Lynn Council: key obituary facts
Is Lynn Council dead? Yes. Lynn Council died on August 9, 2026, at age 92.
Cause of death: Lynn Council's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Lynn Council known for?
He was a mock lynching victim.
More about Lynn Council
Born: 1935.
Gender: male.
Lynn Council, an American victim of an aborted or mock lynching, died on August 9, 2026, aged 92.
He was the African American man at the center of a 1952 case in Wake County, North Carolina, after being arrested for robbery in Apex and beaten by Police Chief Sam Bagwell in an effort to force a confession. Council was later taken to the Wake County Jail, where sheriff’s deputies handcuffed him, drove him into the country, and hanged him from a tree limb before letting him down when he did not confess.
In 2019, officials in Apex and Wake County issued apologies, and the county sheriff’s office presented him with a silver key and removed the portrait of the sheriff involved from its wall of honor.