Thomas K. Heaps (Napoleon's World)

Thomas Kilgore Heaps (March 1, 1912 - November 18, 2004) was an American Nationalist politician who served as the Vice President of the United States from 1969 to 1973, during Richard Van Dyke's 2nd term. He previously served as the Governor of New York from 1959-1967 and as a United States Representative for New York from 1945-1959. Heaps was a member of the National Party's so-called "Eastern Establishment" and an ally of former Vice President Thomas Dewey, though he was also a devout Pentecostal Christian and an ardent social conservative. Heaps ran briefly in the 1964 Nationalist primaries, where he was at one time considered a front-runner, before dropping out after losing key early victories to Van Dyke and a controversy regarding a journalist who was attacked by his campaign staffers.

Heaps, brought into the Van Dyke administration's fold due to clashes between the President and Vice President Gary Murray, invited a variety of controversies and scandals with his "listening tours," propensity to undercut the President's message, and eventually an extramarital scandal in 1971 that preceded his divorce from his wife of over thirty years. Heaps was later indicted on federal corruption charges, of which he was acquitted, and he retired to obscurity in Jamaica, flirting briefly with another Presidential run in 1988 at the age of 76. Powerful in his time, he is regarded as one of the most influential Vice Presidents in history over the increasing power of the office, despite his ignonimus end.