Spiro Agnew

Spiro Agnew (originally Anagnostopoulos), the son of a Greek immigrant, was born in Baltimore on 9th November, 1918. He attended John Hopkins University before serving in the United States Army during the Second World War.

After the war Agnew attended the University of Baltimore and graduated with a law degree in 1947. A member of the Republican Party Agnew was county executive of Baltimore County before being elected governor of Maryland in 1967. During his period of office he introduced a graduated income-tax and an effective anti-pollution law.

In 1968 Richard Nixon selected Agnew as his vice presidential candidate. After the defeat of Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic Party candidate, Agnew developed a reputation as a hard-liner against anti-Vietnam War protesters.

Agnew was re-elected as vice-president in 1972 but the following year it was announced he was being investigated for extortion, bribery and income-tax violations while governor of Maryland. On 10th October, 1973 resigned as vice-president. Found guilty of incorrectly filling in his income-tax returns, Agnew was fined $10,000 and sentenced to three years probation.

Agnew became a business consultant and in 1980 published his autobiography, Go Quietly or Else. Spiro Agnew died in Berlin, Maryland, on 17th September, 1996.