rest of his life out of public view and died in 1996.