The Inside Story of The Pendergast Machine By The Men Who Smashed It

A book of political memoirs, which covers Tom Pendergast's Kansas City machine, and its revival under his nephew, Jim Pendergast's leadership and President Truman's patronage -- written by the District Attorney that smashed the machine in the '30's. Appointed under Cummings, with the special assignment to clean up Kansas City, he surveys the early history and the rise of the city and the Boss, the inside story on the vote frauds, the Union Station massacre, the big-time insurance fraud, the protection and graft rackets, and finally Pendergast's conviction on income tax evasion. The author has been retired- through Truman's influence, but has followed closely the resurgence of the machine with White House approval,- the flagrant tampering with ballots in the 1946 Kansas City primaries, the theft of a ballot box, impounded by federal authorities, and Truman's close tie-up with Jim Pendergast -- all this supplies the opposition (to Truman) forces with considerable election year ammunition.