Lynn Council, who said Wake County deputies hanged him from a tree in the 1950s to coerce a confession, died Sunday at his home at age 93. He said deputies lowered him only after he refused to confess and that a scar remained on his neck. Council and seven other people had been accused of robbing a store outside Apex.
Then-Apex Police Chief Sam Bagwell transported the group to the sheriff’s office even though the incident lay outside his jurisdiction. Historical newspaper reporting reviewed by WRAL described Bagwell’s reputation for violence. No deputy or other officer was charged over Council’s reported hanging.
Council’s testimony is a firsthand account supported by the scar he showed reporters and by historical records described in WRAL’s reporting. The absence of a prosecution means no trial produced a judicial finding assigning individual criminal responsibility. The town’s memorial decisions occurred decades after the event and did not substitute for a criminal investigation. The current obituary establishes his death and restates the documented account; it does not create new forensic evidence about the 1950s incident. The distinction matters when describing a historical allegation whose principal witness has now died.
Wake County’s sheriff apologized to Council in 2019 after the account received renewed attention. Apex removed Bagwell’s memorial brick and later dedicated a bench to Council. Council later received community assistance when he faced displacement from his longtime home. Public preservation may include archived interviews, newspapers, sheriff’s records and the municipal decisions that followed. The current reporting did not say whether a complete institutional archive or renewed records review will be created.
The reporting available at the edition deadline did not resolve this point: a complete official case file and the identities or later histories of every involved deputy were not available in the current report. The next dated records are family memorial information and release of additional Wake County or Apex historical records.