On December 15, 1921, gunshots echoed across Atlanta's famous Peachtree Street moments before a handsome young man darted away from Kaiser's Jewelers. Frank DuPre left in his wake a dead Pinkerton guard and a missing ring. As Christmas shoppers looked on in panic, he raced through the Kimball House Hotel and shot another victim. The brazen events terrified a crime-filled city already on edge. A manhunt captured the nineteen-year-old, unemployed DuPre, who faced a quick conviction and a hanging sentence. Months of appeals pitted a prosecutor demanding some "good old-fashioned rope" against "maudlin sentimentalists" and "sob sisters." Author Tom Hughes recounts the true harrowing story behind the legend of one of the last men hanged in Atlanta.

Tom Hughes was a radio journalist and morning host in Atlanta for over thirty years and is a member of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame. He has resided in in-town Atlanta since 1977. This is his second book exploring a true crime from Atlanta's past. The first was "Rich Georgian Strangely Shot: Eugene Grace, Daisy of the Leopard Spots, and the Great Atlanta Shooting of 1912" (McFarland 2012).

Hanging the Peachtree Bandit: The True Tale of Atlanta's Infamous Frank DuPre

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