Nat Turner's skull turns up far from site of his revolt 
 
 Va. slave leader was hanged in 1831 
 
 But the answers never came. Turner's skull disappeared somewhere along the way, creating another twist in the story of a man who was either a ruthless murderer or a courageous liberator. 
 
 His captors hoped that it would offer clues to his motives and to what many thought to be the Southampton County man's exceptional intelligence. 
 
 NORFOLK, Va. -- Shortly after Nat Turner led a slave revolt that killed nearly 60 white Southside residents in 1831, his head was chopped off and carted away for study. 
 
 Now Turner's skull has turned up in an unusual place: Gary, Ind., in the hands of the city's former mayor. Richard Hatcher aims to build a National Civil Rights Hall of Fame. Someone recently donated the skull to Hatcher to display in the museum. 
 
 Hatcher was unavailable, but his announcement that he had been given the skull has raised questions back in Southampton County, where 172 years later Turner's insurrection remains controversial. 
 
 Where has the skull been all these years? 
 
 How did it end up in the Midwest? 
 
 Turner led his revolt here, just miles west of Franklin. He was hanged here, and his descendants and those of families he killed still live here. His body was buried in the center of Courtland. 
 
 Shouldn't his skull come home? 
 
 Turner was born on a Southampton County farm on Oct. 2, 1800, and became the property of Benjamin Turner. His mother had been brought over from northern Africa. Turner married a woman named Cherry, and had a daughter and one or two sons -- history is unclear. 
 
 He was thought to be extraordinarily smart, which is why his skull would be a key artifact. 
 
 "He probably had greater intelligence than some of his owners," said Rick Francis, a Turner history buff who had numerous ancestors killed in the raid. "He could read and write. Benjamin Turner signed his will with an X." 
 
 Turner had learned to read and write along with his master's children, and some thought he might be clairvoyant. He would go to other farms on Sundays and preach to slaves. 
 
 On Aug. 21, 1831, Turner and a handful of recruits led a brutal revolt, racing across fields and through the woods south of Capron and, house by house, hacking white families to death. 
 
 Turner was bent on getting to what was then Jerusalem, now the county seat of Courtland. He hoped other local slaves and those across the South would rise up with his band, but a full-scale rebellion never took hold. 
 
 After two days and the slaying of dozens of men, women and children, Turner went into hiding. He was found in a cave six weeks later, then tried and hanged, and his torso buried at a pauper's cemetery. 
 
 The county coroner took his head for study. What happened to it after that, nobody really knows. 
 
 The skull was reputed to have been whisked to Ohio via the underground railroad that transported slaves north, said Katherine Futrell, who is considered Southampton County's Turner historian. 
 
 The story goes that the skull then made its way to Chicago, where it was kept in a university laboratory and later destroyed in a fire. 
 
 Then, a few years ago, a collector of Southampton County history died and donated some things to the historical society. In one box was a news clipping that offered yet another turn: 

 Six weeks after Nat Turner led a bloody slave revolt that left approximately 60 whites dead in 1831, he was hanged and decapitated. 
 
 History is not entirely clear on what happened to Turner's remains. 
 
 But a skull thought to be Turner's mysteriously appeared in 2002 when a local civil rights activist gave it to Richard Hatcher, the former Gary mayor, for his proposed National Civil Rights museum in Gary. 
 
 Now, after having the skull for 13 years, Hatcher will be presenting the skull to two of Turner's descendants on Friday at a private National Civil Rights Hall of Fame luncheon at the Majestic Star Hotel in Gary. 
 
 "Since I received it, we've been trying to find some members of his family and we've not been able to do so until about a week-and-a-half ago," Hatcher said in an interview with the Post-Tribune. 
 
 The emergence of Turner's skull brought with it not only controversy but two pressing questions: 
 
 How did the skull of a controversial freedom fighter that led a rebellion in the 19th century in Southampton County, Va., turn up in Indiana? And, is it actually Turner's skull? 
 
 Turner was born into slavery in 1800 on a Southampton County, Va., plantation. On Aug. 21, 1831, Turner and his supporters launched a violent revolt, rampaging from house to house, slaying white families, including women and children. After two days, Turner went into hiding. He was captured on Oct. 30, 1831, then tried and hanged. 
 
 The skull was rumored to make it to Chicago in a university laboratory where it "miraculously" survived a fire, Rick Francis, Southampton County Clerk said in a telephone interview. What happened to the skull afterward is unclear. 
 
 The Rev. Franklin Breckenridge, and his wife Cora, of Elkhart, gave the skull to Hatcher in 2002 to be used as an exhibit in the civil rights museum he was seeking to build in Northwest Indiana. Breckenridge received the skull in 2002 from Robert Franklin, a former Elkhart school administrator. Breckenridge said he then made the donation to Hatcher with the intent of having the skull displayed in the proposed Hall of Fame. 
 
 "He knew that my wife and I were active in civil rights and NAACP activities," Breckenridge, who served as the Indiana NAACP's state president for 25 years, said. 
 
 Franklin said the skull had been passed down in his family for over three generations. At the turn of the 20th Century, Army Capt. Albert Franklin received the skull from one of his patients, Franklin said. The woman who was from Virginia claimed that her father was a doctor who treated Turner after his death. In the 1930s, Franklin's grandfather, retired Army Col. E.C. Franklin, received the skull from his mother Martha Franklin, who was the wife of Army Capt. Albert Gallatin Franklin. 
 
 "That's how it got into my family," Franklin said. "The skull has no lower jaw and the top of it has been cut off but it's still important form an historical standpoint." 
 
 Franklin said he understands it's difficult to verify the skull's provenance, but he's confident it's Turner's. 
 
 "We had no proof of any of this and we still don't have any proof," Franklin said. "All we have is this story that was passed down in the family." 
 
 While it may be difficult to determine if the skull in question is Turner's, Francis said he would gladly assist anyone who's looking to properly authenticate it. 
 
 "I've got some DNA from a gentleman I am confident is a descendant of Nat Turner and we have some artifacts, particularly the rope that will serve for further study if DNA can be taken off of that," Francis said. 
 
 Amrita Myers, Associate Professor of History at Indiana University, said the story of Turner's skull is peculiar because there isn't historical precedent of African-American body parts being passed down during slavery. 
 
 "Black men and women being used in that fashion was a very common phenomenon after the (Civil) War during the rise of lynching, but I've been a slavery scholar for the better part of two decades, and I've never heard of black men and women body parts under slavery being used for sale or for relics," Myers said. 
 
 Now that Turner's alleged skull has reappeared, Francis said he would like to have the skull back in Southampton County where Turner launched the insurrection. 
 
 Francis said he hopes that the two women receiving the skull on Friday can "historically establish" their lineage to Turner and that the skull is finally inspected. 
 
 "I hope that before it is interred it gets proper scientific examination so that any questions could be put to rest," Francis said. "But I'm glad it's not going to be sitting in some hat box on a shelf. It needs to be studied and given a proper burial at some point after the study has been done." 
 
 Francis said Turner is an integral part of history but it's not his decision to judge the morality of Turner's insurrection. 
 
 "God has not given me the eyes to determine whether Nat's a saint or a sinner," Francis said. "But he should be interred here with a gravestone that says: 'Nat Turner: leader of 1831 Southampton Insurrection: 1800-1831.' It wouldn't have a whole lot of commentary but it would hopefully give Nat his due in a proper place." 
 
 jaanderson@tribpub.com 
 
 Twitter @Javontea
– A skull thought to be that of Nat Turner, the controversial rebel leader whose slave revolt in Virginia in 1831 left about 60 white people dead, including women and children, will finally be presented to Turner's descendants Friday. Former Gary, Ind., mayor Richard Hatcher was given the skull by a local civil rights activist in 2002, when Hatcher was looking to build a National Civil Rights museum in the city. Hatcher says he's been trying to locate Turner's descendants ever since he got the skull, and was only recently able to find them, the Chicago Tribune reports. He'll present the skull to two of them during a private National Civil Rights Hall of Fame luncheon in Gary. Turner was hanged and decapitated after the revolt, and it's not clear what happened to his remains. There was a rumor, however, that Turner's skull had made its way to a university lab in Chicago at some point. The skull being given to Turner's family was originally presented to Army Capt. Albert Franklin at the turn of the 20th century from a Virginia woman who said her father, a doctor, tended to Turner after his death. Franklin's family passed the skull down for more than three generations before Franklin gave it to Rev. Franklin Breckenridge in 2002 and Breckenridge gave it to Hatcher. Franklin acknowledges there's no proof the skull is really Turner's, just "this story that was passed down in the family." A county clerk from the county where Turner launched his insurrection hopes the descendants receiving the skull will have it tested to confirm it is Turner's. He also believes it should be returned to the county where Turner lived and died, the Baltimore Sun reports.