February 13, 2025 • 33 mins
Discover the shocking crime spree of Carl Isaacs and his gang, whose violent escape from the Maryland State Penitentiary led to a terrifying series of events in 1973. How did a group of fugitives leave a trail of car thefts, burglaries, and brutal murders across several states? Unravel the gripping narrative of their journey southward, culminating in the harrowing Alday family massacre in Donaldsonville, Georgia, an event that left an indelible mark on the community and the justice system.
Experience the desperate and chaotic flight of these criminals, from the haunting break-in at the Alday family trailer to the tense showdown with armed citizens at a country store in Virginia. Witness the relentless pursuit by law enforcement, as these fugitives sought refuge in the West Virginia mountains, leaving behind a trail of devastation. This episode captures the chilling nature of their crimes and the intense manhunt that followed, as society scrambled to comprehend the impact of such heinous acts.
Reflect on the enduring legacy of the Alday family tragedy, a chapter in history that transformed the judicial landscape of Georgia. The trials and retrials of Carl Isaacs and his accomplices highlight the challenges of achieving justice amid widespread media attention and legal complexities. Explore the ripple effects of their actions on the Alday family and the broader community, as we honor the memory of those lost and examine the changes that arose from this dark moment in Southern history.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carole Townsend (00:04):
At just 19 years of age, carl Jr Isaacs was
already a hardened criminal.
He had been in and out offoster care and in and out of
trouble for most of his life.
In March of 1973, he wasarrested for stealing and sent
to the Maryland StatePenitentiary.
(00:26):
On May 5th of that same year,he masterminded an escape from
that prison.
With him he took hishalf-brother and fellow inmate,
wayne Coleman, and his friendGeorge Dungy, with whom Wayne
was said to have developed aromantic relationship.
The three prisoners made theirescape that night At around 3
(00:59):
o'clock am.
All three men escaped through abathroom window and hid in the
woods surrounding the prison.
Since none of the men wasconsidered dangerous, local
authorities were not notified ofthe escape.
Stealing a blue Thunderbird inBaltimore, the escapees picked
up Carl's 15-year-old brother,billy, who was thrilled to
(01:20):
accompany them on this adventure.
The plan was to live out theirdays as free men in Florida or
Mexico.
Fugitives committed a string ofburglaries in Maryland and
Pennsylvania.
On May 10th they stole a pickuptruck in McConnellsburg,
pennsylvania.
19-year-old Richard Millerrecognized the truck as one
belonging to his neighbor and hechased the men until they
(01:43):
stopped.
Carl Isaacs murdered Miller andthe outlaws disposed of his
body on a pile of trash nearFlintstone, maryland.
They abandoned a pickup truckthey had stolen after the
Thunderbird in favor of Miller's1968 Chevy Supersport and they
drove south History.
(02:26):
It's a subject that, in myopinion, gets sold short Too
often.
What comes to mind when wemention history is the rote
memory of name, date and place.
At first glance, history isflat dry and forgettable, but
that's because we forget thatit's people who make that
history.
It's people, it's greed, it'sdesire, it's lust, it's anger
(02:46):
and shame and deceit.
It's pride and courage andpassion.
It's fascinating and sometimesit's ugly.
The names and dates, my friends, are merely window dressing, or
merely window dressing.
As an author and a journalist, Ihave investigated Southern
(03:10):
history and crime for more than20 years and I know that it's
anything but boring.
There's something differentabout the South, and if you've
ever spent any time here you mayknow what I mean.
The air is thicker, the soil isheavier, the colors are richer.
The history of this region isladen with mystery, with
(03:32):
intrigue and often withastounding surprise, even shock.
Southern legends are oftenspoken in whispers, in close
circles and among friends.
Are often spoken in whispers,in close circles and among
friends, lest the ghosts ofthose who walked before us begin
to stir and take notice.
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
(04:02):
Listener discretion is advised.
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania,richard Miller's father had
reported his teenage son missing.
Once police had checked all ofthe possible teen runaway
scenarios and found that the19-year-old was clearly not a
(04:24):
runaway, they beganinvestigating.
One of Richard's friends hadtold the police about the stolen
truck and Richard's pursuit ofthe thieves, and another witness
, norman Strait, said that hesaw four men taking items out of
a blue Chevrolet andtransferring them to a pickup
(04:44):
truck.
In order to get a better lookat the men, strait said he got
his hunting rifle and used thepowerful scope to see their
faces more clearly.
Sure enough, the man who wasleaning against the car watching
the others do the work was CarlIsaacs.
Later Strait said I guess Ishould have shot that son of a
(05:08):
bitch right there.
It would have saved a lot oflives.
Richard Miller's body wasdiscovered a few weeks after
Isaacs killed him and sadly, hiswould not be the only body left
in the wake of the dark daysthat followed May 5, 1973.
Carl and Billy Isaacs, wayneColeman and George Dungy
(05:33):
continued driving south afterkilling Miller in Pennsylvania
and stealing his truck.
Nine days after their escape,they had made it as far as
Donaldsonville in SeminoleCounty, georgia, not far from
the Florida state line.
When they reachedDonaldsonville, in the southwest
(05:54):
corner of the state, they weretired, they were hungry and
broke, and they needed gas.
Cruising through SeminoleCounty, the men looked for a gas
station to rob, an opportunityto solve all these problems, and
before long they spotted atrailer on River Road, a farm
(06:15):
property that belonged to a MrNed.
All day Behind that trailerthey spotted a gas pump, and
they desperately needed morefuel if they were ever going to
get to Florida.
The secluded trailer and thegas pump looked like the perfect
opportunity for the fugitivesto get both money and gas.
(06:35):
And if they ran into anyproblems, well, there was no one
around to hear about it.
Carefully, they entered thedriveway to the trailer and
slowly drove up to the home.
Carl and Wayne broke into thetrailer, leaving Billy and
George to stand watch outside.
No one was home at the time,but not long after the break-in,
(06:59):
ned Alday and his son Jerrypulled up.
They had just had lunch atErnestine Alday's house, as was
their daily custom, before goingback to work on the farm.
The two unsuspecting men wereforced inside the trailer and
robbed at gunpoint.
Then they were taken tobedrooms on opposite ends of the
(07:21):
mobile home.
Carl Isaacs shot Jerry Alday inthe head four times.
Wayne Coleman shot Jerry'sfather, ned, once in the head,
but the shot was not fatal.
Ned managed to stand and fightfor his life until Carl Isaacs
came in and shot him five moretimes Later.
(07:44):
Carl would laugh as he recalledNed begging for mercy.
Within just a few minutes ofthese murders, jerry's brother,
jimmy, arrived at the trailerdriving a tractor.
He headed toward the door toplan for the next day with his
father and brother, as theyalways did.
Jimmy was taken inside, forcedonto a couch and shot twice in
(08:10):
the back of the head by CarlIsaacs.
Ready to leave, carl went outto move the tractor.
Before he even got it started,though, jerry's 26-year-old wife
Mary arrived After work.
She had gone to the grocerystore After work.
She had gone to the grocerystore.
As she got the groceries fromthe trunk of the car, carl
(08:32):
sneaked up behind her and forcedher inside the mobile home at
gunpoint.
The only member of the Aldefamily not immediately executed
was Mary.
Two of the men raped her on herkitchen table in her home.
As she lay, trembling andpraying quietly under the table.
(08:53):
After the assault, the menransacked the trailer, looking
for guns and money.
In the darkness of the trailer,mary desperately strained to
see what the men were doing.
While they were tossing thetrailer looking for anything of
value, jerry's brother Chesterand Uncle Aubrey pulled up in a
pickup truck.
Carl went out and brought theminside.
(09:15):
At gunpoint, chester was takeninto the room where Ned's body
lay and Wayne Coleman shot him.
Isaacs took Aubrey into theroom with his nephew Jerry and
there he killed him.
When the bodies were found,aubrey's hand was laying over
Jerry's.
(09:36):
Eventually, billy Isaacs grabbedMary and jerked her to her feet
Get dressed, he said.
They dragged Mary out to hercar, pushing her down in the
floor of the back seat whileGeorge Dungy held a gun on her.
They drove about six milesnorth to a secluded area where
(09:56):
Mary was raped again and againby three of the four men, each
of them sweating and swiggingwhiskey from a bottle, as they
watched and awaited their turn.
When they were done with her,george Dungy shot her and left
her there.
But before Dungy fatally shotMary, the men took pictures of
(10:17):
her with her own camera, whichthey had stolen.
The photos were later found andused as evidence.
Driving Mary's stolen car, themen traveled north on River Road
into Early County, heading awayfrom the crime scenes and the
six bodies they left behind.
(10:38):
Mary's body was found two dayslater.
The four men had fled thesecluded scene of Mary's
brutalization and murder andheaded to Alabama where they
stole a Chevy Caprice.
24 hours later they pulled intothe driveway of a remote
country store in Virginia.
(10:58):
Carl parked the car, encasedthe store's interior.
Seeing maybe five people insideShould be a piece of cake,
considering their recentescapades.
Still, carl told the otherthree men to accompany him
inside.
The four fugitives stood aroundthe soda machine pretending to
(11:19):
consider their choices, whilethey glanced this way and that
in an effort to plan theirattack.
But then Wayne moved quicklywithout warning, shoving a gun
in the face of the only adultmale in the store.
Carl then told George to tie upthe others, which proved to be
quite a challenge for thechallenged escapee.
(11:41):
Then another customer walked inand then another, and George
continued to try to tie them allup, while Carl and Billy ran
haphazardly here and there,grabbing merchandise and taking
the store's meager money for theday from the cash register.
For some reason, george thenwalked to the back of the store
(12:03):
and began frantically callingfor Wayne.
A woman, a baby and a toddlerwere in that back room and
George had no idea what to do.
Wayne brought another woman tothe back room, tied both women
up and forced them to lie on thefloor.
Then the four fugitivessprinted to the door and ran out
(12:24):
into the parking lot.
Two more men were just pullingin and instinctively they knew
that something was very wrongabout this scene.
These two men were heavilyarmed and when they called to
the escapees to stop and wereignored, they opened fire.
Carl slammed the car intoreverse and peeled out of the
(12:47):
parking lot, crossing over theline from Virginia into West
Virginia.
Within minutes the road becameharder to navigate, with
twisting turns and steep gradesthat simply didn't allow a
speedy escape.
Carl was ironically driving thespeed limit when a state
(13:08):
trooper approached the car,coming the opposite direction.
The officer's name was HoytRyan, and he and his partner had
just been advised that adark-green Chevy Caprice had
fled the scene of an armedrobbery and the suspects were
headed their way.
Ryan and his partner, meadows,hung a sharp U-turn and engaged
(13:30):
in high-speed pursuit of theCaprice, losing the suspects as
they careened precariouslyaround curves and along steep
mountain drop-offs.
But coming around one lastcurve, the officers spotted the
Caprice parked alongside theroad and it was empty.
Both officers knew that the menhad escaped by foot into the
(13:53):
densely forested mountainside.
It would simply be a matter oftime until they were caught or
gave themselves up.
This terrain, the officers knew, was terribly unforgiving.
Radioing for backup, the twoofficers learned that the men
they were chasing were heavilyarmed.
Backup arrived within minutesand several officers, having
(14:17):
already spoken with residentswho had seen the men exit the
car and run, pursued thefugitives on foot.
Others slowly drove the roadlooking for any sign of men
running or hiding.
Up ahead, the officers sawthree men run across the road
and they gave chase on foot.
The three men disappeared,however, bobbing and ducking
(14:42):
into the brush as they ran.
But the officers knew thatthere was a fourth man who
wasn't with that group.
So they crossed back over theroad and entered the thick woods
.
There, within a few hundredyards, they spotted a paunchy
black man crouching behind atree and frantically trying to
load a pistol.
Don't move, ryan, said,leveling his gun at the man's
(15:07):
head, commanding George Dungy toplace his hands on his head.
Ryan frisked him pulling awoman's Timex watch from one of
George's pockets.
He wondered at the time whythis man would have a woman's
watch in his possession.
As it turned out, ryan alsodiscovered that George Dungy was
(15:33):
desperately trying to load .380caliber ammunition into a .32
caliber weapon.
Ryan surmised that Dungy wasterrified at the thought of
being apprehended.
Officer Ryan loaded ahandcuffed Dungy into the
backseat of his patrol car.
A quick radio call told himthat the cowering man in his
(15:55):
backseat was wanted for sixmurders in Georgia.
You're in a lot of trouble,george, ryan said to him.
Hours later the districtattorney arrived to take the
statement George agreed to giveand he saw that the trembling
fugitive was still as terrifiedas Ryan had described when he
(16:17):
approached him hours earlier.
Do they have the death penaltyin West Virginia?
George nervously asked WestVirginia?
The DA replied I don't thinkyou've done anything here that
would warrant the death penalty.
Georgia, however, does have thedeath penalty.
There might be some things downthere you'd be worried about.
(16:39):
George was indeed worried,unbelievably.
You see, he had beenincarcerated in Maryland, not
for violent crime.
Rather, he had been convictedof failure to pay child support
and was due to be released.
Just a few weeks before thethree men had escaped by
climbing out that bathroomwindow and embarking on a
(17:02):
murder spree.
Meanwhile through the night andinto early the next morning,
hundreds of men and women werecombing the treacherous West
Virginia mountain terrainlooking for the other three
heavily armed fugitives,searching a wide-spanning grid
and with helicopters searchingoverhead.
(17:23):
Officers Harold Hall and LDTownley, along with a prized
tracking dog named Prince,trudged with two other officers
through the thick brush.
Prince was running a zigzagpattern of tracking, doubling
(17:43):
back and seeming confused butdetermined, and it eventually
became clear that he had becomeconfused after catching the
scent of the men from theinterior of the Caprice.
It appeared as though he wasactually tracking the cops who
were following him.
So the men started over.
They took Prince back to thecar, let him pick up the scent
(18:07):
again, and he took off this timewith such drive and purpose
that it was hard to keep up withhim.
Soon Prince was tracking themen by sniffing the air and not
the ground, which meant that thefugitives were nearby.
When Prince began foaming atthe mouth with excitement, the
(18:28):
officers knew they were on topof the armed murderers.
Prince was well-trained enoughnot to bark, though, so the
officers carefully scanned theterrain to see if they could
spot anything at all unusualthere a shirt.
At closer glance, the officershad spotted three men lying on
(18:49):
the ground, partially concealedunder a granite shelf that
jutted out of the mountainside.
Circling for better position,the officers commanded the men
to come out.
No one stirred.
One of the officers emptied a20-round clip from his AR-15
into the air, and that got thesuspect's attention.
(19:10):
One by one, they wereinstructed to crawl out and to
raise their hands over theirheads.
They were disarmed and takeninto custody
without incident.
There was just one problemPrince had led the officers on a
fast and determined pursuitdeep into the thick woods of
West Virginia.
(19:31):
The officers were lost alonewith three very dangerous men.
They listened for signs of lifeand eventually heard traffic
from the highway Trudging inthat direction.
They eventually saw the crowdsof people ahead, some in uniform
and some in plain clothes.
(19:52):
When the crowd spotted them, asmattering of applause broke out
and within seconds hundredswere clapping and cheering.
Three very bad men had beenapprehended
without incident.
It's interesting to note thatBetty Isaacs, carl's mother had
(20:13):
called the West Virginia StatePolice to state emphatically
that she knew who the killerswere, as three of the four
escapees were her sons.
She went on to say without adoubt that Carl was the one in
charge.
She went on to say without adoubt that Carl was the one in
charge, and I'm quoting hereAccording to his mother, carl
(20:44):
was the only one of whom policeshould be wary.
Betty said that she made thecall because she didn't want any
police officers to get hurt.
Once apprehended, the men wereflown to Atlanta the next
morning and held in separatejails until the following Monday
when they were flown toDonaldsonville to be arraigned.
During questioning, bettyIsaac's conclusions proved to
(21:05):
be correct.
Oddly, wayne Coleman tried totake credit for all six murders
and paint himself as theringleader of the group, but
detectives saw through his ruseright away.
Wayne didn't have the ego, thegravitas or the mental acuity to
lead a group anywhere.
(21:25):
George Dungy was himself anintellectually challenged
individual and while he admittedto shooting Mary, he said he
did so because he feared thegroup would kill him if he
didn't go along with thesavagery.
Billy Isaac's version of thevicious chain of events seemed
rather self-serving, butGeorge's retelling backed up his
(21:48):
statement that he hadn'tmurdered anyone.
And then there was Carl, whowasn't talking to anyone about
the crimes.
All he remembered about thatday, he told police, was that
May 14th was a pretty May day.
Although the details of theother men's stories differed
(22:08):
greatly, they all agreed on whatthey believed to be
insignificant facts.
But it was Carl who convincedthem to escape from prison.
It was Carl who decided to stopand pick up Billy.
Carl always did the driving.
Carl was the first to rape Mary.
Carl chose the all-days trailerto rob.
(22:31):
Carl was clearly in charge,calling all
the shots.
Once the four prisoners arrivedin Donaldsonville, they were
led into the Seminole CountyCourthouse separately.
Six counts of murder were readto each offender by District
Attorney Ralph Foster and as thecharges were read, wayne
(22:54):
Coleman laughed.
Coleman also admitted toshooting 19-year-old Richard
Miller in Pennsylvania and hevolunteered to go back there to
help locate the young man's body.
And he volunteered to go backthere to help locate the young
man's body.
He was sent back to Georgia,however, when it became clear
(23:18):
that he had no idea where theyhad hid his body.
All four men were tried by juryin Donaldsonville Because Billy
Isaacs cooperated withprosecutors and testified
against the other three men, hereceived a 20-year sentence for
armed robbery.
Carl Isaacs, wayne Coleman andGeorge Dungy were convicted of
murder and sentenced to death,as George's death penalty
(23:42):
statute had been put in placejust nine months earlier.
However, in a shocking turn ofevents, all three of these
convictions and sentences wereoverturned in 1985 by the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals on thegrounds that the pool of
Seminole County jurors had beentainted by excessive pretrial
(24:06):
publicity had been tainted byexcessive pre-trial publicity.
This decision led to decades offrustration with the lack of
justice by the justice system.
All three men faced trial againin 1988, and again they were
convicted.
George Dungy's second trialtook place in Columbus, georgia,
(24:27):
where he was sentenced to lifein prison.
Carl Isaac's second convictioncame from a jury in Perry,
georgia.
For the second time, he wassentenced to die.
Wayne Coleman received a lifesentence in DeKalb County
Superior Court.
Billy Isaacs was released fromprison in 1993.
(24:49):
He died in the FloridaPanhandle on May 4, 2009.
It seems that he was the onlyone of the four murderers who
actually made it to Florida.
He was 51 years old at the timeof his death.
George Dungy died of a heartattack in prison on April 4,
(25:10):
2006 at the ageof 68.
Carl Isaacs was executed bylethal injection on May 6, 2003
at the state prison in Jackson,georgia.
He asked for a regularinstitutional dinner tray of
pork and macaroni, pinto beans,cabbage and chocolate cake, but
(25:34):
he pushed the meal away when itcame.
He also declined an opportunityto make a final statement, but
he did ask for a final prayerand after the prayer he mouthed
Amen.
It's left up to theologianssmarter than I, I suppose
whether that prayer and the amenthat followed were heeded by
(25:57):
the same God that witnessed theheinous crimes against the Alday
family At the time of hisexecution.
At age 49, carl Isaacs was thelongest serving death row inmate
anywhere in the United States,having spent 30 years there
awaiting Georgia's death bylethal injection.
A string of state and federalappeals are to credit for that
(26:22):
extended stay.
His death also marked the firsttime in Georgia history that
victimized family members wereallowed to witness a death
sentence beingcarried out.
When Carl Isaac's father,george, was asked by a defense
team psychologist during thetrial about his son, he leaned
(26:43):
back in his chair and said I'mjust trying to remember which
one that was.
George had fathered manychildren by Betty, his wife, and
Carl's mother, whom Carldespised.
He wasn't any help in his son'sdefense and in fact knew
neither how many children he hadnor what their names were.
(27:06):
Fifty years later, wayneColeman is still living, at the
expense of Georgia taxpayers, atthe Wilcox State Prison.
He continues to be eligible forparole and he continues to have
thatparole denied.
Tragically, an eighth death canbe attributed to the brutal and
(27:30):
senseless actions of the fourmen who just happened upon the
Alday family farm back in May1973.
You see, while every effort wasmade to keep the horrid details
of her daughter Mary's deathfrom her, alberta Lane Campbell
did learn how her child wasinhumanly violated and murdered.
(27:52):
She learned the painful detailson May 18th, the day after the
funerals.
The heartbreak proved too muchfor her and she died just five
days after her daughter did.
Three books chronicle this evilstory Dead man Coming by
(28:13):
Charles Postol, blood Echo byThomas H Cook and Brothers in
Blood byClark Howard.
The 1988 film Murder One alsoabout the events of May 14, 1973
, was widely released acrossNorth America, but it was never
(28:36):
shown on any screens nearsouthwest Georgia.
And while the Alde familystrongly objected to the books
and the making of the movie,they actually turned out to help
the legal case against CarlIsaacs.
While making a documentary thateventually led to the film, the
filmmaker interviewed Isaacs.
On the video, isaacs madeseveral statements that spoke
(29:02):
clearly to his callousness andcharacter, saying glibly that he
would have killed the All Daysagain.
He made the cold comment thatthe only thing the All Days ever
did that stood out was gettingkilled by me.
He also openly admitted toshooting Jerry, ned and Aubrey
All Day and to sexuallyassaulting Mary.
(29:24):
As if the All Day family hadn'tbeen through enough.
For decades they struggled tostay updated on the seemingly
never-ending quest for justicein these cases.
In 2003, paige Barber, ned andErnestine, allday's
granddaughter, successfullylobbied the Georgia General
(29:45):
Assembly to pass the All DayFamily Bill.
This law requires the state toupdate families of victims in
death penalty cases twicea year.
May 14, 1973 marked a dark dayin Georgia, in fact, in the
(30:05):
entire country Georgia.
In fact, in the entire country.
The murders of the six all-dayfamily members were cold,
senseless and violent.
Only one other such Georgiatragedy left more innocent
people dead, and that was theWolford family murders in 1887.
Tom Wolford was convicted andhanged for the axe-bludgeoning
(30:28):
death of nine of his familymembers.
We took a look at this case inan earlier episode of Front
Porch Mysteries.
The Aldays are buried in SpringCreek Cemetery in southwest
Georgia.
Sober marble grave markers arenow home for the murdered family
(30:48):
members, who were so much morethan just farmers, as so many
news accounts describe them.
Yes, they were farmers and theyloved working the land, but
they were also devout Christians.
They were loving parents,grandparents, aunts, uncles and
siblings.
Some were quiet and reservedand some were jokers and
(31:12):
pranksters.
And Mary, all day, loved herflower garden.
These were people, people whomattered, and a chance, freak
intersection of their lives withthe poison lives of their
killers brought all of that toan end.
The innocence of Georgia endedthat day more than 50 years ago
(31:35):
as well.
Until May 14, 1973, people inGeorgia, especially rural South
Georgia, didn't lock their doors.
There was an unspoken trustamong neighbors, one that gave
people a solid assurance thattheir lives and homes were not
only safe but protected by theirfriends and neighbors.
(31:58):
Not anymore.
(32:20):
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
six-time award-winning author.
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at www
.
caroletownsend.
com.
As always, thanks for listeningand if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
(32:40):
friends.
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
anywhere you listen.
My team and I reference thefollowing materials in
researching this case about thetragic Allday family murders the
(33:04):
article Allday Murders StillHaunt South Georgia Almost 50
Years Later, by Wayne Crenshaw,the Telegraph newspaper, dated
May 14, 2019.
The article Retrials forMurders of Six and Family 15
(33:25):
Years Later Rural CountyBurdened by the High Cost of
Justice, written by Joseph BFrazier, the Los Angeles Times,
april 10, 1988.
The book Blood Echoes by ThomasH Cook and lawgeorgiagov.
At just 19 years of age, carl Jr Isaacs was
already a hardened criminal.
He had been in and out offoster care and in and out of
trouble for most of his life.
In March of 1973, he wasarrested for stealing and sent
to the Maryland StatePenitentiary.
(00:26):
On May 5th of that same year,he masterminded an escape from
that prison.
With him he took hishalf-brother and fellow inmate,
wayne Coleman, and his friendGeorge Dungy, with whom Wayne
was said to have developed aromantic relationship.
The three prisoners made theirescape that night At around 3
(00:59):
o'clock am.
All three men escaped through abathroom window and hid in the
woods surrounding the prison.
Since none of the men wasconsidered dangerous, local
authorities were not notified ofthe escape.
Stealing a blue Thunderbird inBaltimore, the escapees picked
up Carl's 15-year-old brother,billy, who was thrilled to
(01:20):
accompany them on this adventure.
The plan was to live out theirdays as free men in Florida or
Mexico.
Fugitives committed a string ofburglaries in Maryland and
Pennsylvania.
On May 10th they stole a pickuptruck in McConnellsburg,
pennsylvania.
19-year-old Richard Millerrecognized the truck as one
belonging to his neighbor and hechased the men until they
(01:43):
stopped.
Carl Isaacs murdered Miller andthe outlaws disposed of his
body on a pile of trash nearFlintstone, maryland.
They abandoned a pickup truckthey had stolen after the
Thunderbird in favor of Miller's1968 Chevy Supersport and they
drove south History.
(02:26):
It's a subject that, in myopinion, gets sold short Too
often.
What comes to mind when wemention history is the rote
memory of name, date and place.
At first glance, history isflat dry and forgettable, but
that's because we forget thatit's people who make that
history.
It's people, it's greed, it'sdesire, it's lust, it's anger
(02:46):
and shame and deceit.
It's pride and courage andpassion.
It's fascinating and sometimesit's ugly.
The names and dates, my friends, are merely window dressing, or
merely window dressing.
As an author and a journalist, Ihave investigated Southern
(03:10):
history and crime for more than20 years and I know that it's
anything but boring.
There's something differentabout the South, and if you've
ever spent any time here you mayknow what I mean.
The air is thicker, the soil isheavier, the colors are richer.
The history of this region isladen with mystery, with
(03:32):
intrigue and often withastounding surprise, even shock.
Southern legends are oftenspoken in whispers, in close
circles and among friends.
Are often spoken in whispers,in close circles and among
friends, lest the ghosts ofthose who walked before us begin
to stir and take notice.
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
(04:02):
Listener discretion is advised.
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania,richard Miller's father had
reported his teenage son missing.
Once police had checked all ofthe possible teen runaway
scenarios and found that the19-year-old was clearly not a
(04:24):
runaway, they beganinvestigating.
One of Richard's friends hadtold the police about the stolen
truck and Richard's pursuit ofthe thieves, and another witness
, norman Strait, said that hesaw four men taking items out of
a blue Chevrolet andtransferring them to a pickup
(04:44):
truck.
In order to get a better lookat the men, strait said he got
his hunting rifle and used thepowerful scope to see their
faces more clearly.
Sure enough, the man who wasleaning against the car watching
the others do the work was CarlIsaacs.
Later Strait said I guess Ishould have shot that son of a
(05:08):
bitch right there.
It would have saved a lot oflives.
Richard Miller's body wasdiscovered a few weeks after
Isaacs killed him and sadly, hiswould not be the only body left
in the wake of the dark daysthat followed May 5, 1973.
Carl and Billy Isaacs, wayneColeman and George Dungy
(05:33):
continued driving south afterkilling Miller in Pennsylvania
and stealing his truck.
Nine days after their escape,they had made it as far as
Donaldsonville in SeminoleCounty, georgia, not far from
the Florida state line.
When they reachedDonaldsonville, in the southwest
(05:54):
corner of the state, they weretired, they were hungry and
broke, and they needed gas.
Cruising through SeminoleCounty, the men looked for a gas
station to rob, an opportunityto solve all these problems, and
before long they spotted atrailer on River Road, a farm
(06:15):
property that belonged to a MrNed.
All day Behind that trailerthey spotted a gas pump, and
they desperately needed morefuel if they were ever going to
get to Florida.
The secluded trailer and thegas pump looked like the perfect
opportunity for the fugitivesto get both money and gas.
(06:35):
And if they ran into anyproblems, well, there was no one
around to hear about it.
Carefully, they entered thedriveway to the trailer and
slowly drove up to the home.
Carl and Wayne broke into thetrailer, leaving Billy and
George to stand watch outside.
No one was home at the time,but not long after the break-in,
(06:59):
ned Alday and his son Jerrypulled up.
They had just had lunch atErnestine Alday's house, as was
their daily custom, before goingback to work on the farm.
The two unsuspecting men wereforced inside the trailer and
robbed at gunpoint.
Then they were taken tobedrooms on opposite ends of the
(07:21):
mobile home.
Carl Isaacs shot Jerry Alday inthe head four times.
Wayne Coleman shot Jerry'sfather, ned, once in the head,
but the shot was not fatal.
Ned managed to stand and fightfor his life until Carl Isaacs
came in and shot him five moretimes Later.
(07:44):
Carl would laugh as he recalledNed begging for mercy.
Within just a few minutes ofthese murders, jerry's brother,
jimmy, arrived at the trailerdriving a tractor.
He headed toward the door toplan for the next day with his
father and brother, as theyalways did.
Jimmy was taken inside, forcedonto a couch and shot twice in
(08:10):
the back of the head by CarlIsaacs.
Ready to leave, carl went outto move the tractor.
Before he even got it started,though, jerry's 26-year-old wife
Mary arrived After work.
She had gone to the grocerystore After work.
She had gone to the grocerystore.
As she got the groceries fromthe trunk of the car, carl
(08:32):
sneaked up behind her and forcedher inside the mobile home at
gunpoint.
The only member of the Aldefamily not immediately executed
was Mary.
Two of the men raped her on herkitchen table in her home.
As she lay, trembling andpraying quietly under the table.
(08:53):
After the assault, the menransacked the trailer, looking
for guns and money.
In the darkness of the trailer,mary desperately strained to
see what the men were doing.
While they were tossing thetrailer looking for anything of
value, jerry's brother Chesterand Uncle Aubrey pulled up in a
pickup truck.
Carl went out and brought theminside.
(09:15):
At gunpoint, chester was takeninto the room where Ned's body
lay and Wayne Coleman shot him.
Isaacs took Aubrey into theroom with his nephew Jerry and
there he killed him.
When the bodies were found,aubrey's hand was laying over
Jerry's.
(09:36):
Eventually, billy Isaacs grabbedMary and jerked her to her feet
Get dressed, he said.
They dragged Mary out to hercar, pushing her down in the
floor of the back seat whileGeorge Dungy held a gun on her.
They drove about six milesnorth to a secluded area where
(09:56):
Mary was raped again and againby three of the four men, each
of them sweating and swiggingwhiskey from a bottle, as they
watched and awaited their turn.
When they were done with her,george Dungy shot her and left
her there.
But before Dungy fatally shotMary, the men took pictures of
(10:17):
her with her own camera, whichthey had stolen.
The photos were later found andused as evidence.
Driving Mary's stolen car, themen traveled north on River Road
into Early County, heading awayfrom the crime scenes and the
six bodies they left behind.
(10:38):
Mary's body was found two dayslater.
The four men had fled thesecluded scene of Mary's
brutalization and murder andheaded to Alabama where they
stole a Chevy Caprice.
24 hours later they pulled intothe driveway of a remote
country store in Virginia.
(10:58):
Carl parked the car, encasedthe store's interior.
Seeing maybe five people insideShould be a piece of cake,
considering their recentescapades.
Still, carl told the otherthree men to accompany him
inside.
The four fugitives stood aroundthe soda machine pretending to
(11:19):
consider their choices, whilethey glanced this way and that
in an effort to plan theirattack.
But then Wayne moved quicklywithout warning, shoving a gun
in the face of the only adultmale in the store.
Carl then told George to tie upthe others, which proved to be
quite a challenge for thechallenged escapee.
(11:41):
Then another customer walked inand then another, and George
continued to try to tie them allup, while Carl and Billy ran
haphazardly here and there,grabbing merchandise and taking
the store's meager money for theday from the cash register.
For some reason, george thenwalked to the back of the store
(12:03):
and began frantically callingfor Wayne.
A woman, a baby and a toddlerwere in that back room and
George had no idea what to do.
Wayne brought another woman tothe back room, tied both women
up and forced them to lie on thefloor.
Then the four fugitivessprinted to the door and ran out
(12:24):
into the parking lot.
Two more men were just pullingin and instinctively they knew
that something was very wrongabout this scene.
These two men were heavilyarmed and when they called to
the escapees to stop and wereignored, they opened fire.
Carl slammed the car intoreverse and peeled out of the
(12:47):
parking lot, crossing over theline from Virginia into West
Virginia.
Within minutes the road becameharder to navigate, with
twisting turns and steep gradesthat simply didn't allow a
speedy escape.
Carl was ironically driving thespeed limit when a state
(13:08):
trooper approached the car,coming the opposite direction.
The officer's name was HoytRyan, and he and his partner had
just been advised that adark-green Chevy Caprice had
fled the scene of an armedrobbery and the suspects were
headed their way.
Ryan and his partner, meadows,hung a sharp U-turn and engaged
(13:30):
in high-speed pursuit of theCaprice, losing the suspects as
they careened precariouslyaround curves and along steep
mountain drop-offs.
But coming around one lastcurve, the officers spotted the
Caprice parked alongside theroad and it was empty.
Both officers knew that the menhad escaped by foot into the
(13:53):
densely forested mountainside.
It would simply be a matter oftime until they were caught or
gave themselves up.
This terrain, the officers knew, was terribly unforgiving.
Radioing for backup, the twoofficers learned that the men
they were chasing were heavilyarmed.
Backup arrived within minutesand several officers, having
(14:17):
already spoken with residentswho had seen the men exit the
car and run, pursued thefugitives on foot.
Others slowly drove the roadlooking for any sign of men
running or hiding.
Up ahead, the officers sawthree men run across the road
and they gave chase on foot.
The three men disappeared,however, bobbing and ducking
(14:42):
into the brush as they ran.
But the officers knew thatthere was a fourth man who
wasn't with that group.
So they crossed back over theroad and entered the thick woods
.
There, within a few hundredyards, they spotted a paunchy
black man crouching behind atree and frantically trying to
load a pistol.
Don't move, ryan, said,leveling his gun at the man's
(15:07):
head, commanding George Dungy toplace his hands on his head.
Ryan frisked him pulling awoman's Timex watch from one of
George's pockets.
He wondered at the time whythis man would have a woman's
watch in his possession.
As it turned out, ryan alsodiscovered that George Dungy was
(15:33):
desperately trying to load .380caliber ammunition into a .32
caliber weapon.
Ryan surmised that Dungy wasterrified at the thought of
being apprehended.
Officer Ryan loaded ahandcuffed Dungy into the
backseat of his patrol car.
A quick radio call told himthat the cowering man in his
(15:55):
backseat was wanted for sixmurders in Georgia.
You're in a lot of trouble,george, ryan said to him.
Hours later the districtattorney arrived to take the
statement George agreed to giveand he saw that the trembling
fugitive was still as terrifiedas Ryan had described when he
(16:17):
approached him hours earlier.
Do they have the death penaltyin West Virginia?
George nervously asked WestVirginia?
The DA replied I don't thinkyou've done anything here that
would warrant the death penalty.
Georgia, however, does have thedeath penalty.
There might be some things downthere you'd be worried about.
(16:39):
George was indeed worried,unbelievably.
You see, he had beenincarcerated in Maryland, not
for violent crime.
Rather, he had been convictedof failure to pay child support
and was due to be released.
Just a few weeks before thethree men had escaped by
climbing out that bathroomwindow and embarking on a
(17:02):
murder spree.
Meanwhile through the night andinto early the next morning,
hundreds of men and women werecombing the treacherous West
Virginia mountain terrainlooking for the other three
heavily armed fugitives,searching a wide-spanning grid
and with helicopters searchingoverhead.
(17:23):
Officers Harold Hall and LDTownley, along with a prized
tracking dog named Prince,trudged with two other officers
through the thick brush.
Prince was running a zigzagpattern of tracking, doubling
(17:43):
back and seeming confused butdetermined, and it eventually
became clear that he had becomeconfused after catching the
scent of the men from theinterior of the Caprice.
It appeared as though he wasactually tracking the cops who
were following him.
So the men started over.
They took Prince back to thecar, let him pick up the scent
(18:07):
again, and he took off this timewith such drive and purpose
that it was hard to keep up withhim.
Soon Prince was tracking themen by sniffing the air and not
the ground, which meant that thefugitives were nearby.
When Prince began foaming atthe mouth with excitement, the
(18:28):
officers knew they were on topof the armed murderers.
Prince was well-trained enoughnot to bark, though, so the
officers carefully scanned theterrain to see if they could
spot anything at all unusualthere a shirt.
At closer glance, the officershad spotted three men lying on
(18:49):
the ground, partially concealedunder a granite shelf that
jutted out of the mountainside.
Circling for better position,the officers commanded the men
to come out.
No one stirred.
One of the officers emptied a20-round clip from his AR-15
into the air, and that got thesuspect's attention.
(19:10):
One by one, they wereinstructed to crawl out and to
raise their hands over theirheads.
They were disarmed and takeninto custody
without incident.
There was just one problemPrince had led the officers on a
fast and determined pursuitdeep into the thick woods of
West Virginia.
(19:31):
The officers were lost alonewith three very dangerous men.
They listened for signs of lifeand eventually heard traffic
from the highway Trudging inthat direction.
They eventually saw the crowdsof people ahead, some in uniform
and some in plain clothes.
(19:52):
When the crowd spotted them, asmattering of applause broke out
and within seconds hundredswere clapping and cheering.
Three very bad men had beenapprehended
without incident.
It's interesting to note thatBetty Isaacs, carl's mother had
(20:13):
called the West Virginia StatePolice to state emphatically
that she knew who the killerswere, as three of the four
escapees were her sons.
She went on to say without adoubt that Carl was the one in
charge.
She went on to say without adoubt that Carl was the one in
charge, and I'm quoting hereAccording to his mother, carl
(20:44):
was the only one of whom policeshould be wary.
Betty said that she made thecall because she didn't want any
police officers to get hurt.
Once apprehended, the men wereflown to Atlanta the next
morning and held in separatejails until the following Monday
when they were flown toDonaldsonville to be arraigned.
During questioning, bettyIsaac's conclusions proved to
(21:05):
be correct.
Oddly, wayne Coleman tried totake credit for all six murders
and paint himself as theringleader of the group, but
detectives saw through his ruseright away.
Wayne didn't have the ego, thegravitas or the mental acuity to
lead a group anywhere.
(21:25):
George Dungy was himself anintellectually challenged
individual and while he admittedto shooting Mary, he said he
did so because he feared thegroup would kill him if he
didn't go along with thesavagery.
Billy Isaac's version of thevicious chain of events seemed
rather self-serving, butGeorge's retelling backed up his
(21:48):
statement that he hadn'tmurdered anyone.
And then there was Carl, whowasn't talking to anyone about
the crimes.
All he remembered about thatday, he told police, was that
May 14th was a pretty May day.
Although the details of theother men's stories differed
(22:08):
greatly, they all agreed on whatthey believed to be
insignificant facts.
But it was Carl who convincedthem to escape from prison.
It was Carl who decided to stopand pick up Billy.
Carl always did the driving.
Carl was the first to rape Mary.
Carl chose the all-days trailerto rob.
(22:31):
Carl was clearly in charge,calling all
the shots.
Once the four prisoners arrivedin Donaldsonville, they were
led into the Seminole CountyCourthouse separately.
Six counts of murder were readto each offender by District
Attorney Ralph Foster and as thecharges were read, wayne
(22:54):
Coleman laughed.
Coleman also admitted toshooting 19-year-old Richard
Miller in Pennsylvania and hevolunteered to go back there to
help locate the young man's body.
And he volunteered to go backthere to help locate the young
man's body.
He was sent back to Georgia,however, when it became clear
(23:18):
that he had no idea where theyhad hid his body.
All four men were tried by juryin Donaldsonville Because Billy
Isaacs cooperated withprosecutors and testified
against the other three men, hereceived a 20-year sentence for
armed robbery.
Carl Isaacs, wayne Coleman andGeorge Dungy were convicted of
murder and sentenced to death,as George's death penalty
(23:42):
statute had been put in placejust nine months earlier.
However, in a shocking turn ofevents, all three of these
convictions and sentences wereoverturned in 1985 by the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals on thegrounds that the pool of
Seminole County jurors had beentainted by excessive pretrial
(24:06):
publicity had been tainted byexcessive pre-trial publicity.
This decision led to decades offrustration with the lack of
justice by the justice system.
All three men faced trial againin 1988, and again they were
convicted.
George Dungy's second trialtook place in Columbus, georgia,
(24:27):
where he was sentenced to lifein prison.
Carl Isaac's second convictioncame from a jury in Perry,
georgia.
For the second time, he wassentenced to die.
Wayne Coleman received a lifesentence in DeKalb County
Superior Court.
Billy Isaacs was released fromprison in 1993.
(24:49):
He died in the FloridaPanhandle on May 4, 2009.
It seems that he was the onlyone of the four murderers who
actually made it to Florida.
He was 51 years old at the timeof his death.
George Dungy died of a heartattack in prison on April 4,
(25:10):
2006 at the ageof 68.
Carl Isaacs was executed bylethal injection on May 6, 2003
at the state prison in Jackson,georgia.
He asked for a regularinstitutional dinner tray of
pork and macaroni, pinto beans,cabbage and chocolate cake, but
(25:34):
he pushed the meal away when itcame.
He also declined an opportunityto make a final statement, but
he did ask for a final prayerand after the prayer he mouthed
Amen.
It's left up to theologianssmarter than I, I suppose
whether that prayer and the amenthat followed were heeded by
(25:57):
the same God that witnessed theheinous crimes against the Alday
family At the time of hisexecution.
At age 49, carl Isaacs was thelongest serving death row inmate
anywhere in the United States,having spent 30 years there
awaiting Georgia's death bylethal injection.
A string of state and federalappeals are to credit for that
(26:22):
extended stay.
His death also marked the firsttime in Georgia history that
victimized family members wereallowed to witness a death
sentence beingcarried out.
When Carl Isaac's father,george, was asked by a defense
team psychologist during thetrial about his son, he leaned
(26:43):
back in his chair and said I'mjust trying to remember which
one that was.
George had fathered manychildren by Betty, his wife, and
Carl's mother, whom Carldespised.
He wasn't any help in his son'sdefense and in fact knew
neither how many children he hadnor what their names were.
(27:06):
Fifty years later, wayneColeman is still living, at the
expense of Georgia taxpayers, atthe Wilcox State Prison.
He continues to be eligible forparole and he continues to have
thatparole denied.
Tragically, an eighth death canbe attributed to the brutal and
(27:30):
senseless actions of the fourmen who just happened upon the
Alday family farm back in May1973.
You see, while every effort wasmade to keep the horrid details
of her daughter Mary's deathfrom her, alberta Lane Campbell
did learn how her child wasinhumanly violated and murdered.
(27:52):
She learned the painful detailson May 18th, the day after the
funerals.
The heartbreak proved too muchfor her and she died just five
days after her daughter did.
Three books chronicle this evilstory Dead man Coming by
(28:13):
Charles Postol, blood Echo byThomas H Cook and Brothers in
Blood byClark Howard.
The 1988 film Murder One alsoabout the events of May 14, 1973
, was widely released acrossNorth America, but it was never
(28:36):
shown on any screens nearsouthwest Georgia.
And while the Alde familystrongly objected to the books
and the making of the movie,they actually turned out to help
the legal case against CarlIsaacs.
While making a documentary thateventually led to the film, the
filmmaker interviewed Isaacs.
On the video, isaacs madeseveral statements that spoke
(29:02):
clearly to his callousness andcharacter, saying glibly that he
would have killed the All Daysagain.
He made the cold comment thatthe only thing the All Days ever
did that stood out was gettingkilled by me.
He also openly admitted toshooting Jerry, ned and Aubrey
All Day and to sexuallyassaulting Mary.
(29:24):
As if the All Day family hadn'tbeen through enough.
For decades they struggled tostay updated on the seemingly
never-ending quest for justicein these cases.
In 2003, paige Barber, ned andErnestine, allday's
granddaughter, successfullylobbied the Georgia General
(29:45):
Assembly to pass the All DayFamily Bill.
This law requires the state toupdate families of victims in
death penalty cases twicea year.
May 14, 1973 marked a dark dayin Georgia, in fact, in the
(30:05):
entire country Georgia.
In fact, in the entire country.
The murders of the six all-dayfamily members were cold,
senseless and violent.
Only one other such Georgiatragedy left more innocent
people dead, and that was theWolford family murders in 1887.
Tom Wolford was convicted andhanged for the axe-bludgeoning
(30:28):
death of nine of his familymembers.
We took a look at this case inan earlier episode of Front
Porch Mysteries.
The Aldays are buried in SpringCreek Cemetery in southwest
Georgia.
Sober marble grave markers arenow home for the murdered family
(30:48):
members, who were so much morethan just farmers, as so many
news accounts describe them.
Yes, they were farmers and theyloved working the land, but
they were also devout Christians.
They were loving parents,grandparents, aunts, uncles and
siblings.
Some were quiet and reservedand some were jokers and
(31:12):
pranksters.
And Mary, all day, loved herflower garden.
These were people, people whomattered, and a chance, freak
intersection of their lives withthe poison lives of their
killers brought all of that toan end.
The innocence of Georgia endedthat day more than 50 years ago
(31:35):
as well.
Until May 14, 1973, people inGeorgia, especially rural South
Georgia, didn't lock their doors.
There was an unspoken trustamong neighbors, one that gave
people a solid assurance thattheir lives and homes were not
only safe but protected by theirfriends and neighbors.
(31:58):
Not anymore.
(32:20):
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
six-time award-winning author.
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at www
.
caroletownsend.
com.
As always, thanks for listeningand if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
(32:40):
friends.
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
anywhere you listen.
My team and I reference thefollowing materials in
researching this case about thetragic Allday family murders the
(33:04):
article Allday Murders StillHaunt South Georgia Almost 50
Years Later, by Wayne Crenshaw,the Telegraph newspaper, dated
May 14, 2019.
The article Retrials forMurders of Six and Family 15
(33:25):
Years Later Rural CountyBurdened by the High Cost of
Justice, written by Joseph BFrazier, the Los Angeles Times,
april 10, 1988.
The book Blood Echoes by ThomasH Cook and lawgeorgiagov.
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