Pre-Gang Offences of Ned Kelly
Assault of a Chinese man named Ah Fook who also claimed that Ned had then proceeded to steal from him. Although all charges were cleared against Ned after spending ten days in custody it was from this point on that the police regarded Ned as a criminal. A year later Ned was once again taken into custody by the Victoria Police Force under the suspicion of being an accomplice to Bushranger Harry Power, but this came to no damning conclusion against Ned.
In October 1870 Ned was arrested for a 3rd time on charges of assaulting Jeremiah McCormack and the sending of an indecent note to Jeremiah’s wife. Ned was charged 3 months of Hard Labour for each offence and only months later, was charged with receiving a stolen horse that belonged to Jeremiah McCormack. In September of 1877 Ned was arrested for drunkenness an extremely minor offence, but in an attempt to give the impression that Ned was a menace, the police officer, Constable Fitzpatrick, came to blows with Ned when trying to manacle and restrain him.
The Fitzpatrick Incident
Beginning with a cattle rustling operation in which Ned, his stepfather George and brother Dan were involved in by stealing and selling cattle interstate, the birth of the Kelly Gang followed a series of events that stemmed from the charges against the cattle rustlers and involvement of the police officer and undisputed ‘enemy’ of the Kelly family, Constable Fitzpatrick.
Although not authorised to do so, following up on the warrant (not issued for him to carry out) for the arrest of Ned, Dan and the others involved in the cattle rustling operation, Fitzpatrick was assaulted by Ellen Kelly when he spoke inappropriately about her daughter.
Although Ned Kelly was in fact laying low in NSW at the time in order to avoid being arrested while the warrant was in place, Fitzpatrick claimed that the damage done to his wrist by Ellen’s coal iron with which she had struck him, was in fact a gunshot wound that Ned Kelly himself had inflicted. This event caused Dan Kelly to join his brother Ned in hiding from the authorities and they were soon joined by their two friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.
The Crimes of the Kelly Gang
Police in pursuit of the Kelly brothers and accomplices began scouring the bush throughout the Wombat Ranges in two groups from Greta and Mansfield. It was when the outlaws came across the two pairs of officers from Mansfield, that one officer’s unwise refusal to surrender and instead draw his weapon when surrounded led to him being mortally wounded by Ned. Before the gang could force the other group of officers to surrender, a fire fight had started in which both the other officers were killed and the captive policeman, Constable McIntyre escaped. Following this skirmish in the bush, the four members of the Kelly Gang, though they had not yet performed a robbery as a gang, were declared outlaws and could be lawfully shot by civilians and police alike.
Over the next two years the Kelly Gang, often aided by sympathetic farming families, carried out two major robberies at Euroa in 1878 and Jerilderie in 1879. On both occasions, although they took hostages, none were ever harmed and in the case of Euroa, the captives were entertained with horse-riding tricks and stories by the Kelly Gang after they had successfully stolen 2200 pounds. The Jerilderie robbery was equally as successful and favourable in circumstances for the hostages. While the money was being stolen, the captives were entertained with free alcohol in the local Hotel. The Jerilderie robbery is also remembered for the writing of the Jerilderie Letter which Ned believed told his side of the story against the Victorian government and police, winning him respect among all of the Jerilderie townspeople.
The Siege of Glenrowan
After finding out that a friend of Joe’s, Aaron Sherritt was allegedly giving information to the police, Joe and Dan travelled to Sherritt’s home and killed him. Following this shooting, Ned took control of the Glenrowan Inn with approximately 70 hostages and ordered that the train tracks next to the town be removed so as to cause a derailment – however since Ned had no desire to kill innocent ordinary people he ensured that it was the one day of the week that no passenger trains ran – Sunday. The only train that would come through would be a police ‘special’ carrying policeman and Aboriginal trackers to investigate Sherritt’s death. Forced to wait over 12 hours the gang made the mistake of allowing the town’s schoolteacher to take his wife and children home, who then hailed down the train and warned them about the tracks. With the police surrounding the Hotel the Kelly Gang believed that defence was their best bet and in doing so sealed their doom, with their armour they believed that they could outlast the police and escape. But it was not to be. In the first minutes of the fight both Ned Kelly and Superintendent Hare were wounded and essentially out of the fight, Hare with an injured hand and Kelly with bullet wounds to his foot, wrist and left arm. It would be here that the ‘Crimes of the Kelly Gang’ came to an end with Ned ultimately captured and his brother Dan and their mates dead. Ned Kelly would be sentenced by the same Judge who had convicted his mother and when told that “May God have mercy on your soul” Ned replied “I will go one further and say that I shall see you where I go.”
ACTIVITY:
Discuss and answer the following questions:
Were the punishments given to Ned Kelly during his early crimes fair?
Should he have been penalised more or less than what he was?
Were Ned Kelly’s actions justified?
