Vincenzo Capone

Richard James "Two-Gun" Hart (born James Vincenzo Capone; ; March 28, 1892 – October 1, 1952) was an Italian-American sharpshooter and prohibition agent, who was noted for his cowboy style and for being the elder brother of gangsters Al, Frank, and Ralph Capone. Early life Capone was born in 1892, in Angri, Province of Salerno, Italy. He was the first of the nine children of Gabriele Capone, a barber, and Teresa Raiola, a seamstress. In 1895, his parents emigrated to the United States with their children, James and Ralph, settling in downtown Brooklyn. He went by the Americanized form of his first name, James. During his early years in America his siblings Frank, Al, Ermina, John, Albert, Matthew Capone and Mafalda Maritote were born. Career Capone left home at age 16 then left New York City, joined a circus as a roustabout and eventually adopted the last name of his idol, William S. Hart, the foremost star of Western silent films in the 1920s. He also adopted the actor's persona as much as possible, "even earning the 'Two-Gun' moniker long attached to the motion picture star". He worked to lose his Brooklyn accent and tried to disguise his Italian ancestry. According to some accounts he enlisted in the United States Army during World War I, served in France, and earned a commission as a lieutenant. Other sources say that he claimed to have served in France during the war, but was much later expelled from his local American Legion organization of war veterans after it was found that the Department of the Army had no record of his war service.