Tom Pendergast
Encyclopedia
Thomas Joseph Pendergast (July 22, 1873 – January 26, 1945) controlled Kansas City
and Jackson County, Missouri
as a political boss
. "Boss Tom" Pendergast gave workers jobs and helped elect politicians during the Great Depression
, becoming wealthy in the process.
Thomas Joseph Pendergast, also known to close friends as "TJ" was born in St. Joseph
, Missouri
, in 1873. He was raised Catholic and had nineteen brothers and sisters. The family's name is misspelled as Pendergest in the 1880 census and is listed accordingly:
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 faction 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
.
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.
. 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
.
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
and Jackson County, Missouri
Jackson County, Missouri
Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. With a population of 674,158 in the 2010 census, Jackson County is the second most populous of Missouri's counties, after St. Louis County. Kansas City, the state's most populous city and focus city of the Kansas City Metropolitan...
as a political boss
Political boss
A boss, in politics, is a person who wields the power over a particular political region or constituency. Bosses may dictate voting patterns, control appointments, and wield considerable influence in other political processes. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves...
. "Boss Tom" Pendergast gave workers jobs and helped elect politicians during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, becoming wealthy in the process.
Early years
Saint Joseph, Missouri
Saint Joseph is the second largest city in northwest Missouri, only second to Kansas City in size, serving as the county seat for Buchanan County. As of the 2010 census, Saint Joseph had a total population of 76,780, making it the eighth largest city in the state. The St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, in 1873. He was raised Catholic and had nineteen 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
Leavenworth, Kansas
Leavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is on the west bank of the Missouri River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
, conducted by the Sisters of Charity
Sisters of Charity
Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity as part of their name. The rule of Saint Vincent for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious orders around the world in the subsequent centuries....
.) 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
West Bottoms
The West Bottoms is an industrial area immediately to the west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri at the confluence of the Missouri River and the Kansas River. The area is one of the oldest areas of the city....
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
James Pendergast
James Francis Pendergast was a Democratic politician who was to be the first Big City Boss of Kansas City, Missouri. He was the elder brother of Thomas J. Pendergast and Michael J. 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 faction of the Jackson County
Jackson County, Missouri
Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. With a population of 674,158 in the 2010 census, Jackson County is the second most populous of Missouri's counties, after St. Louis County. Kansas City, the state's most populous city and focus city of the Kansas City Metropolitan...
Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. 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
Tom Pendergast House
The Tom Pendergast House is a historic residence located at 5650 Ward Parkway in the Country Club District in Kansas City, Missouri.-History:The Thomas J. Pendergast house is a modified design of the French Provincial architectural style. J.C. Nichols Company architect Edward Tanner designed the...
Ward Parkway
Ward Parkway
Ward Parkway is a boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri near the Kansas-Missouri state line. Ward Parkway begins at Brookside Boulevard on the eastern edge of the Country Club Plaza and continues westward along Brush Creek as U.S. Route 56 until it turns southward across the creek just before the...
.
Chairman of the Jackson County Democratic Club
Kansas City Jazz
Kansas City Jazz is a style of jazz that developed in Kansas City, Missouri and the surrounding Kansas City Metropolitan Area during the 1930s and marked the transition from the structured big band style to the musical improvisation style of Bebop...
(now commemorated at the American Jazz Museum
American Jazz Museum
The American Jazz Museum is a jazz museum in the United States. Located in the historic 18th and Vine district in Kansas City, Missouri, in a building also housing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, it preserves the history of the American music: jazz. The museum features exhibits on Charlie...
at 18th and Vine) as well as a golden era of Kansas City building. In addition he spotted the talent of Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
(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
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, Pendergast's machine and a bribed police force allowed
alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
and gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
. 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
Country Club Plaza
The Country Club Plaza is an upscale shopping district and residential neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It was the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile...
. (A local urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
, 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
Kansas City Power and Light Building
The Kansas City Power and Light Building is a landmark skyscraper located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri...
, 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
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
, the 1934 candidate for U.S. Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
, and Guy Brasfield Park
Guy Brasfield Park
Guy Brasfield Park was a politician from the U.S. State of Missouri.Park was born in Platte City, Missouri and he graduated from law school at the University of Missouri. Park practiced law in Platte City, twice winning election to be the prosecuting attorney for Platte County...
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
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
and Wichita, Kansas
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
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. StarkLloyd C. Stark
Lloyd Crow Stark was the 39th Governor of the U.S. state of Missouri. He was a Democrat.Stark was born in Louisiana, Missouri. Stark is a 1908 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. After serving four years as a naval officer, Stark went into the family business, the Stark Brothers...
. 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
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
The United States Penitentiary , Leavenworth was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005. It became a medium security prison in 2005.It is located in Leavenworth, Kansas...
, 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
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
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
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
External links
- Missouri's Most Important Politician - history essay at Secretary of State office; includes photos and cartoons
- Truman Library FAQ on Truman-Pendergast
- Kansas City Police Memorial on Pendergast
- Kansas City Public Library biography on Pendergast
- Men Who Made Kansas City: Thomas J. Pendergast
- Thomas J. Pendergast at Findagrave
- Repetto, Thomas. The American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. Henry Holt & Company, 2004.