Spiro T. Agnew – 1918–1996

The son of Greek immigrants, Agnew became governor of Maryland in 1967, then accepted nomination for the vice presidency in 1968, earning wide public recognition for his alliterative speeches denouncing anti-Vietnam War protesters and other opponents of the Nixon administration as “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.” In 1973, he was accused of extortion, bribery, and income-tax evasion while governor of Maryland. He resigned as vice president on October 10, 1973, pleaded no contest to a tax charge, paid a $10,000 fine and “served” three years of unsupervised probation.