Richard James Hart
James Vincenzo Capone (1892-1952) was the oldest brother of Al Capone, the most noted gangster in 1920s and '30s Chicago. Unlike his brother, however, James Capone would become a law enforcer and not a law breaker.
James left home at the age of 16 and moved from Brooklyn to Nebraska, ostensibly to join a circus. He worked to lose his New York City accent and tried to disguise his Italian ancestory as well. He enlisted in the Army in World War I and was a good enough soldier that he earned a commission as a lieutenant.
After the war, Capone would legally changed his name to Richard James Hart, partly in honor of his favourite cowboy film star, William S. Hart. He would marry in 1919 and soon became a federal Prohibition agent, making his home in Homer, Nebraska. Following a series of successful raids against bootleggers, he gained the nickname of "Two-gun" Hart. Unfortunately, in the mid 1920s newspaper reporters learned of his kinship to the Chicago gangster and the resulting publicity caused Hart and his family to move from Homer.
In 1926, Hart became a special agent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was assigned to the Cheyenne Indian reservation in South Dakota. While there he once had the duty of protecting President Calvin Coolidge and his family on their visit to the Black Hills. Later, he was transfered to the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. He was credited with the arrest of at least 20 wanted killers while in that area, besides pursuing Indian law breakers and hunting down moonshine stills.
Hart returned to Homer as a Prohibition agent in 1931. With the repeal of Prohibition just two years later, he became a justice of the peace and did odd jobs to make ends meet. He finally was forced swallowed his pride and accepted occasional gifts of money from his gangster relatives.
James Vincenzo Capone, aka Richard James Hart, died of a heart attack in Homer on October 1, 1952 at the age of 60.
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