Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House

Agnew, the former Baltimore County executive and little-known vice-presidential nominee, is the central figure in the narrative. His flagrant extortion schemes and total denial of wrongdoing are a cautionary tale for the American electorate, as well as the press and justice officials who investigate those wrongdoings. Agnew, who feels entitled to the kickbacks he demands, portrays himself as one of the working class—admittedly, he comes from humble roots and climbs the ladder by virtue of work and education. But by the time he reaches the White House, he is just as privileged as the media elite he despises. He cultivates an aggressive and defiant persona as a “fighter” who refuses to buckle under liberal pressure. He astutely taps into American anxieties about crime and urban turmoil with his hardline—and sometimes racist—rhetoric. Agnew also chastises local civil rights leaders for the sometimes-violent protests within their communities, while never acknowledging the root causes of the protests. To engage in irresponsible finger pointing while simultaneously accepting bribe money is hypocrisy of the highest order. It also suggests a fundamental cognitive disconnect. In Agnew’s mind, Black protesters are criminals, but accepting cash in little white envelopes is not. By the same token, smashed windows are violent and disturbing, but civilized exchanges between gentlemen is something else. It is perhaps this disconnect which allows Agnew to fervently plead his innocence—and maybe actually believe it—and fight tooth-and-nail for his acquittal. Ironically, the very qualities that persuaded Richard Nixon to choose Agnew as his running mate ultimately alienate the two men for decades. Whether Agnew is just venal and greedy or whether he suffers from some psychological disorder is not the purview of Bag Man. Instead, it sheds light a man engaged in a petty extortion scheme who rises to the second-highest office in the land but cannot overcome his tragic flaws when his office demands it.

Although Nixon is a secondary player in the Agnew drama, his historical significance cannot be overlooked. Nixon’s political presence is enormous and his accomplishments enduring. He chooses Agnew as his running mate for political expediency to secure the party’s conservative base and forestall the burgeoning candidacy of segregationist George Wallace. The ramifications of that choice come back to haunt Nixon, as he grows to loathe Agnew’s blistering style. Nixon also comes to the presidency with a chip on his shoulder, unable to get past his grudge against the charismatic John F. Kennedy who beat Nixon in a close election in 1960. Nixon’s paranoia and deep-seated insecurities lead to the Watergate crimes, which overshadow those of his vice-president and relegate them to a historical footnote. Without Watergate, the Agnew scandal might be part of the American historical canon. It is fascinating to note that there was once a moment in U.S. history when both the president and vice-president were at risk of indictment and prosecution, and while Nixon’s crimes have dominated the spotlight over the years, Bag Man finally gives Agnew his notorious due. 

Initially serving as Nixon’s Secretary of Defense, Richardson is nominated to lead the Justice Department as Attorney General during the Watergate investigation. When Nixon orders Richardson to fire Archibald Cox, Richardson’s own choice to lead the Watergate investigation, he resigns in protest. The months leading up to his resignation are tumultuous, marked by confrontations and legal wrangling between the White House and the DOJ over requests for documents and secret recordings. Then, in the midst of the Watergate turmoil, Richardson is approached by the attorney for the District of Maryland, George Beall, about a case involving the vice president. To his credit, Richardson gives the case his full attention and support despite the disastrous implications of two criminal investigations inside the White House. Maddow and Yarvitz portray Richardson as a heroic man refusing to bend to the pressures of his boss and his party. Barney Skolnik describes Richardson as “a very special human being” (83). Richardson possesses a clear sense of right and wrong, and to him, crime and punishment transcend party affiliation. Although he eventually pushes for the plea agreement with no jail time, he does so out of a sense of priority—the greater risk in this scenario, he believes, is Agnew becoming president. It is better for the country if Agnew resigns and is removed from the equation, even if the prosecutors are denied their due justice. Richardson’s brief tenure as Attorney General is noteworthy for his courage and moral clarity. While juggling two unprecedented investigations into the Executive branch, he stands firm in the face of intense pressure and keeps his ethics intact.

Like Richardson, Beall is another heroic figure who faces the heat from the higher-ups and refuses to buckle. As U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Beall offers his unqualified support to his three attorneys, Skolnik, Baker, and Liebman, despite their youth and their aggressive probe into a sitting vice president—they issue more than two dozen subpoenas on a single day. Beall, a Republican appointee who makes it his mission to clean up entrenched corruption in Baltimore County, does not see political party where crime is concerned. He is the embodiment of a time—if indeed such a time existed—when ethics transcended party affiliation. Beall, whose father was a U.S. Senator and whose brother Glenn is a congressman, is “something akin to Republican royalty in the state of Maryland” (51). His family legacy may partially explain why Nixon chooses him for the U.S. Attorney’s job. It would have been easy for Beall to back off his investigation given the pressures from both the White House and his own brother, along with charges of disloyalty to the man who gave him the job. But Beall disregards those pressures, never losing sight of one clear objective: his duty to prosecute crime. He shields his young team from those pressures as well, enduring it all so they can concentrate on building the strongest possible case without the stress of outside interference. The strength of America’s political system lies in the moral rigor of its administrators who are sometimes tested. The American republic lives or dies by the outcome of those tests and by the willingness of officials, like George Beall, to endure the pressure and simply do their jobs.