

Two-Gun Hart became a Prohibition agent in 1920, keeping his family roots a deep secret. Here he poses with confiscated alcohol. (State Historical Society of North Dakota, 1952-0088)

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 to a man near the top of the crime world

He was a throwback to another age, a walking, talking anachronism. From his high-heeled boots to his low-slung six-shooter, fancy vest and wide-brimmed Stetson, he was the popular depiction of the 19th-century Wild West gunfighter. But the year was 1919, and his type normally only made appearances in the hugely popular cowboy silent films of the day. When in thespring of that year he dropped off a freight train in Homer, Nebraska, a small community set back 16 miles from the wide Missouri opposite Sioux City, Iowa, he was neither packing a gun (at least not holstered in plain sight) nor sporting a sombrero. Local townsfolk, if they noticed him at all, would have taken him for just another rail-riding hobo.

For some reason the newcomer, who gave his name as Richard J. Hart, took an immediate liking to the little community of 500 souls and stayed on, taking work wherever he could find it. Obviously intelligent and ambitious, he was not afraid of hard work and over the next few months held jobs as a railroad timekeeper, housepainter and paperhanger.

Short in stature but powerfully built, he had