Black Snake (11 page)

Interview while in Beechworth Prison, the
Age
, 9 August 1880

“It is not that I fear death;

I fear it as little as to drink a cup of tea.

My mind is easy as the mind of any man in this world as I am prepared to show before God and man.

A day will come at a bigger court than this when we shall see which is right and which is wrong.”

From Ned’s trial as reported in the
Argus
, 29 October 1880

Last-minute Pleas

Ned still had faith in the written word. In his cell he produced a series of three letters to the Governor of Victoria setting forth his defence. The shoot-out with the police had left Ned with crippled hands. Unable to write, he dictated them to a prison guard.

Opinion had swung in Ned’s favour again. A public meeting to save Ned’s life attracted a crowd of 4000 people. Just five days before his execution his solicitor started a petition to save Ned’s life. In that short time 32,000 signatures were collected. His sisters and brother walked to Government House to plead with the Governor in person. But none of these efforts were successful.

The Gallows

Ned Kelly was hanged in the Melbourne Gaol in Russell Street at 10 a.m. on 11 November 1880. He was 25 years old. He was accompanied to the gallows by a priest carrying a cross, who had just administered the last rites, and three other ministers. His mother, Ellen Kelly, in the last months of her three-year sentence for the attempted murder of Constable Fitzpatrick, was working in the women’s wing of the same jail just metres from where Ned was hanged. Outside the jail a crowd of 5000 people gathered to mourn his death.

Ned’s last words were reported by one journalist as “Such is life”. Another newspaper said they were “Ah well, I suppose it has come to this”. Either way, Ned was calm to the last and resigned to his fate.

The hangman put the noose around Ned’s neck, pulled a white execution hood over his head, strapped his arms to his side and pulled the lever which opened the trapdoor. As the priest muttered prayers, Ned fell two-and-a-half metres and was hanged by the neck.

Grisly Deeds

After Ned’s death a plaster cast of his head was made. A death mask of the executed criminal was put on display at the Bourke Street Waxworks the very next day. The death mask can still be seen in the Old Melbourne Gaol and many people who see it remark on the peaceful expression on the face.

Ned’s head was then cut off, his brain removed for scientific examination and his skull was sent to be examined by a phrenologist. But that was not the end of it. Doctors and students taking part in this post mortem examination then proceeded to take pieces of the body as souvenirs. The disfigured, headless body was then buried in the prison grounds in an unmarked grave.

Reading His Bumps

At the time of Ned’s death it was believed that phrenology could prove that the size and shape of the brain was responsible for a person’s personality. Phrenologists made maps of the human skull and divided them into characteristics such as pride, bravery and secretiveness. They thought that the shape and size of the “bumps” on a skull showed if the areas of the brain below were large or small. A phrenologist examined Ned’s skull after he was hanged. He said that because of the large areas of self-esteem, destructiveness and love of power, it was obvious that Ned was destined for a life of crime. He particularly noted the small size of the “caution” area.

Ned’s skull was reportedly used as a paperweight on a public servant’s desk until it was taken to the Old Melbourne Gaol as an exhibit. It was stolen from a glass case in the Gaol in 1978.

A Royal Commission

Though Ned didn’t live to see it, his actions did have an effect. There was an outcry for an inquiry into the way police had handled the whole affair. Four months after Ned’s execution, the Royal Commission of Enquiry into the Circumstances of the Kelly Outbreak began. Though Ned’s trial had lasted for less than two days, the Royal Commission lasted for six months. This time it was the police who were on trial.

The Royal Commission was very critical of the police force. From the Chief Commissioner down, almost every policeman involved in the Kelly Hunt was reprimanded. Ned would have been pleased to know that all of his enemies suffered because of their bungling response to the Kelly Outbreak.

Sergeant Steele was rewarded for his part of the capture, but demoted because of his actions at the siege; Chief Commissioner Standish, who had already retired, was severely criticised for the “grave error” of reducing the number of police in Kelly Country; Superintendent Sadleir was found guilty of “errors of judgement” and demoted; Superintendents Hare and Nicolson were forced to retire; Inspector Brooke Smith, who was now a mental wreck, was declared to be lazy and incompetent and was also made to retire; the police at the Sherritt hut were found guilty of cowardice and disobeying orders. Constable Bracken was the only policeman to get any praise from the Royal Commission. The newspaper reporters on the scene at Glenrowan received more praise than the police did.

The £8000 reward was divided up among 67 people who were involved with the gang’s capture at Glenrowan—most of them were policemen. The crew of the train was also rewarded. Superintendent Hare received £800—the largest cut of the reward. Mr Curnow, the schoolteacher who stopped the train, came next with £550. He complained that this wasn’t enough and the amount was raised to £1000.

No Rest

Ned’s remains were buried in an unmarked grave in the grounds of the Old Melbourne Gaol. Almost 50 years later, the bodies of a number of prisoners were dug up and reburied in the grounds of Pentridge Prison. Then in 2009, the bodies were exhumed again after the closure of the prison, when work began to convert the prison to a housing estate, parklands and a business precinct.

The remains of 34 people were unearthed and many of the bones were mixed together, but there was one set of bones in a wooden box. It was an almost complete skeleton. The only piece that was missing was the skull.

Forensic Proof

The remains were handed to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) for identification. The investigation took 20 months. Samples of bone from all the skeletons were sent to Argentina for analysis by the EAAF (Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team). A blood sample was taken from, Leigh Olver, a great-grandson of Ned’s sister Ellen. His DNA was compared to the DNA from all the remains found at Pentridge. Mr Olver’s DNA matched that of the skeleton found in the box.

Bullet holes were found in the bones which matched the wounds Ned had received at Glenrowan and recorded by a doctor before he was hanged. More than 130 years after his death, Ned’s body had been found and identified. The news made headlines around the world.

“To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion…is amazing.”

Attorney General of Victoria Robert Clark, 2011

Ned’s Head

A man who had claimed for many years to have Ned’s skull finally agreed to hand it over for forensic examination in 2009. DNA from the skull was compared to Mr Olver’s DNA. It did not match. The skull was the one stolen from the Old Melbourne Gaol back in 1978, but it was not Ned’s.

The whereabouts of Ned’s skull is still a mystery.

Final Resting Place

“There is one wish in conclusion I would like you to grant me, that is the release of my mother before my execution as detaining her in prison could not make any difference to the Government…also if you would grant permission for my friends to have my body that they might bury it in consecrated ground.”

Ned Kelly, letter to the Governor of Victoria, 10 Nov 1880

The Victorian government returned Ned Kelly’s remains to the Kelly family. On 20 January 2013, 132 years after his execution, his remains were reburied in the Greta Cemetery where his mother, brother Dan and other family members are also buried. Ned finally got his wish to be buried in consecrated ground.

A new headstone commemorates the Kelly burials, including Ned’s, but it does not mark the site of his grave. Because of concerns that vandals might try to dig up the remains of this famous man, the grave was sealed with concrete and is unmarked.

Still Famous After All These Years

More than 200 books have been written about Ned Kelly. The first film made about Ned Kelly was
The Story of the Kelly Gang
, an Australian film made in 1907. It was the first feature film ever made in the world. When it was advertised they measured the length of the film in feet (4000 feet), not in minutes. Only nine minutes of the film have survived. This was unearthed from a Melbourne rubbish tip. The first screenings of
The Story of the Kelly Gang
were banned by the government. They thought the story might incite people to become outlaws.

Many artists have made Ned and his exploits the subject of paintings and sculptures. There have been plays, TV programs, museum exhibitions—even a rock opera, a ballet and a jazz music composition. In 1980 Ned became the first criminal to be commemorated by the Australian postal service when a pre-stamped envelope featuring him was issued.

The authorities made a copy of Ned’s Jerilderie Letter, but the original disappeared sometime after 1913. It resurfaced again in 2000 and is now held at the State Library of Victoria. Ned’s wish to have his letter printed and distributed for everyone to read eventually came true—but not until 50 years after his death. It is now posted on the Internet and has been read by millions of people, not only in Australia, but around the world.

More than 120 years after his death, people are still fascinated by Ned Kelly. Though few relics remain, tourists visit Glenrowan, Euroa and Jerilderie. In the museum at the Old Melbourne Gaol, every day there are visitors who want to see the gallows where Ned was hanged. In the souvenir shop there is a selection of Ned Kelly souvenirs, including tea towels, fridge magnets and toys. It’s hard to imagine what Ned would make of this, if he could see it. Probably nobody would be more amazed by his continuing fame than Ned himself.

In a country founded by convicts and poor migrants, Ned Kelly has become a symbol of the battler fighting against the odds. He was a larrikin but he had a good heart. He was a criminal but he fought against injustice and never gave up. The fact that he failed and is still considered to be a hero is a uniquely Australian sentiment.

Historians still sift though the evidence and debate the unanswered questions. Did Ned shoot Fitzpatrick? What were his plans at Glenrowan? Was he a bad man or a saint? People will go on talking about Ned Kelly for a long time to come.

What They Said About Ned

People who were involved in the adventures of the Kelly Gang were haunted by their experiences for the rest of their lives. Speaking about the events years later, here is what some of them had to say about Ned and the Kelly Gang.

Superintendent Hare, 1894

“Ned Kelly was a flash ill-looking young blackguard… Notwithstanding all [his] boasted pluck and boasts, how game he would die etc., he was the only one who in any way showed the white feather…he begged for mercy, and asked [the police] to spare his life. There is no doubt that, had he been able to walk, he would have gone off, leaving his comrades behind in the hotel.”

Samuel Gill, editor of Jerilderie newspaper, 1910

“The raid on the bank at Jerilderie was skilfully designed, every detail having been carefully thought out. The plot laid to trap the police and gain possession of the police-station was the work of no ordinary mind.”

Constable Fitzpatrick, 1911

“Ned Kelly rises before me as I speak. Considering his environment, he was a superior man. He possessed great natural ability, and under favourable circumstances would probably have become a leader of men in good society, instead of the head of a gang of outlaws.”

Mrs Kelly, 1911

“Think what the police have done to me and mine, and then tell me if you wonder that the boys turned and smote the ones who had so persecuted them. If they had been trying to provoke the boys to break the law and retaliate, they could not have done more than they did, and I firmly believe they were trying.”

Mrs Jones, owner of Glenrowan Inn, 1911

“I well remember Kelly coming to my place that dreadful night… [He] said he would shoot me if I refused to do everything that he told me… Ned Kelly was most cruel to all of us that day. He said if he could see his way to burn down the house and those who set the police onto him, he’d do it.”

Patrick Allen, storekeeper at Benalla, 1911

“They were good fellows apart from their crimes. And they would have made splendid soldiers. It’s a pity they got a bad start.”

Detective Ward, 1911

“After the battle, Ned Kelly was lying under guard at the railway station. He said it was Jones’ whisky that killed them… He never forgot a good turn. I let him off in Wangaratta once when I should have arrested him… He never forgot that.”

Superintendent Sadleir, 1913

“The true picture of a bushranger shows him as a very poor and sordid thing indeed. The Kellys, in spite of a few successful enterprises, were as poor and unheroic as any of their kind.”

Constable Richards of Euroa, 1931

“He was a bushranger but he was the gamest man I ever saw.”