The Argus at KellyGang 12/11/1880 (5)
More than 12 months elapsed without any fresh outbreak. It was well known to the police that the outlaws had returned to their old haunts; but, owing to the assistance they received from sympathisers and friends, they continued to elude the hands of justice. A party of black trackers, hired from Queensland, had evidently the effect of deterring the gang from showing themselves openly, and as time wore on the police, under Mr Nicolson, were, unknown to the public, drawing nearer and nearer to the culprits.
After being kept at bay for upwards of a year, the Kellys turned their attention to those whom they suspected of betraying them, and commenced what was probably intended to be a series of reprisals by that desperate and dastardly act of revenge - the murder of Aaron Sherritt. Sherritt lived, with his wife and mother-in-law, in a hut at Sebastopol. On the night of the 27th June last a man, who had been made a prisoner by the gang, was taken by them to his door, and compelled to call Sherritt out to show him the way home. No sooner did Sherritt show himself at the door than he was shot dead without a moment’s warning. There were four policemen in the hut at the time, but they were unable to stir without a certainty of being also shot down. The gang remained for some time in the vicinity, and attempted to burn the hut down; but in this they failed, and they then hastened off before daylight to Glenrowan, a lonely wayside railway station, for the purpose of wrecking a special train with police which they knew would be sent up to pursue them as soon as the news of the fresh murder was known.
They reached Glenrowan next day (Sunday), bailed up all the people there, and imprisoned them in Jones’s Hotel, tore up the railway line, and awaited the passing of the suspected train. They also clad themselves in bullet-proof armour made of plough-moulds, and, as their leader stated, they intended visiting the wreck of the train, and shooting down any survivors. As they had anticipated, a special train was despatched. It contained Superintendent Hare and a party of police, Sub-inspector O’Connor and the black trackers, and representatives of the metropolitan press―in all 26 souls. Providentially, however, one of the prisoners of the gang―Mr Curnow, the local schoolmaster―escaped and stopped the train by a signal before it reached Glenrowan, and thus what would have been the most appalling tragedy of all was averted. The gang were attacked in Jones’s Hotel at 3 o’clock in the morning. The fight was commenced by the gang firing a volley on the police as they approached the house.
Superintendent Hare was wounded, and had to retire. He continued long in a precarious state, but is now, we are glad to say, out of danger. The fight was continued for three hours in the darkness before police reinforcements arrived, but at 6 o’clock assistance came from Wangaratta and Benalla. At the commencement of the fray the leader of the gang was wounded in the foot and arm, and he retired into the bush. At daylight, however, he returned, attacking the police in the rear, and after a desperate fight, which proved that his armour was bullet proof, he was brought down by firing at his legs. His wretched companions perished in the house.
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