Wallace, the former governor of Alabama, or did not want to help Nixon. Eventually, LaRue managed to convince Roy Acuff and Tex Ritter, who were unsuccessful Republican candidates themselves for governor and U.S. senator, respectively, in the state of Tennessee, to perform versions of the song. LaRue coordinated with Eastland to obtain the confirmation of Nixon's judicial nominees. He has been described as a special assistant in an "advisory capacity" to then Attorney General Mitchell. On March 30, 1972, LaRue attended a meeting in Key Biscayne, Florida, with Mitchell and Jeb Magruder. Mitchell, having announced his resignation as attorney general on February 15, assumed his new duties as head of the Committee to Re-elect the President, effective on March 1. The March 30 meeting has been the subject of great dispute among its three participants. According to Magruder, the three men approved the so-called Operation Gemstone and other aspects of a "dirty tricks" campaign against the Democratic Party. LaRue and Mitchell, to their deaths, always denied this vehemently. In 2003, Magruder stated, for the first time, that it was at this meeting that President Nixon, speaking to Mitchell by telephone, voiced specific approval for the Watergate burglary. Mitchell and Nixon had both been dead for years, and Fred LaRue denied Magruder's claim publicly. 'Bagman' for Watergate burglary pay-off LaRue was known as the "bagman" because he delivered more than $300,000 in cash ("hush money") to the conspirators and their attorneys to keep participants of the Watergate burglary quiet. LaRue was the first Administration official to plead guilty to crimes related to his involvement with the Watergate burglary and the cover-up. Jailed for obstruction of justice He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice on June 27, 1973 and served four and a half months in custody at the Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery, Alabama. LaRue's fellow Watergate-convicts John Mitchell and Charles Colson also served their prison time at Maxwell AFB. Life after prison LaRue refused to testify against Nixon or any other Watergate figure. One of Nixon's first public appearances after his resignation as president came three years later in 1977 at a "Salute to the Military" in Biloxi, directed by LaRue. LaRue died in Biloxi, Mississippi, and was cremated. He was survived by his wife, Joyce Burleson LaRue, and six children. References 1928 births 2004 deaths People from Athens, Texas Members of the Committee for the Re-Election of the