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Agnew, Spiro Theodore (1918 - 1996) Agnew, Spiro Theodore Pronounced As: spro , 1918-96, 39th Vice President of the United States (1969-73), b. Baltimore, Md. Admitted to the bar in 1949, he entered politics as a Republican and was elected (1961) chief executive of Baltimore co. He later became (1967) governor of Maryland, where he won passage of an open housing law and expanded the state's antipoverty programs. Nominated (1968) for the vice presidency on the Republican ticket with Richard M. Nixon, Agnew campaigned on a law-and-order platform. As Vice President, he attacked opponents of the Vietnam War as disloyal, criticized intellectuals and college students for questioning traditional values, and frequently accused the media of biased news coverage. In the 1970 congressional campaigns, he campaigned against liberals and antiwar candidates in both parties. Reelected with Nixon in 1972, Agnew was forced to resign on Oct. 10, 1973, after a Justice Dept. investigation uncovered evidence of corruption during his years in Maryland politics; he was said to have continued to accept bribes while Vice President. He pleaded no contest to a charge of federal income tax evasion, was sentenced to three years' probation and fined $10,000, and was disbarred (1974) in Maryland. Vice-president, governor. In his one year as governor of Maryland (1967--68) he enacted liberal policies, but after he assumed the vice-presidency in 1969 he became the Nixon administration's "hard-line" spokesman. U.S. politician, the only vice president forced to resign. Born in Baltimore, he earned a law degree and served as Baltimore Co. executive. Disbarred in 1974, he became a consultant to foreign businesses. Spiro Agnew came upon the scene just as the baby boomers were beginning to assert their rights. He was the epitome of the uptight white male who seemed to have utter disdain for people with ideas other than his own. At the same time, he became governor of Maryland on the theme of "Your Home Is Your Castle" (meaning if you’re white, you don’t have to sell you home to someone non-white). Regarding the environment, he once said, "If you’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen them all."      Coments...   Spiro Agnew Kickback Files Hit The Internet 07/02/99. Issue: July 2, 1999WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1999 JUL 2 (NB) -- By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes. If Spiro Agnew were alive today, he might be one of the first to complain that the Internet had invaded his right to privacy.Since the former vice president under Richard Nixon is dead, however, his long history of alleged corruption and kickbacks ranging from Baltimore County, Md., to the White House now is Freedom of Information Act fodder for the Internet, however.And that's all right, say Internet policy analysts.APB Online, a news/feature Website dedicated to legal and law enforcement-related news, has used the Freedom of Information Act to tap into declassified documents regarding the multiple amounts of illegal acts in which Agnew engaged during his 26-year political career.In a feature story by APB Online writer Jim Krane titled "I Just Paid Off the Vice President," government-obtained documents show that privacy was a concern long before the Internet became a mass-market medium. The story reveals that Agnew was concerned that his own history of tax evasion, bribery and other kickbacks were subject to intense press leakage long before he was forced to resign as vice president in 1973.APB Online Marketing Director Dick Lavinthal told Newsbytes that the news service exists to provide fast, comprehensive news stories on crime and criminal justice issues, and in fact has won the Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists for breaking news coverage on the Internet.He said the award came from the posting of declassifiedFBI files on Frank Sinatra. "We had the main story, four or five sidebars and all 1,370 pages scanned and right up on the Website the next day," said Lavinthal.Agnew, who also served as the governor of Maryland, initially was the subjectof a corruption investigation launched by US Attorney George Beall, now an attorney with Hogan & Hartson LLP, a Washington, D.C., and Baltimore law firm.Beall secured the testimony of former Maryland Highway Administration Chief Jerome Wolff, Baltimore developer I.H. Hemmerman and engineering company executives Lester Matz and Alan Greene, which said that Matz or another, unidentified party (the names are redacted and blacklined in FBI documents the news service used) had made cash payments in $100 bills to Agnew.Besides the US Attorney investigation, the FBI also was collecting information on Agnew.The following is an excerpt from the documents quoted by APB Online:"During June 1968, did you personally give AGNEW $20,000 cash in his office in Baltimore, Md.?" the report states. Reference #1 Reference # 2 Reference # 4 Reference #3   page created with Webpage Designer (NS)