The Complete Inner History of the KellyGang and their Pursuers (6)

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CHAPTER 1

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While suffering the pangs of this terrible torture, Ned Kelly cried out: "If ever I shoot a man, Lonigan, you will be the first" - an exclamation prophetically true, as later events will show. Although there were four policemen and the bootmaker against him, Ned successfully resisted them, and the fight was terminated only by the arrival of Mr Wm Mclnnes, JP, a local flour miller, who rebuked the police in strong terms for their brutality and cowardly violence. Satisfied now that he had beaten the four policemen and the bootmaker, Ned held out his hands to Mr Mclnnes, and invited him to put the handcuffs on him.

In order to make sure that the police would not inflict any further violence on their prisoner, JP accompanied him to the Court where sum of £3 1s paid for the fines, damages to uniforms and costs. (It was Supt Hare who, in later years, described Ned Kelly as the greatest man in the world.)

This fine was the only genuine conviction ever recorded against Ned Kelly prior to his being driven to the bush to become a bushranger.

To the everlasting discredit of a large section of Australia’s bitterly anti-Kelly Pres and equally bitter anti-Kelly authors of so-called Kelly Gang books, the Australian and overseas publics were led to believe that Ned Kelly must have had at least from 20 to 30 prior convictions against him bear are the only outlawed. Whereas the foregoing four charges are the only charges ever made against Ned Kelly before being outlawed. These four charges are as follow:-

(1) The first, holding bridle reins of Harry Power's horse, was dismissed.

(2) The second, the McCormack affair, a conviction – an outrageous miscarriage of justice.

(3) The third, a schoolmaster's horse, a conviction – also an outrageous miscarriage of justice.

(4) The fourth, drunk and riding across a footpath and resisting the police, the only genuine conviction, which £3 1s settled.

Now, if the situation were reversed, and four Kellys and a bootmaker attacked one policeman, and with this terrible odds, one of the Kellys grabbed the policeman, as Lonigan grabbed Ned Kelly, what would the anti-Kelly Press and the depravity of anti-Kelly authors have published?

Although Ned Kelly suffered severely from the injury inflicted on him by Lonigan, he thought no more about the prophecy in reference to the shooting of him.

That prophecy, however, preyed on Lonigan’s mind and when he was ordered to join Sergeant Kennedy's party, he expected something unusual to happen.

He had a premonition that Ned Kelly's prophecy would come true. Ned Kelly had not recognized Lonigan when he fired the fatal shot; he thought he was shooting at either Flood or Straughan. That prophecy!

KATE KELLY

It was the police who made a heroine of Kate Kelly, when deceived by the exhibitions of expert horsewomanship freely given, for their benefit, by Steve Hart, when, dressed as a woman he rode about in side-saddle. Therefore, whenever they saw an equally expert exhibition of horsewomanship by Mrs Skillion (nee Margaret Kelly) with whom they were not acquainted, they jumped to the conclusion that it was Kate Kelly who was also a first-class horsewoman.

It was Mrs Skillion, some years older than Kate, who possessed the unlimited confidence of her brothers and their mates. It was Mrs Skillion who was always in close touch with her outlawed brothers and supplied them with the necessaries of life. Kate did not, at any time, play an important part in her brothers' affairs. It was Mrs Skillion who frequently led the police, who were on foot, on many a wild goose chase over rough and extremely difficult country. Although mounted on a good horse, she allowed the footsore police to keep her in sight. They were sure that the bulky bundle she carried on the saddle was supplies for the outlaws. When satisfied that the exhausted police could not be on active service for some days, she spurred her horse, and, lost in the timber, returned home well pleased at the success of her strategy.

Kate Kelly, though thoroughly loyal, was too young to possess that mature judgment and discretion with which her elder sister, Mrs Skillion, was so gifted. It was this lack of discretion and judgment that caused Kate to be led into appearing on the stage of a Melbourne theatre the night after her brother was executed.

It was Mrs Skillion who, with Tom Lloyd, went to Melbourne for ammunition and successfully fooled Rosier and the police. And it was Mrs Skillion who knelt between the charred remains of Dan Kelly and Steve Hart and delivered the most scathing invective on the savagery and cowardice of the police at the siege of Glenrowan.

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This document gives you the text of this book about the KellyGang. The text has been retyped from a copy of the original. We have taken care to reproduce this document but areas of the original text may been damaged. We also apologise for any typographical errors. JJ Kenneally was one of the first authors to tell this story from the KellyGang's point of view