Tom Pendergast

Thomas Joseph Pendergast (July 22, 1873 – January 26, 1945) controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri as a political boss from approximately 1925 to 1939. "Boss Tom" Pendergast gave workers jobs and helped elect politicians, becoming wealthy in the process. He was eventually convicted of income tax evasion and served 15 months in a Federal prison.

Pendergast was a patron of the early political career of Harry S. Truman, a fact that caused some controversy after Truman became Vice-President and then President.

Early years
Thomas Joseph Pendergast, also known to close friends as "TJ" was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1873. He was raised Catholic and had nine brothers and sisters. The family's name is misspelled as Pendergest in the 1880 census and is listed accordingly:
 * Michael Pendergest 52, Mary Pendergest 47, James Pendergest 24, Mary Pendergest 22, Hannah Pendergest 20, John Pendergest 19, Delia Pendergest 16, Maggie Pendergest 14, Michael Pendergest 12, Thomas Pendergest 7.

It has been claimed that Pendergast attended St. Mary's College, a boarding school for boys as young as nine and as old as eighteen, conducted by the Jesuits in St. Mary's, Kansas, but records of the school, kept in the Jesuit archives in St. Louis, disprove this claim. (St. Mary's College was not connected in any way to the girls school of the same name in Leavenworth, Kansas, conducted by the Sisters of Charity.) It is sometimes claimed that he earned a football scholarship to St. Mary's College, but that also is untrue. There were no athletic scholarships awarded at that time, and there were no intramural games.

In the 1890s young Tom Pendergast worked in his older brother's West Bottoms tavern. The West Bottoms were at that time an immigrant section of town located at the 'bottom' of the bluffs overlooking the Missouri river, above which spread the more prosperous sections of Kansas City. Here, this older brother James Pendergast, an alderman in Kansas City's city council, tutored him in the diversities of the city's political ways and systems, and in the strategic advantages in controlling whole blocs of voters. Jim retired in 1910 and died the next year, naming Tom his successor. Following his brother's death, Pendergast served in the city council until stepping down in 1916 to focus on consolidating the factions of the Jackson County Democratic Party. After a new city charter passed in 1925 placed the city under the auspices of a city manager picked by a smaller council, Pendergast easily gained control of the government.

Pendergast married Caroline Snyder in January 1911 and raised three children, two girls and a boy, at their home on 5650 Ward Parkway.

Chairman of the Jackson County Democratic Club
Pendergast ruled from a simple, two-story yellow brick building at 1908 Main Street. Messages marked with his red scrawl were used to secure all manner of favors. He was unquestionably corrupt and there were regularly shootouts and beatings on election days during his watch. Some apologists have tended to be kind to his legacy since they allege that the permissive go-go days gave rise to the golden era of Kansas City Jazz (now commemorated at the American Jazz Museum at 18th and Vine) as well as a golden era of Kansas City building. In addition he spotted the talent of Harry S. Truman (dubbed derisively at the time as "the Senator from Pendergast"). Pendergast tried to portray a "common touch" and made attention grabbing displays of helping pay medical bills, provide "jobs", and hosted famous Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for the poor. Often due to fraud and intimidation Kansas City voter turnout tended to be close to 100 percent in the Pendergast days.

Despite Prohibition, Pendergast's machine and a bribed police force allowed alcohol and gambling. Additionally many elections were fixed to keep political friends in power. In return, Pendergast's companies like Ready-Mixed Concrete were awarded government contracts. Under a $40 million bond program the city constructed many civic buildings during the Depression. Among these projects were the Jackson County courthouse in downtown Kansas City, and the concrete "paving" of Brush Creek near the Country Club Plaza. (A local urban legend, that bodies of Pendergast opponents were buried under the Brush Creek concrete, was finally put to rest when the concrete was torn up for a renewal project in the 1980s.) He also had a hand in other projects like the Power and Light Building, Fidelity Bank and Trust Building, Municipal Auditorium, and the construction of inner-city high schools.

Pendergast was able to place many of his associates in positions of authority throughout Jackson County. Pendergast handpicked Harry S. Truman, the 1934 candidate for U.S. Senate, and Guy Brasfield Park as governor in 1932 when the previous candidate, Francis Wilson, died two weeks before the election. Pendergast also extended his rule into neighboring cities such as Omaha, Nebraska and Wichita, Kansas where members of his family had set up branches of the Ready-Mixed Concrete company. The Pendergast stamp was to be found in the packing plant industries, local politics, bogus construction contracts and the jazz scene in those cities. Many of Truman's old war buddies had veterans' clubs in Omaha.

Downfall and the later years
Pendergast's downfall is widely believed to have occurred after a falling out with Lloyd C. Stark. Pendergast had endorsed Stark (famed for developing the Golden Delicious variety of apples and heir to Stark Brothers Nursery-the oldest in America and largest in the world) for governor in 1936. Pendergast was out of the country during the election, and his followers were even more obvious and corrupt than usual in Stark's successful election. With Mafia-related shootings, election violence and other events (routinely overlooked previously, although at somewhat lower levels) Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau went after Mafia boss Charles Corolla and Pendergast as part of his crackdown on corruption and organized crime. Although Pendergast had loyally mustered out (and manipulated) the vote for Roosevelt and other Democrats, Morgenthau directed his subordinates to 'let the chips fall where they may'. With investigations looming, Stark turned against Pendergast, prompting federal investigations and the pulling of federal funds from Pendergast's control.

After Pendergast was convicted of income tax evasion, Stark sought to unseat Harry Truman in the 1940 U.S. Senate election. It was a very bitter campaign that made both men lifelong enemies. Truman was re-elected after U.S. Attorney Maurice Milligan, who had prosecuted Pendergast, also entered the race, causing Milligan and Stark to split the anti-Pendergast vote.

In 1939 Pendergast was arraigned for failing to pay taxes on a bribe received to pay off gambling debts. After serving 15 months in prison at the nearby United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, he lived quietly at his home, 5650 Ward Parkway, until his death in 1945.

In 1945, Vice President Truman shocked many when, a few days after being sworn in and a few weeks before Truman succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt as President, he attended the Pendergast funeral. Truman was reportedly the only elected official who attended the funeral. Truman brushed aside the criticism, saying simply, "He was always my friend and I have always been his." 1908 Main is listed on the Kansas City Register of Historic Places although not on the National Register of Historic Places.