The Argus at KellyGang 8/7/1880
The Argus continued with its report of the KellyGang at Glenrowan
full text
DESPERATE FIGHT WITH BUSHRANGERS
DESTRUCTION OF THE KELLY GANG
No event that has occurred in the colony for some time past has excited a greater degree of interest in Victoria and the neighbouring colonies than the annihilation, under circumstances of an extraordinarily tragic nature, of the gang of outlawed bushrangers and murderers known as the Kelly gang. It will be remembered that about two years since this band of marauders first attracted public attention by the perpetration of a tragedy almost unparalleled in the history of the colony, namely, the murder of three members of the police force, who were at the time in pursuit of them with warrants for their arrest on the charge of shooting at Constable Fitzpatrick, of Benalla. The gang consisted of four men―Edward Kelly, Daniel Kelly, Joseph Byrne, and Stephen Hart―who were known to the police as notorious cattle-stealers. The two Kellys had undergone terms of imprisonment for that crime before they were sixteen years of age, but the punishment did not deter them from resuming their career of crime as soon as they were liberated.
In April, 1878, an attempt was made by Constable Fitzpatrick to arrest Daniel Kelly for horse-stealing, when that officer was overpowered at the house of the Kellys by the outlaws, their mother, and two men named Williams and Skillion. The constable was shot at and wounded, and the criminals escaped. Mrs Kelly, Williams, and Skillion were, however, subsequently captured and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. But the two Kellys, one of whom had been an active confederate of the bushranger, Harry Power, eluded the vigilance of the police, and found hiding-places utterly unknown to the authorities, and almost inaccessible to all but those who were familiar to them.
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THE POLICE MURDERS
After a search of some months’ duration, the police ascertained that the gang was hiding in the Wombat Ranges, near Mansfield. Four officers stationed at Mansfield, namely, Sergeant Kennedy, and Constables Scanlan, Lonergan, and McIntyre, closed in upon the haunt of the criminals in October, 1878, but so far from taking the gang unawares, as they had anticipated, the police were taken by surprise; the outlaws rushed upon them and demanded instant surrender. Almost before the officers had time to realise their position, Constables Lonergan and Scanlan were murdered in the most cold-blooded manner, and Sergeant Kennedy―as it subsequently transpired―was carried off by the gang, and also murdered. Constable McIntyre alone survived to tell the narrative of a tragedy that went a thrill through the colony. From many centres of population in the district search parties, joined by volunteers from every class and rank, went out to assist in the capture of the perpetrators of the dastardly outrage that has since been known as the Mansfield tragedy. The Government despatched reinforcements of police, in charge of Superintendent Nicolson, of Melbourne, to the spot, and a reward of £200 per head was offered for the capture of the murderers. The reward was afterwards increased to a lump sum of £4,000, and the Government of New South Wales also offered a reward of £4,000. A measure passed by the Parliament of Victoria declared the marauders outlaws, and rendered all who sympathised with them liable to imprisonment and other means of encouraging the pursuers of the outlaws and of putting a check upon their sympathisers were adopted. That all these means should have failed to produce any effect for months and months excited no little surprise. But those acquainted with the locality in which the outlaws had established themselves knew that they were afforded extraordinary facilities for the perpetration of their crimes with impunity. The ranges in which they hid abounded in secret fastnesses known only to a few, and to which it was all but impossible and extremely dangerous for the police to obtain access. Moreover, the neighbourhood swarmed with friends and sympathisers of the outlaws; indeed, the position of affairs appeared to be that one-half of the district sympathised with the murderers, and the other half was reduced to silence and inaction through fear. In such a locality and with such surroundings, the Kellys could conceal themselves for months when their pursuers displayed any unusual activity and vigilance. Hence it was that after the Mansfield tragedy as little was known of the outlaws as if they had left the colony, which, indeed, was believed to have been the case. But no sooner did a sense of security again take possession of them than they descended upon a station almost under the shadow of the ranges in which they had been established, occupied the station for a whole day and night, and having bailed up all those engaged about the place, robbed it of all that they could lay hands on.
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FRESH OUTRAGES
Not content with their spoils, the outlaws proceeded to the neighbouring township of Euroa, confined the two local policeman in their own watchhouse, rushed the telegraph office, cut the telegraph wires, plundered the bank in broad daylight, and finally departed, taking with them not only all the money on the premises (upwards of £2,000), but all the men, women, and children in the establishment.
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