ding need for cash. Pendergast and O’Malley had conspired to accept an enormous bribe from insurance companies at the expense of Missouri consumers. Part of the bribe was paid, but the parsimonious insurance companies further enraged Boss Tom by reneging on paying the full amount.
Ultimately, Pendergast was convicted of income tax evasion, as he did not report receiving the bribes on his taxes, and was sentenced to prison. Emmett O’Malley was not far behind.
Maurice Milligan, brother of Congressman Jacob “Tuck” Milligan, was the U.S. Attorney and he certainly had a grudge to settle with Pendergast and his political machine. Hundreds of indictments came down and a host of machine officials were fined, sentenced to prison or removed from office. Both the city manager and police chief of Kansas City quickly resigned.
Harry Truman himself marveled, noting, “Evidently everybody in Jackson County got rich but me.”
With the Pendergast machine deeply wounded, Senator Harry S. Truman could no longer count on the huge majorities he had received from Jackson County in his 1934 campaign. With the fall of Tom Pendergast, Harry Truman became an especially inviting target for an ambitious politician and there were few more ambitious than Governor Lloyd Stark.
The differences between Lloyd Crow Stark and Harry Truman could hardly have been greater.
Stark was enormously personally wealthy. The governor was the heir to the Stark Nurseries, which had developed and marketed the Golden Delicious apple. The Stark family orchard was the oldest in the country and at one time, the largest in the world.
Imperious and autocratic where Harry Truman was earthy, friendly and entirely approachable, Lloyd Stark had a habit of rubbing people the wrong way.
Harry Truman was loyal to a fault and was always offended to discover someone did not share that particular trait. Lloyd Stark had few loyalties when those loyalties collided with his ambitions. Stark, in an abundance of caution, had not supported Truman or any other candidate in the Democratic primary for the U. S. Senate in 1934, fearing taking a side might derail his gubernatorial ambitions for 1936.
Truman managed to overlook Stark’s failure to support him and was instrumental in promoting Stark’s gubernatorial candidacy. Both Tom Pendergast and Senator Bennett Champ Clark were somewhat dubious about Lloyd Stark. Pendergast was especially wary of Stark, but finally agreed to support him, largely due to Truman’s insistence. Stark finally achieved his ambition to become governor and nobody was more astonished by the governor’s attitude when Pendergast found himself the target of a federal investigation.
Governor Stark encouraged the investigation, less as an advocate of good government and opponent of corruption— he had eagerly sought Pendergast’s support in 1936 and was highly aware of the nature of the Pendergast machine— but largely because he knew it would cripple Harry Truman politically and advance his own fortunes.
Few senators had supported the Roosevelt administration and the New Deal as strongly as had Harry Truman and none had been as ill treated as was Senator Truman. The Roosevelt administration largely ignored Truman’s patronage recommendations, favoring his senatorial colleague, Bennett Champ Clark instead. Senator Clark was frequently a Roosevelt opponent and a fierce isolationist, yet he won nearly every patronage battle he fought with Harry Truman.
Truman grumbled about his treatment by President Roosevelt, but he continued to faithfully support just about every proposal FDR submitted to Congress. Occasionally he would explode in frustration and after hurriedly flying back to Washington, D. C. from Missouri during a dangerous snowstorm because his vote was needed in the Senate, Truman called Stephen Early, a Roosevelt aide and blessed him out. Roosevelt invited Truman to the White House for a meeting and tried to soothe the man from Missouri with a heaping helping of his famous charm.
It was especially frustrating for Harry Truman as he had been shunned by many members of the Senat