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

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.