Below is a summary of the Wikipedia article on Ned Kelly. Click the Related Web Page link above to see the full article.
Ned's father, Red Kelly, was born in Ireland in 1821 and there sentenced to the Tasmania penal colony at age twenty for stealing two pigs. On his release he earned enough from gold digging to settle in Victoria, marry and have eight children, one which sadly died at six months. Ned was the eldest son. Red became known as an expert cattle thief and was sentenced and imprisoned for this in 1865. He died shortly after his release in 1866, at age forty five, due to oedema brought about from alcoholism.
Ned Kelly's first brush with the law was in 1869 at age 14 when he attacked a Chinese trader. He was released when the charges were dismissed after police failed to find an interpreter.
In 1870 Kelly committed three robberies with Harry Power but was released without conviction as his victims were unable to identify him. An assault later that year and a harassment of that victim's wife resulted in six months imprisonment. Shortly after his release he was riding a horse borrowed from a friend, Isaiah "Wild" Wright, who had earlier stolen it. A policeman saw and recognised the horse and tried to arrest Kelly. However Kelly was a powerful man and overpowered the policeman. Although Kelly maintained he did not know the horse was stolen, he was arrested for receiving and re-imprisoned for three years hard labour. He was sixteen. Wright only received eighteen months for the theft. Two years later his brother Jim, then aged fourteen, was arrested for cattle stealing and given a 5 year sentence. The receiver of the stolen stock was not arrested.
Constable Fitzpatrick was ordered into the region and he decided to take it on himself to arrest Kelly. He rode to the Kelly household on his own, where he claims he was attacked by the Kellys, and that all except Kelly's mother, Ellen, were armed with revolvers. Kelly states he was not there and shortly before his eventual execution, still claimed this. All of the family, with the exception of Ned and his brother Dan, were arrested and imprisoned, including Ellen and her baby. Believing the police would not believe their version of events, Kelly and Dan went into hiding. They were joined by friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, and it is these four who became "the Kelly gang". A reward of one hundred pounds was offered for Kelly's arrest.
Police heard he was hiding in the Wombat Ranges and tried a pincer action to capture him. However it failed and three officers died, with no injuries to the Kelly gang. The reward was raised to five hundred pounds.
In December 1878 the Kelly gang turned to bank robbery. The National Bank at Euroa was the first target. They took £2,800 in notes, gold and silver. Although they took hostages, they were reported to be polite. No hostages were killed. The next month police arrested all known Kelly friends and sympathisers and held them without charge for three months, causing a major outrage at government abuse of power, and creating a groundswell of support for the Kelly gang. In February 1879 the gang held up another bank in Jerilderie, after tricking the police out of their station and locking them in their own cells. From the bank they took £4,141. Again they behaved with civility, and even relented on stealing horses belonging to women although they did take the excellent police horses. The reward for the capture of the Kelly gang was raised to £8,000.
In June 1880 the gang shot Aaron Sherritt, a known police informer. There were four police in the house with Sherritt, and although they were fired at they were not hurt. The Kelly gang threatened to burn down the house, but left without doing so.
| Following the killing of Sherritt, two trains were sent from Melbourne with additional police. The Kelly gang expected this and rode to Glenrowan with the intention of wrecking them. They met no resistance from the town (The gang was known to be polite, and to not kill anyone who did not interfere, and to only shoot police). The gang compelled line-repairers to damage the track. However while waiting in the hotel for the trains to arrive, a released hostage was able to flag down the first train before it hit the damaged track. Police besieged the hotel shooting into it at the Kelly gang even though they knew hostages were inside. The second train with further reinforcements arrived the next morning, making a total of thirty police. Women and children were allowed to leave. The gang now had their famous armour - forty-four kilograms of six millimetre thick steel, tested to repel bullets at ten paces. Kelly escaped and attacked the police lines from the rear, while the other three members of the gang continued fire from the hotel. Kelly was calmly walking between trees, shooting at the police, allowing their bullets to bounce off his armour. However he was stopped by shots to his legs. He received 6 shots to his arms, legs and groin, and was carried to the railway station and treated. Byrne was shot while at the bar at 5:30am. At 10am, the remaining hostages were released, apart from one that had been shot from a stray police bullet. At 3pm, the building was set alight by the police. The remaining two members of the gang died in the fire. Once the shootout had finished there were five deaths: three of the Kelly gang, an eleven year old boy and the hostage already mentioned. Four were wounded: One policeman, two civilians and a fourteen year old girl. |
Policeman wearing Kelly's armour
5 July, 1880. |
Ned Kelly stood trial in October 1880 and was convicted for the murder of one of the police involved in the pincer movement in the Wombat Ranges. He was hanged on 11 November 1880, aged twenty five.