The Complete Inner History of the KellyGang and their Pursuers (3)

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CHAPTER 1

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A jury, consisting of the population of Greta, by their attitude, gave a most emphatic verdict that Ned Kelly's conviction, over the McCormack affair, was a most outrageous Miscarriage of justice. The same jury was equally emphatic in their verdict that the conviction of Ned Kelly in connection with the search for Wild Wright's horse, was also an outrageous Miscarriage of Justice. Therefore, the only honest conviction (even with loaded dice) was his resistance to four policemen and a bootmaker when trying to handcuff him at Benalla in 1877, seven years after the introduction of the infamous methods already referred to as "Loaded Dice." On this occasion Ned had to pay £3 Is., which covered the fine, costs and damage to police uniforms.

Added to their inherited resentment of oppression, the Kellys developed a bitter hatred of the law as it was then administered, and herein lay the origin of their subsequent career of resistance and defiance.

No other woman in Australia has ever been the victim of such libellous publications slanderous statements, and savage persecutions as the loving mother of Ned Kelly had to suffer and endure at the hands of the Police, the Press, the judiciary, and the so-called ruling class. Her enemies openly asserted that she had kept a sly-grog shanty; yet, she was never charged with having done so, although Supt Nicolson had given definite instructions to "bring the Kellys up on any charge, no matter how paltry." He explained, on oath before the Royal Commission, that the object of his persecution of the Kelly family was to take from them that outstanding "Prestige" which they enjoyed where they were well known. Some of Mrs Kelly's traducers alleged that her house was the meeting place of all the criminals in the North-eastern district of Victoria., yet, the worst person that had ever entered her home was Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick, whose superior officer at Lancefield declared that Fitzpatrick was not fit to be in the police force and could not be trusted out of sight. and on whose unsupported evidence three innocent persons, Mrs Kelly, Wm. Williamson, and Wm. Skillion were convicted and savagely sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.

Some time after settling on the Eleven-Mile Creek, Mrs Kelly married a neighbouring settler - George King - who came from California , North America . There were three children of the marriage, which was not a happy one. Ned Kelly thrashed King for ill-treating his mother. King left Greta never to return. King was not liked in Greta, and the local residents continued to refer to his wife as Mrs Kelly. Therefore, for the purposes of this history, Ned Kelly's mother will be referred to as Mrs. Kelly, notwithstanding the fact that she was the lawful wife of George King.

Mrs Kelly died at Greta on the 27th March, 1923 . She had married King on the 19th February, 1874 , at Benalla. She was then 36 years old. King's age was 25 years. Therefore, Mrs Kelly was 85 years old when she died, not 95 years as was generally supposed. Mrs Kelly and her family were very highly respected and loved by the people of Greta. This is very vividly demonstrated by the outstanding fact that although over sixty long years have passed away, no one can, with impunity, say one word against the Kellys in the district where they were best known.

As already stated, Mrs Kelly died on the 27th of March, 1923 , although the writer of a diabolical concoction, in book form, called "Dan Kelly," stated in his book that Dan Kelly's mother had died many years prior to 1911. But then, previous writers of Kelly Gang books seem to have taken great care to mislead their readers while they revelled in the suppression of Truth and the replacing of it with fiction.

Shortly before her death, Mrs Kelly's name was entered at the Wangaratta Hospital as Mrs King, with the result that the hospital staff were unaware that their patient was the mother of Ned Kelly.

Mrs. Kelly steadfastly refused to give any information about her family to the numerous newspaper reporters and travelling journalists who frequently visited her home, and she bluntly refused them any information about her sons. But to her intimate friends she talked freely, and displayed great pride in her sons. She always maintained that Danny was a better general than Ned, and would relate how Danny, though only 17 years old, put Heenan's bug on Constable Fitzpatrick and threw him on the broad of his back on the kitchen floor. Nevertheless she recognised Ned's general ability, and when speaking one day to a visiting journalist with whom she had been favourably impressed, she said: "My boy Ned would have been a great general in the big war - another Napoleon - whichever side he was on would have won."

NED KELLY

Edward (Ned) Kelly was born at Wallan Wallan, Victoria, in the year 1854, and was the eldest son. He was strongly influenced by the unjust treatment meted out to his father by the authorities at home and abroad. His father's death from prison treatment after serving a sentence of only six months on a "trumped-up charge" of having a cask with meat in it in his possession, intensified his distrust in the honesty of the police of that day. When Inspector Brook-Smith searched Kelly's home at Greta prior to the fight with the police at Stringybark Creek, he found meat in a cask and threw it out on the ground floor; but no one was arrested or charged "having meat in their possession for which the police said they had not been given a satisfactory account." Now, it were a felony for John (Red) Kelly to have meat in a cask at Wallan Wallan, why was it not also a felony to have meat in a cask at Greta?

In the early part of 1870, when Ned Kelly was 15 years old, he was arrested and charged with having held the bridle reins of Harry Power's horse, when Power, a bushranger, waylaid a Mr Murray at Lauriston near Kyneton. As the police failed to produce any evidence of identification, Ned Kelly was discharged. but they (the police) were able to gloat over the fact that Mrs. Kelly, a widow with eight orphans, had to provide money for her son's defence.

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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