Council died last Sunday at his home. Funeral services were held Saturday at St. Mary's Free Will Baptist Church in Apex.
In 1952, then-Apex Police Chief Sam Bagwell arrested Council on robbery charges and beat him in an effort to get a confession. After Council refused to confess to a crime he did not commit, Wake County sheriff's deputies took him from jail, drove him into the woods and hanged him from an oak tree. Council survived.
Council's story gained renewed attention decades later. In 2019, then-Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker publicly apologized for the treatment Council endured and acknowledged the role law enforcement played in the incident.
In 2020, a Holly Springs resident launched a GoFundMe campaign to help Council after he was displaced from his home because of the Triangle Expressway project. The fundraiser raised enough money to pay off his mortgage.
Council was 93.
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