The Complete Inner History of the KellyGang and their Pursuers (7)

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CHAPTER 1

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DAN KELLY

Dan was the youngest of “Red” Kelly’s three sons. All accounts of him show he was of a quieter and less forceful nature than his brother Ned, although the general public have been led, through the vicious misrepresentation by the police, to regard him as a treacherous and bloodthirsty scoundrel. This misrepresentation was encouraged to some extent by the remarks of his brother Ned when addressing the men imprisoned in the storeroom at Faithful’s Creek station near Euroa. In order to prevent anyone from attempting to escape Ned Kelly said: “If any of you try to escape, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart will shoot you down like rabbits just for the fun of it." This was taken literally, and Dan Kelly was regarded by those who were not personally acquainted with him as a bloodthirsty ruffian. Although he was regarded as an outlaw from the time he was 17 years of age till he was 19 years at his death at Glenrowan, he killed no one, he shot no one, offered violence to no neighbour and insult to no woman.

CONSTABLE FLOOD

In his anxiety to carry out Supt Nicolson's instructions to root the Kellys out of the district, Constable Ernest Flood, in 1871, arrested Jim Kelly and his little brother Dan. Jim was about 13 years old and Dan was only 10. Jim was employed by a local farmer, with whose consent he rode one of his employer's horses for the purpose of going home to see his mother. He met Dan on the way and took him on the horse behind the saddle. Before going much further they were intercepted by Constable Ernest Flood, who arrested the two children on the charge of illegally using a horse.

Senior-Constable Flood gave evidence on oath before the Royal Commission on the 29th June, 1881 , as follows:-

Question by Commission: Did you prosecute the members of the Kelly family continuously while you were in that district?

Constable Flood: "I did, a good number of them. I could give the names." (Looking at his notebook.)

Question.-Try and do that and give about the dates.-I arrested James and Dan Kelly when they were mere lads for illegally using horses in 1871. They were discharged on account of their youth and their intimacy with the owner of the horses, one of the brothers having been a servant of the person who owned the horses.

Answering another question, Senior-Constable Flood said: "I think Mr. (Superintendent) Barkly had a great deal to do with the removal of men. I know he had me removed, and I was much aggrieved at the way he got me removed."

Question.-What reason did he give you?-There was a charge preferred against me by a man named Brown, a squatter at Laceby, and an investigation was held by Mr. Barkly over it. I was treated most unfairly in the matter.

Question.-He (Brown, the squatter) charged you with going amongst his horses and disturbing them?-Yes.

Seeing that the Kellys were blamed for all the horses stolen in that district, it would not do to charge Constable Flood with being a suspected horse thief. Supt. Barkly, therefore, removed him from Greta to Yandoit, near Castlemaine, where there were only a few working horses, and consequently no temptation to disturb or interfere with them.

The inference behind the charge against Flood was that he either stole or planted horses and then blamed the Kellys or their relatives for the offence.

For the next five years no charge of any kind was made against Dan Kelly, but at the age of 15 years he was charged with having stolen a saddle, and notwithstanding the anxiety of the police to convict, the evidence they adduced failed to impress the bench, and the little boy was again discharged. But perseverance brings its reward, and on the following year Dan Kelly was charged-with doing wilful damage to property.

The bench accepted the evidence of the owner of the property, D Goodwin (who was afterwards sentenced to four years' imprisonment for perjury in connection with the same property), and Dan Kelly was at last convicted and sentenced to three months in gaol. This was the only conviction against Dan Kelly before being outlawed.

On the following year someone at Chiltern lost a horse, and the police took out a warrant for Dan Kelly, and this was the unfortunate warrant which brought about the Fitzpatrick episode. One of Dan Kelly's cousins was joined with him in this case of alleged horse stealing.

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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