"Two Gun Hart": The Lawman With the Big Secret!

He was a famous lawman of the disappearing west, a Prohibition agent who dressed like a Wild West cowboy. The newspapermen loved him, the locals adored him, the bootleggers and moonshiners feared him. He was a bigger-than-life hero who seemed to be from a different, simpler era. But James "Two Gun" Hart also had a big secret. And when the truth finally emerged, the cowboy hero was revealed to be a far more complicated man. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Elizabeth Dunton, Saren Burnett. How are you doing? I'm great,
you ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Yes, I do what you just got right to it?
Listen here.

Speaker 4 (00:13):
You know you've seen that movie Deadpool, silly guy and
a costume.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh okay, yeah, Momentarily I was thinking of like a
Clint Eastwood eighties movie, isn't.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
That I think there might be one?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah? Anyway, go on, yeah, Deadpool, the comic guy. Yeah,
the comic Yeah, the Ryan Reynolds.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Ryan Reynolds, And you're like, are you spider Man?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, I don't know. Are you lippier.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Lippier spider Man?

Speaker 4 (00:35):
And then now he's got one with the hairy fella,
the Wolverine, the.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Nail and with the attitude and the.

Speaker 5 (00:42):
Nail.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I love Wolverine.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Actually, okay, so you know there's that movie coming out right? Yes,
I'm aware, and like I would think that there's a
big crossover that a lot of people who like the
movie also liked it.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
You just stop it right now? Can I finish a lot?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm totally listen. I'm not guessing where you're going at all.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
Go on across over yourself a lot of people who
watched those kind of movies also play video games.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
That's to say today.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
That's is that ridiculous?

Speaker 4 (01:07):
No, I got more. I got more, and that's so
it's so ridiculous. Okay, So anyway, Xbox right.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, it's not familiar.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
You like an Xbox xbox in your life?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
My cousin does.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
So you know.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
The the controllers, yes, yes, the buttons with your hands
and your hands in your face.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
And so they've made a special controller for the Xbox
uh designed by Deadpool, it says, okay, means it's business
in the front, party in the back.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
But it's not a mullet, it's not a hairy controller.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
It had it looks like the surface of it looks
like Deadpool's red and black leather costs.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh sure, so I got a leathery controller in my head.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
And I also just really quickly tell you that don't
blame me, blame Barb from Instagram for bringing this forward.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
God blissard.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
Okay, anyway, so that it's like the surface of the
controller is like the leather of his cost it. Sure,
I'm with you, But then the back of it has
butt cheeks.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
So I'm showing you right now? Do you see this?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
So it's got.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
Juicy booty boy, straight up juicy booty, Elliott Stabler level
juicy booty.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
It would be distracting during gameplay.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
So it's called the Cheeky Controller and you hold on
to his butns will you wiggle his buttons in the
front and the press release said quotes designed by the
MRK with a mouth himself. It also comes I don't
even know what that means. It comes clad in the
anti heroes, instantly recognizable and might we add incredibly flattering

(02:46):
red and black tactical suit.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
So there's only one Captain America.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
It only created one.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, you have to make only one.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
You gotta go to their sweep steaks. And it said
that you had to look at a post on Twitter.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
They called it x whatever whatever. How many times have
you entered this contest?

Speaker 3 (03:08):
I have not because I don't have an Xbox.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, but you want that control, you have to.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
Go to Twitter and then you do these other things
and it's like whatever. You have to have a Twitter account,
so I can't enter.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
It's true, you don't have Twitter.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
It ends August eleventh, and you have eighteen or older.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I still got a Twitter account.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
I just I can't believe you still have a Twitter account.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Why anyway, still swimming in film?

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, go swim and filth, grab some cheek, play a little,
you know, diddle around on the front.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Okay, say a little the.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah, and then a thousand people who they'll get an
Xbox Elite Wireless controller Series two Core?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Are they paying you to say all this?

Speaker 4 (03:48):
I wish I wish they would give me things. It
just gives me things.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
You're out here just freelance, like.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
All of these companies I promote. They're insane idea, and
so many people get excited about it.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Not me.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Tens of people get excited about it, and so they
should be just I don't pay me to do it.
Just send me the stuff, like send.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Her the butt controller, get this woman control.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
I just need free stuff.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
There.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
I think you need more free stuff.

Speaker 5 (04:19):
I do.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
I don't get anything free.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I just meant stuff for.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Shine, more stuff. So in summary, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
That is oh my goodness is why did they make
this one? I mean this one? I guess supply and
demand anyway special you know, uh, you know what else
is ridiculous you tell me sit back down. Okay, imagine
this right, just this whole scenario, Elizabeth, you base your
like you're a person. You're like, oh, I'm feeling like
I don't really know who I am and other people
don't know who I am. I'm gonna make that more

(04:48):
clear to them. Right, So you decided to like change
your persona, your public persona, and you base your whole
new identity on a character from a movie. Okay, and
then people they accept it because you're like, you're really
can to the bit. They're like, whatever, that's just two
gun heart right, Because it turns out that like you
decided to be like a movie cowboy, I tho's your
thing in life. Okay, but also this is like a

(05:10):
while ago, so little it wasn't so weird to do that.
It was still weird. But anyway, turns out you also
have a big bad secret, and you're not sure if people,
if they knew about your big bad secret, if they'd
be so forgiving of your cosplay as an old timey
Western hero.

Speaker 6 (05:24):
Oh yeah, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
Heis and cons It's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent ridiculous. Yes, oh, Elizabeth, Oh, zaren Today,
I've got a doozy for you. It's another sequel. Oh yes,
it's another installment in my ongoing coverage of strange but

(06:09):
true tales from one of America's most American families.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Oh, who's that?

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, I'm not going to tell you. May be wondering
what FAMI were you talking about. I'm not going to
tell you. Okay, it's a great question, Elizabeth. Thank you,
and I'll tell you when the time is right. How
about that. I promise you. That's my guarantee. That's the
Zara and Burnett guarantee. Okay now, but for now, I'd
like to introduce you to Richard James two gun Heart.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Richard James two gun Heart.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
I mentioned him up top, two gun Heart. Yeah, this
is his story.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
I'm confused.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
I know you should be. I'm not helping you much,
so Old James Heart that's how he was known mostly.
He was born in eighteen ninety two, okay, right at
the end of the Old West era. He's like I
made it kind of, He's like, I'm just gonna squeeze
it out. So he stretches it out and he makes
it last longer. Anyway, the age of three, though, he
first came to America as an immigrant from whence did

(06:59):
he Well, I will tell you that, but uh no,
I'm not going to tell you that. You know what
his father that was a barber. His father was named Gabrielle,
and his mother, her name was Teresa Heart Yeah, well
whatever from she was a seamstress. Okay, right, Remember I
said the guy's a big secret, so don't get so
hung up on names.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Anyway, at the age of the three, I told you
immigrant got the parents Gabrielle, Teresa, right, Barbara seamstress.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
He gets not rich, would you say, eighteen ninety five
he gets.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Here basically yeah, because yeah, because eighteen ninety two he
was born eighteen ninety five. He arrives here three years old. Anyway,
parents they start in Canada, but they make their way
down to Brooklyn, New York. They there make a home.
Right now, we're still around eighteen ninety five, eighteen ninety
six in America, everyone calls his cat James. That's where
he starts getting known as James. Now soon enough, he's
got a bunch of siblings, right, Mom and Pop, just

(07:50):
keep me at it, right, they don't stop all of a
sudden's Ralph Frank Armina, John Albert Matthew Mafalda. I mean
I I could keep going. That's it. That's all all
the kids right now. Anyway. In nineteen oh four, at
the age of twelve, James he leaves home. He goes west,
and as he put it, he was looking for adventure.
What year nineteen oh four four he finds very young,

(08:12):
very young, twelve. He finds work with a traveling circus,
working as a roustabout. So he's helping to set up
the big tent, take it down when the circus hits
sound right, So later he finds other work. He goes down.
He's a oiling windmills in Texas. Oh yeah, it sounds
like a euphemism, doesn't it totally?

Speaker 3 (08:29):
In Texas Cleveland ice cream, so he also done.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
While he was in Texas, he roped steers for the ranchers.
He starts getting into the cowboy life. Sometime around nineteen eighteen,
James Hard He hops off the freight train in a
little town called Homer, Nebraska. It's like homy Nevadam Homer, Nebraska,
was a spring day Elizabeth. Town of Homer was about
sixteen miles west from the Missouri River. On the opposite bank.

(08:53):
In the east sat the town of Sioux City, Iowa.
So not too far from the Iowa state line. Yeah
got it.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:59):
Ok.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
He arrives in town, James hard he said, Nebraska is
a big state. I don't want you going too far west.
We're in the deep midwest of.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
H Deere Country is totally corn country, John Deer country.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
You got it? Imagine? Yeah, anyway, but a little early
on that, but still stick with that idea. Now, when
he arrives in town, James Hardy looks like just about
any other hobo who might be riding the rails at
that time, and he's looking for, you know, a better
tomorrow somewhere else. The young man he finds work in
this small town, which is not easy, but he gets
work as a house painter. Right now, when locals are

(09:30):
asking like, what brings you to town there, James, and
he's like, oh, well, he tells them he used to
be working on a railroad gang like laying track totally.
They're like, oh, he's a hard worker, young kid. Now
the folks of Homer. They accept this hard work and newcomer.
He tells everyone that his full name is Richard Jay Hart,
but call him James Jim Hart, James Hart. His eyes

(09:50):
are intelligent, Elizabeth Alive. The locals. They find that he
is quote gifted with a frank and open countenance. All right, yeah,
just like a big, friendly guy. But he's not a
tall guy. He's lean and strong. He's also well muscled
at this point from working all these hard jobs. He
has thick black hair, dark eyes, alive complexion, his nose
suggests that he might be not from northern Europe, right,

(10:12):
But most folks in Homer, Nebraska, they're used to doing
the calculus different. They're like, oh, maybe part Mexican, maybe
part Native American, if anyone asks, though, he tells his
people his people are from Oklahoma, so that of course
plays into the whole idea. He may be from Indian.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
Territory because you see Italian.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
That's a good guess, Elizabeth. And anyway, so his story
makes sense to folks in Nebraska. Yeah, they're like, oh, yeah,
five civilized tribes probably are his people. Whatever he knocked about,
like a lot of people do. And now he's here
at Homer, Nebraska. Yeah, he's a good hard work I
like that guy with the really bright eyes. Anyway, soon
enough he finds more work in town. He gets work
as as a wall like a wallpaper hanger, and also

(10:51):
house painter obviously related tasks yea. Then he becomes a
railroad timekeeper. Apparently they trust him. He's good with the watch.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
The longer he stays in town Elizabeth, the more the
locals learn about this friendly newcomer. And then he tells
tales of his time down in Texas, like, oh, tell
us more about busting broncos and punching cows and helping
round up strays and stuff. They love it. Everybody loves
a good cowboy story.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
He tells them about getting in gun fights with bad men.
They're like, this guy's amazing. Nineteen seventeen rules around you
know what happens? Then us enters the Great War in Europe.
He's a young man. He's like, oh, I'm gonna go
off in enlist and protect freedom and stuff.

Speaker 7 (11:26):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
He gets sent overseas to the bloody battlefields of France Elisabe.
But he survives, wow, because he fights with General Blackjack
Pershing and the US Expeditionary Forces so well that he
gets awarded medals and stuff.

Speaker 5 (11:37):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
After the war, he returns to Homer, Nebraska. He regales
the locals with tales of all of his battlefield bravery.
They're like, oh, that's amazing. He's just like he did
in Texas. Right. Oh, he's this guy. They're they're thinking
they got a real life hero in town.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
Right.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
I mean he's telling telling stories Elizabeth, a gunfire exchanges
with the hun right, and he how he been personally
decorated with a a medal for sharp shooting and bravery
by General Blackjack Pershing himself pinned it on his chest.

Speaker 8 (12:06):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, that's why he was so good a shot with
the Bochee. That's what they called the Germans back then. Anyway,
for proof of all, takes out the Jerry. There you go, now,
proof of his marksmanship. This war tested soldier. He puts
on a demonstration for the locals of Homer. He has
a row of tin cans and glass bottles all lined
up on a fence behind the American Legion hal because
all the old veterans they want to see the guys

(12:27):
who had fought in like the Spanish American War. Anyway,
there before all the other veterans, Elizabeth, he pops every
single cannon bottle on the rail with his six shooter pistols,
just like he did over on the French battlefield. Yeah huh,
all right, now he's around the same time he fully
adopts his new persona. So because before he's like, you know,
knocking about Texas. Now he's got these people going along

(12:48):
with it. He's gonna be the town's hero.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
So not onlys you call himself James Hart in honor
of William S. Hardt, who's this big cowboy star of
the Silent film era. He starts to pattern his behavior
after this silent movies and his look. So he starts
looking like a real picture house cowboy hero walking around Homer, Nebraska.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
And they don't know he's from New York City.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
No, no, not not in the real West, this immigrant
boy from Brooklyn. He's cosplaying as a real life cowboy.
He picks up a pair of cowboy boots, tall heels, Elizabeth,
he starts to wear wide like whoa hey, six inch heels,
wide brim, ten gallons stetson cowboy hat make.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
A huge like beach blanket, Babylon and stiletto cowboy.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
I have got the picture in my head on.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
He also wears a fancy vest that's always described as
a fancy.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
Vest, one of those like embroidered Grandma Ones Teddy Bears
at a picnic.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
There's tassels on it. Now around his waist, he's wearing
a low slung holster. Oh got a pair of pearl
handled six shooters.

Speaker 5 (13:52):
Yeah, and no pants.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
He looks and actually basically a dime novel rendition of
a Wild West cowboy.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
In my head, he's like one of the sisters of
perpetual insults exactly.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
So this silver screen buckero he's out we was. He
practices his looks so much and also though it matches
his skills, he actually is a quick trick Okay, he's
good with pistols, like I said earlier, and so nineteen
nineteen yearlls around right after the war May in nineteen nineteen,
James Harden becomes an actual town hero when he exhibits
bravery in an emergency Elizabeth Townhomer's flooded and I'm talking flooded,

(14:25):
like flash floodwaters, like just wash over the farmland, right,
the farmhouses have water up to the rooflines, and there's
hard paddling around and this churning floodwaters, and he's saving
townspeople from rooftop to rooftop. Pill pulls some people from trees. Wow,
oh yeah, totally here. At one point he saves a
little girl from drowning. Then he turns around and goes
back to save the family of the local grocer. The

(14:47):
nineteen year old daughter of the grocer. So impressed, she
falls in love.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Oh she was ready.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Oh yeah, she's warm for his form, Elizabeth. So the
pair they fall in love get married in the fall
of that same year. Now he's happily married hero of
the town. When they had the big flood, he starts
to you know, really bury his old identities and just
submerge it so no one, not even his wife, will
ever know about any of his time back east. Yeah,
he's just a cowboy from Oklahoma. Now he lives out

(15:14):
this fantasy so much that he starts to believe it,
at least mostly the small town council. They're impressed with
this guy, though, Man, we should have him like become
more important town because of how lucky we had have
such a brave, heroic guy, and they nam him what
the new Marshal, So like, oh, you be our Marshall star.
It's like an old movie. Yeah, would you be the Marshall?
So the American Legion they elect him commander of the Post.

(15:36):
He's like your charge of all the veterans. If we
ever have to, like, you know, do anything, you get.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
To say who does and doesn't get to have an
event at our hall exactly.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Boy Scouts of America they name him the district Commissioner,
which I don't know what that means, but he was
named district commissioner. So now he's an official town father
so to speak. Yeah, same year, in nineteen nineteen, major
change comes to America, one that would initiate a whole
new area in American life. Do you remember what that was?

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Flew?

Speaker 2 (16:03):
No, that's a good one. That totally that's a we
would take that answer. This was jeopardy. But on January sixteenth,
nineteen nineteen, it was I had a couple answers available.
The US ratified the eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution making
production of liquor, wine and.

Speaker 5 (16:17):
Beer and legel.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Then much later, when they realized, oh, we need to
pay people to enforce this. Local cops are just totally corrupt.
We need to actually get some federals on this. So
they on October twenty ninth, nineteen nineteen, Congress passes the
Volstead Act, which is the law that provides for enforcement,
thus creating the prohibition agents. Right, So this also marks
effect technically the official start of prohibition. So nineteen nineteen,

(16:41):
either one you want to pick January sixteenth or October
twenty ninth, Yeah, boom, there you go over or combine them,
just say nineteen nineteen whatever. Almost as soon as prohibition
becomes the law on the land, bootleg liquor and speakeasy
start to spread across America. The Volstat Act, you know,
as I tell, they provided for law enforcement to fight
this spread of like bathtub gin and the rise of
the rum runners, like your man, the real McCoy right. Well,

(17:03):
one of the men who stepped up to fight for
prohibition was local town hero and Marshall Lahomer, Nebraska one.
James Hart.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
He's like, I just can't get with the drinking.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Oh no, now he's about Elizabeth. He's about to become
a prohibition cowboy. Oh wow, Yeah, he's got there raiding Stills.
He was one hell of a badass lawman, which you
rarely will hear me say. But I do believe in
the rule of law, right, I got to say that
straight up. But I'm not always rooting for the villains
and the criminals. Sometimes when a lawman is this bad ass,
I can't help but root for him. Elizabeth, I'm very

(17:33):
excited to get into the next but let's take a
little break and after this all these sweet sweet ads,
I will tell you about how my man James Hart
becomes a prohibition cowboy.

Speaker 5 (17:42):
Excellent, Elizabeth, ze, we're bad Hi.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
So nineteen nineteen, Yeah, remember that. They It was like
the Black Sox scandal Baseball, someone like, oh, they rigged
the World Series? What's going on? Arline Rods Team way
out West. Prohibition has come to America and has spread everywhere. Right,
so everything starts to change. Jazz becomes the music of
the day, race relations start to change because everyone's drinking

(18:28):
together in these illegal speakeasies. The mafia enjoys this tremendous
rise in power, going from like local crime leaders to
regional and then so national syndicates. We also have radio
and silent movies. They kind of create this national culture
of like celebrities and identity. Everyone's like, oh, we all
know the same people. And also, of course, as you
pointed out, the ravages of the Spanish Flu and World

(18:50):
War One are still coursing through the culture. We got
a bunch of like broken vets and broken bodies from
the Spanish Flu, and now no one's supposed to have
a drink. Yeah, well, obviously that's a no go solution.
So crime starts to run rampant money floods into the
black market. Good and decent people's become everyday criminals as
they sip on their moonshine and their bootleg Canadian whiskey. Yeah, harrow,

(19:10):
great times, Elizabeth. I wish I could have been there anyway,
entered James Hart. He's given official commission as a prohibition
agent in nineteen twenty. Ok right, so right at the
start it jumps in both boots. He's like, all right, yeah,
got my pearls.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Girls.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
So in October he runs his first liquor rate. How
do you think it went?

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Great?

Speaker 5 (19:33):
Good cat?

Speaker 2 (19:34):
He hears about moonshine stills in this town called Randolph, Right,
so he goes to town disguises as a day laborer
goes undercover.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
He just like hunches over and I love the undercover.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Puts stirred on his face.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
He gets all shoes, splashes water on himself like, oh,
I'm so sweaty.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
I've been laboring all day because I am a day laborer. Like, oh, sir,
came here is a so thirsty Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
He wanders out into the woods as his day laborer. Right,
he finds signs of a still like maybe like puffs
of smoke or he smells it. I don't know. He
draws closer and then he runs his raid. He busts
twenty moonshiners pretty much on his own. Coincidentally becomes an
embarrassment for the city fathers of nearby Randolph because a
number of them are rounded up in the rain. Right yeah, right,
So after this first successful rad he follows up for

(20:19):
the second one. They're like, oh yeah. He goes over
to Spencer, Nebraska, doesn't really matter again small town, and
again he embarrasses these small town fathers. In this case
it's the actual town marshal who he busts in the raid.
Oh whoa yeah. And when he does that, he tries
to arrest the marshall. A local official like a deputy,
comes out. He goes, you can't arrest the marshal. He's like,
you bomb to rest in the marshall.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
I'm a marshall too.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
So they accused James Hart of disturbing the peace. They
get him on charges of disturbing the peace. Like, I'm arrested,
You're arrested. It was, yeah, So he doesn't take no
lip Elizabeth. So the men get into a fight. So
now the law is tussling and wrestling and James Hard
he had to let the marshall go because there was
more of them than there were of him. So this
rare loss has stuck with him. He's like, corrupt local law,

(20:59):
I don't try. I'm only sticking with my feder rallies.
So he then decides, you know, to go alone far
more often anyway. Nineteen twenty one rolls around, James Hart's
becoming a household name for all of his liquor aids.
Right the Homer Star local paper, they said, quote, He's
becoming such a menace in the state that his name
alone carries terror to the heart of every criminal.

Speaker 5 (21:19):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Now, thirty years later, in nineteen fifty one, the Saint
Louis Dispatch. They also wrote about James Hart. By then
his real identity was no longer a secret. But the
article look back at his early days as this cavalier
marauding prohibition agent. And the article Elizabeth, they recalled how
the locals felt about James Hart, and they said, and
I quote, that he was there, scarlet Pimpernel, their hero.

(21:41):
In one month alone, he cleaned out thirty stills. All
Nebraska watched and cheered as Heart decked out in high
heeled cowboy boots, ten Gallon had in pearl handled shooting irons,
crusaded against crime. End quote. So a picture of them
out there on the prairie and his high heels. I
gotta say, that's a reference you don't hear anymore. It's

(22:03):
the scarlet Pimpernel.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Oh I know, right?

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Did you like the Scarlet Pimpernel? Do you know it?
Scarlet Pimpernel?

Speaker 3 (22:07):
Yeah, yes, I am familiar.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
When I was a boy growing up in the South,
I saw the old movie because it was on like
Turner TBS Turners because he liked all those old movies.
And I thought that guy was awesome. Right, there's this
rich guy who you know once again can usually hear
me go. I was rid for the rich guy, but anyway,
he's a hero. At night, he's like Zorrow or a batman.
Is this rich guy at night goes crusading, But in
the daytime he's this total fop total he's like pathetic,

(22:31):
he can't do anything. He's got the new Yeah exactly.
And everyone's like, oh, you know, it couldn't have been him,
because we know it's one person it's not is this
guy now who in this world couldn't be? And I
thought that was amazing because the kid had taught me
that people will look past what they see right in
front of him as long as you're glad to think
you're pathetic.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Anyway, I thought that was great. So James Hart, he
was their scarlet Pimpernel, and they didn't know how true
it was Elizabeth because he had a secret identity just
like the scarlet Pimpernel. But anyway, as far as what
they saw, they get this badass lawman. One fellow lawman
of the Sioux City Patrolman, Alan Stoner, I found in
an old newspaper. Had to read a bunch of old
newspapers for this yeah. He recounted a time that James

(23:09):
Hart once had to square up with a bootlegger he
was trying to arrest, but the bootlegger didn't want to
throw hands with him. He wanted to test how fast
James Heart was with those pearl handled shooting irons. So
James already he wasn't in the mood to kill a
man though, he's a man of peace, so he told
him he'd have to sort it out with their fists instead.
How fast are you with those things? So, as patrolman
Alan Stoner recalls quote, they fought for an hour right

(23:31):
on the street with everybody watching, until finally the whiskey
runner gave up and Heart took him in. It was
a big moment in my life, made me decide to
become an officer myself. An hour hour, Elizabeth. They fought
in the street for an hour, well whatever, forty five minutes,
twenty minutes. Anything longer than like seven to ten minutes
is like a pretty.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
It's a long time. I mean, it was a lot
of it, just like chasing each other.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Around, throwing dirt each other's eyes, just.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Like ducking behind bildings.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Trying to trip each other's high heels.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Yeah, snapping the high heel off, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Knocking hats off. So eund this time in the nineteen twenties,
at the height of the prohibition, James Hart becomes this
fixtured local headlines but also syndicated nationally. He starts becoming
this character. So you have these local headlines in later
national months. But here's an example Elizabeth State Agent Heart
cleans up Cedar County. R. J. Hart battles gamblers, Heart
fines more Moonshine, Dick Hart and Homer Tuesday trailing thieves.

(24:26):
Now he's just everyone's paying attention to this guy. He
is there like I don't know, like wild Bill Hiccocks anyway.
He's just like a Wild West character come back to
life at a time where they were totally losing the West.
How is this guy still.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Out there doing this Heartland you know, voice of the
law and arm of the law. It makes for great
entertainment and wire stories when you live in other places.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Totally everyone's digging it.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
They can imagine that what it's looking like him walking
around with them high heel.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
So, with his growing fame on the prairie, my man
James Hard is invited to become a prohibition agent for
the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That's because illegal liquor was
a scourge on the reservations.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Side note, Elizabeth, do you know where the term bootlegging
comes from?

Speaker 3 (25:09):
I had something to do with stick in the bottles
and the boots.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Very good. I'll give you a hint. Indian Territory. Back
in the day, it was illegal to import liquor into
Indian reservations, but people would still do it because customers
would pay top dollar for good whiskey. So to sneak
liquor into reservations back in the day, a fellow on horseback,
he didn't have anything like you can't be like, oh,
look at my wagon, you don't want that. Yeah, So
they would just slip like flasks and bottles into their
boots and bootlegging.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
Bootlegging.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, so you go anyway. Bureau of Indian Affairs, they've
been in the business of prohibition long before anyone else
got into it. As my point, so they're like, hey,
we'd love to have a go getter like James Hart
join our team and really get us some good headlines.
So he gets sent out to the Yankton Indian Reservation
in South Dakota. Right, he shows up in his fancy
western vest, his high heeled cowboy boots, his brim stetson,

(25:57):
cowboy hat. Maybe a little mess scara, I don't know,
low slung holster. He learns to speak the local Omaha
and La Coda dialects. He's a serious guy. Right, So
the tribal leaders they like him. They give this lawman
a nickname. They start calling him two gun Heart, two
gun And we're local reporters and they hear about this.
They of course they start talking about how two gun
Heart did this, two Gun Heart did that becomes his nickname,

(26:20):
and then that spreads his fame across the nation.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Give him the nickname or did he start telling people
they were calling him that.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
From what I can tell, it seemed to be a
genuine that the native tribes gave him the name.

Speaker 5 (26:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Interesting, I can't tell you for sure. I wasn't there alone,
No you weren't, No, no, no, I know.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
I thought this was a first hand account.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
There was another nickname that the Native Americans in the
area called him. A member of the Oglala tribe there
in South Dakota. All so they remembered that. She remembered
actually that her people called Heart something else. See, there
was this one time Elizabeth Old two gun Heart. He
was a hiding amongst a group of Okohala children, right,
just like I don't know how, but they were like,
I don't know if they just hanging out playing games,

(26:57):
and he's just, oh, yeah, we'll hang out with you
kids anyway, bootleggers go by. He leaps out of this
group of children and then he surprises the bootleggers, gets
the drop on him, arrest them. The kids are they
they come up with this nickname for this crazy lawman.
They just start calling him Soiko, and Soiko loosely translates
as Big Harry Boogeyman.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
Still sort of.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
Not contradicting insinuations that he is Native American. What do
you mean, well, you said that when he first showed up.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
He never said that he was Native American. He didn't
mind if people like.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
Guessed at it, right, But I'm saying so is he's
still not contradicting it.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
He's still it was just local talk. It wasn't It's
not that people in the federal agencies refer to him.
That's not why he was brought to the Bureau of affairs.
I didn't mean to be misleading that, No, that was
just kind of like local gossip, you know, just as
much many people thought that he was. You know, it
doesn't matter anyway. The point is Elizabeth, this guy the

(27:56):
reason why people could like tolerate this personality, flashy throwback
character and the.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
And the low rise gene.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, exactly showing all that action. He was really good
at everything he did.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
He would if they hit an okay in Homer, Nebraska,
if they had like a parade, he would be the
boss for the town's parades.

Speaker 8 (28:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
He'd also be like the preferred chef for picnics or
for fish fries. Yeah. He was known for his fish
fries and for his like picnics. Like he was like
when I say this, he would hold court on like
you'd tell all in Sundry anybody who came was the
best way to cure mushrooms, or how to smoke fish,
the best way or how to pickle meat to make
your partner happy. Right. He was also handy with the

(28:36):
music instruments, so he could like keep everybody, like, you know,
smiling while they're eating. Yeah, he could play multiple musical instruments.
He could play the mandolin, the fiddle, the guitar, the piano,
musical saw what do you got he can play?

Speaker 3 (28:49):
How did he pick up all this talent?

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Is this super talented guy?

Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (28:52):
And also how dope was it back before like the
invention or the advent of radio, when most times people
were your hanging out with could play musical instrument Yeah,
because like everybody's did it. Yeah right, And like Keller
here's he's playing like literally musical construction equipment. Like that's
how good at music people got. They're like, oh, we
can play a spoon, I can play a f Oh yeah,

(29:12):
what you got lady's bottles? Anyway, I just wish we
had people were playing more music at home. I think
that's cool. I can't do it, but I just think
it's cool. Anyway. Two gun Heart was all so good
at shooting, as I pointed out right, he would give
demos at local rodeos. He also had a hobby shop
or in town. He fixed radios and he taught others
about this new technology, the crystal set and all that.

Speaker 5 (29:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
So like the people are like, why do we need
a radio shack or whatever? And he's like this, you'll
trust me, this will be a big deal. And like okay, Now,
despite all his skills, all his abilities, always bravery, all
of us heroics, all his charming pastimes, it was noteworthy
that all thirty three years that he lives in Homer, Nebraska,
Old two gun Heart makes no close friends none zero.

Speaker 9 (29:54):
Wait didn't he marry the He had a wife, and
he has a wife right, and he has obviously has
a also as a family, they raised four sons, and
just the way he impressed the locals, he also impressed
his sons, like with the shooting skills.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Like one of his sons recalled the story elizabeth An,
Old two gun Heart would have his boys go out
and line up in the backyard, and then he'd place
cigarettes in their mouthsfully and then he'd order his boys
to stand real still, and then, using his pearl handled
six shooters, he would shoot the cigarette butts in half,
just cutting him in half of bullets.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
I'm praying that they were facing him in profile.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yes, of course in profile, So that's how good he
wasn't shooting. He was got there and press by shooting
for practice. I guess around the same time. This fame
is a law man has spread far enough back east
that in nineteen twenty seven, when the President of the
United States comes out to the Black Hills to the
South Dakota, he want, I want two Gun Heart to

(30:48):
be my personal bodyguard. You certain Calvin Coolidge had two
Gun Heart out there as to protect him. So capitalizing anyway,
and all this rough and tumble appeal of the wild
West still riding high on the prayer. The Associated Press
they write a syndicated story about this throwback cowboy hero
and they say, and I quote, Heart has had a
hand in the capture of more than twenty murderers while

(31:08):
covering twelve reservations. In the last year. He brought in
three Indian killers. He has been a cowboy soldier and
police officer a beat of more than two hundred square miles,
with supervision over more than eight hundred his Heart's domain.
He travels by foot, in car, horseback, on snowshoes and skis.
His work is different from that of his regular officers
or detectives, for the criminals he captures are outdoormen, and

(31:31):
there are few informers who aid him. Yeah, right, So
now to be fair and accurate, the twenty murderers was
a little more alleged. That was not the official count,
but anyway, that same year, nineteen twenty seven, he makes
national news when he squares off he gets a true
bad man. According to the Aberdeen Daily News, old two
gun Heart was conducted in a raid on the Rosebud Reservation.
He discovers one hundred gallon moonshine still and one angry

(31:55):
moonshiner two gun Heart. He tells this moonshiner, a guy
named Yancy, that he's under arrest, and Yancey familiar with
two gun Heart. Everybody knows him if they're in the
business of moonshine. He snarls at the lawman and tells
him you didn't have them fancy shooting irons. I give
you a good licking now, two gun Hearts like okay,
bet so He loosens his holster, drops it off his
hips and lets the pistols fall to his feet, and

(32:16):
he says, all right, go ahead. The bootlegger Yancey charges
the lawman, and, as the Aberdeen Daily News reports, Elizabeth
Yancey succeeded in hitting Heart once with his fist and
then picked up an iron bar and struck at him.
Hart dodged the blow, falling on his shoulder. He then
sailed into Yancey pummeled him so severely that Yancey was
glad to cry.

Speaker 4 (32:36):
You know.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
He was badly cutting bruised by the flying fists of
the officer.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yes, anyway, So there's a fellow officer sus City, nother guy,
local police captain. This guy named Paul Mummert. He often
went out on raids with old two gun Heart and
having seen the man at work, he was duly impressed
as the old previous patrolman Stoner. Captain Mummert said, and
I quote he could hit a bear bottle maybe at
one hundred feet from either hip. He was a wonderful officer.

(33:02):
Once we found it still in a cave, there was
a lot of equipment there, and we hated the thought
of lugging at all with us. Hearts it, I'll take
care of it. He spilled gasoline all around. We told
him he'd kill himself, but he just yelled, you boys
get back, and he set the whole thing on fire
from a few feet away, blew his ten gallon hat
right off.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Is not the safest birden.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
No, no, no, anyway, there was another time, when a
rumor went out that Old two gun Heart had been
shot and killed in a gunfight with bad men, and
he wasn't seen for many days, the rumor was assumed
to be true. Meanwhile, the locals, they all go out
to the annual rodeo for some like homegrown entertainment. Who
should ride up to the rodeo? But Old two gun
Heart back from the dead. The locals went wild out

(33:45):
the side of him, right like a gunfight in Jesus. Anyway,
nineteen thirty something changes, I don't know, but to be honest,
a lot of things changed. There's something called the Great Depression,
and it was doing a number on the folks in
the prairie. But no different for two gun Heart. He
at this point he'd eye in a fight in Sioux's City. Yeah,
the family of a man he'd arrested. They catch up
to him and they beat him with brass knuckles and

(34:06):
he loses an eye. And also so he gets a
glass eye and to replace that, but his one good
eye is also starting to go. So now he's like
down to like half like a quarter vision.

Speaker 4 (34:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Anyway, prohibition ends in nineteen thirty three, so he's out
of a job, so he has to leave that behind.
He gets his his glory days as a prohibition agent
or now sun set it. He's got to get work.
He works his arrange detectives. Now he's got to go
out riding on a sore saddle, you know, like it's
it's tough for an older guy. Now he's tracking down
stolen livestock. You know, he's also working as a stock
inspector for the ranchers the Cattleman. By nineteen thirty five, though,

(34:37):
he's back in Homer, Nebraska. He's reappointed the town's marshal.
They're like, wow, you know he's here's your badge bag.

Speaker 4 (34:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
Right, And so at this point he's accused of breaking
into a grocery store late at night and stealing canned
goods to feed his family. Oh no, one of the
stories he's accused of stealing from was his own father
in lawt store. Remember he owned a grocery store. Ye anyway,
so it's full circle the grocer.

Speaker 5 (34:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Anyway, So the town's Foklahomer. They were disappointed with their lawmen.
But you know he's now a criminal.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
Disappointed in the townsfolk.

Speaker 4 (35:05):
This guy like did everything for you for years letting
him suffer like that.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
You're a big character, You're so he loses his job
as a marshal. He gets removed as the head of
the American Legion. Also because somebody in the American Legion
starts getting suspicious the old two gun Heart may not
have gone off to war in Europe. So they contacted
the Department of the Army and then requested his records,
and the records were confirmed their suspicions were correct. He
never actually served, never with the army. He's made up

(35:29):
all his battlefield bravery and the medals pinned on my chest.
But General Blackjack person himself.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
Trust the ones who crow about it.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
All a lie. So two Gun Heart had fallen on
truly hard times. Yeah, now that the truth was coming
out about him, the damn was broken because soon enough
the full truth would be revealed. Elizabeth. Wait, when we
got back, I'll tell you who two gun Heart really
was and what that great American family he belonged to.

(36:14):
All right, Elizabeth, ar you ready for the truth to
be revealed, to be dropped?

Speaker 3 (36:18):
I am so excited for this.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Okay. So the cat we've been calling two gun Heart,
he was born in Italy you're correct. He was born
in Naples, Italy, before he and his parents emigrated to
the US.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
They first, as I told you, arrived in Canada. Then
they moved to Brooklyn, where he was raised and he
later became the eldest of a brood of kids. And
that was all before he went out west. But when
he was born, his name was James Vincenzo Capone.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Stop.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
His younger were Ralph Bottles Capone and Al Scarface Capone.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Get out of town?

Speaker 2 (36:52):
What two gun Heart, the old school wild West cowboy
hero and Prohibition agent, was the big brother of Al Capone,
the most notorious gangster and bootlegger of the Prohibition era.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
And he's just cracking school.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Never heard I know, I've never heard this. How is
this not a movie? How is this not a movie?
This is one hundred true two gun Hard, So also
get this. Two gun Heart once saved his baby brother,
long before he earned his nickname is Scarface. This is
back when the whole Capone family was living in Brooklyn.
And so one day, the older brother, he's the oldest brother, Vincenzo.

(37:29):
He's out wandering the streets, chasing after some fun with
his brothers and well, they run into some trouble because
you know, it's just the sack of the day. And
after it all went down, Vincenzo he has to leave
town and baby brother al Capone. It sets him on
his course to becoming the most famous gangster of all time.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Their stories separate in the same moment. One becomes a
law man, a great prohibition agent. One becomes the great
prohibition gangster, all because of the same moment in time Vincenzo.
Vincenzo changes his name, it becomes James Hart, and he.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
Got into trouble and that's what he had to run
out of time.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
They both did.

Speaker 5 (38:01):
Well.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Here, let me just tell you about it, Elizabeth, I
like you to picture it. It's Brooklyn, New York, nineteen
oh four. At the moment, it's early evening on a
summer night. The sun is hugging the horizon. Light still
paints the faces of the tall new buildings and warms
the streets that snow the horse droppers. Since it's nineteen

(38:21):
oh four, nearly no one in New York has a car.
It's a dynamic time though. In New York, Elizabeth, the
city is being made a new, new architecture reaches high
up into the sky, scraping at the clouds. Thus the
nickname for these new stone faced edifices and an even
more impressive steel boomed, glass skinned buildings. In this same year,
nineteen oh four, the construction of the New York Subway

(38:43):
is just starting. Wherever you look in Brooklyn you can
see the borough is home to all manner of immigrants,
people from across the globe. Many of them, most a
lot of them are young kids who fill the streets
in order to escape the cold water tenement buildings where
their family members are all piled on top of one another.
The street off of the youngs in space and freedom.
And you, Elizabeth, are a flower merchant. You love to

(39:04):
watch the case. You push your card into the street.

Speaker 7 (39:07):
And take their place among the road merchants, hawking their wares,
their produce, whatever they want. You enjoy all the sights
and the sounds of the Brooklyn street. The sound of
the oyster men boasting of having the freshest selfish and
the kosher of picklemen, and his sonorous voice advertising his
delicious crunchy pickles. There's the sausage guy, the hot potato guy,
the peanut man, likes to knock out a distinctive little

(39:28):
rhythm on the barrel of his peanuts.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
It's a joyous cacophony. Into the scene. You spy a
group of boys lately in Brooklyn. The boys have been
engaging in these tremendous rock fights. Boys from neighboring streets
meet in empty lots and alleys for armed combat. But
their choice of combat arms is rocks, stones, chunks of
brick masonry. In fact, a friend of yours, an older lady,
she caught a stray rock just the other day. That's

(39:51):
why you keep your eye on the boys as they
make their way through the street market. You recognize this
group of boys. It's the Capone brothers. You see that
James Foncenzo Capone is out stalking the street the Brooklyn
with his brothers Ralph and Frank and John and Albert.
Baby brother Matthew, you must be still too young to
take to the streets with his big brothers. The youngest
of the brothers, the ones out on the street this
evening is Albert, he's five years old, and the oldest

(40:12):
is James Fonncenzo. He's twelve and the leader of the gang.
He watched the boys as they head for the corner,
but they don't make it before a second set of
neighborhood boys meets them, and on site you can see
it's about to go down. The second set of boys
are all carrying rocks in their hands, ready for battle.
They shout at each other. The Italian boys, the Copones
and the other boys speaking with is that Irish lilt
of English are all clearly neighborhood rivals, Elizabeth. You gauge

(40:34):
the distance. You hope none of the boys have bad aim,
but a strong arm. Then it happens. The rocks are tossed,
stones are thrown, shouts turned to fists. Even though he's
the youngest, baby brother out the Pone is given his all.
He is fearless. Middle brothers John and frankly hold their
own as well. Baby brother Out he's fighting a kid
twice as big as them. One of the older Copone boys, Ralph,
throws a boy into some fresh horse droppings. Kid lands

(40:57):
face first in the steaming file. You kind of snicker.
Ralph Pone laughs as well. Vincenzo is busy wrestling some
big Irish boy. John and Frank grab produce from a
cart and begin to pelt the other kids. And then, Elizabeth,
you see baby brother al separated from his brothers. The
bigger kid he's been fighting. He pulls out a knife.
These kids don't play. You think to yourself, there's no
signs of a cop walking the beat. No help. You

(41:19):
hope someone comes by soon. Meanwhile, you see baby brother
al Capone square up against this bigger kid, the one
wielding the knife, and the kid uses it. He slashes
al Capone, cutting him. Vincenzo Capone sees this, goes down.
He runs over, tackles the knife building kids. Vincenzo hits
the kid with so much forced the kid goes flying.
He crashes into no through a plate glass window of

(41:41):
a dress shop. Glass shatters, the boy disappears into the
dress shop. You hear him cry. Finally, a beat cop
turns the corner. The copone boy scatter. Meanwhile, you wonder,
whin oh, when will the world be safe from those
Compone brothers? Down boom, Elizabeth. That was it for Vincenzo
Capon aka James Hard aka a two gun heart. As

(42:02):
Marcellus Wallace once said in pulp fiction, you lost your
la privileges. Vincenzo Capone had lost his Brooklyn privileges. Yes,
so he has to leave town because he's pretty sure
this rival gang there's more of them. The family's big,
and the one he threw through the plate glass window.
He's pretty sure the family will come looking for revenge.
So this inciting incident, it makes Vincenzo Capone split town.
He disappears into America. He saves his brother Al Capone,

(42:25):
and then he leaves the family behind, travels west, becomes
a real life cowboy and a prohibition agent. Oh and
also to be clear, I should tell you this, that
cut in the street fight is not the scars that
he gets that makes him Scarface. Oh, I want to
make sure that was. Yeah, he earns his notorious nickname.
Later he gets three slices to the face and the
neck from this angry gangster who was pissed off the

(42:45):
young Al Capone told the gangster's baby sister that she
had a nice caboose. Yeah. So, anyway, we already covered
how two gun Hearts got his nickname. In past episodes,
we talked about how Bottles Capone got his nickname. What
a group of nickname? Answered the Capone boys, Bottles Scarface
and Two Guns anyway, Once he left Brooklyn, ol Vincenzo

(43:06):
Capone aka two Gun Heart, he never looks back, Elizabeth.
I don't know how often he thought of his family
back in New York while he was punching cows in
Texas and shooting cigarettes out of the mouths of his
boys in Homer, Nebraska. But it's worth recalling. Remember I
said he never made any true friends. Yeah, Yeah, started
to see anyway. Always a man of mystery, this local
character kept everyone at arm's length. Was he had all

(43:26):
in contact with his famous gangster family while he was
busting bootleggers on the prairie. Had he been in contact them?
And then he was pretending to go enlist in the
army and fight in the Great War, Yeah, seems like not.
I looked up. I could not find any reports or anything.
So it seems that he just disappeared for a while,
came back the Capone family. They knew nothing of what
happened to young Vincenzo. Even if they would have seen

(43:47):
one of his mini national news stories. The family obviously
didn't recognize his new adopted identity because he's this guy
James Hart.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
Yeah, they wouldn't connect it. Could you imagine they're reading
about it.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Photo it's some of the later pictures. There's clear photos
of him in the paper. Yeah, means, and he looks
like a copone, so but with a cowboy hat on
a fancy vest.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
Yeah, if you're not looking for it.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
And meanwhile, was he he's unaware of his younger brothers
rise to fame in the criminal world. He has no
idea what they're doing.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
We had to have known until they.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Become scarface in the Chicago outfit. Yeah that's years later,
from like nineteen o four to the twenties, right, right,
So he kind of anyway, so he's following along. Once
he does realize like, hey al Capone, that's my boy.
Hey Ralph, this is my brother's right, So he starts
following the news and he's not far Nebraska is not
far from Chicago, No, not at all. So he has
no idea his younger brothers are scarface and bottles until

(44:37):
they are the Chicago Outfit and then they're famous, and
he starts following their criminal careers, his baby brothers in
the gangland wars. I. Meanwhile, he's a prohibition agent, so
he can't really reach out to them, right, so he
follows along in the news documenting the fight of the
copone right, and obviously then the subsequent tax evasion trial
for his brother, and then he sees his brother Al
go to the rock. And this is nineteen thirty seven

(44:59):
at this point. This is about the same time. Remember
in nineteen thirty five is when two Gun Heart goes
back to Homer, Nebraska, becomes a marshall, and then he
gets busted robbing the grocery store. So the half blind,
glass eyed former lawman now reaches out to his family,
his gangster family, and asks for help.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
So around the same time, Ralph Bottles Capone is pretty
much in charge of the family. So he's been busted though,
and he sent to prison and released. So he's the
one who Two gun Heart reaches out to, and his
baby brother sends out a family member to check the story.
He's like, going down to Homer, Nebraska, I don't know
where it is, go find it and then see this
guy says he says he's related, right, So they send
out like I think John Capone, one of the baby brothers,
go test him. He didn't know him because he was

(45:38):
so young. He's like, I don't know it could be
a maybe he seems like but a man. Maybe somebody
told him this, right, So he's like, okay, bring him
back to Chicago. We'll have Mom decide.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
So oh man.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Ralph Bottles Capone finally meets up with two gun Heart
in Sioux City, Iowa, and then he goes and he
brings him up to meet mom. He's not going to
just have the younger son bring him to mom. He goes,
bring him to Sue City, Iowa. They go and die.
Then he he's like, they call him up Chicago to
meet Ma. They arrived, they head out to the South Side,
where Teresa Capone has a nuncio at this point has
a big place that her boy's bought her. Right now,

(46:09):
when Mama Capone sees her first born, what do you think,
she says, I don't know. She cries out, that's my boy.
Two gun Heart is officially home now. I don't know
if he was still wearing his loud cowboy clothes, his
ten his fancy vest and KICKI boots, but or it's
pearl handle pistols. I mean his brothers would bust have
been busting his balls if he did. Anyway, the family

(46:29):
accepts him in bottles. Capone sets him up with some property,
a summer retreat by the lake in Mercer, Wisconsin. He
gets them some new clothes, they get him cleaned up.
They put him on the family payroll, so he starts
getting a monthly check. So then this would come back
to bite two gun Heart in the backside. Yeah, maybe,
because in nineteen thirty nine, younger brother al Capone is
released from Alcatraz and when he gets out, big brother

(46:49):
two gun Heart comes home for a family reunion. He
meets his long loss gangster brother at the summer retreat
and Mercer. He returns home, he tells his wife about, Hey, what' back? Okay,
I got it, tell you something about my family. Eventually
he tells his sons like, okay, there's something you need
to know. You're you come from a very famous family. Yeah,
like not the good guy infamous, a very infamous family.

(47:10):
So he tells them you're not Hearts, you're Copones and
then they go and the oldest he takes the oldest
one to go meet him. In nineteen forty six, just
after the Second World War is over, Two Gun Heart
he brings his eldest son back to Chicago to meet
the family, he meets his uncle Scarface and his uncle Bottles.
By this point, Al Capone is suffering badly from syphilis.
He's losing his mind. Right, it's not a pretty picture. Yeah,

(47:32):
but he's still lucid enough that Two Gun Hearts like,
we'll talk to my son, right, And then he's telling
his son, don't listen to anything. He says, I don't
want you to end up like him. We're still law abiders.
But meanwhile, back on Homer, Nebraska, we're just starting to
spread because the sons just could not help but tell
somebody and seems, you know, boop, it gets slipped out.
And then eventually a local banker noticed that two Guns
was suddenly receiving weekly's cashier checks from a bank in Ciso, Illinois.

(47:56):
And everybody knew what Ciso, Illinois was back then, the
town that belongs Capone. So anyway, Two Gun Hearts he's
still trying to pass it off as he's received this
sizeable inheritance from his distant family. Subpar cover story, let
me tell you, Lizabeth, it only added to the mystery
of Two Gun Heart and oh, though true to his
nature as a local character, he doesn't mind all the speculation, right,
it makes it more colorful. His own brother in law, Harold,

(48:19):
he discovers his secret, as he claims, all by himself
and I quote, I figured out then who he was.
The magazines had a lot of stories of the Capone
funeral and the family, and all the family's first names
were the same as the names of the Chicago relatives
Dick always talked about. He was always talking Uncle Ralph.
So you get the idea. Yeah, he busts him out
and it was like, yeah, pretty good. It's like all

(48:40):
Elizabeth move. So his brother Acapone passes away in forty seven,
two gun Heart doesn't make the trip back for the funeral,
though he was still trying to keep his secret identity unknown.
Then in fifty one the full truth comes out because
remember he gets to put on the family payroll. Well,
the Feds go after Bottles Capone and then when they
open up the books, boom, look what they find. It's
two gun Heart, a prohibition agent getting a payoff from

(49:02):
the Capone family makes him look all sorts of hanky.
So when Bottles Copone is getting investigated, the authorities they
dig through all his financial records. They follow the money
trail they discover the long lost Capone brother on.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
Their own DA.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Understandably, the agents are like, wait what because the full
money trail revealed that he also had a summer retreated
in Mercer, Wisconsin. And then so not only was he
on the Copone family he ye role, he has property
and there was other properties as well. Anyway, his own
brother bottles Capone his defense attorneys. They subpoena two gun
Heart to come and testify on his brother's behalf, and

(49:35):
they in open federal court in Chicago. His wife's like,
I am not going. He's like, maybe come on please,
He's like, I am not going. Ze like I prefer
to stay home tend my garden. Remember she's in Nebraska
War at this point. So in the end she couldn't
let her husband go face the music on his own.
She makes the trip with him. She goes to Chicago.
His sons at this point they still respect him, Like

(49:55):
when the news comes around and they're asking him, well,
what's what's it like having a Capone as a father,
And they're like, you can say for me that he
has been as fine a dad to me and my
brother as anyone could ask for. I'm proud of him, Well,
so there you go. Me, he's good dad. So guess
they gotten over that whole shooting cigarettes out of the
mouth period of time Capone family. The money hadn't changed
them though, right. The family still maintained a comfortable two

(50:16):
story white frame house, modest chickens, lush garden. They also
had a cocker Spaniel named Danny. And I actually love
it when dogs have human first names. All Danny, Gary, Ted.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
I always have dogs with human first na.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
I know you like Wallace.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
I loved Wallace.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
My mom's got Morty and Elliott. Yeah you got it. Yeah,
it just tickles me so much. Anyway, too, got Hart
his wife. They make the trip Chicago, he testifies an
open cord on his brother's behalf secret is now fully out.
It's like national news. Everyone's like, there's another Capone. Yeah,
and he's a prohibition agent. Yeah, where's the cowboy boots? Also,

(50:53):
his father in law call him too gun heart. So
once they everybody know knows that he's a attached to
al Capone and al Capone as a cowboy brother, you know,
it's a whole thing. The locals in Homer, Nebraska, they
start getting asked about it, and there are signs that
they say the two Gun Heart was not your typical
Western hero, right. For one, his flamboyant style of dress,

(51:14):
well yeah, the big brimmed hats, the loud shirts and
vest it was almost like he was like an Italian
on the prairie. So there's this curious habit. Also of
having a thick money roll on him. He was known
to pull up fat water cash. People thought it was
show money, but he would have like a roll of
hundreds from the prairie. He's like a Chicago gangster coming
into the general store.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
Was the father Capone? Was he crooked?

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Was he in the father the family, in the mafia,
in the Naples? I do not know. I could not
answer that well enough. I would assume there may have
been some family, but I do not know. I have
no idea. Where was I. Oh, yes, so he's in
court at this point, right, So he's in Chicago. He's

(51:58):
got federal court truths finally revealed, not whispered in, rumored anymore. Right,
it's now inarguably revealed, big headlines two gun Hard. So
someone asked him in court, like, now that everybody knows
your secret, Well, I guess it's the prosecutor a person. Yes,
the third row. What was a question, Two gun Hard,
I got a it's more of a comment. Had a question.

(52:19):
The prosecutor asked, Right now the world knows that you're
a Capone. Are you going to keep your adopted name
and identity? You can keep being a cowboy? Yeah, so
you know he's on the witness stands here gun Hard.
He thinks for a moment. He paused, I certainly am
I've had it so long it's legal. Yeah, I guess.
So that was a common law marriage on an identity.
So when he asked if he was perturbed to learn

(52:40):
that he was a compone, two gun Heart said, why
should I be ashamed of it? I didn't have nothing
to do with it. Oh yeah, it's true, right, I
mean you can. Heart can't really argue with it. But
this is where he must set down to this strange
tale of American culture, because a short time later the
next year, two Gun Heart aka Vincenzo Capone passed away
in Homer, Nebraska. He leaves the world in the same
town where he jumped out of that freight train thirty

(53:01):
three years prior, looking for his piece of the American dream.
He got it got it right so many ways. Many
of those ways were an outright lie, but hey, whatever,
this is America. So Elizabeth, what's our ridiculous takeaway?

Speaker 3 (53:12):
Yeah, I am.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
I'm just fascinated by his ability to, uh, you know,
it's so American and it's so Western to just redefine
oneself and decide you're going to be something totally different convincingly.
What I was asking about his father being you know,
mafia adjacent or in it. You know, are these these
little ticks that he picked up as a child of

(53:35):
seeing his father walk around with hernt of cash or
keeping cat But I mean, then again, you really didn't
have to be in the mafia to keep cash like
on a pillow. Yeah, and so you know, but the
little things that it's the nature nurture. What is something
that's just like inherent in him? And what little things
did he pick up in the first twelve years of
his life, oh, that he carried on with him as

(53:57):
fascinating Zarin.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Yes, Elizabeth, how you doing anyway? So I do have
a ridiculous takeaway. Thanks, you're asking it's the same one
as you basically, but instead of the father, I was
thinking about it from his brother al Capone. Yeah, so
al Capone and James Hard We do know about both
of them. I don't know too much about the father.
But when you compare Scarface and two Gun Heart, you
see that the brothers basically, even though they're on the
opposite sides or prohibition, they're very similar, right, They have

(54:20):
very similar traits tendencies. They both like to live well,
to look good, to be memorable characters. They opt to
take risks, They use intelligence and violence to get their way.
They have this undeniable sense of people. They know how
to operate people, how to use their will to get
the job done, like to enforce their will on reality,
I mean, whatever the job may be. And they're both
the sort of men that others like to talk about,

(54:42):
and they liked to be talked about, and they generate
a good copy and I obviously plenty of headlines. Sure,
and they were both bigger than life. So maybe there's
something about the nature of the nurture or who knows.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
Yeah, why not both?

Speaker 2 (54:52):
So anyways, they say, there you go, that's awesome. Yeah, prettucerd,
we were thinking about a talkback just to clear the air.
What do you think, Elizabeth, I would love that I
got one for you. Here you go. Oh god, oh
my god, super I love ge.

Speaker 5 (55:14):
Hi.

Speaker 8 (55:14):
My name is Elizabeth and I just listened to the
Byzantium episode. It reminded me of a personality we have
here in Memphis who calls himself Prince Mango and says
he's from the planet Zambodia, born there open three hundred
years ago. He says he's sent here to save the earth.
He ran for mayor of Memphis and Shelby County multiple
times in the eighties and nineties and always lost. He

(55:36):
eventually opened a nightclub and a property called Ashlar Hall, and.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
That has since closed. But it's ridiculous, ridiculous and awesome.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
Thank you, Elizabeth. From one Elizabeth to another. That was
a great I like that well.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
As always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime on
the social media's and then there's our beautiful, charming, award
winning website Ridiculous Crime dot com. And obviously there is
the iHeart app where you can go and download it,
record a talkback and maybe hear your voice here on
the exactly and also emails if you like a Ridiculous
crime at gmail dot com. As always start the email.

(56:13):
Dear producer Dan, Okay, there you go. That's all I
got for you. We'll catch you next Crime. Viculous Crime
is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and zaraon Burnett, produced and
edited by Dave Campbell, back Kusten and starring an Alis
Rucker as Judith. Research is by Marissa two Pens Brown

(56:36):
and Andrea. The teflon song Sharpened Tear, our theme song
is by those Rock Toss and Stone Toss and baby
brothers Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided
by Botany five and guest Tarn. Makeup by Sparkleshot and
mister Andre. Executive producers are the heads of the Atlanta outfit,
Ben Bowland and Noel.

Speaker 5 (57:00):
Bridicrious Crime Say It One More Time, Gudiqueous Cry.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.