Why Al Capone's Oldest Brother Hid His Real Name For Over 30 Years

Al Capone had an older brother who lived as a lawman under a fake name for over thirty years. James Vincenzo Capone disappeared from Brooklyn around 1918, reinvented himself as Richard Hart, and became a federal Prohibition agent in Nebraska, enforcing the very laws his gangster brothers were breaking in Chicago. While Al Capone built a criminal empire during Prohibition, James carried two guns and raided bootleggers across the Great Plains, never telling anyone his real identity. His secret held until 1951, when a federal trial forced him to testify as James Capone, exposing one of the strangest hidden stories in American crime history.