“Rich Georgian Strangely Shot”

In March 1912, Gene Grace, a young Atlanta businessman, was found shot in the locked bedroom of his fashionable home “between the Peachtrees.” Daisy Grace, his flashily dressed Yankee wife from Philadelphia, was soon arrested on a charge of assault with intent to murder. Gene Grace was left paralyzed but, more importantly, he was powerless legally. Under Georgia law, he could not testify against his wife. Prosecutors were forced to rely instead upon the circumstantial evidence of an alleged “diabolical plot.” The Atlanta newspapers—led by the Georgian, under the very new control of Mr. Hearst, that giant of “yellow journalism”—covered the case relentlessly. Papers across the country followed the drama for months, which concluded with a five-day trial held in the searing heat of a Georgia summer. This is the never-before-told story of the tragic romance between “the Adonis of a country town” and the woman known to all as “Daisy of the Leopard Spots.”

Long-time Atlanta resident Tom Hughes was a radio news host and journalist for more than 30 years and is a member of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame. He is a contributing writer to the London-based Marylebone Journal.

by Tom Hughes

Format: softcover (6×9)
Pages: 204
Bibliographic Info: 8 photos, 2 maps, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7078-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9289-3
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1
1. “Rich Georgian Strangely Shot”      5
2. “What have you told these people, Gene?”      11
3. “Adonis from a Country Town”      17
4. The Philadelphia Belle      20
5. “A heart broken man”      25
6. Between the Peachtrees      32
7. Burglar or Butler?      38
8. To the Tower      43
9. “A diabolical plot”      48
10. “Hell, no, I’m not going to die”      53
11. The House of Mystery      58
12. To Philadelphia      67
13. Gene Grace in a Bad Light      76
14. Hearst Stirring Up Atlanta      85
15. An Operation      91
16. “A deathlike stillness”      97
17. The Bloody Bundle Redux      104
18. Mother Hill’s Ordeal      111
19. The Alibi Letters      121
20. A Grocer Calls      127
21. “Gentlemen, I am innocent”      135
22. Inhuman Creature or Persecuted Woman      146
23. “We, the jury”      155
24. Purely Speculation      161
25. The Final Chapter      170
Chapter Notes      179
Bibliography      187
Index      191

• “In this study, Hughes, a member of the Georgia radio Hall of Fame, examines the local and national newspapers’ sensationalistic coverage of the case and the trial, and explains the mystery of what actually happened between Eugene and Daisy”—Reference & Research Book News
• “A century-old scandal about an Atlanta woman’s alleged shooting of her husband that became the dominant headline”—Access Atlanta

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