Ned Kelly was an Australian bushranger who became one of the most famous Australian rural
outlaws of all time. He was a man who would stop at nothing to make financial gains, and
he was involved in a number of police shootings and robberies and is remembered for being
an infamous and notorious criminal. For some Australians, he is considered a heroic anti
establishment figure who fought corrupt British colonists, but to other’s he was a vicious
brute who murderered three police officers. However eventually the law caught up with
him, and on the 11th November 1880 he was executed and hanged at Old Melbourne Jail.
Many had rallied in the weeks before his execution to try and get him a reprieve, and 32,000
people even signed a petition to try and secure his release. But what is the captivating and
interesting story of Ned Kelly and his execution? Join us today as we find out, and remember
to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Ned Kelly was born between December 1854 nd June 1855 in Beveridge in Victoria. He was
the oldest son of 8 children to John Red Kelly and Ellen Quinn. As a child he had a rather
interesting upbringing, and he once saved another boy from drowning, and with this he
was awarded a green silk sash for bravery. His family did not prosper though and his
father drank heavily, and following moving to another town the family attracted the attention
of the local police. Ned went to school, but hiss father was sentenced to six months hard
labour for stealing a calf, and the family could not also pay the fine. The following
year, the Kelly’s moved again, and Ned’s uncle was convicted of arson, and he was sentenced
to death but this was later commuted to hard labour. But at the age of 14, Ned met Harry
Power and the pair turned to bush ranging, in north eastern Victoria.
The Kelly’s then were part of a group who attempted to steal horses, and Ned’s first
brush with the law came when he had an altercation with a Chinese pig dealer. Ned robbed him
of 10 shillings, but then was beaten by a stick. But back with Harry Power, Ned conducted
a number of armed robberies in April 1870, and he was captured and then imprisoned. Two
of the charges of robbery were dismissed, but Kelly was sent to a lock up and was freed
within a month. However another assault charge led Ned to being imprisoned for free months.
Three weeks after his release, he was involved in another altercation where he was caught
on a stolen horse, and then he was arrested by a constable. This incident caused Kelly
to be pistol whipped by the police officer, until his head became a mass of raw and bleeding
flesh. Kelly was charge with horse stealing, and he served his sentence again. However
to settle the score with the horse breaker who had caused his imprisonment, Cell fought
him in a 20 round boxing match, where he was declared the boxing champion of the district.
After the release from jail, Kelly worked as a timber cutter and a labourer, but in
April 1878 a police officer called Fitzpatrick went to the Kelly home to arrest Ned’s brother
Dan for stealing horses. During this, Fitzpatrick was shot in the wrist by Ned and their mother
Ellen was then arrested for aiding and abetting an attempted murder. Ellen was sentenced to
3 years imprisonment, and Ned and Dan then went into hiding and they were joined by Ned’s
friend Joe Byrne and Dan’s friend Steve Hart. During the incident it was said that
Ned rushed through the door and fired a shot at Fitzpatrick, missing him but then Ned’s
mother hit him over the head with a shovel and during the struggle two more shots were
fired which wounded Fitzpatrick’s wrist. The Kelly family version of events said, ‘"The
witness which can prove Fitzpatrick's falsehood can be found by advertising and if this is
not done immediately horrible disasters shall follow. Fitzpatrick shall be the cause of
greater slaughter to the rising generation than St. Patrick was to the snakes and toads
in Ireland. For had I robbed, plundered, ravished and murdered everything I met my character
could not be painted blacker than it as present but thank God my conscience is as clear as
the snow in Peru." It was also alleged that Ned shot Fitzpatrick after the constable made
inappropriate advances on Ned’s sister Kate who was just 14 at the time of the event.
But in October 1878, Ned, Dan Joe and Steve were heading for Bullock Creek and here they
hoped that they would earn enough money to try and appeal Ellen Kelly’s sentence. They
planned to run a whisky distillery, but when they arrived they received a warning that
four policemen were on their tail and were trying to track them down. Ned rode the surrounding
areas and found horse tracks leading to Stringybark Creek, near where the gang of policemen was
camped. Ned Kelly and his group ambushed the police and Stringybark Creek, and they found
two of the four policemen. They found constables Lonigan and McIntyre stood around a fire,
and the gang then drew their guns and Ned shot Lonigan, but McIntyre surrendered. Lonigan
was killed, and then the gang questioned McIntyre with their guns pointed at him. At 5:30pm,
Kennedy and Scanlan the other constables returned on horseback, and Kelly’s gang hid themselves.
The Kelly gang then ambushed them, and Scanlan was shot but then Kennedy dismounted and tried
to surrender, but the gang continued to fire at him. Kennedy turned around to face Ned
and Ned shot him in the chest with his shotgun, and in the exchange of gunfire McIntyre had
managed to escape. He reached the Mansfield police station and then the following day
the bodies of Lonigan and Scanlan were recovered, before Kennedy’s was two days later. The
bodies had been looted, and showed that Lonigan had been shot three times, including through
the right eye, Scanlan had four bullet wounds and Kennedy had at least two.
But with this brazen slaughter of three police constables, Ned Kelly and his gang were officially
outlaws and were refereed to as a the notorious Kelly Gang. Sizeable rewards were offered
for their capture, and because they were outlaws, members of the gang could be killed without
challenge, and this made Kelly’s gang hunted. After the police killings, the hang attempted
to escape unsuccessfully, and narrowly avoided the police a number of times. They planned
to rob a bank in the town of Euroa, to get some money as they were short. The gang held
up a sub station and passers by were taken hostage in the homestead. Telegraph wires
were cut shutting off Euroa to the outside world. But then the gang members gained entry
to the National Bank inside the settlement, and they emptied the safes and cashier’s
drawers, making off with over £2000 of money and gold. But the Kelly gang were becoming
a major problem, and a number of sympathisers to the gang were being arrested and remanded
in custody for this. Following the bank raid, the reward for Ned’s capture was increased,
and the gang gave most of the proceeds of the raids to their associates and family and
friends. But they needed money again, and they went to the police barracks at Jerilderie,
and then took some policemen hostage. They prepared to raid the bank whilst the town
were at church, and Ned dressed in a police uniform went into the Main Street with the
gang. They held the hotel staff hostage which was next door to the bank, and they raided
the bank. They made off with again over £2000 worth of cash and much more jewellery and
valuables. Then the reward was upped again, and the police received many reports of sightings
of the outlaws. But they went on the run for almost a year, and the police could not get
anywhere near them.
But around this time, the Kelly gang began to create suits off armour from mouldboards,
the thick metal parts of a farmer’s plough. They realised they needed some protection
as they were considered outlaws, and the suits of armour allowed the gang to walk away from
close rang shooting. But this also made the gang members seem larger and more intimidating
and greatly feared. Seeing Ned Kelly appear in his large metal suit of armour gave him
a huge advantage psychologically over the police, and this led to a confrontation with
police at Glenrowan. Wearing the armour though reduced his mobility and impaired his chances
of escape. Police watch parties monitored the relatives of the gang, including that
of Joe Byrne’s mother. The police used a neighbour’s house named Aaron Sherritt to
do this, and Ned found out about this. Ned sent Sheritt messages saying that many people
wanted him shot, and that he would be a dead man if he continued to help the police. On
the 26th June 1880, two gang members arrived where Sherritt was staying, and shot him in
the throat and chest with a shotgun. Byrne entered the hut and four policemen were hiding
in the bedroom, and he heard the police reaching for their shotguns. But the outlaws then left
the hut, and threatened to burn alive the police. The gang knew that reinforcements
would be sent to the area. The gang planned to derail these reinforcements from the train,
and then shoot dead any survivors. They then would plan to blow up the police barracks
and run riot. Ned tried to damage the track at Glenrowan but failed to, and he paid some
labourers to finish the job. The gang gathered at the railway station in Glenrowan, and the
packhorses they had also had bullet repelling armour on them. The train did not arrive,
and Ned would then allow 21 hostages to leave who he thought were trustworthy. The police
train Ned had been expecting left late, but danger was alerted before it derailed.
The police then arrived and a huge firefight occurred. Someone claimed that there were
women and children in the building they were outside of, and during the fighting Ned was
wounded in the left hand, arm and foot. Two hostages were killed by police fire also,
and during the lull in firing, a number of hostages escaped. Ned Kelly was bleeding heavily
and he went around the back of the hotel, and made his way into the bush, and the police
surrounded the hotel and firing continued into the night. Byrne was fatally killed,
but seriously wounded Ned Kelly lay in the bush for most of the night. At dawn dressed
in his armour and armed with three handguns he emerged and attacked the police from the
rear. An eyewitness said, ‘With the steam rising from the ground, it looked for all
the world like the ghost of Hamlet's father with no head, only a very long thick neck ... It
was the most extraordinary sight I ever saw or read of in my life, and I felt fairly spellbound
with wonder, and I could not stir or speak.’ He was described as the devil firing at the
police, and he staggered under the weight of the armour, and he had limited vision under
his helmet.
For half an hour he kept fighting, and then Ned was brought down by two shotgun blasts
to the legs and thighs. He was disarmed and a doctor tended to his wounds. The siege continued,
and the burning was then set fire, and inside the police recovered the badly burned bodies
of the remaining gang members.
But Ned Kelly survived the trial to stand trial on the 19th October 1889 in Melbourne.
Kelly was presented on the charge of murdering police constables, but was never charged with
the murder of Sergeant Kennedy. He was convicted of murder, and was sentenced to death by hanging,
and the judge ended with ‘May Gopd have mercy on your soul,’ to which Kelly replied
with ‘I will go a little further than that, and say I will see you there where I go.’
On the 3rd November 1880 it was decided that Kelly would be executed 8 days later on the
11th November at the Old Melbourne Jail. As mentioned there was great support for Ned
Kelly and many believed he was a hero, but the day before his execution he had his photographic
portrait taken as a keepsake for his family and he was allowed to speak with his relatives.
His mother told him to ‘die like a Kelly,’ but the following morning he was informed
within the hour that he was to be executed. At 9am his leg irons were removed and he was
then led out by the guards accompanied to the chaplain of the prison. When he passed
the jail’s garden, he commented on how beautiful the flowers were. There has been some argument
as to what his final words were, as some reported that they were ‘such is life,’ or ‘Ah
well, I suppose it has come to this.’ Another account said how he intended to make a speech
but made no sounds.
He was led into the execution chamber of the prison, where there was a wooden beam above
with a noose secured to it. It was said that around 9 o’clock crowds began to gather,
and that there were over 5000 people present including even some children. Some had been
given tickets to see Ned’s execution, and the final arrangements had been made. Some
spectators followed into the execution chamber where the gallows were found, but only the
Sheriff and Sub Sheriff and doctor with a few officials were allowed near the drop.
The witnesses were below in the corridors underneath, and at 10 o clock, the executioner
was summoned, who was a man of around 60 years old. He did not cover his face, and he then
secured Ned’s arms tightly at the elbows, and Kelly led out onto the trapdoor. A priest
carrying a large cross stood next to him, and then the executioner came forward and
placed the noose and the rope over the strong overhead beam, and then around the neck of
the condemned. Following this the final checks were made, and then Ned Kelly plunged through
the trapdoor and he was executed and then pronounced dead.
Ned Kelly has gone down in history as one of the most infamous outlaws in History, who
caused chaos in Australia. He murdered many people and became one of the most notorious
criminals of the 19th century. His execution was a divisive one, and he was viewed as a
hero by some people within Australia.
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