Tom Pendergast

Thomas Joseph Pendergast, also known to close friends as "TJ", was born in St. Joseph, Missouri. Raised as a Catholic, he had nine brothers and sisters. The family's name is misspelled as Pendergest in the 1880 census and is listed accordingly. In the 1890s, the young Tom Pendergast worked in his older brother James Pendergast's West Bottoms tavern. The West Bottoms were then 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. 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 of controlling blocs of voters. ==Chairman of Jackson County Democratic Club==

was also owned by Pendergast and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The photo is from August 2006. 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. However, the permissive go-go days also 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 building in Kansas City. Pendergast tried to portray a "common touch" and made attention-grabbing displays of helping pay medical bills, providing "jobs", and hosting famous Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for the poor. Fraud and intimidation often caused Kansas City voter turnout 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 Great Depression. Among the 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, in which bodies of Pendergast opponents were thought to be buried under the Brush Creek concrete, was finally put to rest when the concrete was torn up for a renewal project in the 1980s, and no bodies were found.) Pendergast 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 placed many of his associates in positions of authority throughout Jackson County and exercised strong influence in determining the Democratic candidates for statewide office. For example, he picked Guy Brasfield Park as the Democratic candidate for Missouri governor in 1932 after 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 as well. ==Downfall and later years==

Pendergast's downfall was related to a falling out with Missouri Governor Lloyd C. Stark. Pendergast had endorsed Stark, the heir to an agricultural fortune and known for promoting the Golden Delicious variety of apples, 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 and election violence underway in Jackson County, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. went after a Mafia boss, Charles Carrollo, and Pendergast as part of Morgenthau's crackdown on corruption and organized crime. Despite Pendergast's history of delivering votes for Roosevelt and other leading Democrats, Morgenthau directed his subordinates to "let the chips fall where they may". With investigations looming, Stark turned against Pendergast, which prompted federal investigations and the pulling of federal funds from Pendergast's control. In 1939 Edward L. Schneider, the secretary-treasurer of eight of the Pendergast businesses, killed himself. Another factor in the downfall was Pendergast's failing health. Shortly after attending the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in 1936, he took ill and was later diagnosed with colon cancer, remaining in poor health for the rest of his life. 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, in his later years. Pendergast died on January 26, 1945, at Menorah Medical Center, which at the time was located in Kansas City, Missouri. He was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City. Pendergast's headquarters at 1908 Main is listed on the Kansas City Register of Historic Places. ==Truman connection==

During his military service during World War I, Harry Truman had become close friends with Jim Pendergast, T. J.'s nephew. When Truman's attempt at a clothing business failed in 1922, Jim Pendergast suggested that he run for a "judgeship" in eastern Jackson County (actually an administrative, rather than a judicial position). With the help of the Pendergast organization, Truman was elected to that and later to a similar county-wide position. In 1934, after several other potential candidates turned him down, T. J. was persuaded to support Truman, whom he considered something of a lightweight, for the Democratic nomination for a US Senate seat. Truman prevailed in a close primary and went on to win in the general election. Although Truman was derisively named "the senator from Pendergast" by his opponents, he does not appear to have had a close personal relationship with Pendergast himself. Both men met on only a handful of occasions and were photographed together only once, at the 1936 Democratic Party convention. In early 1945, the newly-inaugurated Vice President shocked many when he attended Pendergast’s funeral. He was reportedly the only elected official who attended. Truman brushed aside the criticism and said simply: "He was always my friend and I have always been his." On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office and Pendergast's one-time protégé became the 33rd President of the United States. ==Legacy==

Two of his biographers have summed up Pendergast's uniqueness as a political boss: ==See also==