Thomas Joseph Pendergast
Thomas Joseph Pendergast was a significant figure in early 20th-century American politics, particularly in Kansas City, Missouri. Born on July 22, 1872, into a large Irish Catholic family, he became steeped in the world of machine politics, a system where political favors were exchanged for votes and support. Initially a protégé of his brother James, Pendergast sought to expand his influence beyond local politics, ultimately dominating the Kansas City political landscape without ever holding the mayoral office.
His political machine thrived during the Prohibition era, benefiting from widespread illegal activities such as gambling and liquor production, which were rampant at the time. Pendergast's support helped elevate Harry S. Truman in his political career, leading to Truman's eventual presidency. However, Pendergast's power waned due to increasing scrutiny over corrupt practices and personal issues, including gambling debts.
By the late 1930s, federal investigations culminated in Pendergast pleading guilty to income tax evasion in 1939, resulting in a prison sentence and a ban from political activity. He was released in 1940 and passed away in 1945, leaving behind a legacy overshadowed by corruption but also marked by significant political developments, particularly through his support of Truman.
Thomas Joseph Pendergast
- Born: July 22, 1872
- Birthplace: St. Joseph, Missouri
- Died: January 26, 1945
- Place of death: Kansas City, Missouri
American machine politician
Major offense: Two counts of income tax evasion
Active: January 22, 1935-October 23, 1936
Locale: Chicago, Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri
Sentence: Fifteen months in a federal prison, five years of probation, and a ban on political activity; served twelve months
Early Life
Thomas Joseph Pendergast (PEHN-dehr-gast) was born into a large Irish Catholic family in St. Joseph, Missouri, on July 22, 1872. James Pendergast, his oldest brother, moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1876. When Thomas permanently moved there in 1894, James was a prosperous saloon keeper, gambler, and Democratic alderman.
Political Career
Pendergast soon became a political protégé of James. Like other rapidly growing, major American cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Kansas City and the surrounding Jackson County experienced machine politics. A political machine is a powerful yet informal system of politics and government in which the private interests of politicians and their constituents are served through a mutual exchange of favors. For example, a machine’s poor and working-class constituents vote for machine-endorsed candidates in exchange for patronage jobs, welfare, and other government favors. Businesspeople bribe or politically support machine politicians in exchange for favorable governmental decisions on local taxes, regulations, and public contracts. Machine politics, therefore, often encourages and protects corruption and illegal vices, such as gambling, prostitution, and, when prohibited, liquor.
Pendergast quickly learned how to practice machine politics and use it to benefit his and his family’s economic interests, especially in liquor, gambling, and construction. Unlike his brother James, Pendergast was not satisfied with controlling one ward in Kansas City politics. He wanted to dominate Kansas City’s government and Democratic Party.
Pendergast was never elected mayor of his city. Instead, he dominated local, county, and, occasionally, state politics through his ability to deliver large blocs of votes to machine-supported candidates. The Pendergast machine’s wealth and power benefited from general prosperity, widespread disobedience of the federal prohibition of alcohol, and the rise of organized crime during the 1920’s. Nonetheless, in an effort to attract middle-class voters in Kansas City and rural Jackson County, the Pendergast machine promoted the political career of Harry S. Truman, who developed a reputation for honesty and efficiency on the county court. With Pendergast’s support, Truman was later nominated and elected U.S. senator in 1934 and eventually became U.S. president in 1945.
During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term as president (1933-1937), Pendergast received preferential treatment for Kansas City and Jackson County in the use of New Deal programs and funds. By the mid-1930’s, however, Pendergast’s power was increasingly threatened. Americans in general were shocked and outraged by nationally publicized news about election-day beatings and ballot fraud in Kansas City and its reputation as a safe haven for notorious gangsters. As his health declined and his obsessive gambling increased, Pendergast neglected political affairs and needed more money to pay huge gambling debts.
Legal Action and Outcome
In 1935 and 1936, Pendergast traveled to Chicago several times and received a total of $440,000 in bribes to influence a legal decision on an insurance case in Missouri. U.S. attorney Maurice Milligan, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and federal tax officials began to investigate Pendergast in 1938. After a sensationalized trial that revealed details of Pendergast’s wealth, corruption, and gambling debts, Pendergast pleaded guilty to income tax evasion on May 22, 1939. In addition to the payment of fines and taxes owed, Pendergast was sentenced to fifteen months in prison, five years of probation, and a ban on political activity.
Impact
Thomas Pendergast served twelve months of his sentence and was released from prison on May 30, 1940. He died of a heart attack in a Kansas City hospital on January 26, 1945. The most prominent mourner at Pendergast’s funeral service was Vice President Truman. The efforts of federal and state officials and local reformers ensured that Pendergast’s machine died with him.
Bibliography
Dorsett, Lyle W. The Pendergast Machine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968. A history of the development and power of the Pendergast machine.
Larsen, Lawrence H., and Nancy J. Hulston. Pendergast Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997. A detailed political biography of Pendergast.
Reddig, William M. Tom’s Town: Kansas City and the Pendergast Legend. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986. A reprint of a journalist’s 1947 account of Kansas City politics under the Pendergast machine.