STORIES
The Legend Of Ned Kelly
Australia 's most famous outlaw has been mythologized as a political revolutionary and a figure of Irish Catholic working-class resistance to the British colonial system. To some, Ned Kelly was a modern Robin Hood, the mythical 12-century English outlaw from Nottingham who fought and defied the local sheriff and the brutal regent (later King John), robbing from the rich to feed the poor. Others view Ned Kelly as little more than a common gangster, born into a family of outlaws.
The romantic vision has Ned gliding out of the early-morning mists of Glenrowan , Victoria , clad in monstrous iron body armour covering his head and body, shooting at police officers with pistols in both hands. Bullets bounce off his armour as he guns down several of his enemies until he is shot in the legs and goes down wounded.
It is said that Kelly's bank robberies were to fund a rebel cause for a ‘Republic of the North-East of Victoria ' and that police found a declaration of this republic in his pocket when he was captured. Some still see him as an Australian icon and founding member of the Australian Republican cause itself. But no concrete evidence of the planning of such a republic or Kelly's involvement in it has ever been established.
Edward (‘Ned') Kelly was born in Beveridge , Victoria either in December 1854 or January 1855; the latter date is the most widely accepted by historians. His father, John ‘Red' Kelly (1819-1866) had been convicted in Ireland of stealing two pigs; the property of a Mr Quainy. He was duly sentenced to seven years penal servitude in Van Diemen's Land (renamed Tasmania in 1855) and arrived there in 1842. After his release he moved to Victoria and worked at the farm of James Quinn in Beveridge, just north of Melbourne . Red Kelly married Quinn's daughter Ellen, (aged 18) in 1850. Their first child died but Ned's elder sister Annie was born in 1853 and in all Red and Ellen Kelly raised eight children.
Ned was baptised by an Augustinian priest named Charles O'Hea in 1855. At the age of ten he risked his life to save a fellow school pupil from drowning, and as a reward he was given a green sash by the boy's family. Ned is said to have worn this sash under his body armour during his final showdown with Victoria 's police in 1880.
m,The Quinns were notorious in the area, always suspected of cattle and horse rustling; though they were never caught or convicted. Red Kelly himself was arrested after he killed and skinned a calf, which belonged to a neighbour. He served two weeks in a rat-infested cell until Ellen could raise the fine to get him out. On 27 December 1866 Red died from swamp fever at Beveridge when Ned was only eleven years old, and according to custom the boy was forced to leave school to become head of the Kelly family. It was at this time that the Kellys' moved to a new family home in the Glenrowan area of Victoria , which to this day is known as ‘Kelly Country'. Ned grew up in poverty in some of the harshest conditions in Australia , often forced to sleep ‘in the bush' during bitter Victorian winters.
Local police soon came to watch young Ned's activities, and in all 18 charges were brought against members of his immediate family before he was declared an outlaw. Only nine charges resulted in guilty verdicts, which is an unusual ratio for the time and is one of the reasons some historians have concluded that Ned's family was unfairly targeted by police due to Ellen Quinn's bad family name.
In 1869, 14-year-old Ned was arrested for assaulting a local Chinese pig farmer named Ah Fook. Whilst the latter claimed that he had been robbed by the eldest Kelly boy, Ned stated that Fook had indecently fondled his sister Annie. Ned spent ten days in custody before the charges were dismissed. But from then on local police regarded him as a ‘juvenile bushranger'. His criminal career had begun in earnest.
In April 1871, on his release from Beachworth Jail after serving six months hard labour for assault; Ned met Isaiah ‘Wild' Wright who loaned him a beautiful chestnut mare. Kelly rode the animal into Greta, not knowing that Wright had stolen it from the Mansfield Postmaster. When Constable Hall approached Kelly, attempting to place him under arrest for horse theft; Ned resisted strongly, knocking a revolver from Hall's right hand, and punching him to the ground. Kelly then jumped on the unfortunate officer and humiliated him by pretending to ride him like a horse as he pistol-whipped him with his own weapon. Others officers arrived to subdue and arrest Ned, who was severely beaten and then sentenced to another jail term – this time he was put away for three years. Wild was also arrested and jailed for 18 months.
Ned's mother Ellen was now married to an American named George King, with whom she had three more children. King, along with Ned and his brother Dan Kelly started a prosperous cattle-rustling operation when Ned got out of prison in 1874. On 15 April 1875, Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick rode into Benalla nursing a broken wrist. He claimed that he had been attacked by Ned, Dan, Ellen and their friends Bricky Williamson and Bill Skillion, all armed with handguns. Williamson and Skillion were quickly arrested but Ned and Dan could not be found. Ellen King was taken into custody along with her baby, Alice. She was still in prison at the time of Ned's execution in 1880 and later remarried; dying peacefully on 27 March 1923, aged 91.
The Kellys' claimed that Fitzpatrick had come to their house to question Dan about cattle rustling, but whilst there had indecently assaulted Dan's sister Kate. The men and her mother had only defended her honour by knocking Fitzpatrick down. They had then bandaged his wrist and sent him back to Benalla with apologies all round. Ned was in no way involved in this incident, as he was away in New South Wales at the time. But Dan and Ned knew that the authorities would never believe their version of the incident, and so went into hiding, later joined by their friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.
On 25 October 1878, Sergeant Kennedy led a posse to seek out and arrest the ‘Kelly Gang'. He was accompanied by constables McIntyre, Lonigan and Scanlon. Kennedy was informed that the Kelly Gang was holed up in a hut at Stringybark Creek in the middle of a large forest. The policemen set up camp that night, unaware that they were just a mile away from the men they were seeking. Kennedy and McIntyre set off in search of the Kelly boys whilst Lonigan and Scanlon stayed in camp, lighting a fire and hunting ducks for dinner. Alerted by the noise of the two officers shooting ducks, the Kelly gang ambushed the camp, overpowered the two policemen, and then lay in ambush for Kennedy and McIntyre to return.
In the ensuing firefight, Kennedy, Lonigan and Scanlon were shot dead, whilst McIntyre got away. Some reports claim that two of the officers were deliberately shot in the groin so that they would suffer slow and painful deaths. The outlaws then looted the corpses, and returned to their lair. This violent incident is difficult to reconcile with their ‘Robin Hood' image. Whilst they could have slipped away undetected, the Kelly gang chose to attack and kill three policemen. Now certain to be hanged if caught, Ned and his gang remained at large for the next 16 months.
The gang then changed from cattle rustling to more ambitious villainy; committing two major bank robberies at Euroa and Jerilderie. Their strategy involved taking hostages and robbing the bank vaults of all cash and jewellery.
On 10 December 1878, the gang seized a number of hostages at Faithful Creek station and then rode on to the National Bank at Euroa. They held up the bank manager Roy Scott and his two tellers, and swiftly emptied the vault of all the cash held there. The outlaws then made Scott, his wife and tellers accompany them to Faithful Creek where they were locked up with the other hostages.
Whilst there, the gang put on a display of superb horsemanship which surprised and thrilled their captives. Then everyone sat down to a large meal, accompanied by beer and banjo music before the outlaws rode off, warning the hostages not to raise the alarm for another three hours. The entire crime had been carried out in good humour and without injury, netting Ned and his men just over 2,000 pounds sterling - a large sum in those days.
Ned Kelly proved his intelligence by masterminding a bold and audacious raid on the Jerilderie Bank on 8 February 1879. The gang broke into the local police station, locking up constables Richards and Devine in their own cell. The outlaws then changed into police uniforms and mixed with the locals, claiming to be reinforcements sent from Sydney .
On Monday 9 February the gang rounded up 30 people and forced them into the back parlour of the Royal Mail Hotel. Whilst Dan Kelly and Steve Hart kept the hostages occupied with card tricks, Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne robbed the bank of around 2,300 pounds sterling. Ned also burned all the mortgage deeds of the townspeople that he discovered in the bank's safe. Even if this was a cynical ploy to curry favour with the locals, it was a masterstroke in enhancing the Kelly legend.
Kelly then sat down to dictate a lengthy letter for publication in local newspapers. In this missive, he described his view of his activities and the treatment of his family and more generally, the treatment of all Irish Catholics by the Victoria Police and the English and Irish Protestant settlers in the colony of Australia . The ‘Jerilderie Letter' also discussed the possibility of an uprising, not only in Australia but in the USA and Ireland , against what Kelly regarded as a gross injustice to his compatriots. Some historians surmise that he was ultimately planning armed rebellion. The letter was duly published, further embellishing the mystique of Ned Kelly as outlaw/hero. The authorities took it seriously, placing a price of 250 pounds sterling on Kelly's head.
But time was running out for the outlaws. When they found out that an old friend named Aaron Sherritt was a police informer; Joe Byrne went to his house shot him dead on 26 June 1880. The four constables at Sherritt's house hid under a bed and did not report the murder until the following day. This delay proved crucial as it upset Ned's careful timing for an ambush.
The Kelly Gang rode into Glenrowan on 27 June and swiftly captured some 70 hostages whom they held at the Glenrowan Inn, owned by the Jones family. Kelly knew that a trainload of police was on its way and ordered the rail tracks pulled up in hopes of literally derailing the force sent against him.
Ned's gang, ready for a confrontation with the police, had brought along their new body armour, from plough parts welded together. Made by sympathetic blacksmiths, each man's armour weighed about 96 lbs (44 kg) including removable helmets, which included eye slits. The iron was bullet-proof, protecting all their vital organs but crucially left their limbs exposed.
Ned's plan to derail the police contingent was foiled when a released hostage (schoolmaster Thomas Curnow) gave the alert by standing on the railway line near sunrise, waving a red scarf illuminated by a candle as the train approached. The police swiftly de-trained, deployed and laid siege to the Glenrowan Inn. The situation was now a standoff.
At dawn on 28 June, Ned Kelly emerged from the inn, clad in his suit of armour. Without hesitation he marched towards the policemen crouched in the tree line, continually cocking and firing his two Navy Colt .44 pistols at them. The officers returned fire with rifles, shotguns and revolvers, but the rounds bounced off Kelly's body armour until they realised that his lower limbs were unprotected, and aimed for his legs. Kelly went down when he was hit either 28 or six times (accounts vary) in both legs.
The other Kelly gang members died in the hotel. Joe Byrne bled to death from a gunshot wound that severed his femoral artery, and Dan Kelly and Steve Hart expired painfully after ingesting poison. Strangely, autopsies were not performed on their bodies. The police officers suffered only one major injury: Superintendent Francis Hare was shot in the stomach and lost a lot of blood. Several hostages were hit by police gunfire and two died from their wounds. The famous Glenrowan siege had ended dramatically in a blaze of gunfire.
Ned Kelly survived to stand trial, and was duly sentenced to death by Judge Redmond Barry, who had tried the Irishman on previous occasions for cattle rustling and theft. About 32,000 Victorians signed a petition against the sentence, but the Crown was unmoved. The outlaw Ned Kelly had to die as an example to other bandits in the area.
When Judge Barry said the customary words, “And may God have mercy on your soul”, Ned reportedly replied, “I will go a little further than that, my lord, and say that I will see you there when I go.” He was duly hanged on 11 November 1880 at Melbourne Gaol. Two newspapers reported that his last words on facing the hangman were, “Ah well. I suppose it has come to this. Such is life.”
Ned's spooky prophecy regarding Judge Barry came about. Sir Redmond Barry died of the effects of a carbuncle on his neck on 23 November; just twelve days after Ned Kelly had died at the end of a rope at the age of 25.
Today, a visitor can tour the ‘ Ned Kelly Museum ' in Glenrowan and inspect his weapons and body armour on exhibit there. The romantic imagery of his last heroic stand against Victorian police was the subject of a famous series of paintings by Sidney Nolan. Kelly quickly part of Australian folklore, the subject of several books and at least eight films. When British rock star Mick Jagger (with a dubious Irish accent and a scraggly beard) played Kelly in Tony Richardson's 1970 movie, many Australians strongly objected to their national legend being portrayed by a man they regarded as a foppish Brit. A much more historically accurate version, directed by Gregor Jordan was released in 2004 starring Heath Ledger as Ned; Orlando Bloom as Joe Byrne and Laurence Kinlan as Dan Kelly. But the first portrayal of Ned was a silent movie; ‘The Story of the Kelly Gang', directed by Harry Southwell and released in 1906 with a then-unprecedented running time of 70 minutes. One of the famous iron suits worn by the gang members was borrowed from the Victorian Museum and used in the film.
Many Australians still view Edward ‘Ned' Kelly as a colourful folk hero; a gentleman outlaw in spite of his working class origins; a man who opposed the harsh British Colonial system and the cruel men who enforced it. Others see him as not much more than a low-life Irish thug whose crimes were brutal and entirely for personal gain. Whatever the truth, the legend of Ned Kelly will never be forgotten
IF YOU need a check on my True Crime series of stories, published in the Hua Hin Observer, here is a complete list to date:
April 2002 -The Green Bicycle case, 1921. May 2002 - The Craig/Bentley Case, 1952. June 2002 - The A6 Murder Case, 1961. July 2002 - Murder of the Earl of Errol, 1941. August 2002 - The O J Simpson murder trial, 1995. September 2002 - The Aileen Wuornos case, 1989. October 2002 - The Ronald Opus case, 1993. November 2002 - Madame X, 1929. December 2002 - The Spree Killer, 1984. January 2003 - Shootout at Smiths' Club, 1966. February 2003 - The Christine Dryland case, 1991. March 2003 - Poisoned Pie in Essex, 1982. April 2003 - The Heydrich assassination, 1943. May 2003 - The Diana Davidson Murder case, 1969. June 2003 - The death of Alkibiades, 404 BC. July 2003 - The headsman of Colmar, 1780. August 2003 - The Ruth Ellis case, 1955. September 2003 - The Mel Jones Murder case, 1975. October 2003 - The Bluebeard of the bath, 1915. November 2003 - Murder in a combat zone, 1966. December 2003 - The Barn Restaurant murder case, 1972. January 2004 - The assassination of JFK, 1963. February 2004 - Judge Falcone and the Mafia, 1992. March 2004 - Gilles de Rais/Bluebeard, 1404-1440. April 2004 - The hand in the sand case, 1885. May 2004 - The body in the bag, 1979
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