James Vincenzo Capone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard James Hart (born James Vincenzo Capone in 1892) was the oldest brother of Al Capone, the most noted gangster in 1920s and '30s Chicago. Unlike his brother, James was a law enforcer, 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 ancestry as well. He enlisted in the Army in World War I and earned a commission as a lieutenant.
After the war, Capone legally changed his name to Richard James Hart, partly in honor of his favourite cowboy film star, William S. Hart. He married 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 forced 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 transferred 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 two years later, he became a justice of the peace.
James Vincenzo Capone, aka Richard James Hart, died in Homer on October 1, 1952 at the age of 60.
