The True Story of the KellyGang of Bushrangers Chapter 21 page 3

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Up to and for some time after his conviction, Kelly maintained an unconcerned and even defiant demeanour. He was much in request with pressmen as a subject for interviews, and his vainglorious accounts of exploits which he did not attempt to deny made copy eagerly devoured by thousands of newspaper readers. Facts were too clearly proved against Kelly to make denial possible, therefore in all his outpourings he attempted to arouse sympathy by representing himself and his family as the victims of wicked police oppression, which had forced him, against his will, to adopt a career of robbery and murder. With a discreditably large proportion of the population his specious appeals for sympathy were successful, and sympathisers, reinforced by many foolish people who weakly allowed feelings of compassion to get the better of their sense of decency and justice, made strong efforts to induce the Government to commute the sentence passed upon the outlaw. All the agitation, however, was in vain; and on November 11 Ned Kelly was hanged in Melbourne Gaol. He met his death with a fair amount of courage, though he could not trust himself to make a speech as he had contemplated doing, and when asked if he wished to say anything immediately before his execution, he contented himself with murmuring, ‘Ah, well - I suppose it has come to this!’

Some thousands of people, mostly, as the ‘Argus’ phrased it, ‘of the lower orders,’ had gathered outside the Gaol at the hour fixed for the execution, and they looked up expectantly as the clock struck ten, in the hope of seeing a black flag hoisted above the Gaol, but they were denied this morbid satisfaction, for the authorities gave no sign of what was occurring within the walls. Kate Kelly, with whom much legitimate sympathy was felt in her trouble, forfeited all claims to it by extraordinary conduct on the day of her brother’s execution. Doubtless she had a sincere regard for him, as her courageous assistance to the gang, in defiance of law, had often witnessed; but, stronger than love or grief, was a desire for theatrical display, which had its grimly humorous side. On the afternoon of her brother’s execution, dressed in deep black, she held a kind of reception in a public room hired for the purpose in Melbourne, and allowed those presented to her the privilege of shaking hands to show their sympathy and their sense of her importance, after which they passed on in silence and gave place to others awaiting their turn. About this performance there was, at least, a kind of farcical dignity; but in the evening Kate Kelly sank to lower depths, and gratified morbid curiosity by appearing on the stage of a Melbourne music hall, at the invitation of an enterprising manager.

In Ned Kelly died the last of the Victorian bushrangers, and with the increase of population and the improved methods of communication, even in the still sparsely populated North Eastern District, it is scarcely likely that he can ever have a successful imitator. But it was long before the fear of another outbreak of the part of exasperated sympathisers disappeared, and those best informed upon the matter considered the danger greatest. Several references have been made to a Royal Commission enquired into and reported exhaustively upon necessary reforms in the police administration and all circumstances connected with the Kelly gang’s long career. This Commission began its sittings early in 1881, and after sitting for months, during which it heard a vast amount of evidence from members of the police and a great number of civilians, it recommended the retirement upon their superannuation allowances of Captain Standish, Mr Hare, and Mr Nicolson. The Commission considered that the first named officers were principally to blame for the jealousy and want of esprit de corps which they found existing in the force; but Mr Nicolson and Mr Sadlier they also blamed for errors of judgement in connection with the pursuit of the Kellys, and, in fact, though the Commissioners had a word of praise for most of the officers upon some points, blame was far more Freely bestowed than praise in their report.

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