The Kansas City Mafia and the Pendergast Machine

This is a clip from the documentary film Tom & Harry: The Boss and the President, the only feature-length documentary film telling the story of the corrupt Pendergast political machine and Harry Truman's unswerving devotion to Boss Tom Pendergast. This clip explains how the Kansas City Mafia insinuated itself into the machine and discusses the wicked culture of Kansas City during the Pendergast era of the 1930s. The entire film is available at TomandHarryDocumentary-dot-com. Enjoy and please offer any feedback or thoughts.

[@SuperBwd]

This is Carroll Whittaker- my great grandfather war TJ Pendergast and my grandmother was his daughter Aileen. Great memories of a crazy by-gone era. My great aunt was Marceline Pendergast who married my Uncle Billy Burnett. Feel free to contact me any time.

[@dougrealdealtrucker4163]

Awesome

[@jerrysullivan8424]

back in the 60s and 70s, I had a boyhood close friend up in Saint Joseph who had the last name of Pendergast. said he was a great-nephew. I am wondering if he really was, if so is he still alive? He would be in his mid-60s. His mother and he lived in Elwood Kansas when I first met him. The reason that I ask is many people claim to be related to people who are not. also since he was a good friend I always wonder what has happened to him, Thank you

[@carrolldeighton1378]

@@jerrysullivan8424 I really only know TJ's children- my grandmother Aileen (died of leukemia when my mother was young), my great aunt Marceline, and great uncle Tom. All have passed but there are some of their children still living. All lived in the KC area.

[@glennstil]

How many construction projects during the Depression do you think the city politicians could have completed? "The Boss" was the most influential person in our Kansas City history, he found jobs for the unemployed, fed the homeless, and changed our city's skyline. His corruption benefited thousands, and not just here in town, the building of Hwy-71 helped farmers across the state get their produce to market. Paving Brush Creek in 1935 employed 1,647 WPA workers.I would rather have a person like that over our current city leaders that only help themselves and the corporate elite. I urge you to go see our City Hall on 12th street and its sister building across the street, the Jackson County Courthouse. Also, the Municipal Auditorium (some of the concrete walls are 18ft thick) and Police Headquarters. We have a rich history, and it's not boring. Cheers.

[@harmgregory4560]

So really, he was just an efficiency expert...good at cutting red tape....yeah, that's the ticket.... LoL.

[@budwyzer77]

@@harmgregory4560 Dude was unbelievably corrupt but his open tolerance for alcohol and gambling brought tons of money to the city. Pendergast did more for KC than anyone before or since.

[@dukester5419]

I used to clean out the old buildings for Marion Trozollo who started the River Quay and I fould some old recordings of the political machine as they discussed Harry Truman and whether they should install him into a higher position in the political machine and someone said" we could put Truman in, I think he will go along with us".

[@jerrysullivan8424]

Harry Truman was one of the best Presidents that we have had in America, If Pendergast did help him rise to power, then that was a blessing.

[@stevemedley6921]

What ever happened to nick ergovich?

[@kylechandler4929]

@@jerrysullivan8424Truman was an abject buffoon. Especially compared to FDR.

[@PlatinumHustle]

That is called corruption 😂😂

[@arrow1414]

I am voting for the Senator from Pendergast.

[@budwyzer77]

4:00 Kansas City still out-murders Chicago a century later!

[@jimrick6632]

I LIVED IN KANSAS CITY WHEN YOUNG ...I AM 80 NOW...NEVER HEARD A NASTY WORD AGAINST HARRY TRUMAN...HE ENDED WORLD WAR TWO FOR ONE THING...SO LET HIM REST IN PEACE....

[@harmgregory4560]

I'm an admirer of President Truman.....but I do understand he was far from perfect....

[@JeremiahDaniel1995]

Harm Gregory Harry S. Truman was a very underrated president 😌

[@harmgregory4560]

@@JeremiahDaniel1995 He WAS pretty good in some ways, but seems to me he was far too accommodating to McCarthy and the wacko fake patriots on the right....

[@jerrysullivan8424]

@@harmgregory4560 Old man ( Joseph P. )Kennedy was the man behind McCarthy, Truman had no choice but to lay off of McCarthy. Communism would have ruined the Mafia. Organize crime works best in a Capitalist system.

[@armonrakhman3791]

Still a crook!

[@seemoore57]

lol this last election is still fighting about who rules the police here....

[@sondraleewinninghamwalker7262]

My Father, Floyd Winningham owned a restaurant named Gehrs Cafe along with his sister who was married to Gehrs and there was a democratic get together on the corner! That was on TROOST street! Harry Truman used to drink coffee in my dads restaurant!

[@cjmacq-vg8um]

I grew up in the KC area and this era in our history was little discussed. pendergrast was well known but the specifics and the people behind him were little known to me... I think this subject is worthy of a more in depth documentary. but good overview of the subject... thanks for the video.

[@carrolldeighton1378]

Several good books on the era- I have the book Tom's Town but there are others.

[@thelightofthebodyispineal7137]

Wow! There’s always been a history of murders.

[@prairiehills416]

And Harry S Truman was Tom Pendergast's man in Washington. They say....

[@thetonyh8su]

And to this day, the corruption continues...

[@jerrysullivan8424]

only worse. it is legalized.

[@toddhughes2859]

John Lazia shouldn't have pissed off Jack Griffin... :D

[@armonrakhman3791]

The city was segregated. So we all know what that means. Everything blacks wanted you had to beg for. An pay extra so criminals could get a cut. K.C. was easier to do business in though.

[@chuckHart70]

Hate to break it to you pal but that applied to everybody why do you think the Italians lived in the North End? Everybody lived with their own it was very segregated and hardly anybody got anything they didn't have to fight for or beg for so wake the freak up

[@tomy5868]

...and Harry S Truman owes everything to all of them.

[@jerrysullivan8424]

and we owe a thank you to those who helped President Truman get in power, while he was not perfect, He made mistakes, he was the right man to be in power back in those days.

[@tomy5868]

@@jerrysullivan8424 Truman wasn't in power. Good yes man

[@budwyzer77]

@@tomy5868 Douglas MacArthur would disagree.

[@williammoore4079]

Thé Carpetbagger bagger

[@PennoyerVNeff]

What's the lawyer's name?

[@troytaylor4996]

John O'Connor

[@tomy5868]

never a video about JC Nichols. just wondering.

[@tomy5868]

@David Lindsay coercion behind the scenes and strong arm tactics always work when backed by lots of cash.

[@content4502]

You can make one.

[@tomy5868]

@@content4502 don't have underground ties

[@chuckHart70]

He gets all the blame for the Democrats segregation

[@rebecaa41catoxik]

My son's father's uncle was thought to be murdered by a police officer In 74 but no one till this day has been charged.

[@HarbingerOfBattle]

What finally cleaned up KC?

[@JULYXXIV]

Chief Clarence M. Kelley (KCPD), Lt. Robert Heinen, Mayor Charlie Wheeler, et. al. This was the late 1960's, though...

[@chuckHart70]

+HarbingerOfBattle Not cleaned up, just different faces same games.

[@andrewjackson7758]

HarbingerOfBattle *FDR hated old Boss Tom Pendergast too. Roosevelt thought of Truman as "the Senator from Pendergast," which may explain why FDR withheld info re: the Manhattan Project, e.g., from his VP after the 1944 elections. Truman, as you may not know, ignored his advisors and attended Boss Tom's funeral. The IRS busted him, and he began his sentence for tax evasion in Leavenworth in 1940.*

[@rebecaa41catoxik]

HarbingerOfBattle finally what? That town is so corrupt w dirty cops and judges who smoke crack. Think again if you think finally cleaned up just surface polished is all.. kinda of like for show to all the outsiders ok s all...

[@chuckHart70]

Nothing it's still a cesspool it just run by different Democrats