The Argus at KellyGang 8/7/1880 (6)
The Argus continued with its report of the KellyGang at Glenrowan
full text
Glenrowan Inn -burning
Whether the two outlaws killed one another or committed suicide, or whether they were mortally wounded, and fell side by side, has been the subject of many conflicting conjectures. All that is certain is that they died before the flames reached them. The priest had barely time to examine the bodies before the fire forced him to leave the house. It was not long before the building became a heap of ruins. All that was left of the inn was the lamp-post and signboard. Among the embers were found the two bodies, charred beyond recognition. They presented a horrible spectacle, nothing but the trunks and skulls being left, and these almost burnt to a cinder. The armour of which the outlaws had recently divested themselves was found by their side. There appeared to be nothing to lead to the positive identification of the bodies, excepting the discovery of the armour near them and the positive knowledge that they were within the inn.
Byrne’s body was found in the entrance to the bar-room. It also presented a dreadful appearance. It looked as if it had been ill-nourished. The thin face was black with smoke, and the arms were bent at right angles at the elbows, the stiffened joints below the elbows standing erect. The body was quite stiff, and its appearance and the position in which it was found corroborated the statement that Byrne died early in the day of the siege. He is said to have received the fatal wound, which was in the groin, while drinking a glass of whisky at the bar. He had a ring on his right hand which had belonged to Constable Scanlan, who was murdered by the gang on the Wombat Ranges.
In an outhouse immediately behind the main building was found the body of Martin Cherry, an old man employed as a platelayer on the railway. He had been imprisoned by the Kellys, and while confined in the hotel was mortally wounded. It was at first supposed that he was accidentally shot by the police, but later information tends to the suspicion that he was deliberately shot by Ned Kelly at the beginning of the Glenrowan affray. At a coronial inquiry held on his body, the presiding magistrate returned the following verdict:― “Having heard the evidence given herewith touching the death of the deceased Martin Cherry, and having carefully considered the same, I find his death was caused by a gunshot wound received during the time he was a prisoner of the Kelly gang in Jones’s Hotel, Glenrowan, on Monday last, and that no blame can be attached either to any member of the police force or to any civilians who were then firing at the Kelly gang and Jones’s Hotel and Kitchen.” A similar verdict was returned in the case of the boy Jones, who was wounded in the same place, as well as his sister and a boy named Reardon.
―———
THE PLOT OF THE GANG
The information elicited since the tragic affair at Glenrowan shows that the outlaws had spared no effort to carry out to a successful issue their design of wrecking the special train. They went to the residence of the local stationmaster, Mr Stanistreet, announced themselves with characteristic boldness, called the officer out of his house, and directed him to take up the rails. The stationmaster explained that he knew nothing about lifting rails off the line, and was then left in charge of Steve Hart while the Kellys went along the line to find the repairers. With regard to what followed the stationmaster says―“Hart came up to me and said, ‘You get the tools out that are necessary to raise those rails.’ I replied, ‘I have not the key to the chest.’ He said, ‘We’ll break the lock,’ and he got one of the men to do so. They took all the tools out of the chest, which lay in a back shed or tool-house between the station and the crossing.
Soon afterwards Ned and two of the repairers, Reardon and Sullivan, arrived. Ned, accompanied by these two men, proceeded down the line towards Wangaratta. We stood with Hart in the cold at the hut for about two hours. At last Ned Kelly and the repairer returned. Ned inquired about the signalling on the line―how I stopped trains with the signal lamps. I told him white is right, and red wrong, and green is ‘gently come along.’ He then said, ‘There is a special train coming, and you will give no signal..’ Then speaking to Hart, he said, ‘Watch his countenance, and if he gives any signal shoot him.’ He marched us into my house, and left us under the charge of Steve Hart. Subsequently other persons were made prisoners and lodged in my house to the number of about 17. we were locked up all day on Sunday, but we were allowed out under surveillance.” Leaving the stationmaster in the charge of Hart, Kelly proceeded with the platelayers to a spot apparently chosen with a fiendish determination to bring about the complete destruction of the train. At the place situated the line took a sudden turn down an incline, and passed over a gully on a high embankment. A creek in the gully was crossed by a culvert. This culvert is situated just at the end of the sharpest part of the curve and at the foot of the incline, and it was just at this point that the rails were torn up.
.1. , .2. , .3. , .4. , .5. , .6. , .7. , .8. ,
| ! | The text has been retyped from a microfiche copy of the original. We have taken care to reproduce this document but areas of the original text may been damaged. |
