Maurice Morton Milligan (November 23, 1884 – June 19, 1959), a U.S. Attorney for the Western District of

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, is most famous for the successful 1939 prosecution of the

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

boss

Tom Pendergast Thomas Joseph Pendergast (July 22, 1872 – January 26, 1945), also known as T. J. Pendergast, was an American political boss who controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, from 1925 to 1939. Pendergast only briefly held elected ...

. Born in

Richmond, Missouri Richmond is a city in Ray County, Missouri, and part of the Kansas City metropolitan area within the United States. The population was 6,013 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Ray County. History Richmond was platted in 1828. The comm ...

, Milligan received his bachelor's and law degrees from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

. He practiced law and became Richmond city attorney and then probate judge for

Ray County, Missouri Ray County is a county located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Missouri and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,158. Its county seat is Richmond. The county was organized N ...

. He was a federal prosecutor from 1934 to 1945. After toppling Pendergast, Milligan ran in 1940 for the US Senate seat held by

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

. Milligan and Missouri Governor

Lloyd C. Stark Lloyd Crow Stark (November 23, 1886September 17, 1972) was an American businessman and politician who served as the List of governors of Missouri, 39th Governor of the U.S. state of Missouri. He was a member of the Democratic Party (United State ...

split the anti-Pendergast vote in the Democratic primary and so Truman won. Truman had defeated Milligan's brother, Jacob "Tuck" Milligan, in the Democratic primary for Truman's first Senate term in 1934. Maurice Milligan began his assault on the Pendergast machine after the 1936 election and got convictions on 259 of 278 defendants. Milligan's case against Pendergast centered on a $750,000 insurance payoff scam and a failure to pay federal income taxes from 1927 to 1937. Pendergast ultimately pleaded guilty to two charges of income tax evasion and was fined $10,000 and sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. In 1948, Milligan wrote a book about his exploits: ''Missouri Waltz, The Inside Story of the Pendergast Machine by the Man Who Smashed It'' (). He died in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

. He is interred in Sunny Slope Cemetery in

.'Dictionary of Missouri Biography,' Lawrence O. Christiansen, University of Missouri Press: 1999, Biographical Sketch of Maurice M. Milligan, p. 552

References

1884 births 1959 deaths People from Richmond, Missouri University of Missouri alumni University of Missouri School of Law alumni Missouri lawyers Missouri state court judges Writers from Missouri District attorneys in Missouri Pendergast era Missouri Democrats United States Attorneys for the Western District of Missouri 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers City and town attorneys in the United States {{US-state-judge-stub