Ned Kelly

For other uses, see Ned Kelly (disambiguation).

Ned Kelly
Ned Kelly the day before his execution
Born	June 1854/June 1855 Beveridge, Victoria, Australia
Died	11 November 1880 (aged 25) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Conviction(s)	Murder
Penalty	Death
Status	Executed by hanging
Occupation	Bushranger
Parents	John "Red" Kelly Ellen Kelly (née Quinn)

Edward "Ned" Kelly (June 1854/June 1855 – 11 November 1880) was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.

Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish convict father, and as a young man he clashed with the Victoria Police. Following an incident at his home in 1878, police parties searched for him in the bush. After he killed three policemen, the colony proclaimed Kelly and his gang wanted outlaws.

A final violent confrontation with police took place at Glenrowan on 28 June 1880. Kelly, dressed in home-made plate metal armour and helmet, was captured and sent to jail. He was convicted of three counts of capital murder and hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol in November 1880. His daring and notoriety made him an iconic figure in Australian history, folklore, literature, art and film.

In August 2011, anthropologists announced that a skeleton found in a mass grave in Pentridge Prison had been confirmed as Kelly's. Kelly's skull, however, remains at large.

Early life

Ned's father, John, was transported in 1841 from Tipperary to Tasmania for stealing two pigs, and not for shooting at a landlord as the Victorian Royal Commission indicated in "an unwarrantable piece of propaganda."

After his release in 1848, Red Kelly moved to Victoria and found work at Beveridge at the farm of James Quinn. At the age of 30 he married Ellen Quinn, the 18 year old daughter of his employer. Their first child, Mary, died early (1851), but Ellen then gave birth to a daughter, Annie, in 1853. When John Kelly died he was survived by his wife and seven offspring, Ned and Dan, James, Mrs. Gunn, Mrs. Skillion, Kate and Grace.

Their first son, Edward (Ned), was born in Beveridge, just north of Melbourne. His date of birth is not known, but at Beveridge, he said to an officer, "Look across there to the left. Do you see a little hill there?" , "That is where I was born about 28 years ago. Now, I am passing through it, I suppose, to my doom."

Ned was baptised by an Augustinian priest, Charles O'Hea. As a boy, he obtained some basic schooling and once risked his life to save another boy, Richard Shelton, from drowning. As a reward he was given a green sash by the boy's family, which he wore under his armour during his final showdown with police in 1880.

The Kellys were suspected many times of cattle or horse stealing, though never convicted. Red Kelly was arrested when he killed and skinned a calf claimed to be the property of his neighbour. He was found innocent of theft, but guilty of removing the brand from the skin and given the option of a twenty-five pound fine or a sentence of six months with hard labour. Without money to pay the fine Red served his sentence in Kilmore gaol, with the sentence having an ultimately fatal effect on his health. The saga surrounding Red, and his treatment by the police, made a strong impression on his son Ned.

Red Kelly died at Avenel on 27 December 1866 when Ned was eleven and a half years old. Several months later the Kelly family acquired 80 acres (320,000 m²) of uncultivated farmland at Eleven Mile Creek near the Greta area of Victoria, which to this day is known as "Kelly Country".

In all, eighteen charges were brought against members of Ned's immediate family before he was declared an outlaw, while only half that number resulted in guilty verdicts. This is a highly unusual ratio for the time, and is one of the reasons that has caused many to posit that Ned's family was unfairly targeted from the time they moved to northeast Victoria. Perhaps the move was necessary because of Ellen's squabbles with family members and her appearances in court over family disputes. Antony O'Brien, however, argued that Victoria's colonial policing had nothing to do with winning a conviction, rather the determinant of one's criminality was the arrest. Further, O'Brien argued, using the "Statistics of Victoria" crime figures that the region's or family's or national criminality was determined not by individual arrests, but rather by the total number of arrests.

Rise to notoriety

Ned's first documented brush with the law was on October 15, 1869 at the age of 14 when he was charged with the assault and robbery of Ah Fook, a pig and fowl trader from a Chinese camp near Bright. According to Ah Fook, as he was passing the Kelly house, Ned approached him with a long bamboo stick, announcing that he was a bushranger and would kill him if he did not hand over his money. Ned then took him into the bush, beat him with the stick and stole 10 shillings. According to Ned, his sister Annie and two witnesses, Bill Skilling and Bill Grey, Annie was sitting outside the house sewing when Ah Fook walked up and asked a for a drink of water. Given creek water, he abused Annie for not giving him rain water and Ned came outside and pushed him. Ah Fook then hit Ned three times with the bamboo stick causing him to run away. Ah Fook then walked away threatening to return and burn the house down. Ned did not return until sundown. Historians find neither account convincing and believe that Neds account is likely true up to being hit by Ah Fook but then Ned likely took the stick from him and beat him with it.

portrait of Ned Kelly taken by the Police Photographer at Pentridge after Ned's transfer from the Beechworth Gaol in 1873 State Library of Victoria

Ned was arrested the following day for Highway Robbery and locked up overnight in Benalla. He appeared in court the following morning but Sergeant Whelan, despite using an interpreter to translate Ah Fook's account, requested a remand to allow time to find an interpreter. Ned was remanded in custody for four days. Appearing in court on 20 October he was again remanded in custody after the police failed to produce an interpreter. The charge was finally dismissed on 26 October and Ned was released. Sergeant Whelan disliked Ned. Three months earlier he had prosecuted Yeaman Gunn for possession of stolen mutton, Ned had testified that he had sold several sheep to Gunn that same day. In a controversial judgement, the magistrate found Gunn guilty and fined him £10. Furious that Ned was not convicted for the robbery, he now kept a careful watch on the Kelly family and, according to fellow officers, Whelan became "a perfect encyclopedia of knowledge about them" through his "diligence".

Following his appearance in court, the Benalla Ensign reported, "The cunning of himself [Ned] and his mates got him off", the Beechworth Advertiser on the other hand reported, "... the charge of robbery has been trumped up by the Chinaman to be revenged on Kelly, who had obviously assaulted him." Interestingly, Ah Fook had described 14 year old Ned as being aged around 20 years. Some 12 months later a reporter wrote that Ned "gives his age as 15 but is probably between 18 and 20". Although 5' 8" in height, Ned was physically imposing. When arrested, a 224 pounds (102 kg) trooper was purportedly unable to subdue the then 15 year old Ned until several labourers ran to assist him and even then Ned had to be knocked unconscious.

On 10 May the following year, he was arrested on three charges of Highway Robbery and accused of being an accomplice of bushranger Harry Power. On the first two charges the victims could not identify Ned and the charges were dismissed. Although the victims for the third charge were reported to have also failed to identify Ned they had in fact been refused a chance to identify him by Superintendents Nicolas and Hare. Instead, superintendent Nicolas told the magistrate that Ned fitted the description and asked for him to be remanded to the Kyneton court for trial. Instead of being sent to Kyneton, he was sent to Melbourne where he spent the weekend in the Richmond lockup before being transferred to Kyneton. No evidence was produced in court and he was released after a month. Historians tend to disagree over this episode: some see it as evidence of police harassment; others believe that Kelly’s relatives intimidated the witnesses, making them reluctant to give evidence. Another factor in the lack of identification may have been that the witnesses had described Power's accomplice as a "half-caste". However, superintendent Nicholas and Captain Standish believed this to be the result of Ned going unwashed. Ned's grandfather, James Quinn, owned a huge piece of land at the headwaters of the King River known as Glenmore Station, where Power was ultimately arrested. Following Power's arrest it was rumoured that Ned had informed on him and Ned was treated with hostility within the community. Ned wrote a letter to police Sergeant Babington pleading for his help in the matter. The informant was in fact Ned's uncle, Jack Lloyd.

In October 1870, Kelly was arrested again for assaulting a hawker, Jeremiah McCormack, and for his part in sending McCormack's childless wife an indecent note that had calves' testicles enclosed. This was a result of a row earlier that day caused when McCormack accused a friend of the Kellys, Ben Gould, of using his horse without permission. Gould wrote the note, and Kelly passed it on to one of his cousins to give to the woman. He was sentenced to three months' hard labour on each charge.

Upon his release Kelly returned home. There he met Isaiah "Wild" Wright who had arrived in the area on a chestnut mare. While he was staying with the Kellys the mare had gone missing and Wright borrowed one of the Kelly horses to return to Mansfield. He asked Ned to look for the chestnut and keep it until his return. Kelly found the mare and used it to go to Wangaratta where he stayed for a few days but while riding through Greta on his way home, Ned was approached by police constable Hall who, from the description of the animal, knew the horse was stolen property. When his attempt to arrest Kelly turned into a fight, Hall drew his gun and tried to shoot him, but Kelly overpowered the policeman and humiliated him by riding him like a horse. Hall later struck Kelly several times with his revolver after he had been arrested. Ned always maintained that he had no idea that the mare actually belonged to the Mansfield postmaster and that Wright had stolen it. After just three weeks of freedom, 16-year-old Kelly, along with his brother-in-law Alex Gunn, was sentenced to three years imprisonment with hard labour for "feloniously receiving a horse". "Wild" Wright escaped arrest for the theft on 2 May following an "exchange of shots" with police, but was arrested the following day, Wright received only eighteen months for stealing the horse. After his release from prison in 1874, Ned allegedly fought and won a bare-knuckled boxing match with 'Wild' Wright that lasted 20 rounds.

While Kelly was in prison, his brothers Jim (aged 12) and Dan (aged 10) were arrested by Constable Flood for riding a horse that did not belong to them. The horse had been lent to them by a farmer for whom they had been doing some work, but the boys spent a night in the cells before the matter was cleared.

Two years later, Jim Kelly was arrested for cattle-rustling. He and his family claimed that he did not know that some of the cattle did not belong to his employer and cousin Tom Lloyd. Jim was given a five-year sentence, but as O'Brien pointed out the receiver of the 'stolen stock' James Dixon was not prosecuted as he was 'a gentleman'

In September 1877 Ned was arrested for drunkenness. While being escorted by four policemen he broke free and ran into a shop. The police tried to subdue him but failed and Ned later gave himself up to a Justice of the Peace and was fined. During the incident Constable Lonigan, who Ned was to later shoot dead, "black-balled" him (grabbed and squeezed his testicles). Legend has it that Ned told Lonigan "If I ever shoot a man, Lonigan, it'll be you!".

In October 1877, Gustav and William Baumgarten were arrested for supplying stolen horses to Ned Kelly and were later sentenced in 1878. William served time in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.

Following Red Kelly's death, Ned's mother, Ellen, had married a Californian named George King, by whom she had three children. He, Ned and Dan became involved in a cattle rustling operation.

Fitzpatrick Incident

On 15 April 1878, 21 year old Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick arrived at Benalla suffering from an alleged bullet wound to his left wrist. He claimed that he had been attacked by Ned, Dan, Ellen, their associate Bricky Williamson and Ned's brother-in-law, Bill Skillion. Fitzpatrick claimed that all except Ellen had been armed with revolvers. Williamson and Skillion were arrested for their part in the affair. Ned and Dan were nowhere to be found, but Ellen was taken into custody along with her baby, Alice. She was still in prison at the time of Ned's execution. (Ellen would outlive her most famous son by several decades and died on 27 March 1923.) The Kellys claimed that Fitzpatrick came into their house to question Dan over a cattle duffing incident. While there, he made a pass at Ellen's daughter Kate. Her mother hit his hand with a coal shovel and the men knocked Fitzpatrick to the floor. They then bandaged his injured wrist, and he had left saying that no real harm had been done. No guns, they claimed, were used during the incident, and Ned was not involved since he had been away in New South Wales. Whether Ned was in New South Wales is still disputed, although Fitzpatrick's testimony of events is coloured by the fact that he was later dismissed from the force for drunkenness and perjury.

Trial at Beechworth

Despite Fitzpatrick's treating doctor reporting a strong smell of alcohol on the constable and his inability to confirm the wrist wound was caused by a bullet, Fitzpatrick's evidence was accepted by the police and the Judge. Ellen Kelly, Skillion and Williamson appeared on 9 October 1878 before Judge Redmond Barry charged with attempted murder and were convicted on Fitzpatrick's unsupported evidence. Barry stated that if Ned were present he would 'give him 15 years'.

Killings at Stringybark Creek

Monument erected in Mansfield, Victoria in honour of the three policemen murdered by Kelly's gang, Lonigan, Scanlon and Kennedy

Dan and Ned Kelly doubted they could convince the police of their story. Instead they went into hiding, where they were later joined by friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.

On 25 October 1878, Sergeant Kennedy set off to search for the Kellys, accompanied by Constables McIntyre, Lonigan, and Scanlon. The wanted men were suspected of being in the Wombat Ranges north of Mansfield, Victoria. The police set up a camp near two shepherd huts at Stringybark Creek in a heavily timbered area. A second police party had set off from Greta near the Wangaratta end, with the intention of closing in on Ned in a pincer movement.

The Mansfield team of police under Kennedy on arrival at Stringybark split into two groups: Kennedy and Scanlon went in search of the Kellys, while the others, Lonigan and McIntyre remained to guard their camp. Brown suggested in Australian Son (1948) that Sgt. Kennedy was tipped off as to the whereabouts of the Kellys. O'Brien (1999) drew attention to the 1881 Royal Commission's questioning of McIntyre, which explored a possibility that Kennedy and Scanlon may have searched for the Kellys to gain a reward for themselves. Jones stated (p. 131) that Kennedy and Scanlon had once split a reward for the arrest of 'Wild Wright'. O'Brien's research focus on the practice of splitting rewards highlighted that it was known as 'going whacks'.

The Mansfield police team (Lonigan and McIntyre) remaining in the base camp fired at parrots, unaware they were only a mile away from the Kelly camp. Alerted by the shooting, the Kellys searched and discovered the well-armed police camped near the "shingle hut" at Stringybark Creek. Although the police were disguised as prospectors, they had pack horses with leather strap arrangements suitable for carrying out bodies.

Ned Kelly and his brother Dan considered their chances of survival against the well-armed party and decided to overpower the two officers, then wait for the two others to return. According to Jones (p. 132) the Kellys knew that a police member (Strahan), from Greta team boasted he would shoot Ned 'like a dog' and Kelly believed these police were that Greta party. He was unaware of the Mansfield group. Ned's plan was for the police to surrender, allowing the Kellys to take their arms and horses. Ned and Dan advanced to the police camp, ordering them to surrender. Constable McIntyre threw his arms up. Lonigan drew his revolver and Ned shot him. Lonigan staggered some distance, and collapsed dead.

When the other two police returned to camp, Constable McIntyre, at Ned's direction, called on them to surrender. Scanlon went for his pistol; Ned fired. Scanlon was killed. Kennedy ran, firing as he sought cover moving from tree to tree. In an exchange of gunfire, Ned fired a fatal shot into Kennedy. McIntyre, in the confusion, escaped on horseback uninjured.

The exact place at Germans Creek where this occurred has only recently been identified. On leaving the scene Ned stole Sergeant Kennedy's handwritten note for his wife and his gold fob watch. Asked later why he stole the watch, Ned replied, "What's the use of a watch to a dead man?" Kennedy's watch was returned to his kin many years later.

In response to these killings the Victorian parliament passed the Felons' Apprehension Act which outlawed the gang and made it possible for anyone to shoot them. There was no need for the outlaws to be arrested or for there to be a trial upon apprehension. The Act was based on the 1865 Act passed in New South Wales which declared Ben Hall and his gang outlaws.

Bank robberies

8000 pound reward notice for the capture of the Ned Kelly gang, 15 February 1879

Following the killings at Stringybark, the gang committed two major robberies, at Euroa, Victoria and Jerilderie, New South Wales. Their strategy involved the taking of hostages and robbing the bank safes.

Euroa

On 10 December 1878, the gang raided the National Bank at Euroa. They had already taken a number of hostages at Faithful Creek station and went to the bank claiming to be delivering a message from McCauley, the station manager. They got into the bank and held up the manager, Scott, and his two tellers. After obtaining all the money available, the outlaws ordered Scott, along with his wife, family, maids and tellers to accompany them to Faithful Creek where they were locked up with the other hostages, who included the station's staff and some passing hawkers and sportsmen.

It is claimed that Ned, posing as a policeman, took one of the men prisoner on the grounds of being the "notorious Ned Kelly". The man was locked up in the storeroom saying that he would report the "officer" to his superiors. It was only then that he was told who his captor was.

The outlaws gave an exhibition of horsemanship which entertained and surprised their hostages. After having supper, and telling the hostages not to raise the alarm for another three hours, they left. The entire crime was carried out without injury and the gang netted £2,260, a large sum in those days and equivalent to around $100,000 today.

In January 1879 police arrested all known Kelly friends and sympathisers and held them without charge for three months. This action caused resentment of the government's abuse of power that led to condemnation in the media and a groundswell of support for the gang that was a factor in their evading capture for so long.

Jerilderie

The raid on Jerilderie is particularly noteworthy for its boldness and cunning. The gang arrived in the town on Saturday 8 February 1879. They broke into the local police station and imprisoned police officers Richards and Devine in their own cell. The outlaws then changed into the police uniforms and mixed with the locals, claiming to be reinforcements from Sydney.

On Monday the gang rounded up various people and forced them into the back parlour of the Royal Mail Hotel. While Dan Kelly and Steve Hart kept the hostages busy with "drinks on the house", Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne robbed the local bank of £2,414. Kelly also burned all the townspeople's mortgage deeds in the bank.

New South Wales issued rewards totaling £4,000. The Victorian Government increased its reward to match making the total reward for the Kelly gang £8,000 (A$400,000).

From early March 1879 to June 1880 nothing was heard of the gang's whereabouts with one possible exception. In late March 1879 Ned's sisters Kate and Margaret approached the captain of the Victoria Cross, then docked in Melbourne, and enquired as to how much he would charge to take four or five gentlemen friends to California if they boarded in Queenscliff. Nothing definite was arranged but on 31 March, a man he described as having a somewhat suspicious appearance called on the captain to confirm the passage discussed by the Kelly sisters. The captain arranged an appointment at the General Post Office that afternoon to give a definite answer for the cost then contacted police, who placed a large number of detectives and plain-clothes police throughout the building, but the man failed to appear. There is no evidence that Ned's sisters were enquiring on behalf of the gang, and was reported in the Argus as 'without foundation'

In April 1880 a Notice of Withdrawal of Reward was posted by Government. It stated that after 20 July 1880 the Government would "absolutely cancel and withdraw the offer for the reward".

Jerilderie letter

Months prior to arriving in Jerilderie, and with help from Joe Byrne, Ned Kelly dictated a lengthy letter for publication describing his view of his activities and the treatment of his family and, more generally, the treatment of Irish Catholics by the police and the English and Irish Protestant squatters.

The Jerilderie Letter, as it is called, is a document of 7,391 words and has become a famous piece of Australian literature. Kelly had written a previous letter (14 December 1878) to a member of Parliament stating his grievances, but the correspondence had been suppressed from the public. The letter highlights the various incidents that led to him becoming an outlaw (see Rise to notoriety).

Extracts of the letter were published and then it was concealed until re-discovered in 1930. It was then published in full by the Melbourne Herald.

The handwritten document was donated anonymously to the State Library of Victoria in 2000. Historian Alex McDermott says of the Letter, "... even now it's hard to defy his voice. With this letter Kelly inserts himself into history, on his own terms, with his own voice...We hear the living speaker in a way that no other document in our history achieves..." Kelly's language is colourful, rough and full of metaphors; it is "one of the most extraordinary documents in Australian history".

The National Museum of Australia in Canberra holds publican John Hanlon's transcript of the Jerilderie Letter.

Capture, trial and execution

On 26 June 1880 the Felons' Apprehension Act 612 expired, with the result that not only was the gang's outlaw status no longer in effect but that their arrest warrants also expired. While Ned and Dan still had prior warrants outstanding for the attempted murder of Fitzpatrick, technically Hart and Byrne were free men although the police still retained the right to re-issue the murder warrants.

The gang discovered that Aaron Sherritt, Joe Byrne's erstwhile best friend, was a police informer. On 26 June 1880, the same day their outlaw status expired, Dan Kelly and Joe Byrne went to Sherritt's house and killed him. (Superintendent Hare later testified that Sherritt was the "scout of the district" and regularly informed Kelly of police movements; however, he also testified that following the Jerilderie robbery he paid Sherritt for informing on Kelly's whereabouts. Ian Jones, authority on the Kelly Gang, has made a compelling case in his book, The Fatal Friendship that the police manipulated events so that Sherritt appeared a traitor and to provoke the gang into emerging from hiding to dispose of him.) The four policemen who were living openly with him at the time hid under the bed and did not report the murder until late the following morning. This delay was to prove crucial since it upset Ned's timing for another ambush.

Glenrowan shootout

Dan Kelly's and Steve Hart's armour recovered from the hotel after it was burnt. State Library of Victoria

According to Ned Kelly, the gang, after shooting Sherritt at Sebastopol, rode openly through the streets of Beechworth, and then came onto Glenrowan for the purpose of wrecking any special police train which, might be sent after them. They descended on Glenrowan about 8 o'clock on Sunday morning 27 June, and rousing up all the inhabitants of the township, bailed them up. Feeling unable to lift the rails themselves, they compelled the line-repairers of the district and others to do so. The spot selected was on the first turning after reaching Glenrowan, at a culvert and on an incline. One rail was raised on each side, and the sleepers were removed. The intention was the destruction of the special train. Having performed this fiendish piece of work Kelly returned to the township, and, bailing all the people up, kept them prisoners in the station-master's house and Jones's hotel. By 3 o'clock on Monday morning, they gathered all their captives into the hotel, and the number of those unfortunate people amounted at one time to 47. The police then arrived.

The gang members were equipped with armour that was tough enough to repel bullets (but left the legs unprotected). It is not known exactly who made the armour, although it was likely forged from stolen or donated plough mouldboards. Each man's armour weighed about 96 pounds (44 kg); all four had helmets, and Byrne's was said to be the most well done, with the brow reaching down to the nose piece, almost forming two eye slits. All wore grey cotton coats reaching past the knees over the armour.

While holed up in the Glenrowan Inn, the Kelly gang's attempt to derail the police train failed because of the actions of a released hostage, schoolmaster Thomas Curnow. Curnow convinced Ned to let him go and then as soon as he was released he alerted the authorities by standing on the railway line near sunrise and waving a lantern wrapped in his red scarf. The police then stopped the train before it would have been derailed and laid siege to the inn at dawn on Monday 28 June.

According to the reporters from The Argus who were on scene, the first contact was exceedingly hot. The police and the gang blazed away at each other in the darkness furiously. It lasted for about a quarter of an hour, and during that time there was nothing but a succession of flashes and reports, the pinging of bullets in the air, and the shrieks of women who had been made prisoners in the hotel. Then there was a lull, but nothing could be seen for a minute or two because of the smoke. In a few minutes Superintendent Hare returned to the railway-station with a shattered wrist. The first shot fired by the gang had passed through his left wrist. He bled profusely from the wound, but Mr. Carrington, artist of The Sketcher, tied up the wound with his handkerchief, and checked the hemorrhage. Mr. Hare then set out again for the fray, and cheered his men on as well as he could, but he gradually became so weak from loss of blood that he had reluctantly to retire, and was soon afterwards conveyed to Benalla by a special engine

At about 5 o'clock in the morning a heart rending wail of grief ascended from the hotel. The voice was easily distinguished as that of Mrs. Jones, the landlady. Mrs. Jones was lamenting the fate of her son, who had been shot in the back, as she supposed, fatally. She came out from the hotel crying bitterly and wandered into the bush on several occasions, and nature seemed to echo her grief. She always returned, however, to the hotel, until she succeeded, with the assistance, of one of the prisoners, in removing her wounded boy from the building, and in sending him on to Wangaratta for medical treatment. The firing continued intermittently, as occasion served, and bullets were continually heard coursing through the air. Several lodged in the station buildings, and a few struck the train. By this time the hotel was completely surrounded by the police and the black trackers and a vigilant watch of the hotel was kept up during the dark hours.

At daybreak police reinforcements arrived from Benalla, Beechworth, and Wangaratta. Superintendent Sadlier came from Benalla with nine more men, and Sergeant Steele, of Wangaratta, with six, thus augmenting the besieging force to about 30 men. Before daylight Senior-constable Kelly found a revolving rifle and a cap lying in the bush, about 100 yards from the hotel. The rifle was covered with blood and a pool of blood lay near it. This was evidently the property of one of the bushrangers, and a suspicion therefore arose that they had escaped. That these articles not only belonged to one of the outlaws but to Ned Kelly himself was soon proved. When day was dawning the women and children who had been made prisoners in the hotel were allowed to depart. They were, however, challenged individually as they approached the police line, for it was thought that the outlaws might attempt to escape under some disguise.

Capture of Ned Kelly

At daybreak, to the surprise of the police, however, they soon found themselves attacked from the rear by a man dressed in a long grey overcoat and wearing an iron mask. The appearance of the man presented an anomaly, but a little scrutiny of his appearance and behaviour soon showed that it was the veritable leader of the gang, Ned Kelly himself. On further observation it was seen that he was only armed with a revolver. He however, walked coolly from tree to tree, and received the fire of the police with the utmost indifference, returning a shot from his revolver when a good opportunity presented itself. Three men went for him, Sergeant Steele of Wangaratta, Senior-constable Kelly, and a railway guard named Dowsett. The latter, however, was only armed with a revolver. They fired at him persistently, but to their surprise with no effect. He seemed bullet-proof. It then occurred to Sergeant Steele that the fellow was encased in mail, and he then aimed at the outlaws legs. His first shot of that kind made Ned stagger, and the second brought him to the ground with the cry, "I am done—I am done." Steele rushed up along with Senior-constable Kelly and others. The outlaw howled like a wild beast brought to bay, and swore at the police. He was first seized by Steele, and as that officer grappled with him he fired off another charge from his revolver. This shot was evidently intended for Steele, but from the smart way in which he secured the murderer the sergeant escaped. Kelly became gradually quiet, and it was soon found that he had been utterly disabled. He had been shot in the left foot, left leg, right hand, left arm, and twice in the region of the groin. But no bullet had penetrated his armour. Having been divested of his armour he was carried down to the railway station, and placed in a guard's van. Subsequently he was removed to the stationmaster's office, and his wounds were dressed there by Dr. Nicholson, of Benalla.

The siege continued

In the meantime the siege was continued without intermission. That the three other outlaws were still in the house was confirmed by remarks made by Ned, who said they would fight to the last, and would never give in. The interest and excitement were consequently heightened. The Kelly gang were at last in the grasp of the police and their leader actually captured. The female prisoners who escaped during the morning gave corroboration of the fact that Dan Kelly, Byrne, and Hart were still in the house. A rumour got abroad that Byrne was shot when drinking a glass of whisky at the bar of the hotel about half-past 5 o'clock in the morning, and the report afterwards turned out to be true. The remaining two kept up a steady defence from the rear of the building during the forenoon, and exposed themselves recklessly to the bullets of the police. They, however, were also clad in mail, and the shot took no effect. At 10 o'clock a white flag or handkerchief was held out at the front door, and immediately afterwards about 30 men, all prisoners, sallied forth holding up their hands. They escaped whilst Dan Kelly and Hart were defending the back door. The police rallied up towards them with their arms ready, and called upon them to stand. Tho crowd did so, and in obedience to a subsequent order fell prone on the ground. They were passed, one by one, and two of them, brothers named M'Auliffe were arrested as Kelly sympathisers. The precaution thus taken was highly necessary, as the remaining outlaws might have been amongst them. The scene presented when they were all lying on the ground, and demonstrating the respectability of their characters, was unique and, in some degree, amusing.

The end - The hotel burnt

The siege was kept up all the morning, and till nearly 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Some time before this the shooting from the hotel had ceased and opinions were divided as to whether Dan Kelly and Hart were reserving their ammunition or were dead. The best part of the day having elapsed, the police, who were now acting under the direction of Superintendent Sadlier, determined that a decisive step should be taken. At 10 minutes to 3 o'clock another and the last volley was fired into the hotel, and under cover of the fire Senior-constable Charles Johnson, of Violet Town, ran up to the house with a bundle of straw which (having set fire to) he placed on the ground at the west side of the building. This was a moment of intense excitement, and all hearts were relieved when Johnson was seen to regain uninjured the shelter he had left. All eyes were now fixed on the silent building, and the circle of besiegers began to close in rapidly on it, some dodging from tree to tree, and many, fully persuaded that everyone in the hotel must be hors de combat, coming out boldly into the open. Just at this juncture Mrs. Skillian, sister of the Kellys, attempted to approach the house from the front. She had on a black riding habit, with a red underskirt, and white Gainsborough hat, and was a prominent object in the scene. Her arrival on the ground was almost simultaneous with the attempt to fire the building. Her object in trying to reach the house was apparently to induce the survivors, if any, to come out and surrender. The police, however, ordered her to stop. She obeyed the order, but very reluctantly, and, standing still, called out that some of the police were ordering her to go on and others to stop. She, however, went to where a knot of the besiegers were standing on the west side of the house. In the meantime the straw, which burned fiercely, had all been consumed, and at first doubts were entertained as to whether Senior-constable Johnson's exploit had been successful. Not very many minutes elapsed, however, before smoke was seen coming out of the roof, and flames were discerned through the front window on the western side. A light westerly wind was blowing at the time, and this carried the flames from the straw underneath the wall and into the house, and as the building was lined with calico, the fire spread rapidly. Still no sign of life appeared in the building. When the house was seen to be fairly on fire, Father Gibney, who had previously started for it but had been stopped by the police, walked up to the front door and entered it. By this time the patience of the besiegers was exhausted, and they all, regardless of shelter, rushed to the building. Father Gibney, at much personal risk from the flames, hurried into a room to the left, and there saw two bodies lying side by side on their backs. He touched them, and found life was extinct in each. These were the bodies of Dan Kelly and Hart, and the rev. gentleman expressed the opinion, based on their position, that they must have killed one another. Whether they killed one another or whether both or one committed suicide, or whether both being mortally wounded by the besiegers they determined to die side by side, will never be known. The priest had barely time to feel their bodies before the fire forced him to make a speedy exit from the room, and the flames had then made such rapid progress on the western side of the house that the few people who followed close on the rev. gentleman's heels dared not attempt to rescue the two bodies. It may be here stated that, after the house had been burned down, the two bodies were removed from the embers. They presented a horrible spectacle, nothing but the trunk and skull being left, and these almost burnt to a cinder. Their armour was found near them. About the remains there was apparently nothing to lead to positive identification, but the discovery of the armour near them and other circumstances render it impossible to be doubted that they were those of Dan Kelly and Steve Hart. The latter was a much smaller man than the younger Kelly, and this difference in size was noticeable in their remains. Constable Dwyer, by-the-bye, who, followed Father Gibney into the hotel, states that he was near enough to the bodies to recognise Dan Kelly. As to Byrne's body it was found in the entrance to the bar-room, which was on the east side of the house, and there was time to remove it from the building, but not before the right side was slightly scorched. This body likewise presented a dreadful appearance. It looked as if it had been ill-nourished. The face was black with smoke, and the arms were bent at right angles at the elbows, the stiffened joints below the elbows standing erect. The body was quite stiff, and its appearance and the position in which it was found corroborated the statement that Byrne died early yesterday morning. He is said to have received the fatal wound, which was in the groin, while drinking a glass of whisky at the bar. He had a ring on his right hand which had belonged to Constable Scanlan, who was murdered by the gang on the Wombat Ranges. The body was dressed in a blue coat, tweed striped trousers, Crimean shirt, and very ill-fitting boots. Like Ned Kelly, Byrne wore a bushy beard. In the outhouse or kitchen immediately behind the main building the old man Martin Cherry, who was one of the prisoners of the gang, and who was so severely wounded that he could not leave the house when the other prisoners left, was found still living, but in articulo mortis from a wound in the groin. He was promptly removed to a short distance from the burning hotel and laid on the ground, when Father Gibney administered to him the last sacrament. Cherry was insensible, and barely alive. He had evidently suffered much during the day, and death released him from his sufferings within half an hour from the time when he was removed from the hotel. It was fortunate that he was not burned alive. Cherry, who was unmarried, was an old resident of the district and was employed as a platelayer, and resided about a mile from Glenrowan. He was born at Limerick, Ireland and was 60 years old. He is said by all who knew him to have been a quiet, harmless old man, and much regret was expressed at his death. He seems to have been shot by the attacking force, of course unintentionally. While the house was burning some explosions were heard inside. These were alarming at first, but it was soon ascertained that they were cartridges burning. Several gun barrels were found in the debris, and also the burnt carcase of a dog which had been shot during the mélée. All that was left standing of the hotel was the lamp-post and the signboard.

The police suffered only one minor injury: Superintendent Francis Hare, the senior officer on the scene, received a slight wound to his wrist, then fled the battle. The Royal Commission then recommended that Superintendent Hare be allowed to retire from the force, as though he had attained the age of 55 years, and that, owing to the wound he sustained at Glenrowan, he receive an additional allowance of £100 per annum. Several hostages were also shot, two fatally.

The body of Joe Byrne was taken to Benalla and strung up as a curiosity for photographers and spectators. His body was not claimed by his family, and he was buried by police in an unmarked grave in Benalla Cemetery. Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were buried in unmarked graves by their families in Greta Cemetery 30 km (19 mi) east of Benalla.

Ned Kellys' Statements

I was going down to meet the special train with some of my mates, and intended to rake it with shot ; but it arrived before I expected, and I then returned to the hotel. I expected the train would go on, and I had the rails pulled up so that these ****** blacktrackers might be settled. I do not say what brought me to Glenrowan, but it seems much. Anyhow I could have have got away last night, for I got into the bush with my grey mare, and lay there all night. But I wanted to see the thing end. In the first volley the police fired I was wounded on the left foot ; soon afterwards I was shot through the left arm. I got these wounds in front of the house. I do not care what people say about Sergeant Kennedy's death. I have made my statement of the affair, and if the public don't believe me I can't help it ; but I am satisfied it is not true that Scanlan was shot kneeling. He never got off his horse. I fired three or four shots from the front of Jones's hotel, but who I was firing at I do not know. I simply fired where I saw police. I escaped to the bush, and remained there overnight. I could have shot several constables if I liked. Two passed close to me. I could have shot them before they could shoot. I was a good distance away at one time, but came back. Why don't the the police use bullets instead of duck shot? I have got one charge of duck-shot in my leg. One policeman who was firing at me was a splendid shot, but I do not know his name. I daresay I would have done well to have ridden away on my grey mare. The bullets that struck my armour felt like blows from a man's fist. I wanted to fire into the carriages, but the police started on us too quickly. I expected the police to come." Inspector Sadlier.—You wanted, then, to kill the people in the train ?" Kelly. —"Yes, of course I did ; God help them, but they would have got shot all the same. Would they not have tried to kill me?

The Battle of Glenrowan described by the man who shot Ned Kelly

"The hotel was surrounded by police and black trackers, who kept up a continuous firing at the hotel building. It was a futile, as well as cruel, business, because the place was full of the Kellys' prisoners as anyone could tell by the awful screams. I stopped as much of the shooting as I could and did none myself except to let go a couple of revolver shots at two of the bushrangers who walked on to the verandah with their armor on and fired at the police. I knew about this armour, and it was that knowledge that was Ned Kelly's downfall."

"The firing went on all night. Some of the people from, the hotel did get away, but they had to run fearful risks of being shot by the police and trackers some of whom, crazy with excitement would have blazed away at anything they saw. There seemed to be no system, no organisation or direction about the attack. It was all fearfully bungled. A. determined rush by a few trusty men would have settled the whole business. This was suggested but turned down because of the likelihood of lives being lost. There was not much chance of that. And anyway, it was war, and lives were being lost in the hotel - the lives of non-combatants. But the officer in charge had to have his way."

All that night I did little. I was waiting for Ned, principally. I wanted to make sure of him; and I had a kind of inspiration that I should see him before it was all over. "Now, as I told you, I knew about the armor that the outlaws were wearing that night -for the first and last time, and I knew that a bullet would have to be most correctly aimed to disable one of them. Anyone who has shot in the dark knows how difficult it is to pick ap the sights of a rifle, even with something light in front of the object aimed at. It might have been possible to have hit one of the outlaws in the head through the slot in the headpiece that they used to see through, but it would have been mighty uncertain at night with the man moving."

"I had thought all this over before, many a time. I one day remembered haying read the story of how a notorious American outlaw, who for a long time had appeared to lead a charmed life, but eventually been shot dead by the brother of a man he had murdered, and who had used, not a rifle, but a double-barrelled gun, double loaded with buckshot Also, I remembered reading somewhere that it was the practice to use shotguns and buckshot against train robbers in the States. "Buckshot is not known here. But the big leaden pellets known as "swan drops" are. And I laid in a stock of these. Oh the night of the battle, as I lay waiting for an opportunity to do something useful, that old gun that I have just put away - it was new then was lying by my side, well charged with the little bullets."

"It was dawn when a fresh outbreak of firing, accompanied by cries and shouts, announced some new development in the proceedings, the firing having for some time slackened down. Looking towards the house, I saw in the dim grey, light a spectral sort of figure that looked human, as to its clothes, but altogether inhuman as to its shape and general appearance. It came forward slowly, peppered by all who saw it, and firing back from what appeared to be a big revolver, held tightly against the breast. Regarding not at all the heavy fire that was directed towards it from all quarters, the strange figure, enveloped in a huge overcoat, strode slowly on. "I had already recognised the unaccustomed sound of metallic impact of bullets upon iron, and whilst the men in front of me were yelling, "Look out! It's the devil'.' "You can't kill it!" and things like that, I realised that at last my chance was coming. Because the big, weird figure was coming straight for me!"

"'Was it fate!' I wondered. "Was this Ned, come to settle the affair of our vendetta in person?' "I will not deny that I got a bit excited, or that I felt a creepy feeling about the roots of my hair. It was a cold morning, and I was chilled with the long night of it, I know I shivered when I saw that ghostly apparition stand behind the lower part of a fallen tree, and quietly proceed to take pot shots at two or three of us with the queer-looking weapon that it carried. Once this weapon ran empty, and the spectre calmly reloaded it from the bag that was over its shoulders. Then it started to shoot again. I fired at the headpiece with my revolver, but the mark was small, and my hand was not quite steady, and I do not know if I hit the thing at all - certainly I did not hit the slit in the top of it that I aimed at But the man in the headpiece took no notice except to take steady aim at me and fire again. I felt the breath of the bullet. I tried another pistol shot, but just aimed at the main bulk of the figure. I heard the ball strike the iron armour, and that was all. There were three or four shooting at the apparition, but with no effect at all, though it was close to us."

"Then, in the gathering daylight, I saw my chance. The tree trunk behind which Ned Kelly was standing. I was now certain that I had to do with that redoubtable chieftain himself rose in a sloping fashion from the ground, and at its upper extremity left an open space beneath of about 2ft. "In the growing light of the dawn I noticed, beneath the tree trank, the outlaw's legs. They were plainly visible, and unprotected by armour. "I win, Ned" was the fierce thought that surged through me as I raised the shot-gun, lying over on my left side to do it. "It was as though I had spoken aloud. For at that instant I heard the outlaw make an exclamation inside his great clumsy helmet, and when I put my fingers on the triggers of the gun he was taking a very careful aim at me." 'Would he disable me before I could fire?" This was the one thought I had. It all passed like lightning. Instinctively I rolled over a little - just as he fired and missed. Then, half raising myself, I fired the right barrel of my gun point blank under the log - straight at his legs. I heard him give an exclamation as though of pain, and waited a second to see if be would fall, But he stood firm, and leaning against the log for support, prepared to take aim again. "I fired the left barrel as quickly as I knew how, and prepared to dodge behind the tree on my left, and fight the matter out with my revolver. But there was no need. No sooner had the smoke of the gun cleared away than I saw the outlaw's pistol hand drop. He staggered, and then, with a cry of "I'm done for!" that sounded strange and hollow in the cylindrical iron helmet, fell with a crash behind the stump. "Three or four rushed to him. I was the the first to reach him, and to lift the helmet off. "So, I've got you at last, Ned" as his eyes met mine. "Yes; you've done for me" he moaned. "Don't let them hurt me!"

List of Victims Killed or Wounded by the Kelly Gang

Name	Injury	Date
Constable Fitzpatrick	wounded	April 1878
Sergeant Michael Kennedy	shot dead	26 October 1878
Constable Scanlan	shot dead	26 October 1878
Constable Lonergan	shot dead	26 October 1878
Aaron Sherritt	shot dead	26 June 1880
Martin Cherry	shot dead	28 June 1880
John Jones (11yo)	shot (died)	29 June 1880
C. C. Rawlins	wounded	28 June 1880
Superintendent Hare	wounded	28 June 1880
Martha Jones (14yo)	wounded	28 June 1880

Total : six shot dead, four wounded.

Trial

The trial of Ned Kelly

Kelly in the dock

Ned Kelly survived to stand trial and was charged with the murder of Sergeant Kennedy, Contable Scanlan and Lonigan, the various bank robberies, the murder of Sherritt, and resistance to the police at Glenrowan, together with a long catalogue of minor charges. He was convicted of the first degree murder of Constable Lonigan. He was then sentenced to death by hanging by Irish-born Lord Justice Redmond Barry. This case was extraordinary in that there were exchanges between the prisoner Kelly and the judge, and the case has been the subject of attention by historians and lawyers. When the judge uttered the customary words "May God have mercy on your soul", Kelly replied "I will go a little further than that, and say I will see you there when I go". At Ned's request, his photographic portrait was taken and he was granted farewell interviews with family members. His mother's last words to Ned were reported to be "Mind you die like a Kelly".

Death

Ned Kelly's death mask in the Old Melbourne Gaol

He was hanged on 11 November 1880 at the Melbourne Gaol. Kelly's gaol warden wrote in his diary that when Kelly was prompted to say his last words, the prisoner opened his mouth and mumbled something that he could not hear.

The Argus reported that Mr. Castieau, the governor of the gaol, informed the condemned man that the hour of execution had been fixed at ten o'clock. Kelly simply replied "Such is life." His leg-irons were then struck off, and after a short time he was marched out by a number of warders, from the condemned cell on the old wing of the prison to the central building. He was very submissive on the way, and when passing through a portion of the gaol grounds laid out in flower beds, he remarked "what a nice little garden," but said nothing further until reaching the Press room, where he remained until the arrival of Dean Donaghy, chaplain of the gaol.

The Argus also then reported as Ned was at the gallows, that it was his intention to make a speech, but his courage evidently failed him, and he merely said, "Ah, well, I suppose it has come to this," as the rope was being placed round his neck.

Sir Redmond Barry died of the effects of a carbuncle on his neck on 23 November 1880, twelve days after Kelly.

Although the exact number is unknown, it is estimated that a petition to spare Kelly's life attracted over 30,000 signatures.

Reward

There was considerable controversy over the division of the £8,000 (A$400,000 in 2008 dollars) reward before the enquiry into the siege was conducted although the money itself was not actually paid until it had concluded. Most commentators complained that Curnow should have received more while many of the police deserved less pointing out that some police who received large amounts were of little value at Glenrowan, whilst others receiving lesser amounts distinguished themselves. Public opposition was such that Superintendent Hare and Sub-inspector O’Connor, who was in charge of the Aboriginal trackers, declined to collect their shares of £800 (A$40,000 in 2008 dollars) and £237 (A$11,850 in 2008 dollars) respectively.

Despite being suspended for cowardice at Glenrowan, Superintendent Hare received the largest share, £800 while Thomas Curnow, who alerted police to the ambush thus saving many lives, received £550. Seven senior police officers received from £165 to £377 each, seven constables £137, Mr. C. C. Rawlins (civilian volunteer) £137, one constable £125, 15 constables £115, the three train engineers £104, one detective £100, one senior constable £97, the train driver, fireman and guard £84 each, assistant engine fireman £69, assistant engine driver £68, one senior constable £48, 14 constables £42 each and Messrs Cheshire and Osborne, £25 each. Nine civilians, 13 constables and two police agents applied for a share of the reward but were rejected. The board acknowledged that some who received nothing deserved a share but adherence to the terms of the proclamation precluded rewarding them. Four members of the media had accompanied the police and the board stated that, had they applied for a share, it would have been approved.

Seven native trackers also received £50 each although the board deemed it undesirable to place any sum of money in the hands of persons unable to use it and recommend that the sums set opposite the names of the black trackers be handed to the Queensland and Victorian Governments to be dealt with at their discretion.

Kelly gang armour

Ned Kelly's armour, from an 1880 illustration

Ned Kelly's armour on display in the State Library of Victoria
The apron and one shoulderplate are not Ned's and comes from either Dan Kelly's or Steve Hart's armour.

The armour in which each member of the gang was clad was of a most substantial character. It was made of iron a quarter of an inch thick, and consisted of a long breast-plate, shoulder-plates, back-guard, and helmet. The helmet resembled a nail can without a crown, and with a long slit at the elevation of the eyes to look through. All these articles are believed to have been made by two men, one living near Greta, and the other near Oxley. Ned Kelly's armour alone weighed 97lb, a considerable weight to carry on horseback. There are five bullet marks on the helmet, three on the breast-plate, nine on the back-plate, and one on the shoulder-plate. Joe Byrne's suit was the only one without an apron to protect the groin and thighs, as a result of which he died from a shot to the groin. Ned's suit was the only one to also have an apron at the back. The suits' separate parts were strapped together on the body while the helmet was separate and sat on the shoulders, allowing it to be removed easily when the need arose. Padding is only known from Ned's armour and it is not clear if the other suits were similarly padded. Ned wore a padded skull cap and his helmet also had internal strapping so that his head could take some of the weight. All the men wore dustcoats over the armour.

The papers of the day reported that the police were in possession of information which causes them to suspect that a certain country blacksmith made the armour for the gang. The plough shares and mould boards out of which the armour was manufactured was stolen from five farmers at Greta, at Easter. One of the farmers identified some of the plates by marks on them. The police at the time were informed that it was intended by the gang to turn the mould-boards into armour, but they laughed at the idea.

About April, 1880, intelligence was received by the police of the robbery of mould boards of ploughs in the vicinity of Greta and Oxley, and the inquiries made proved that the thieves were the members of the Kelly gang. About a month later the secret agent known as "diseased stock" wrote a letter to the assistant commissioner intimating that the object of the outlaws in stealing the mould-boards was to manufacture armour preparatory to making another raid on one of the banks.

The Victorian Police had been told three times by informants of the existence of the armour and that it was capable of deflecting bullets but Police Superintendents Hare and Sadlier both dismissed the information as "nonsense" and "an impossibility". Despite these warnings, none of the police realised the gang were wearing armour until after the siege was over. Until Ned fell, the police even questioned whether he was human. Constable Arthur, who was closest, thought he was a "huge blackfellow wrapped in a blanket", Constable Dowsett exclaimed it was "old Nick" and Senior Constable Kelly called out "Look out, boys, it’s the bunyip. He’s bullet-proof!" Constable Gascoigne, who recognised Ned's voice, told Superintendent Sadlier he had "fired at him point blank and hit him straight in the body. But there is no use firing at Ned Kelly; he can't be hurt". Although aware of the information supplied by the informant prior to the siege, Sadlier later wrote that even after Gascoigne's comment "no thought of armour" had occurred to him.

Following the siege of Glenrowan the media reported the events and use of armour around the world. The gang were admired in military circles and Arthur Conan Doyle commented on the gang's imagination and recommended similar armour for use by British infantry. The police announcement to the Australian public that the armour was made from ploughshares was ridiculed, disputed, and deemed impossible even by blacksmiths.

After Ned Kelly's capture there was considerable debate over having the armour destroyed, but all four disassembled suits of armour were eventually stored by Police Superintendent Hare in Melbourne. Hare gave Ned Kelly's armour to Sir William Clarke, and it was later donated to the State Library of Victoria. Joe Byrne's suit of armour was kept by Hare and now belongs to his descendants. Dan Kelly and Steve Hart's sets of armour are still owned by the Victorian Police force. As no effort was made to maintain the armour's integrity while stored, the suits were reassembled by guesswork. In 2002 several parts were identified from photographs taken shortly after the siege and reunited with their original suits. As a result the State Library of Victoria was able to exchange their backplate, which was found to be Steve Hart's breastplate, for Ned Kelly's own backplate, making their suit currently the most original. In January 2002 all four suits were displayed together for an exhibition in the Old Melbourne Gaol.

The armour had been made by Glenrowan district blacksmith Joe Grigg from parts of ploughs and harvesting machines while he was kept under lock and key and strict watch by Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly coming along at intervals to relieve while the latter slept. Ned Kelly paid for it in golden sovereigns. Grigg immediately told the authorities about it at a confidential meeting and was told to keep the cash as he had honestly earned it.

According to legend the armour was made on a Stringybark log by the gang themselves. Due to the quality of the workmanship and the difficulties involved in forging, historians and blacksmiths had long believed the armour could only have been made by a professional blacksmith in a forge. A professional blacksmith would have heated the steel to over 1,000 °C (1,830 °F), before shaping it. A bush forge would only be able to get the metal to 750 °C (1,380 °F), which would make shaping the metal very difficult. In 2003 Byrne's suit of armour was disassembled and tested by ANSTO at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney to determine how the armour was made and what temperatures were involved. The results of testing indicated the heating of the metal was "patchy". Some parts had been bent cold while other parts had been subjected to extended periods in a heat source of not much more than 700 °C (1,292 °F), which is consistent with a bush forge. The quality of forging was also determined to be less than believed, and it is now considered unlikely to have been done by a blacksmith. The method now widely accepted is that mouldboards were heated in a makeshift bush forge and then beaten straight over a green log before being cut into shape and riveted together to form each individual piece.

Ned Kelly's remains and grave

Following his execution it was reported in a newspaper that Kelly's body was dissected by medical students, with his head and organs removed for study. Dissection outside of a coronial enquiry was illegal, and as public outrage at the rumour raised real fears of public disorder, the commissioner of police wrote the Gaols governor who denied such a dissection had taken place. In line with the practice of the day, as no records are kept regarding the disposal of a condemned person's body or body parts, Kelly's remains were buried in Melbourne Gaol's unmarked graveyard. Kelly's head was allegedly given to phrenologists for study then returned to the police, who used it for a time as a paperweight.

In 1929, Melbourne gaol was closed, and the bodies in its graveyard were uncovered during demolition works. During the recovery of the bodies, spectators and workers stole skeletal parts from a grave marked with the initials EK in the belief they belonged to Kelly. The site foreman, Harry Franklin, retrieved the skull and gave it to the Australian Institute of Anatomy in Canberra. As no provision had been made for the disposal of the remains, Franklin had the bodies reburied in Pentridge prison at his own expense. The skull in the possession of police was given, at some unknown date, to the Institute of Anatomy in Canberra who, in 1971, gave it to the National Trust. It was this skull that was thought to have been displayed at the Old Melbourne Gaol until it was stolen in December 1978. An investigation in 2010 proved that the displayed skull was in fact the one recovered in April 1929. Tom Baxter, a farmer from West Australia, claimed he had the skull stolen in 1978 but refused to hand it over for identification or burial. Despite attempts, the police had been unable to locate the stolen skull. The skull did not match photographs of the stolen skull, and a facial reconstruction based on a cast made from the skull in Baxter's possession did not resemble Kelly, but does resemble the death mask of Ernest Knox, who was executed in 1894 for murder. If this was indeed the skull stolen in 1978, it meant that Kelly's skull was on display originally, but was taken off display at some time and thereafter replaced with Knox's skull.

On 9 March 2008 it was announced that Australian archaeologists believed they had found Kelly's grave on the site of Pentridge prison. The bones were uncovered at a mass grave, and Kelly's are among those of 32 felons who had been executed by hanging. Jeremy Smith, a senior archaeologist with Heritage Victoria said, "We believe we have conclusively found the burial site but that is very different from finding the remains." Mrs. Ellen Hollow, Kelly's 62-year-old grand-niece, offered to supply her own DNA to help identify Kelly's bones.

Historical and forensic investigation of remains

On the anniversary of Kelly's hanging, 11 November 2009, Tom Baxter handed the skull in his possession to police and it was historically and forensically tested along with the Pentridge remains. The skull was compared to a cast of the skull that had been stolen from the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1978 and proved to be a perfect match. The skull was then compared to that in a newspaper photograph of worker Alex Talbot holding the skull recovered in 1929 which showed a close resemblance. Talbot was known to have taken a tooth from the skull as a souvenir and a media campaign to find the whereabouts of the tooth led to Talbot's grandson coming forward. The tooth was found to belong to the skull confirming it was indeed the skull recovered in 1929. The skull was next compared to the death masks of those executed at Old Melbourne Gaol which eliminated all but two. The two were those of Kelly and Frederick Deeming who had been executed in 1892 and buried alongside Kelly, both were a close match. The death masks and skull were then scanned to provide 3D images which showed that the skull was a match for Deeming. This proved to be a problem as Deeming's labeled skull cap was in storage. Both the skull and Deemings skull cap were DNA tested and compared to that of Leigh Olver, great-grandson of Kelly's mother Ellen by her second husband George King, with no match being found. It is now accepted that the skull recovered in 1929 and later displayed in the Old Melbourne Gaol was not Kelly's. It is likely the skull belongs to Deeming and that what was thought to be Deeming's skull cap was mislabeled and actually belongs to someone else.

Forensic pathologists also examined the bones from Pentridge, which were much decayed and jumbled with the remains of others, making identification difficult. The collar bone was found to be the only bone that had survived in all the skeletons and these were all DNA tested against that of Leigh Olver. A match to Kelly was found and the associated skeleton turned out to be one of the most complete. Kelly's remains were additionally identified by partially healed foot, wrist bone and left elbow injuries matching those caused by the bullet wounds at Glenrowan as recorded by the Gaol surgeon in 1880 and by the fact that his head was missing, likely removed for phrenological study. A section from the back of a skull (the occipital) was recovered from the grave that bore saw cuts that matched those present on several neck vertebrae indicating that the skull section belonged to the skeleton and that an illegal dissection had been performed.

In August 2011, scientists publicly confirmed a skeleton exhumed from the old Pentridge Prison's mass graveyard was indeed Kelly's, after comparing the DNA to that of Leigh Olver. The DNA matching was based on mitochonrial DNA (HV1, HV2). This is indicative of Mr Kelly's maternal line. The investigating forensic pathologist has indicated that no adequate quality somatic DNA was obtained that would enable a y-DNA profile to be determined. This may be attempted at a later date. A y-DNA profile would enable Mr Kelly's paternal genetic genealogy to be determined with reference to the data already existing in the Kelly y-DNA study (see this page). The skeleton was missing most of its skull, the whereabouts of which are unknown.

Aftermath and lessons

After Ned Kelly's death, the Victorian Royal Commission (1881–83) into the Victorian Police Force led to many changes to the nature of policing in the colony. The Commission took 18 months and its findings put many of the police involved in the Kelly hunt in a less than favourable light, yet neither did it excuse or sanction the actions of the Kelly Gang. As a result of the Commission a number of members of the Victorian police, including senior staff, were reprimanded, demoted, or dismissed.

Some dismiss the Kelly Outbreak as simply a spate of criminality. These included: Boxhall, The Story of Australian Bushrangers (1899), Henry Giles Turner, History of the Colony of Victoria (1904) and several police writers of the time like Hare and more modern writers like Penzig (1988) who wrote legitimising narratives about law and order and moral justification.

Others, commencing with Kenneally (1929), McQuilton (1979) and Jones (1995), perceived the Kelly Outbreak and the problems of Victoria's Land Selection Acts post-1860s as interlinked. McQuilton identified Kelly as the "social bandit" who was caught up in unresolved social contradictions – that is, the selector-squatter conflicts over land – and that Kelly gave the selectors the leadership they so lacked. O'Brien (1999) identified a leaderless rural malaise in Northeastern Victoria as early as 1872–73, around land, policing and the Impounding Act.

Though the Kelly Gang was destroyed in 1880, for almost seven years a serious threat of a second outbreak existed because of major problems around land settlement and selection (McQuilton, Ch. 10).

McQuilton suggested two police officers involved in the pursuit of the Kelly Gang – namely, Superintendent John Sadleir (1833–1919),[6] author of Recollections of a Victorian Police Officer, and Inspector W.B. Montford – averted the Second Outbreak by coming to understand that the unresolved social contradiction in Northeastern Victoria was around land, not crime, and by their good work in aiding small selectors.

Kellys and the modern era

Ned's mother Ellen died in 1923 at the age of 92, by which time planes, cars and radio had been introduced to Australia. Photographs have recently been discovered showing her sitting in a motor car.

November 2007 auctioning of claimed Kelly revolver

On 13 November 2007, a weapon claimed to be Constable Fitzpatrick's service revolver was auctioned for approximately $70,000 in Melbourne and is now located in Westbury, Tasmania.

The vendor's representative, Tom Thompson, claimed that the revolver was left by Constable Fitzpatrick at the Kelly house after the melee in 1878, given to Kate Kelly, and then (much later) found in a house or shed in Forbes, New South Wales.

According to press reports in the days following the auction, firearms experts assessed the revolver as being of a design (a copy of an English Webley .32 revolver) not manufactured until 1884, well after the claimed provenance had the weapon changing hands from Constable Fitzpatrick to the Kellys. In addition, a stamp on the gun which the auction catalogue interpreted as R*C, an indication that the revolver was of the Royal Constabulary, was instead read as a European manufacturer's proof mark.

Further, evidence by Constable Fitzpatrick said that when he left the Kelly homestead after the incident, he had his revolver and handcuffs; (cited in Keith McMenomy (1984), p. 69.)

Cultural effect

Further information: Ned Kelly in popular culture

A homemade letterbox in the style of Ned Kelly's armour, Bullio, Southern Highlands

One of the gaols in which Kelly was incarcerated has become the Ned Kelly Museum in Glenrowan, Victoria, and many weapons and artifacts used by him and his gang are on exhibition there. Since his death, Kelly has become part of Australian folklore, and the subject of a large number of books and several films. The Australian term "as game as Ned Kelly" entered the language and is a common expression.

Films included the first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang (Australia, 1906), another with Mick Jagger in the title role (1970), and more recently Ned Kelly (2003) starring Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush. A TV mini series of four episodes The Last Outlaw (1980) highlighted the plight of the selector and the social conflicts and battles between selector and squatters. During the 1960s, Ned Kelly graduated from folk lore into the academic arena. His story and the social issues around land selection, squatters, national identity, policing and his court case are studied at universities, seminars and lectures.

Ned Kelly as a political icon

In the time since his execution, Ned Kelly has been mythologised among some into a Robin Hood, a political revolutionary and a figure of Irish Catholic and working-class resistance to the establishment and British colonial ties. It is claimed that Kelly's bank robberies were to fund the push for a "Republic of the North-East of Victoria", and that the police found a declaration of the republic in his pocket when he was captured, which has led to his being seen as an icon by some in the Australian republicanism cause.

See also

• Dan Kelly (bushranger)
• The Jerilderie Letter
• Breaker Morant
• List of people on stamps of Ireland

References

• Sadleir, J., Recollections of a Victorian Police Officer, George Robertson & Co., (Melbourne), 1913. (Facsimile reprint, Penguin Books, 1973, ISBN 0-140-70037-4)
• O'Brien, Antony (2006). Bye-Bye Dolly Gray. Hartwell: Artillery Publishing. (historical fiction with lots of Kelly oral and histories in a twisting & turning plot)
• Brown, Max (1948). Australian Son. Melbourne: Georgian House.  (plus reprints)(a sound pro-Kelly history of the events)
• 'Cameron Letter', 14 December 1878, in Meredith, J. & Scott, B. Ned Kelly After a Century of Acrimony, Lansdowne, Sydney, 1980, pp. 63–66. (Ned Kelly's own words)
• Gibb, D. M. (1982). National Identity and Counsciousness: Commentary and Documents. Melbourne: Nelson.  (Chapter 1. Ned Kelly's view of his world and others)
• Hare, F.A. (1892). The Last of the Bushrangers. London.  (a police perspective of the 'criminal class')
• Hobsbawm, E.J. (1972). Bandits. Ringwood: Pelican.  (wide ranging world wide history on social bandits in which he argues that Ned Kelly can be better understood)
• Jones, Ian (1995). Ned Kelly : A Short Life. Port Melbourne: Lothian.  (a comprehensive and well researched piece of history and events)
• Kenneally, J.J. (1929). Inner History of the Kelly Gang.  (plus many reprints) (the first pro-Kelly piece of literature)
• McDermott, Alex, ed. (2001). The Jerilderie Letter. Melbourne: Text Publishing.  (an insight into the famous Jerilderie Letter)
• McMenomy, Keith (1984). Ned Kelly: The Authentic Illustrated Story. South Yarra: Curry O'Neill Ross.  (lots of photos from the era, photos of records etc. a sound research piece)
• McQuilton, John, The Kelly Outbreak 1788–1880; The geographical dimension of social banditry, 1979. (among the most important academic works, which expands on Hobsbawm; links the unresolved land problems to the Kelly Outbreak)
• Penzig, Edgar, F. (1988). Bushrangers – Heroes or Villains. Katoomba: Tranter.  ( a pro-police/establishment piece)
• Deakin University (1995). The Kelly Outbreak Reader. Geelong: Deakin University.  (is now hard to locate but it contains a wide selection of research documents and commentary for university level history students)
• Turnbull, C (1942). Ned Kelly: Being his own story of his life and crimes. Melbourne: Hawthorn Press.  ( very hard to locate, but Ned Kelly become a national figure)
• Wilcox, Craig (2005). Australia's Boer War: The War in South Africa 1899–1902. South Melbourne: Oxford.  (has a cartoon of 1900 depicting Ned Kelly and the gang capturing The Boer President Paul Kruger)
• O'Brien, Phil (2002) "101 Adventures that got me Absolutely Nowhere" Vol 2 (p. 92 A resemblance to Ned Kelly's makeshift body armour of a child with a pot overturned on his head)
• Keith Dunstan, Saint Ned, (1980), chronicles lesser known aspects of Ned Kelly's life, whilst discussing the rise of the 'Kellyana' industry.

Further reading

Fiction

• Carey, Peter (2000). Ned Kelly, True History of the Kelly Gang. 
• O'Brien, Antony (2006) Bye-Bye Dolly Gray, Artillery Publishing, Hartwell. (Though this work is set 20 years after the Ned's death it contains insights into the Kelly story)
• Upfield, Arthur. (1960) Bony and the Kelly Gang,Pan Books, London. (Upfield's famous fictional character, Inspector Boney, clashes with a new Kelly Gang)

Unpublished Kelly theses

• Morrissey, Douglas. "Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves: A Social History of the Kelly Country", PhD, La Trobe (in Borchardt Library, La Trobe University, Victoria)
• O'Brien, Antony. "Awaiting Ned Kelly: Rural Malaise in Northestern Victoria 1872–73", B.A. (Hons), Deakin University, 1999 (sighted in Burke Museum, Beechworth) (See. p. 45, re Royal Commission questions)

External links

• Kelly, Ned (1855–1880) National Library of Australia, Trove, People and Organisation record for Ned Kelly
• Images and transcript of the Jerilderie Letter at the State Library of Victoria
• The Kelly collection, including John Hanlon's transcript of the Jerilderie letter at the National Museum of Australia
• Ned Kelly: Australian Ironoutlaw (the first site on Ned Kelly, established 1995)
• History of The Kelly's and other Australian Crooks
• Ned Kelly, Australia's Iron Icon
• Ned on the net – Resource for information on Ned Kelly
• Two Huts at Stringybark Creek
• The Siege at Glenrowan 1880
• Ned Kelly country Historic locations As they are today
• Convict Creations page on Ned Kelly
• IMDb: Ned Kelly (2003)
• A collection of traditional ballads about Ned Kelly
• Crime Library's account of Kelly's life and death
• Ned Kelly on Picture Australia
• Ned Kelly in Beechworth
• Ned Kelly Hypothetical – Better Read than Dead? Ned Kelly and Education
• The Jerilderie Letter (Only two original documents by Ned Kelly are known to have survived. The most significant of these is the Jerilderie Letter, dictated by Ned Kelly to Joe Byrne in February 1879.)
• Ned Online, an online exhibition featuring images and transcripts of documents at Public Record Office Victoria
• Game As Ned Kelly Game As Ned Kelly – The World's First Board Game based on the history of the Kelly Gang!
• Ned Kelly at FindaGrave
• Culture Victoria – historical images and video interview with Peter Carey about his novel "True History of the Kelly Gang"
• NNDB: Tracking the entire world – Background History of Ned Kelly