Winch’s 19-year-old daughter, Kathleen, was so smitten with her savior that she married him that fall.

Most everyone in Homer was greatly impressed by this new addition to the community. The town council appointed him marshal. The county sheriff issued him deputy papers. The American Legion honored him by electing him commander of their post and the Boy Scouts of America by appointing him district commissioner of their organization. Richard J. Hart seemed well on his way to becoming a big fish in a very small pond, but it soon became apparent he had greater ambitions. He would go on to become a “Prohibition cowboy,” one who wasn’t afraid to use his guns against bootleggers. And he pursued his lawman career while keeping quiet about his family connection toa man near the top of the crime world.

At the very time Richard Hart was establishing himself in Homer, a radical change was taking place in American society, one that would dramatically affect law enforcement in general and Hart in particular. On January 16, 1919, the States ratified the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and on October 29 Congress, over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson, passed the Volstead Act, a statute providing for the enforcement of Prohibition. It soon became evident many Americans disliked the new law and would defy it. Illicit stills sprang up all over the country. Authorities needed hundreds of agents for enforcement, and one of the first to apply for such a position was Richard