State Historical Society of Missouri
Daniel R. Fitzpatrick depicted Thomas Pendergast's indictment for income tax evasion in this April 8, 1939, cartoon,
"Struck Home."
A Political Boss at Bay:
Thomas J. Pendergast in Federal Prison, 1939-1940
BY LAWRENCE H. LARSEN*
The Thomas J. Pendergast "Notorious Offender Case Files," compiled by U.S. Bureau of Prisons officials, contain insightful information
on the jail experiences and psychological attributes of a somewhat
mysterious and sinister twentieth-century American urban political
boss.1 The records also indicate the problems encountered by authorities
♦Lawrence H. Larsen is a professor of history at the University of Missouri-Kansas
City. He received the B.S. degree from Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, and
the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the
historian of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
1 Thomas J. Pendergast File, Notorious Offender Case Files, Record Group 102,
Records of the Bureau of Prisons, Electrostatic, Paper to Paper, National Archives and
Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Hereafter cited as Pendergast File. The
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