Tom Pendergast was a Kansas City, Missouri-based politician affiliated with the Democrats. Pendergast was the "boss" of Kansas City during Prohibition and the Great Depression, and Kansas City became known as "Tom's Town." Pendergast's political machine was destroyed when Missouri Governor Lloyd C. Stark, whom Pendergast had supported, turned against him and supported federal investigations into Pendergast. Pendergast was sentenced to federal prison in the late 1930s.

[Information retrieved from Harper, Kimberly, Stephanie Kukuljan, and John W. McKerley, "Thomas J. Pendergast," part of Historic Missourians, State Historical Society of Missouri, https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/thomas-pendergast.]