Prospering on Corruption: Pendergast and His Kansas City. Chelsea Garland

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1 Garland 1 Prospering on Corruption: Pendergast and His Kansas City Chelsea Garland Chelsea Garland is a sophomore at William Jewell College. She is currently majoring in English and Psychology and is a member of Alpha Delta Pi and Sigma Tau Delta (English Honor Society). Chelsea loves Kansas City and is involved in the C2 Barbeque Connoisseurs Club. She cherishes her family, friends, and two dogs. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, sitting under trees, road trips, concerts, and collecting records. She wants to travel and write about her journeys. The hot sun beat down on the asphalt, reflecting waves of heat on this June morning in Business men marched to work as young skyscrapers loomed overhead. Kansas City, located in the middle of America s Heartland, was a self-proclaimed hotspot for jazz, signature barbecue, and prospering city life. Prominent in the country s westward expansion, the City of the Future was growing everyday. Two decades later, Wilbert Harrison would declare his love for Kansas City singing, I m gonna stand on the corner of Twelfth Street and Vine / With my Kansas City baby now / Buying some Kansas City wine. But on this sweltering June morning, tragedy and historical controversy struck the developing town at the brand new Union Railway Station, which had opened just fourteen years prior. Famed bank robber Frank Nash escaped prison in 1931 and had been hiding for two years. The FBI tracked him down and he was captured in Hot Springs, Arkansas on June 16, He was then transported by train with two agents to Kansas City.

2 Garland 2 Unbeknownst to the agents, a plot to free the criminal in their custody was arranged, and later recorded in history as the Kansas City Massacre. Pretty Boy Floyd and his accomplices waited outside the station, armed and ready to set their fellow criminal free. The outcome did not go according to plan, as bullets unleashed by criminals behind machine guns murdered four officers and the fugitive Nash himself as they were climbing into a car. Shots ricochet off the Union Station s stone, leaving bullet holes as the only eternal evidence of the slaughter. The killers fled the scene, their mission unaccomplished leaving only two officers, who had luckily ducked in the vehicle s backseat, alive. By the next year, Pretty Boy Floyd, as Public Enemy Number One, would meet his ill fate with destiny in Ohio in the midst of the FBI s pursuit. The Kansas City Massacre may seem shocking for an evolving metropolis in Midwestern America during the Great Depression. Today, downtown Kansas City is a popular hangout for First Fridays, summer concerts, gourmet food, and shopping at the nearby Country Club Plaza. Yet the massacre was a headlining story just on the surface of the city s dark underworld. Corrupted organized crime controlled Kansas City and its development for decades throughout the early 20 th century. One man in particular who ran much of the downtown scene at the time of the massacre was Thomas Pendergast, also known as The Boss. Tom was a round man; his well-fed frame boasted wealth. In his early political years, a proud voluptuous mustache signified promising power. By the 1930s, The Boss held prestige just with his presence as he strolled the streets of downtown dressed in his suit, tie, and fedora. His connections to mafia leader John Lazia and Judge Henry McElroy helped him rule Kansas City. Corruption leaked in the streets, running brothels, saloons, and clubs during Prohibition. Pendergast s political career helped keep friends in office and manipulated millions of dollars into his bank account, only intensifying his notoriety.

3 Garland 3 Tom Pendergast came into power easily, as his older brother Jim established their family name through his taverns, saloons, and hotels in Kansas City. The Pendergasts parents emigrated from Ireland and established their family life in St. Joseph, Missouri. Born in 1872, Tom was the baby of the family, with nine older siblings, each moving away to Kansas City. He followed in their path, working at his brother s businesses and seasonal jobs downtown. His political career began with the Democrat Club as marshal and superintendent of the streets. He had a positive relationship with fellow democrat Harry S. Truman, whom he appointed to the Jackson County Court, thus beginning the political career of a future U.S. president. He also appointed to the court Henry McElroy, who later became city manager. Tom became known for helping his constituents with favors for votes in return. Tom s party was known as the Goats, with pictures of the animal next to his name on the ballot to manipulate illiterate voters. The notorious Pendergast Political Machine also kept his friends in office by cheating votes. Pendergast became a business owner himself, owning the Monroe Hotel, Ready Mixed Concrete, T.J. Pendergast Liquor, and various saloons around town. Prohibition did not stop business, as his political influence kept speakeasies open and the alcohol flowing. To continue making money off his liquor, Pendergast reportedly kept the police department s salaries low so officers would accept bribes. Kansas City quickly became a hotspot in the Midwest for not only alcohol, but also nightclubs and jazz. Pendergast welcomed the city s expansion, even though the completion of Union Station in 1914 would take some of his business; the growing city only increased all of Pendergast s property value. The Boss often worked with Italian criminal and political leader, John Lazia. Lazia, sometimes famed as Kansas City s Al Capone, was known for trying to help everybody. One of Lazia s influences in the underworld of Kansas City was granting fugitives protection for a large sum of money in return. When Frank Nash didn t leave Union Station alive in the Kansas City Massacre, Lazia was caught in the middle of controversy. Just a year later, Lazia was shot in front of his house with the very gun used in

4 Garland 4 the massacre. Lazia was stunned, as he said to Dr. D.M. Nigro, Doc, what I can t understand is why anybody would do this to me. Why to me, Johnny Lazia, who has been the friend of everybody? Despite Pendergast s every effort to save him, Lazia died the following day. Lazia s alleged last words were, If anything happens, notify Tom Pendergast, my best friend, and tell him I love him. John Lazia s killers still remain a mystery. Pendergast became a heavy gambler, which helped him become a multi-millionaire, along with his involvement in the speakeasies, police department, brothels, and general bribes in politics. His wealth empowered his authority over the town and he seemed immortal to justice. Much to Truman s surprise, evidenced in a letter to the first lady, Pendergast s downfall became reality with help from J. Edgar Hoover in the same fashion as Al Capone s: income tax evasion. He only served twelve months of his 15-month sentence in the Leavenworth Penitentiary, during which he survived a heart attack. Despite the short sentence, his bank account and dignity were disgraced. Political reform began in Kansas City during his sentence. He lived the rest of his life in a failed marriage until a fatal heart attack 1945, just three months before Truman s presidential inauguration. Fragments of Kansas City s rebellious and corrupt past still linger quietly from the days of Tom s Town. Bullet holes in the stone of Union Station, which pre-date the city s famed Crown Center and Truman Sports Complex, are the only remaining wounds of the Kansas City Massacre. Many downtown buildings still in existence were born from Pendergast s politics or concrete company and once housed over fifty speakeasies. The ghostly J. Fitzpatrick Saloon Building on Broadway, in which The Majestic Restaurant and Jazz Club currently resides, was a speakeasy and meeting place for Pendergast and fellow politicians. The restaurant, which rests upon a secret underground passageway, currently hosts an exclusive club named for the political legend himself. In 2012, more evidence of corruption surfaced when a few residents discovered a secret room while remodeling their home. Inside

5 Garland 5 they found over seventy containers for Prohibition-era moonshine, whiskey, and other alcoholic beverages. A crate s exterior proclaimed in large capital letters, T.J. PENDERGAST. Even as the years go by, Pendergast s name seems immortally stamped on Kansas City and the town it evolved into. Through his corrupted politics, the city grew tall with skyscrapers and wide with people. Pendergast s influence on Kansas City either helped or damaged, depending on perspective. The undeniable truth is the city would certainly not be today s Kansas City without the impact of Pendergast and his allies. Works Cited Ehrlich, George. Kansas City, Missouri: An Architectural History. Kansas City: Historic Kansas City Foundation, Print. Haskell Jr., Henry C. and Richard B. Fowler. City of the Future. Kansas City: Frank Glenn Publishing, Print. History of Downtown Kansas City. The Majestic Restaurant and Jazz Club. The Majestic Restaurant and Jazz Club. n.d. Web. 27 March Kansas City Massacre Charles Arthur Pretty Boy Floyd. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Federal Bureau of Investigation. n.d. Web. 27 March Kansas City--Wilbert Harrison--Lyrics. Digital Dream Door. Digital Dream Door Web. 27 March Larsen, Lawrence H. and Nancy J. Hulston. Pendergast! Columbia: University of

6 Garland 6 Missouri Press, Print. Pearce, Matt. Summoning Spirits: A Brief History of Kansas City Speakeasies. The Pitch. The Pitch. 9 May Web. 27 March Redding, William M. Tom s Town: Kansas City and the Pendergast Legend. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, Print. Roe, Jason. Kidnapped! The Kansas City Public Library. The Kansas City Public Library, 23 May Web. 27 March Smith, Sherrie Kline. What Companies Did Political Boss Tom Pendergast Own? The Kansas City Public Library. The Kansas City Public Library, April Web. 27 March 2013.