Donalsonville Arrests and Warrants

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Donalsonville, Georgia Information

Donalsonville was named after an important businessman from the area, John Ernest Donalson and it lies in Seminole County, Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 2,796 and it is the county seat. The Seminole County Courthouse was erected in 1922 and is still standing today. The Courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city has a total area of four square miles, almost all of which is land, and it is about 20 minutes north of Lake Seminole, 62 miles south of Albany, 107 miles west of Valdosta, and 36 miles east of Dothan, Alabama. The city has one zip code and one area code, 39845 and 229, respectively. 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. While in 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. 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 mile away where she was raped again and then finally murdered. Billy Isaacs cooperated with prosecutors and received a twenty-year sentence for armed robbery. 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, claiming the pool of local jurors had been tainted by excess pretrial publicity. 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, by lethal injection. At the time of his execution, aged 49, he was the longest-serving death row inmate anywhere in the USA, having spent 30 years on death row prior to execution. Billy Isaacs was released from prison in 1993 but died in Florida on May 4, 2009. George Dungee died in prison on April 4, 2006. Only Wayne Coleman remains incarcerated (as of 2016). Janice Daugharty published a fictionalized account of the murders, Going to Jackson (2010). The crimes were also portrayed in the 1988 film Murder One starring Henry Thomas.

Donalsonville is ranked #408 in Georgia and #22,679 in the United States with a livability score of 60, which is in the 22nd percentile. The city scored best for great weather, crime, and cost of living. The average summer temperature is a comfortable 81 degrees, and the cost of living is four percent lower than Georgia’s.

The overall crime rate in Donalsonville is 7% lower than the national average. For every 100,000 people, there are 7.26 daily crimes that occur in Donalsonville. Donalsonville is safer than 27% of the cities in the United States. In Donalsonville you have a 1 in 38 chance of becoming a victim of any crime. The number of total year over year crimes in Donalsonville has decreased by 27%.

Of the factors which are used to determine the livability index, Donalsonville does well in the areas of weather, and cost of living. It scores poorly in the areas of Education, Housing, Amenities, Crime and Employment.

Dan Ponder, Mayor
Ponder Enterprises
208 East Third Street
Donalsonville, Georgia 39845
Phone Number: +1 (229) 524-2083