Lynn Council, a 93-year-old man who survived a traumatic ordeal at the hands of Wake County deputies in the 1950s, was found dead in his home on Sunday.
Background
Council was accused of robbing a store outside Apex and was arrested by then-Apex Chief of Police Sam Bagwell. He was taken to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office, where he was singled out and hanged from an oak tree by two deputies in an attempt to coerce a confession.
Council recounted the ordeal in a 2019 interview with WRAL anchor Gerald Owens, stating, ‘They took me out of the cell, brung me out in the country, (and) they hung me.’ The deputies eventually let him down, but Council was left with a scar on his neck for the rest of his life.
None of the law enforcement officers involved in the incident were charged, including Bagwell. However, after WRAL News reported on the incident, then-Police Chief John Letteney removed Bagwell’s brick from the Apex Walk of Honor.
Legacy
A bench dedicated to Council now sits outside the Apex Police Department headquarters. In 2020, a GoFundMe was started to help Council find a new place to live after he was forced out of his home in Apex, where he had lived for decades.
Original reporting: WRAL Raleigh — read the source article.
