Editing Donalsonville, Georgia (section)

== Alday family murders ==
{{Main articles|Alday family murders}}
Donalsonville was the site of the second largest mass murder in Georgia history (the largest being the Woolfolk murders in 1887). On May 14, 1973, Carl Isaacs, his half brother Wayne Coleman, and fellow prisoner George Dungee escaped from the Maryland State Prison. They were later joined by Carl's younger brother, 15-year-old Billy Isaacs.<ref name="walb">{{cite news|last1=Patterson|first1=Catherine|title=42 years after Alday murders, no closure|url=http://www.walb.com/story/29546832/42-years-after-alday-murders-no-closure|access-date=15 May 2017|publisher=Raycom Media|date=14 July 2015|location=DONALSONVILLE, GA}}</ref> While en route to Florida the men came upon the Alday farm in Donalsonville. They stopped at a mobile home owned by Jerry Alday and his wife Mary, to look for gas as there was a gas pump on the property.<ref name="attorney general">{{cite web|title=Attorney General Baker Announces Execution of Carl Isaacs, Georgia's Longest Serving Death Row Inmate {{!}} Office of Attorney General Chris Carr|url=https://law.georgia.gov/press-releases/2003-05-06/attorney-general-baker-announces-execution-carl-isaacs-georgias-longest|website=law.georgia.gov|publisher=Department of Law {{!}} State of Georgia|access-date=15 May 2017|date=6 May 2003}}</ref>

Alday and his father Ned Alday arrived as the trailer was being ransacked and were ordered inside, then shot to death in separate bedrooms. Jerry's brother Jimmy arrived at the trailer on a tractor and he too was led inside and forced to lay on a couch, then shot. Later, Jerry's 25-year-old wife Mary arrived at the trailer as the men attempted to hide the tractor. She was restrained, while Jerry's brother Chester and uncle Aubrey  arrived in a pickup truck. The criminals accosted the pair still in their truck and forced them inside the trailer where they were also shot to death. Mary Alday was raped on her kitchen table before being taken out to a wooded area miles away where she was raped again and then finally murdered.<ref name="The Ledger">{{cite news|last1=Stillman|first1=Jack|title=An Ordinary Day Became a Night of Mass Murder|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eoROAAAAIBAJ&dq=alday%20murder&pg=7060%2C5517286|access-date=15 May 2017|agency=Associated Press|issue=218|publisher=The Ledger|date=20 May 1973|volume=66|location=Donalsonville, GA|page=16}}</ref>

Billy Isaacs cooperated with prosecutors and received a twenty-year sentence for armed robbery.<ref>{{cite news|title='Laughed' at mercy plea {{!}} Youth accuses brother of slaughtering family|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1974/01/03/page/39/article/laughed-at-mercy-plea|agency=UPI|work=Chicago Tribune|date=3 January 1974|location=Donalsonville, Georgia}}</ref> Carl Isaacs, Coleman, and Dungee were tried by jury in Seminole County in 1973, convicted, and sentenced to death. All three convictions and sentences were overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in 1985, on the grounds that the pool of local jurors had been tainted by excess pretrial publicity.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Schwartz|first1=Jerry|title=Man Convicted Again in Killing of Georgia Family|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/26/us/man-convicted-again-in-killing-of-georgia-family.html|access-date=15 May 2017|work=New York Times|date=26 January 1988}}</ref> All three defendants were re-tried in 1988 and were again convicted; however, only Carl Isaacs was sentenced to death, Coleman and Dungee receiving life sentences.

Carl Isaacs was executed on May 6, 2003, at [[Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison]] in [[Jackson, Georgia|Jackson]], by [[lethal injection]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/isaacs852.htm|title=Carl Junior Isaacs #852|access-date=27 July 2016}}</ref> At the time of his execution, aged 49, he was the longest-serving death row inmate anywhere in the US, having spent 30 years on death row prior to execution.<ref name="Augusta Chronicle">{{cite news|title=Aldays see killer executed {{!}} chronicle.augusta.com|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2003/05/10/met_372229.shtml#.WRl-BYwrK00|access-date=15 May 2017|work=chronicle.augusta.com|agency=Morris News Service|date=10 March 2003|location=ATHENS, Georgia}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Carl Isaacs Executed|url=http://www.todayingeorgiahistory.org/content/carl-isaacs-executed|website=todayingeorgiahistory.org/|access-date=15 May 2017}}</ref>

Billy Isaacs was released from prison in 1993,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Apperson |first1=Jay |date=21 October 1993 |title=After 20 years, freedom nears Judge orders parole for Isaacs, 36, who took part in deadly '73 rampage |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/10/21/after-20-years-freedom-nears-judge-orders-parole-for-isaacs-36-who-took-part-in-deadly-73-rampage/ |access-date=15 May 2017  |work=The Baltimore Sun }}</ref> and died in Florida on May 4, 2009. George Dungee died in prison on April 4, 2006.  Only Wayne Coleman remains incarcerated (as of 2023).

The murders were the subject on an award-winning 1977 documentary called ''Murder One'' directed by Fleming 'Tex' Fuller.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Morrison |first1=Bill |title=Kinstonian honored for broadcasting excellence |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/653392646 |access-date=7 March 2022 |work=[[The News & Observer]] |date=16 Feb 1978 |location=Raleigh, North Carolina |page=31}}</ref> Fuller then wrote a screenplay, which was filmed as the 1988 film, ''[[Murder One (film)|Murder One]]'', starring [[Henry Thomas]].<ref name=Sentinel1988>{{cite news |title=Too close to home |quote=The movie Murder One, based on the 1973 Alday family slayings ... |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1988-10-16-0070380215-story.html |access-date=7 Mar 2022|work=[[The Orlando Sentinel]] |date=16 October 1988 |page=A-20}}</ref> The 1988 film was widely released in North America, but it wasn't released in southwest Georgia near where the killings took place, so as not to offend people.<ref name=Sentinel1988/>

Janice Daugharty published a fictionalized account of the murders, ''Going to Jackson'' (2010, [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11744169-going-to-jackson]). 
[[File:Friendship United Methodist Church, Donalsonville.JPG|thumb|right|Friendship United Methodist Church]]