Theodore Bagwell (T-Bag) has barely known life outside of correctional institutions. As a child, he was frequently cited for vandalism and cruelty to animals. Bagwell was sent to juvenile hall after he tried to burn down his fourth-grade teacher’s house. This first incarceration was where he was first introduced to a white supremacist gang known as the Alliance for Purity.
As Bagwell grew up, his crimes grew more serious, including assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder, landing him in Alabama’s Donaldson maximum-security prison, where he immediately assumed a leadership position in the Alliance for Purity.
Upon his release from this first prison term, Bagwell went on a rampage. He embarked on a rape and murder spree across Alabama that included several teenage victims, earning him an appearance on the popular television series, America’s Most Wanted. Once captured, Bagwell’s attorney petitioned for his client to be incarcerated out of state to avoid re-establishing power in the Alliance for Purity. Bagwell then ended up in Fox River Penitentiary where the Alliance for Purity was non-existent. But the charismatic “T-Bag,” as he is now known, quickly established the Alliance as one of the most powerful gangs in the prison.
T-Bag’s time at Fox River was brief, but while there he managed to incite a riot and kill a guard in the process. After discovering Michael Scofield’s plan to escape, he weaseled his way onto the escape team and summarily broke out of Fox River.
Once “The Fox River Eight” escaped, it didn’t take long for T-Bag to take up some of his old habits again. His first victim, Dr. Marvin Gudat, was a veterinarian from a small clinic in Illinois. T-Bag murdered Gudat after forcing him to provide impromptu medical care for his recently severed hand. A Good Samaritan named Jerry Curtain offered Bagwell a ride from Nebraska to Utah and was later brutally beaten by Bagwell who made sexual advances toward Curtain’s daughter, Danielle.
From there T-Bag made it to Toole, Utah where he stole an archived map from the county clerk’s office and reunited with Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows to enter Jeanette Owens’ home in search of the Westmorland’s money. He apparently then made off with all of the cash.
Former Fox River C.O.’s Brad Bellick and Roy Geary apprehended T-Bag and tortured him in order to find out what he had done with Westmoreland’s money. T-Bag told them, but later was able to track down Geary and retrieve the cash. He then murdered Geary and framed Bellick for the crime..
T-Bag then fled to Panama and wound-up right where he started – in prison. He is currently held in Sona Prison, awaiting trial for the murder of a prostitute in Panama.