Thomas J. Pendergast
Sentenced in the Western District of Missouri on 22 May 1939 for attempted income-tax evasion, after pleading guilty; Judge Otis described him as a private citizen who had exercised 'a dominating influence in city, county and state politics for a quarter of a century,' and the Supreme Court reversed his 1941 contempt conviction on limitations grounds.
- Aliases
- Tom Pendergast
- Role
- "Thomas J. Pendergast, one of the defendants, was a private citizen living in Kansas City, Missouri, who had exercised a dominating influence in city, county and state politics for a quarter of a century." United States v. Pendergast, 28 F. Supp. 601, 602 (W.D. Mo. 1939), the court's description in a sentencing memorandum.
- Rights
- Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records state.
On the record
- 22 May 1939 — Pendergast and Robert Emmet O'Malley, indicted for attempted evasion of income taxes for 1935 and 1936, "entered pleas of guilty." He was sentenced to one year and three months in a federal penitentiary on Count I and, on Count II, a $10,000 fine and three years suspended with five years' probation (28 F. Supp. 601).
- 19 August 1939 — Judge Otis wrote that "'1908 Main Street' was synonymous with power, it was the local Mecca of the faithful," describing Pendergast's office as a small second-floor room in a two-story building (28 F. Supp. 601).
- 19 August 1939 — The court said that "Pendergast was never even charged with a crime" before this indictment and that his guilt of other offenses was only "whispered" (28 F. Supp. 601).
- 28 May 1941 — A three-judge court adjudged Pendergast, O'Malley and McCormack in contempt over the insurance-rate settlement (39 F. Supp. 189); the Supreme Court records two years' imprisonment for Pendergast and O'Malley.
- 4 January 1943 — Pendergast v. United States, 317 U.S. 412: the Supreme Court reversed the contempt convictions on the ground that any contempt was barred by the statute of limitations; its statement of facts calls Pendergast "a 'political boss'" and recounts a $750,000 "fee" agreed to influence the settlement of the 1930 insurance rate suits.
The role line is the district court’s description in its 1939 sentencing memorandum. Photographs held at the Truman Library were not used because the National Archives catalog marks their copyright restricted or unknown, and no birth or death date was found in an opened record. A newspaper report of the sentence is a post-1930 page and is not filed; the court’s opinion is followed, which gives the probation as five years.