BONUS: Ned Kelly with Scott Williams - podcast episode cover

BONUS: Ned Kelly with Scott Williams

Mar 04, 20261 hr 15 min
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Episode description

Ned Kelly was a 19th-century Australian outlaw who became a folk legend for his defiance of colonial police. Raised in poverty, he turned to crime after ongoing conflicts with authorities and led a gang that robbed banks. He’s best known for wearing homemade metal armour during his last stand in 1880, before being captured and executed, leaving a legacy split between criminal and hero.

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Transcript

Speaker 1

Hey there, everybody, welcome to Not Another Crime Podcast.

Speaker 2

I'm Georgia Love.

Speaker 1

I'm Sammy Peterson.

Speaker 3

I'm a journalist.

Speaker 1

I am not, but hey what I am a big fan of our guest. The third host of the podcast, Not Digs. It's Scott Williams. Yeah, yeah, yeah, hello, Yeah, welcome Scott with your beautiful clipboard. You've got a bag today as well.

Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah, we'll talk you hang on.

Speaker 5

So if I'm a journalist and you're are not, what are we going to call Scott? Because you're on so often with us now we need to bring you into the intro when you hear it.

Speaker 4

If we're going to bring me into the intro, this is what I think we'll do right Someday we'll find it beautiful. The dream.

Speaker 2

Mis understood where we were going.

Speaker 4

So I can be just me and me beautiful. I can be the third wheel.

Speaker 1

Okay, let's do it again. We'll go. Hey, every welcome to Not Another Crime Podcast. I'm Smy Peterson.

Speaker 3

I'm Georgia Love.

Speaker 1

I'm a journalist. No, no, no more time. Hi everybody, welcome to another crime podcast. I'm Simmy Peterson and Scott you're fired.

Speaker 4

We'll get it clean. This time.

Speaker 1

Hey there, everybody, Welcome to not Another crime podcast. I'm Georgia Love, I'm Sammy Peterson. I'm a journalist, I am not.

Speaker 4

And I am just me. Yeah, just you are you?

Speaker 3

You are everyone else has taken.

Speaker 1

Now we have a present for you today, Scott. And it is a letter that has come from the beautiful Claudia, who you might know.

Speaker 5

Sammy's got up to pass the envelope you might know as Dick is by Claude, our listener who showers us with gifts and has now showered you with a.

Speaker 1

Gift a gift. Cry you dare? Don't you dare?

Speaker 3

And me, don't you dare? At me?

Speaker 1

Also, won't at me?

Speaker 3

Going at me?

Speaker 4

I'll resent hear it for a minute. Sorry, sorry, but this like I have a life. I heard I heard an expression the other day that said, the number of beautiful things that happen in your life are entirely based on your ability to recognize them. Oh lovely, And I like that, yeah and it And I had a lot of beautiful things happened to me in twenty twenty five, But becoming a pseudo part of this podcast was one

of the most people. We love you guys have no idea the joy that it brings me to write and to share the stories and then to get fan my joking, are you're even joking.

Speaker 3

Right now, Sammy, We're going to have to rethink firing him.

Speaker 1

On this next one.

Speaker 4

Wait until you see what this is. This is spectactuar. Well it's buttons.

Speaker 5

Oh the stick buttons because Scott told us the button Man story.

Speaker 4

Yeah, cla My heart could not be more full. That is absolutely a dream.

Speaker 3

That is three hundred and sixty five buttons for all the days.

Speaker 4

Oh god, I hope. So that is stunning. These are going on the clipboard.

Speaker 1

A huge.

Speaker 3

The room.

Speaker 4

That's a Claude claud I'm looking straight at the camera. You're a beautiful human being. Go to the Rose Street markets and visit Claude on the weekends.

Speaker 1

Yeah, absolutely, sticks plugs in and everything. Yeah, blood absolutely that You've got your name there as well, on the on the correct day, always right.

Speaker 4

She said to Scott Williams. Sammy sent me a photo just of this, and my heart almost burst. I'm like, what do you mean, I've got fem mate, This is just ridiculous. I'm just a dude, right, like just me I'm just me.

Speaker 1

That's beautiful. It's so beautiful live unboxings on my no the buttons.

Speaker 4

You know, I'm really glad that you said that. So what listeners don't know is because of reasons we didn't get together for a couple of weeks, you record today's episode. I was supposed to come on the week of your one year anniversary.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4

And the bag is in my lap is a little gift for you.

Speaker 1

Oh my god, I'm.

Speaker 4

Going to got buttons. I'm going to go off for a second and pass it to you. Okay.

Speaker 5

I think I've probably said this on the podcast before. Gifting is my love language. Like, I can't tell how happy giving gifts and receiving gifts makes me.

Speaker 1

Oh my god, it's a beautiful What is a box?

Speaker 4

And Sammy just said something off Mike, and I'm so glad he did because waiting to open.

Speaker 3

This, what did you say?

Speaker 1

It's a box?

Speaker 3

Oh my god, please hold my joms, please.

Speaker 1

Sir, please please, okaye.

Speaker 4

How one year? I'm super excited for you, guys.

Speaker 2

Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it.

Speaker 3

Oh my god, wait, oh my god, my god. Sorry, it was really bad.

Speaker 2

This is really bad audio.

Speaker 5

Right, now, but Scott has gifted us champagne glasses that are engraved with the word horrendous.

Speaker 1

That is amazing.

Speaker 5

You're right, damn it just said before we started recording, he literally said, these are only two champagne glasses left because Digs has broken them.

Speaker 3

Oh my god, Scott, that is.

Speaker 5

The best surrendous thing I've ever said.

Speaker 1

Carrendous.

Speaker 3

There's another level.

Speaker 1

This is like an unboxing past the past.

Speaker 2

Ye oh my god, Oh my god. More, Oh my god, there's two more.

Speaker 3

And then they say ring, ring, and off.

Speaker 4

The new catchphrases, the new catchphrases, ring ring.

Speaker 3

Scott, this is amazing.

Speaker 5

This is unfortunately the end of today's episode that.

Speaker 3

You are amazing. Thank you so much. That is so beautiful.

Speaker 1

We drink out of them right now.

Speaker 3

Yeah, let's pour the jam.

Speaker 4

Right right in there.

Speaker 1

Which one do you want to drink right now?

Speaker 3

I think we need ring, ring, buckling and funk off.

Speaker 1

Okay, all right, well.

Speaker 5

We're pouring champagne from one bush to another. You tell us about your life.

Speaker 4

I kind of just summarized it, right, like, my life is full of beautiful moments and I continue to have a beautiful, happy life.

Speaker 1

It's really simple, beautiful.

Speaker 4

We're coming up to March, we're coming up to Valentine's Day, so absolutely, I'll say, last time I said something nice about my wife at g C, I probably shouldn't do that.

Speaker 3

I'll say something nice to think of something.

Speaker 4

That's just what I'll say. I'll say, beautiful woman, what I like about She's sarcastic, Julia, Just in case you were under.

Speaker 1

I have to tell people because people my voice is so psarcastic when I'm being genuine sometimes people go.

Speaker 2

People you move by that.

Speaker 4

But if people have seen you special, they know that you're smirking. So you just look like you wanted to say what I would say about us if I had to say something nice, given it's coming out Valentine's Day. Is our relationship sixty forty, But the trick is we're both trying to be sixty.

Speaker 3

That's better than both trying to be forty.

Speaker 4

Yeah exactly.

Speaker 3

Let's cheers with your goals.

Speaker 4

Happy anniversary.

Speaker 3

Yeah, oh my god, that's the best.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 4

So welcome, Diggs.

Speaker 1

I'm going to have to put these up so high, so yeah, he.

Speaker 3

Might have to live at my house and I'll bring them over every.

Speaker 2

Time we recorded we're cotton Wall also.

Speaker 5

Talking about Valentine's Day. What else falls on Valentine's Day?

Speaker 1

Diggs's birthday? Diggs birthday wasn't that makes so much sense. He's a loveh my god full of He was bought and believe it. When I got the certificate to say that, you know, I officially adopted Digs and it had his birthday as Valentine's Day, and I was like, that makes total the kiss monster. And you've actually got him a beautiful new gift today. So you didn't just bring his.

Speaker 4

Birthday, sought him a beautiful gift. I always bring him something you want to be the favorite.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, you usually bring him a pigsy or something. This time you bought him a beautiful dinosaursaurus. He loves it so much. So he's playing in between us right now as you're about to tell this story and we've got you beautiful wine glass.

Speaker 4

We haven't.

Speaker 3

They haven't given you a single thing.

Speaker 4

She did You gave me stickers? No, but they came because of this podcast.

Speaker 1

That's true.

Speaker 4

He gave me I.

Speaker 3

Unloaded France, thank you very much.

Speaker 4

I do have a couple of pieces of housekeeping though, because like I always come in here and tell us corrections. And the sad thing about that, I've seen a few of the videos of other people that you have on like you have other people on.

Speaker 3

A Thursday that was said with so much disdain.

Speaker 4

Judi people they sit over there and Diz can sit with them. So I just want to say for future, yeah, it's not ideal for me. Yeah, I love Taxi. And also I don't know, like I don't want to pinpoint anybody on this podcast, but on a recent episode, somebody had a poetry peeve. Now I'm not going to say who it was. They were talking about people with very loud motorcycles.

Speaker 3

Oh yeah, that was me.

Speaker 4

And I do just want to point out that you've seen my Harley, yeah.

Speaker 2

But I haven't heard it.

Speaker 3

And that's the important part to our friendship.

Speaker 4

So the two things that I will say about.

Speaker 1

When I dress at the airport, tell me that I dress.

Speaker 4

Well at airport, Yeah, don't you worry. I want I want that. I want the security guard to go because I did such a good job.

Speaker 2

Yeah, you want to be the fake belt.

Speaker 4

Have my laptop out. I want to be at that. I need a bit of that action. But I will there's two times. If I'm driving up to a set of lights and I see a little kid any waves at me. You God, damn right, I'll read my mate, Okay, yeah, because I was that little kid.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 4

And also in a tunnel, because tunnels, because tunnel.

Speaker 5

Yeah. Loud as a very loud person self proclaimed you love just talking about digs, squeaky toys. It really doesn't make sense for me not to like the loud noises. Actually, no, now I've said that out loud. It's probably because how loud, because I'm not making the load noise and I'm jealous.

Speaker 4

And the other thing I just wanted to share was if I wrote an autobiography, yes we're talking about that, it would be titled based on a true story.

Speaker 1

Oh, it's also kind of written in order bo I did a little bit. Yeah, mister ordinary goes to jail available online where.

Speaker 4

All good books are sold at my house at the moment because they're out of print.

Speaker 3

That sounds a lot more sinister than it probably is.

Speaker 5

You're like when you used to go to Barley in like the nineties and two thousands, and you'd go into those dodgy back room stores that had plastic leaves.

Speaker 3

That's your garage with where we're BookTok stars now?

Speaker 2

So where well book.

Speaker 4

Fluences, yes, top booktops, bookto Stars. Bring ring Buckling?

Speaker 5

Now, can we ring ring Buckle in to a story you have brought us again today?

Speaker 4

I would love to. Now I've heard the listeners, so this one's a little bit longer, is good. I've heard you've heard them. I have also got a stegosaurus on my foot right now.

Speaker 5

I can't imagine that would be quite heavy, but I'm going to do what's of thing the other day actually saying that because feathers nor fur can fossilize, there is serious possibilities that dinosaurs were actually feathered.

Speaker 4

Feathered real would be funny.

Speaker 3

Imagine t Rex with lots of feathers.

Speaker 1

Imagine that he loves he loves it.

Speaker 4

He's just picked up his stegosaurus and gone like this one, this one, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1

He breaks all the glasses in the house, Karen Mass and hopefully that'll stop him.

Speaker 4

All right, We see if I can tell you what's story beautiful?

Speaker 2

We could try.

Speaker 4

We could drive forty minutes. Okay, it's June eighty eighty, it's not.

Speaker 3

It's January twenty twenty six.

Speaker 4

Nice one, George, nice one. You did that in the store.

Speaker 1

Yes, it's actually February. You don't get a sticker, stickers, it's June eighteen eighty.

Speaker 4

The bush land surround in this local hotel feels eerily quiet. A group of about thirty policemen move as quietly as they can and surround the property. From inside the hotel, they can hear the sounds of the people that the criminals inside have taken hostage. One sergeant gives the signal and the police start firing. The criminals inside the hotel fireback. When the shooting stops, the hotel door opens very slowly, and the female owner of the hotel steps out with

their hands raised. At the police's signal, she approaches them and makes an offer on the criminal's behalf. Before dawn, they will release all the women and children from inside the hotel. She also tells them her young son has been shot and she will bring him out first. The police agree to the terms, and she returns to the hotel true to their word. Just as the sky starts to turn from the full black of night to the

slow rising gray of dawn. The hotel door opens again and the women and children who have been held hostage, start to exit the hotel. Suddenly one officer he is a noise in the bush behind them. He turns to see an extraordinary sight. A man steps through the fog. He's wearing a long black trench coat and lock what looks like a helmet made out of steel.

Speaker 1

Is this where the wild things are?

Speaker 4

The helmet is huge and only has a small slip for the man's eyes. The figure is brandishing two pistols in his yells come at me, your bastards, you can't hurt me. This is the story of Australia's most famous criminal, Kelly.

Speaker 1

Yes, as I call him Nended Kelly.

Speaker 4

I'll try and remember that ned lead fun. I like it, that's fun, that's.

Speaker 1

Kelly because I've been I you know, I think in school, like we've got taught about you know, Birkehm Wills Ned Kelly, and you get taught that he is a hero. And it's so interesting that we have a you know, in in Australia one of the biggest heroes along with Chopper May he rest in ps Well Leonard ned Ed. But yeah, but we always get taught that he's a hero. Yes, yeah, and I'm very interested in this.

Speaker 4

So my next sentence is most Australians think they know the story of Bushranger and Heroonically.

Speaker 5

I do feel like the tide is turning on that because like skinheads and yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4

You mean like it's twenty twenty six and we have to still tell people nazis a bad Is that what I mean?

Speaker 1

Yes? Fortunately, natzis a bad. Yeah, but they kind of a sign off for the podcast pss nazis a bad.

Speaker 4

Ps Burke and Wills right yep. Near Melbourne Zoo when you go around the avenue there there's a cairn on the left hand side of the road that says that it commemorates That's where they started their journey.

Speaker 1

In Melbourne Zoo. I didn't know they had opposite opposite a family.

Speaker 4

Park family to see the elephants. They actually started their story at Spencer Street station and that can outside Melbourne Zoo is how far they got on their first day. Oh really, from Spinster Street save to the zoo.

Speaker 3

I didn't know they even had the V line.

Speaker 4

They were deeply terrible explorers. They only they only decided to get rid of the bath that they were carrying.

Speaker 1

By the way, it is so funny.

Speaker 4

They owned four k's. Yeah about four case. That's the first night they camned Will's, got on his horse and went back into Melbourne to watch an opera and came back because they'd only gone four case.

Speaker 2

Relatable content, Yeah, totally relatable.

Speaker 4

Not our man, not our man today. So Ned Kelly is louded in modern Australian folklore as a hero, yes, noble bush ranging outlaw who spoke out against the tyranny of the early Australian government, a man who's innovative and led, ended his life with an iconic catchphrase such his life. But the truth we're about to explore is a little bit different to that narrative. And I do wonder whether if Need was committing his crimes today he would be as popular.

Speaker 1

No. I always thought his catchphrase was.

Speaker 2

Yeah a little bit, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3

That's from the Meryl Street movie played Kelly.

Speaker 4

Said the famous was anything famously was in Evil and Evil Angels as well.

Speaker 3

Did I do forget that?

Speaker 5

We discussed that on our last record that hasn't come out yet, and you won't have heard that's not get that reference.

Speaker 3

But you will by the time you listened to this back.

Speaker 4

Nice I love it all right. So in eighteen forty two, John Kelly was transported from Ireland to Van Demon's Land.

Speaker 1

Philip Ireland, Yes, the Republic of Philip.

Speaker 4

Republic offilm. That's not far philip Land to tell me now. His crime was stealing two pigs.

Speaker 1

Oh, pig, pig, pig pig hey y.

Speaker 4

He completed his sentence in eighteen forty eight and he was released as a free man. He moved to the British colony of Victoria in eighteen fifty and he met and married Ellen Quinn. Their records weren't great back then, so sometime between December eighteen fifty four and June eighteen fifty five, their third son, Edward Kelly was born. Oh okay, there's no records to say when he was eighteen?

Speaker 3

No, I reckon, we could get someone who's really into astrology to.

Speaker 4

Yeah, as was the case with many irishmen named Edward, the boy was referred to as Ned from a very young age.

Speaker 5

So I know someone called Edward like by birth and has always gone by Ned, but changed his name by deed poll to Ned.

Speaker 1

Really, that's I wonder what I'm necessary.

Speaker 4

And not Ward and not h Ed or in any other fun combinations. So Ellen and John had eight children in total. Oo oh boy, that no telling boy. The family lived in Beveridge, Victoria, on a small plot of land they at least from the government. The land was described as poor farming land, which is why it was cheap. In eighteen sixty five, Ned's father, John was jailed for killing a neighbour's cow. His defense was that had wandered

on to his property. He stated, once the animal was on his land, it was by right his to slaughter to feed his family. Goldwall, that was a cow. Its not June, and it was a cow. He served six months in jail. Around six months after his release, in December eighteen sixty six, John Kelly passed away. At the funeral, Ned's mother, Ellen was enraged to see the wife of the man whose cow John had killed. She screamed at her at the funeral, yelling, you damn English Bible thumper.

Did you get enough for your heifer yet? I hope you soon become a widow like me.

Speaker 1

Oh my god, that's that's huge a heifer as well.

Speaker 3

How did you point at Diggs.

Speaker 4

Out calling No, I wasn't calling him heifer at this time? Around one quarter of Victoria's population was Irish. Some were pre settlers, but a lot were, like Ned's father, convicts who had been released and settled in the area. Many of the irishmen joined the police, as it was a reg job. Ned was brought up hating the idea of the police. After the cow incident, the Kelly family saw themselves as victims of police persecution.

Speaker 5

They only went to for six months that much.

Speaker 4

Yeah. In the Giraldary letter Sorry. In the Glary letter, Ned wrote that the Irish police were the worst kind of traders, saying that they were forgoing the Catholic heritage to suckle at the English teat, and he called them lazy loafers who had deserted this shamrock. Okay, now what I like to imagine the great and good Jonathan Groff just walking up behind Ned and going.

Speaker 2

Officially one of us.

Speaker 3

Can't you will be back my face when you said, the great Jonathan, I know.

Speaker 4

I know how much you love him, my husband. So even though they made up twenty five percent of the colony, the Irish were ostracized in the settlement Need was fiercely Irish. In eighteen sixty six, the idea of being Australian as we knew it today didn't exist. The national identity didn't truly start to form until Australians.

Speaker 3

Diggs just knocked Overgs.

Speaker 4

Has just knocked over a camera. I love it, stand by everybody.

Speaker 5

That's a problem because you've you've made sure you're the favorite so much, Scott that now when you're here, he just wants to play. And he said, why are you sitting there looking at them and reading.

Speaker 4

We're doing pats while we're telling stories, just in case people can't see that, all right, So the national identity of Australians didn't really become what it is that we know today until Australian soldiers serving in the Boer War in eighteen ninety eight and eighteen ninety nine banded together and began to be known for their solidarity to each other. The German soldiers that served with them had a word

which roughly meant to sit together to eat. They started using this term mate to describe the Australian soldiers who always seemed to stick together, and the idea of mate ship began to bloom yeah after federation in nineteen oh one, the idea of being Australian really started to solidify in the culture. But in Ned's lifetime he never considered himself

an Australian really yep. As an aside, he would have had a very strong Irish accent, it didn't sound like an Australian and he didn't identify as in Australian, very Australian, very Australian, sound like an Australian Rude. Ned was twelve when his father died, and being the eldest son, he had to leave school and take up his role as the head of the family. Wow, the Kelley family started to spend more time on the wrong side of the law.

A quote from the Banella Farmers and Squatter's Journal in eighteen sixty nine, We're about to come to one of my favorite names I've ever heard. And I checked this four times. Make sure he is sure. I promise you.

Speaker 3

I checked to make sure this really built this up.

Speaker 4

I know. A quote from the Banella Farmers and Squads Journal in October eighteen sixty nine said Ned Kelly answered to the charge of robbery today from a Chinese person. They didn't say Chinese person, but I said that.

Speaker 1

Because that's what the cool way to describe him is today.

Speaker 4

The man whose first name was Ah and his surname was fwk Oh, okay, great name, great might like what my champagne glasses. The man whose name was Ah Fook.

Speaker 2

You're very grown up. Yeah, that's the only reason you.

Speaker 3

Didn't giggle when you said eighteen sixty.

Speaker 4

Nine, he said Ned. He said Ned had stopped him and stolen his purse, which contained ten shillings. The police went to Ellen's home to arrest Ned, but he escaped out the back of the house while Allan set two vicious dogs loose on the police.

Speaker 1

Oh my god.

Speaker 4

Ned also spoke of this incident in the Jildary letter which we're going to talk about, saying that he was a free man and not shackled by the English law of the colony. His defense to the charge was that the Chinese man had approached their home and asked his sister for water. Ned's sister would not allow a person with yellow skin to drink the family water, and so offered in water from the creek.

Speaker 3

Oh my god, yep.

Speaker 4

The man became angry at this slight, and he and Ned got into a small fight. Ned claimed the man had run off after the fight and dropped his purse. He was simply holding the purse until the man returned. Sure Jan Ned gave the Ned gave the purse to the police to return, although remarkably it was empty, and Ned avoided a conviction. I did th think about that if your champagn guys should say foreshadowing with a couple of little music nights.

Speaker 1

Oh yeah, beautiful as well, but.

Speaker 2

I like the other one, my beautiful cut, beautiful catching.

Speaker 4

One of Ned's companions was bush ranger Harry Power. It was a fifty one year old high woman, and he and Ned would stop and rob coaches together.

Speaker 3

It's a pretty cool name for a bush ranger.

Speaker 1

Also robin coaches and stuff like. It does feel cool when it does sound cool.

Speaker 4

In eighteen seventy, fifteen year old Ned and Harry were caught by the police for a robbery. Ned was dismissed on the charge because the witnesses could only identify Harry Power and did not see Ned's face.

Speaker 3

So fifteen year old and a fifty one year old are going about just.

Speaker 4

Hanging out, Yeah, just hanging, just chilling, just robin.

Speaker 2

Just Robing're not just chilling, just robin yep.

Speaker 4

Neddi is said to have told his brothers that this incident taught him to hide his face when undertaking criminal like a bush. A few months later, ned was arrested for stealing a horse. The horse name he was a horse.

Speaker 1

Of course, of course, of course, of course.

Speaker 4

I like it. His defense was he could not have stolen the horse because he and his uncle had been tending cattle. Yes, okay, at this time, the term tending meant carstrating the young bulls young male cattle. Probably does. Yeah, we're looking at you, mister Philip Island. The truth about the incident was that there was a young woman, Missus McCormack,

who lived in the area. Ned's mother had been speaking at dinner a few minutes prior and said that the mccormacks were having trouble conceiving a baby.

Speaker 3

I don't know where this is going.

Speaker 4

Ned thought it would be hilarious to take a set of the car strated testicles, wrap them in a note for Missus McCormack definitely not on board, which offered her the testicles to try in the place of her husb.

Speaker 3

That is fucking disgusting, hilarious.

Speaker 1

God, Yeah, I don't know about this. Ned. No, the more I hear about this.

Speaker 4

Need to you, I don't know if it's going to turn out.

Speaker 1

Okay, yeah, I don't.

Speaker 4

He gave the package to a young boy and paid him a shilling to deliver it to the woman. The boy mistakenly delivered the package to mister McCormack.

Speaker 1

Maybe, yeah, okay, he didn't see it.

Speaker 4

He didn't see that. A lived to the wrong guy, and he was furious. The man went to the police the next day to accuse Ned of stealing his horse. Ned said it must the worst. Ned said it must have wondered off. Mister McCormack then challenged need to a public fight. Tender commands, Yeah, fifteen sixteen?

Speaker 5

Sorry, would anyone older than a teenage boy thinks delivered would be funny? Man?

Speaker 1

Challenge to a fight? Yeah, bizarre, that is true.

Speaker 3

He'd watched Hamilton.

Speaker 4

Ned rode up to the fight on McCormack's horse.

Speaker 1

Which his brother had stolen.

Speaker 4

After Ned soundly beat him, McCormack returned to the police, now with evidence that Ned had stolen the horse, was charged with horse theft, and for the testical incident, he was charged with conduct unbecoming a man of the British Empire.

Speaker 3

I agree with that.

Speaker 4

It's a very excellent charge.

Speaker 1

So lucky.

Speaker 4

Ned's response in local court was he was a free man and not a subject to the British Empire. However, he was found guilty on both counts and served six months three months reach charge.

Speaker 1

My god, but have you seen that sasaurus Ny.

Speaker 4

After serving his time, Ned walked out of jail and stole the horse that was in the main street to ride home. He was immediately arrested again. He said to the judge that as a free man, he believed the evidence against him was false.

Speaker 1

A magistrate, I am.

Speaker 4

He was sentenced to three years. Eighteen year old Ned was released in eighteen seventy three. He got a job working in a saw mill and for a time became quite settled. He worked there for three years and became a foreman at twenty one. He was walking in the bush one day and he saw a wild bull. He went home to gather some things and return, capturing the bull before taking it to the farm of a friend. The farmer had the animal butchered and sold the meat.

Father of father, farmer, James Whitey, came forward the next day to say that Ned had actually stolen the bull from his land.

Speaker 3

Oh my god, the apple never falls far from the tree, does it.

Speaker 1

No it does, it doesn't, No it doesn't. It's nice to be supported to the boys got here.

Speaker 4

It's true.

Speaker 1

No it doesn't, No, it doesn't.

Speaker 4

James Whitey was a free English settler who near hated. James had been gifted land by Victoria's governor, and ned believed that because the English yoke over the colony was a false rule, that the ownership of land by James was invalid. This made the land wild, and therefore the bull.

Speaker 1

Was also wild.

Speaker 4

A local policeman, Flood was his name, was well known to steal livestock. He was very good at it.

Speaker 3

The cob.

Speaker 4

It was said he stole the same horse four times and sold it for four different people.

Speaker 1

It's amazing for the man who saw the Eiffel Tower twice.

Speaker 5

Yes, smaller scale, but double the double the number of times.

Speaker 4

When I was growing up, there was the lake at Yielden was dry for a long time up in northern Victoria, and there was somebody selling land in the lake as development land. Okay, so he saw the world ball. So the local policeman sold the horse four times to four different people. Officer Floods stole one of the Kelly's family horses and hid it in a barn on James Whitey's property.

Speaker 3

Hard do you steal a horse?

Speaker 1

Yeah?

Speaker 3

What's the Here we go, what's the best.

Speaker 4

This is going to be great, Sammy, whatever this is, I'm looking forward to this. I'm leaning forward.

Speaker 3

What kind of cheese do you use to hide a horse?

Speaker 1

I don't know, Georgia. What sort of cheese you use to a horse?

Speaker 3

Mask a pony?

Speaker 1

N one? Is that what you've written there?

Speaker 4

That's a classic I did. I didn't actually, Oh see if I weave it into the story? Yeah, what's that I just did? How do you get a bear to come out of his cave? Come on? Bear? I did that joke wrong. It should have been what sort of cheese do you need to get?

Speaker 3

You can't all be perfect to get a.

Speaker 4

Clean edited here. So, in response to his horse being stolen, ned went to the barn on James White's property, stole all eleven horses inside, and sold them in another town. Wow. What he didn't know at the time was that the man he sold the stolen horses too was an under cover policemen and Ned and his brother Dan were now officially wanted men. This is huge. In February eighteen seventy eight, a constable Fitzpatrick was on his way to work when

he saw Dan Kelly walking along the road. It's brother. He arrested Dan on site. Dan said he would agree to go to jail, but first could he go home because his mother had already prepared a meal for him to eat.

Speaker 3

I also liked the I'll agree to go to jail, I'm.

Speaker 4

Not sure I want, but the constable agreed, stop it. He did. They walked into Allen's house together, and the constable was surprised to see Ned, who everyone believed was on the run.

Speaker 3

Oh my god.

Speaker 5

So he stitched his brother up as well. By bringing the cop to his house.

Speaker 2

He did a little bit hilarious.

Speaker 4

A fight break out, A gun was fired, and Allan hit the constable on the head with his shovel, knocking him unconscious.

Speaker 3

Oh my god, mom, please.

Speaker 4

Know when he came to Ned was digging a bullet out of the Constable's wrist, because if they had no bullet, they had no proof.

Speaker 3

Oh my, this hole just appeared in my wrist. But I don't know how your honor.

Speaker 4

After he finished, Ned let the constable go, explaining that he should probably go back to town and say he'd fallen off his horse.

Speaker 5

Oh wow, my god, this family man confortable.

Speaker 4

Fitzpatrick did not do this, and he returned to the home with other policemen and arrested Alan Kelly and two of her daughters, ned Dan and their friends Steve Hart and Joe Byrne, avoided arrest by going on the run.

Speaker 5

Good, leave the girls behind, We'll just find for ourselves.

Speaker 4

Yeah, and one of the boys first. One of the things in the in the Kelly folklore is that he only did what he did because of the way the cops treated his mother. But that's what happened. Yeah, and then he buged off so that he wouldn't get and allowed his mother to get arrested.

Speaker 1

Also, God, I don't know that, Kelly. I told you that about this guy.

Speaker 4

Sure. In May ed robbed a young man of his horse, watch and fourteen pounds. He and what the police were now calling the Kelly Gang committed many small robberies and held up several people over the next few months. Now they were in the place called the border country. And I've actually bought a map that's on the table there between us.

Speaker 3

Good, let me grab it so.

Speaker 4

That you guys can get an idea of what the border country is. So for our international listeners or people printed in color, yep, people that don't know Victoria very well. Technically, the Murray River is the border between Victoria and New South Wales and the towns on either side of it are called the border country. So that's what we're talking about.

Speaker 5

They owned area called the Wombat Rangers, which is a lovely name.

Speaker 4

Is see wombats there? Because Australians are really good at naming stuff.

Speaker 1

That's right.

Speaker 5

My favorite place name in Australia, well, no, sorry, I lie. My favorite place name is in Tasmania called Eggs and Bacon Bay.

Speaker 3

But I don't know why it's called that.

Speaker 5

But my favorite lazy place name is also in Tasmania, and it is there's a large bridge over the river and the town is called Bridgewater Bridge later.

Speaker 3

Bridge, Well, what can we see? Bridge water?

Speaker 2

It's perfect, perfect.

Speaker 4

When we've had people here. Every time we have people here, they want to go and see the apostles. So you go down and so you drive through the town. So right, what's this town called lawn. How do you know, Well, there's the lawn Hotel. Yeah, exactly, and next to that's the lawn fish tub.

Speaker 1

Show the way.

Speaker 4

So they rained the bush in what was called the Border country. This area stretches along the Murray, which is the border between New Southwest and Victoria. They traveled as far south as Euroa and as far north as Geraldry. In an effort to find them. The police set up encampments at Stringy Buck.

Speaker 3

Creek another great name Oka. What kind of trees do you reckon? They had there. A kind of bark came off the trees.

Speaker 4

Answer the question, show you working. There were four or five police at the camp. One day, Constable McIntire was at the camp cooking alone when he thought he heard something in the bush. He looked about but found nothing of concern. Later, two other men returned and they sat around the campfire eating. They heard someone yell out, bailiff, throw up your hands. Three members of the Kelly gang stepped out of the bush. Ned was holding two rifles

and the other one were holding a gun each. Constable Lonigan ran from there towards the trees where his rifle was leaning. Ned turned and shot him in the temple.

Speaker 3

Oh.

Speaker 4

Once he fell, Dan Kelly walked over and shot him again. Ned said, what a pity.

Speaker 3

That fool ran Oh my god.

Speaker 4

The gang tied up the other officers and took what they wanted from the camp. Once it was done, he untied the man and said he would set them free. But it wasn't worth chasing him through the bush because let.

Speaker 1

Me ask you this, he was quite hards the cop killer, wasn't he.

Speaker 4

But that's this that was you know.

Speaker 1

Yeah, But like he killed quite a few cops in there.

Speaker 4

He killed three. These are the main There was others that were killed in the shootout that was at the start of the story.

Speaker 1

Yes, yeah, yeah. It's just so interesting that we have seen him as a hero.

Speaker 4

For lore and killed tolped me if you've heard this story before, right, But he he shot three policemen and then ran off into the bush.

Speaker 1

There's nothing a little guy called Shrek one of her please stop.

Speaker 4

You please to continue. And he did call himself a free man. Similarities at all? Is there no shrimp blood? Shrek it's not a good color, and you shrimp, He'll come to hell.

Speaker 1

It's really quite nice. They're making a lord f word far Quad.

Speaker 4

Making an orange quarry of Lord far Quad and Robert DeNiro Farwards.

Speaker 3

Oh well died. Sorry, Scott's having a moment.

Speaker 1

You broke me.

Speaker 4

Stop saying.

Speaker 1

Mister please, mister was my father, clef.

Speaker 4

Okay, it's a good film. You're right. This story is really about.

Speaker 1

S when you really think about it. The big reveal at the end.

Speaker 4

Cold Trail time, Oh dear. Before the Kelly kan could leave, two other police returned to the camp and saw the scene. They raised their guns and were immediately killed by need. In the chaos, McIntyre jumped on a horse and rode away as fast as he could. This incident became known as the murder at Stringing Buck Creek. Yes, McIntyre rode into town and returned with soldiers to find the campside, but campsite burned and the bodies of the officers left

where they had been shot. A reward of two hundred pounds was offered for information leading to the capture of the Kelly Gang.

Speaker 1

Two hundred pounds back, like that would be a lot of money. Yeah, well, if we're talking.

Speaker 5

About okay, so if I carry the two and then divide by nine eighteen seventy three.

Speaker 1

If the pound was going at two miles an hour and it had to catch up to four miles an hour over one hundred How much is that?

Speaker 4

How likely is it?

Speaker 3

I think it's yeah, it's a park was.

Speaker 4

In your honor, so it was a lot. Anyway. A reward of two hundred pounds was off of information leading to the capture of the Kelly gang. Ned and his gang disappeared into the Victorian bush who was said they knew the location of many Bushman's huts. They've been hiding cashes of weapons and food around the area. Sounds like something else as well, doesn't it. The papers called Kelly a most vindictive outlaws.

Speaker 3

Beautiful thing to say, his most.

Speaker 4

Vindictive, most dative. He's not behaving in the matter of the British impart exactly.

Speaker 1

Let me ask you this Scot as well. At this point there was no helmet at this point, was there?

Speaker 4

No? No, No, that's a long while.

Speaker 1

She's so incredible as well. That is the most I guess I'll tell you identify him.

Speaker 4

Yeah. Yeah, So his response to being called that is that in the Jerilledary letter was that he said he was only hiding out until he found out if Allan his mother was convicted of assaulting Fitzpatrick. If she was convicted, he threatened to find and kill every man associated with the conviction. Right Allen was found guilty and sentenced to three years.

Speaker 3

It's because she shot a police officer a bit, just a bit, just in the wrist.

Speaker 4

Allegedly because there was no bullet, no.

Speaker 3

Not allegedly.

Speaker 1

She was found guilty.

Speaker 4

Police were now undertaking a full man hunt, with rumors that the Calligang were heading to New South Wales. The police and soldiers set up patrols on both sides of.

Speaker 1

The Murray River.

Speaker 4

One evening, a patrol on the New South Wales side of the river came under fire. It turned out it was a patrol on the Victorian side of the river shooting at them.

Speaker 1

Oh Desi Freman, Ned.

Speaker 5

Ray didn't get that we were saying Dei Freman before you thought we're talking about and now you brought him.

Speaker 2

That doesn't reference him at all.

Speaker 4

When when Ned heard about this incident, he wrote, I kept them policing work, even getting them double pay for their long hours, but they seemed to be ungrateful.

Speaker 3

Ned.

Speaker 5

The correct use of English is those, not them. Come on, this guy, couldn't get any worse.

Speaker 4

I think your dog wants to come back inside La Park and just during his dad. Okay. The reward for the Kelly Gang was raised to five hundred pounds. In November eighteen seventy eight. A special law was also passed in Parliament called the Victorian Felon's Apprehension Act, named the Kelly Gang Ned, Dan, Joe Burn, Steve Hart, and made them legal No Paul, no Paul, no Ringer. It made them legal outlaws. This meant any common man could legally

shoot them. WHOA, if someone did shoot them, it would not be treated as assault or murder.

Speaker 1

That's all interesting because that's like the Santa Claus robbery that when we spoke about that that it was like a five thousand dollars reward. Any to any robber that held up a bank, you'll be able to shoot them and you get be rewarded.

Speaker 4

And this law also imposed a fifteen year mandatory sentence for anyone who was found to have aided the Kelly Gang. Wow, so five thousand dollars reward ned. Kelley and his gang made plans to rob a bank in Euroa arrived in town at about three pm. The bank was closed, got it putting that perfect yep. So Ned knocked on the door, and when it was opened, he put a gun to the clerk's head and forced his way inside, declaring, I am Ned Kelly.

Speaker 1

The gang would to identify yourself in a situation.

Speaker 4

The gang kept watch while Ned took around two thousand pounds from the banks safe.

Speaker 1

Oh my god, wow, it could have.

Speaker 4

Been more, But in front of the terrified clerk and manager, Ned counted out five hundred pounds and put it on the counter, saying it was to help the government pay their ransom.

Speaker 3

No, sorry, do not try to act like a good guy in this situation.

Speaker 4

Well, he's saying, here, government take this, yeah, yeah, exactly, really being a good guy. The government's response was swift. They sent more than fifty soldiers to guard banks in the surrounding towns and employed local Aboriginal men to work with them to hunt the gang. Steve Hart, one of the Kelly gang, was known to dress up as a woman and ride into town to gather information about the police's movements.

Speaker 2

Britain the height of Humor.

Speaker 1

And Shakespeare, it's in the bank, compete said.

Speaker 4

No, he's just there in his helmet.

Speaker 2

Everyone else going, what's a computer to be a funny skin?

Speaker 1

Some good stuff like that.

Speaker 4

So one day, while undertaking this deception, Steve was stopped by a group of shearers who said they were concerned about a young lady riding alone, especially with dangerous men on the loose. Kelly Gang said that no, Steve was dressed as a woman. Right.

Speaker 5

I was lost in the humor of that thought.

Speaker 4

So Steve, dressed as a woman, said I fear nothing from them, and nor should they for me, and rode off. In February eighteen seventy nine, the Kelly Gang rode into the town of Gildry at around three pm on a Sunday. They went directly to the police station, captured the officers and locked them in their cells. Oh my god, bull the.

Speaker 1

Yeah, we are not lording that. We don't like it.

Speaker 4

We don't like that behavior, yeah to the police. The cops up at three o'clock on the Sunday. They then took control of the local hotel and had to wait until Monday morning for the bank to open.

Speaker 3

Oh yeah, last night's.

Speaker 4

Late During the night, Ned had written a manifesto, and he read sections of the manifesto to his hostages.

Speaker 1

Oh how painful.

Speaker 4

This fifty six page document became known as the Giraldry Letter.

Speaker 5

Right when you were saying the Giraldary letter before, because hadn't heard of that. I thought it meant like he had written like open letters to the local newspapers.

Speaker 2

That's quite interesting.

Speaker 4

I wrote what people who have studied it since said, is an insane fifty six page manifesto about manifest about freedom and really why he's not guilty and all that. So after they robbed the bank on Monday, Ned gave the manifesto to the publican and made him promise to have it published.

Speaker 3

It was a public and not a publisher.

Speaker 4

He got that wrong. The manifesto was never published and the police were given it by the publican. In the manifesto been released ever, like was not published, but it's available, but you've got to a request for it. I forget it in the manifesto. In the manifesto, Ned is it pains to explain that he was a victim of the English yoke of law, which was a blight on his

country and something he did not accept. On the murder at stringing Bart Creek, he said, I never meant to shoot Kenny, Kennedy Orlon Again, they could have saved their own lives by laying down their arms. It cannot be considered a brutal murder as it was simply a case of survival.

Speaker 5

It sounds like bloody that ice Raiders Alex pretty anyway stopped American.

Speaker 3

Politics a little bit. But he had a gun, so we had to shoot him.

Speaker 4

Yeah, even though we've been fighting for men to say that he could have a gun.

Speaker 3

Correct.

Speaker 4

After the Jewildary incident, the reward for the capture of Ned Kelly was increased to fifteen thousand pounds, who huge amount of money. In June eighteen eighty, Aaron Shirt was sitting inside his home when someone called him to come outside. When he walked outside, Joe Byrne, a member of the Kelly gang, immediately shot and killed him.

Speaker 1

Oh my god.

Speaker 4

Joe killed Aaron because they had heard a rumor that there were police hiding in his house. The rest of the gang stepped out of hiding and started shooting at the house. The police who were hiding inside escaped through the back door because the Kelly gang didn't think to walk around.

Speaker 3

Oh my good.

Speaker 4

Ned Kelly set fire to the house and the gang waited and watched it burn to see if anyone came out.

Speaker 1

Oh my god, Hell, he's a folk hero, George.

Speaker 4

Why are you're looking at me like that?

Speaker 3

Very angry.

Speaker 4

In late June eighteen eighty, the station master at glen Rowland was woken by a knock at his door. When he opened it, Ned Kelly, brandishing a gun, asked him to come to the station. When they arrived at the station, the station master saw at least ten men trying to work out how to lift the tracks. Ned told the station master to show the men how to remove the track sections because there was a special train coming from Melbourne that we need to intercept, the.

Speaker 3

One carrying burken wills from Spencer Street Station.

Speaker 1

That's correct, making it to the zoo on the first day.

Speaker 4

The special train was filled with provisions, fresh horses, ammunitions and soldiers who were coming to continue the hunt for the Kelly Gang.

Speaker 3

I don't like the term fresh horses.

Speaker 4

Beautiful delicious fresh, Ned Ward and the station manager not to signal the train. After their work was done, the gang retired to the James Hotel to wait for news of the debailment. What Ned did not know is that the station master's wife somehow got word to the train and it stopped well before glenrow Yes, queen, yes, quel, are we going to do with the young folcus?

Speaker 1

Yeah?

Speaker 2

That's skibbity, that's s gibbty.

Speaker 1

That's good. That's good.

Speaker 4

I just found bad. That sounded felt ugly? Man yuck? Okay. The soldiers and police got off the train and walked into Glen Rowe and quietly surrounding the hotel. At a signal, the men started shooting into the hotel and the Cali gang fired back. The son of the hotel owner was shot but not killed. The shooting lasted over thirty minutes, and once the shootout lasted over, whoa. And once the shooting slid down, Ned sent the female owner of the hotel out to tell the police that he would release

all the women and children before daybreak. True to their words, sometime before sunrise, hostages started to leave the hotel. This was a ruse which allowed Ned to sneak out of the hotel, get into the armor he had hidden in the scrub, and surprised the soldiers from behind.

Speaker 3

How did he manage to sneak out.

Speaker 4

The back door because they also forgot to go.

Speaker 3

Everyone's just forgetting to go to the back door.

Speaker 1

A film there.

Speaker 4

The police were shocked when a figure stepped out of the fog behind them. He was wearing a metal breastplate, shoulder armor and an iron helmet. The police started, yeah.

Speaker 3

That was now, that was the armor. You never would have guessed.

Speaker 4

And there was. I haven't written it out in full detail here, but there were several reports in the local area of plows being stolen over the months prior to this this standoff at glen Rowan plows like a plow to plow the field, you know, And so that's that, that's the metal that they used to make their own, stole them flowers and beat down the metal to turn it into my god. So he was wearing a metal breastplate, shoulder armor and an iron helmet. The police started shooting,

but the bullets bounced off Ned Ned's armor. Wegh forty four kilos Diggs, it's about that Dick's worth. At one point a policeman noticed Ned did not appear to have any armor on his legs, and he called out shoot the legs, to which Ned yelled, don't do.

Speaker 1

That, Yeah, don't do that.

Speaker 2

Please, don't do that something.

Speaker 4

Ned was hit by multiple shots and staggered and then fell yelling out I'm done. Ned was taken into custody while other officers kept firing at Joe Stephen Dan, who was still inside the hotel. Paul call, Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne, and Steve Hart were all shot dead in the gunfight. Ned Kelly's helmet showed at least five bullet strikes when he was arrested. Kelly was twenty six years old. Oh my god, twenty six.

Speaker 1

I thought it was much older than that.

Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah, well it would be older if he was still alive today. That's probably what you're thinking.

Speaker 1

His brother, Paul Kelly, still sings in a very famous band to this day.

Speaker 4

They don't sing any songs about it.

Speaker 1

No, no, he doesn't talk.

Speaker 4

Famously, doesn't talk about me. That is very interesting.

Speaker 5

Don't talk about Is that what to make gravy? Is that the brother who talks about Ned?

Speaker 2

Yeah?

Speaker 3

Oh my god, I never realized that.

Speaker 4

Although it does say hello Dan, it's Joe here and either of those names in Ned.

Speaker 5

But yeah, it's called changing creative license.

Speaker 4

I've never done that. Ryni a wook or nothing.

Speaker 3

Ye, yeah, no you haven't.

Speaker 4

Ned was tried and found guilty. The Jewel jury deliberated for thirty minutes, talked before returning the verdict. The judge sentenced him to death, saying God, have mercy on your soul. Ned replied, keep your mercy. I'll see you where I'm going.

Speaker 1

Yeah, right, seven.

Speaker 5

Least he knows he's going to oh.

Speaker 4

On November eleventh, thirteen eighty neg Kelly was hanged at Pintridge Prison. Folklore says his final words were such as life.

Speaker 3

Why do you say folk law?

Speaker 1

Why do you say folklore? Explain your mind clean? Let's say folklore.

Speaker 4

We got it.

Speaker 3

I don't like having two men in the room.

Speaker 1

We got it, got one outside.

Speaker 4

In fact, what is officially recorded as his final words is oh well, I suppose it has come to this. A reporter from the Argus who is at the execution wrote the words more sinctly for the paper, and it was actually him that coined the phrase such his.

Speaker 3

Life, Oh my god, So all those.

Speaker 1

Football if Ben Cousins regrets that Ben Cousins regrets a lot of things.

Speaker 2

Now that says no regrets he has.

Speaker 4

On the other side, it says, oh well, I suppose it has come to this.

Speaker 2

Because that's what he actually said as an asterix.

Speaker 4

Not nearly as cool as such as life, right, but he never said it.

Speaker 1

Wow.

Speaker 4

So after his execution, Ned's body remained suspended for thirty minutes. This was the requirement at the time to ensure the prisoner was dead.

Speaker 1

Oh wow.

Speaker 4

He was then wheeled across the yard to the Dead House.

Speaker 3

A nice name for a house.

Speaker 2

How did they name that same the way they named Bridgewater?

Speaker 4

That's right. The bag covering his face was removed and Kelly's figures had not been disfigured by the hanging. He was described as having a placid expression and his eyes were bright. The governor allowed a death mask to be made from plaster. Wax works owner Max Krechmeyer shaved Kelly's head and beard to make the mask. He made several copies and had one hanging for many years in his waxworks on Burke Street in Melbourne.

Speaker 1

Oh wow.

Speaker 4

After the mask was casts, so yes, mister mister. And if you go to the old Molturne jail in in Victoria there they're still they've got one of the death masks there. After the mask was cast, Ned's body was talking taken to Melbourne University, where the head was severed from the body so that the contents of the head could be examined. An article in the Herald described the treatment of Ned's body. The body was given over after the execution to the medical men, and a nice mess

I am told they made of it. The students particularly went in heavily taking a part his body and generally examining every organ. It was a ghastly site, indeed, hardly ever paralleled. I am told that portions of the corpse are now in nearly every curiosity cabinet in Melbourne medical men's places. The skull was taken possession of by one gentleman, and it is possible that he may hereafter enlighten us on the peculiarities of the great criminal's brain. H So basically what they're saying is.

Speaker 1

Go second that for George.

Speaker 4

What they're saying is they made a ghastly mess about and chopped him to pieces, and all of the students who were there took a little souvenir of him, and there's probably all over Melbourne. And one of the doctors took his skull.

Speaker 5

I mean, I did hear you, I would stand by my original moment.

Speaker 4

The next morning, his body was taken back to the prison and placed in a coffin. The common practice at the time was to fill the coffin with a quicklime to speed decomposition. However, the governor stated, had given the state of the corpse and the hot summer ahead, it will be not required in Nick Kelly's case. I'm telling you this for a reason. Trust me, Trust me, self proclaimed phrenologist Archibald Hamilton.

Speaker 3

Oh, great night. Yeah, it just doesn't quite have the right syllables.

Speaker 4

I still that's right. He could have been a dentist. But then I've sung too much.

Speaker 3

Really wants to forget.

Speaker 4

You have a talent for causing pain.

Speaker 5

It's going to be the name of my second memohile, you have a talent for course.

Speaker 1

So.

Speaker 4

Self proclaimed phrenologist Archibald Hamilton had been following the murder troll of Ned Kelly with interest. Phrenology, the study of science of studying a person's personality based on the shape, curvature, and significant landmarks of the head oh was a common and popular study at the time of Ned's death. Many people in the eighteen eighties strongly believed in the method there were stories of men having their potential brides assessed for suitability by phrenologists.

Speaker 5

It's a different thing than I thought when people say they want to just check the woman's head before Sorry.

Speaker 2

Sorry, that's so sorry.

Speaker 3

There, and I had to say it. I'm really sorry.

Speaker 4

I thought reading that line, you'd pick up and read your champaign glass.

Speaker 2

To be honest, a dirty joc.

Speaker 4

So they had their potential brid's assessed for suitability by phrenologists before committing to marriage. The practice has also been cited and this is disgusting by the British government, as proof that Aboriginal people could not become civilized and that the European skull bore serious marks of superiority.

Speaker 2

Oh gross gross.

Speaker 4

Phrenologists would also often state the shape of a woman's skull suggested a person far more suitable to occupy the sphere of the home, and not business occupations that required a sharper mind.

Speaker 3

Oh my god, thank you. I hate it. I hate it.

Speaker 4

Thank you. As well as providing phrenology services, Archibald Hamilton was an activist against capital punishment. He had established two lectures. He had published two lectures on the topic, and reportedly headed a group called the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment. In eighteen eighty, the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment had two members, Archworld and his wife.

Speaker 3

Can we call a society just a married couple?

Speaker 1

Whole society?

Speaker 4

I like it. But after ned was sentenced, Archibald Hamilton met with Ned Kelly's solicitor, his brother and sister, and his cousin and formed a reprieve committee for interest. This meeting occurred at the Robert Burns Hotel in Smith Street, Collingwood.

Speaker 1

Oh my god, really, oh my god.

Speaker 4

And that's not called Burns Hotel, called the Robbie Burns, called the Hotel Colinwood.

Speaker 1

There you go, but it was Robie.

Speaker 4

On November fifth, Archibald Hamilton held a public meeting calling for clemency in the case of Ned Kelly. He opened the meeting saying, I'm glad to act because he didn't think he should be put to death. That's why, because he didn't believe in capital punishment.

Speaker 3

Yeah, but that doesn't mean clemency surely, Well.

Speaker 4

Yeah, clemency to have a change from death to life imprisonment.

Speaker 3

That's a bit late, bab, a bit late late bab.

Speaker 4

You're on record, by the line in several podcasts saying you think people shouldn't get no.

Speaker 3

I agree with that. I'm saying a bit it's a bit late.

Speaker 2

I don't know about a.

Speaker 4

Bit late, Bub, and he done some bad stuff.

Speaker 1

You've done bad ship, bad on your boys.

Speaker 4

I should bring a bit late. Archibald Hamilton opened the meeting saying I'm glad to act as a chairman, not merely on behalf of Edward Kelly, but as advocate for the abolishment of capital punishment. Archibald then listened while ned

solicitor gave an account of Kelly's life and circumstances. Archibald then concluded by saying, this meeting, having considered all the circumstances of Edward Kelly's case, believes it is one fit for the exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy, and therefore earnestly presses he's excellently the Governor to favorably regard the prayer of this meeting, namely that the life of the prisoner be spared.

Speaker 3

Before after he died. Yeah, I can understand my confusion.

Speaker 1

All a bit late, Bub.

Speaker 4

The Governor was not swayed and ned Kelly was not No, this was just before sorry, it was after his sentencing, before his hang on not to lay bor not to. The governor was not swayed. Ned was not granted a reprieve, as we know, and this put Archie Belt in an awkward position because as well as calling for a reprieve, he wanted to seek permission to examine the living head of Ned Kelly.

Speaker 2

This is so weird.

Speaker 4

If you didn't like the term fresh horses, how do you feel about the term living.

Speaker 3

Living examine the living head.

Speaker 4

He wanted to seek permission to examine the living head of This permission was not granted. However, he was given access to examine Kelly's death mask.

Speaker 3

Ah, Yes, exactly the same.

Speaker 4

A quote from his report, Sir, the outline which I propose to give of the character of Edward Kelly is drawn entirely from phrenological data. I had no previous knowledge before the examination of his head, and I trust that the public and especially the authorities of the law, may give due consideration to the character herein drawn in strict accordance with phrenological science.

Speaker 1

You, sir.

Speaker 4

He goes on to outline the measurements of Ned Kelly's skull before saying these measurements to the phrenologist are remarkable.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 4

His head is scarcely medium size for so big a man.

Speaker 1

Rude, thank you.

Speaker 4

The measurement from caution to caution is fully an inch less than it should be in a well proportioned head, and in the moral region there is a deficiency of one inch. Therefore, in circumspection and in moral regulating power there is a marked deficiency, while there is a woeful lack of development in those organs which give reflective judgment and stability to character.

Speaker 3

This is by measuring a death mask.

Speaker 4

That bumps on his head. That's right, it's science. Excuse man. His language would be fair, but it would be remembered pompous or passionate. He could take from the rich and give to the poor, as long as the latter deferred to him as the cleverest man in the country.

Speaker 1

Did he ever give to the poor.

Speaker 4

No, he took from the poor from everyone he was the poor. Yeah, Power, praise, freedom and money were equally valued by him, and his acts, which had the appearance of charity, were dictated by vanity. His smile in death was a result of active hope, self esteem, and firmness. He was so impressed with a sense of his own importance and buoyed up by a false hope, that he

entertained no fear of future punishment. To sum up in a sentence, his brain is abnormally wide at the base, tapers narrowly towards his self esteeming crown, and is retreating at the upper region of the forehead is remarkably broadened deep over the eyebrows, and though it is rounded over the coronal surface by large hope and fair venteration, it is in the moral region deplorably low.

Speaker 5

Deplorably low is my opinion of Archibald hamilted well.

Speaker 4

Remarkably, Archibald's assessment of Ned Kelly based purely on the science of phrenology, and has he said, without any previous knowledge of the prisoner, was almost exactly aligned with the narrative he had heard from ned solicitor at a public meeting.

Speaker 3

Change, isn't that weird?

Speaker 4

Crazy?

Speaker 3

I hate this guy.

Speaker 4

There's not anybody to like in this story. There really isn't.

Speaker 1

And Shrek apart from.

Speaker 4

Shrek, let's get back to Shrek. My clickboard just betrayed me.

Speaker 1

It's okay.

Speaker 4

Ned. Kelly was buried in an unmarked grave inside Penridge Prison. In nineteen twenty nine, renovation works were begun to convert the defunct Pentridge Prison into a similar into the Melbourne.

Speaker 1

Ja Correct which it is famous.

Speaker 4

I'm not Champagne next time.

Speaker 3

I agree.

Speaker 2

Come on, you know you're having a lot of time.

Speaker 1

It's very weird though that that they still do like ghost tours and everything at Penridge.

Speaker 4

Yeah, but it is yeah.

Speaker 3

The as well, Yes, isn't it our apartments.

Speaker 1

Cinema into I j and oh look at you roes as well Centura.

Speaker 4

There's a there's a there's a section that hasn't been that's where they do the ghost tours.

Speaker 1

There's a section that hasn't been done and he's still They've got like a wine bar and everything there now. But it's like the old facade is quite beautiful. It's all the way around. It's still quite nice working building. It's just yeah, I actually sis.

Speaker 4

Written the wrong jail here. So was buried in an unmarked grave inside Old Melbourne Jae. Oh okay right yeah, yeah, yeah, it makes more sense.

Speaker 3

Right, he was hanged at Pendridge but buried at Old Melbourne.

Speaker 4

He was hanged at both both Yeah, just both. It's a it was a It was all at old Melbourne Jail.

Speaker 1

Okay.

Speaker 4

So nine nine, renovation works began to convert the defunct prison into the Melbourne Central Police Station. All the graves on site had to be exhumed. The contractor, Harry Lee, was assured that because the prisoners were always buried with quicklime, it was very unlikely there would be any bones remaining. But he wasn't right, you did you?

Speaker 3

I was listening job.

Speaker 4

But when he struck the remains of a coffin in a grave that was marked e K, he was surprised that an almost complete skeleton remained. Wow Onlookers, believing this was near Kelly's grave, rush to the site and grabbed what they could ew Henry Lee jumped into the grave and snatched the skull before anyone else could.

Speaker 1

Sorry, why before what else could?

Speaker 4

If anyone else could?

Speaker 3

Okay, sure, no for the questions.

Speaker 4

Yep, that's why when pleas were made to the public to return this even years, everything including the skull, was returned. The skull remained in the Australian Institute of Anatomy until the nineteen seventies when it was sent back to the Old Melbourne Jail to be displayed with Kelly's death mask and helmet. Then in nineteen seventy nine, a skull which was on display and marked as ned Kelly's, was stolen and by some means, came into the possession of Tom

Baxter need Kelly enthusiasts. He described keeping the skull safe in a tuperway container.

Speaker 1

Really, container's bizarre.

Speaker 3

Sorry, we're really not expecting that.

Speaker 4

What in a tuperway container that he hid in a hollow log on his property in Western Australia.

Speaker 1

What going on to Western Australia. That's crazy as well.

Speaker 4

Yep yep. So on November eleventh, two thousand and nine, which is the anniversary of Kelly's hanging, Tom Baxter decided it was time to hand the skull over to the Australian government. The way the skull had been stored in a tupperware in Polo Loshness meant that DNA was almost impossible to draw. The forensic team put out a national call for any artifacts which might exist from the exhumation.

In nineteen twenty nine, local man Chris Ott came forward with a photo of his grandfather Act the Exhumation sight in nineteen twenty nine, holding Kelly's.

Speaker 3

Skull more like Chris Odd.

Speaker 4

I see what she did then?

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 4

Remarkably, he also had a tooth that he believed had been taken from the skull.

Speaker 3

People are weird.

Speaker 4

The tooth matched the skull, the tooth still contained DNA and this was compared to that of a living Kelly relative approved beyond doubt that the skull stolen from the old male in jail in the nineteen seventies and returned by Tom Baxter was not the skull of Nick Kelly.

Speaker 5

So this man has had a skull in a top ware contained one famous one, that's right, And the old Melbourne jail had a skull on display that wasn't engraved.

Speaker 4

To say it was Nick Kelly's, that wasn't Nick Kelly. To date, Kelly's skull has never been found. However, some forensic team suggests the skull was probably swapped by a professor when Ned's body was initially examined by Melbourne University right after his hanging in eighteen eighty.

Speaker 1

I wonder why would the point of that to keep.

Speaker 4

The skull sure's famous?

Speaker 1

In that yeah, but for it to never be discovered even now, Yeah, that's very strange.

Speaker 4

This is a scott Reckons, but I reckon it's probably in somebody's medical collection somewhere something and it's not labeled.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 4

Wow, So they've just got no idea that that's whose skull it was. What they found was this was actually the skull of another prisoner who had been examined at Melburn University at the same time as Kelly was exactly. That's why they think that they were swapped at that time.

Speaker 1

I don't agree with that.

Speaker 5

If I found out that the skull I've got my freezer is not my skull, which I think it is, I'll.

Speaker 4

Not on my skull, and that, my friends, is the real story of Edward ned Kelly, an irishman born in Australia, a man who today would most likely call himself a sovereign citizen, a man who robbed only for his own means, A man who killed three policemen, took no responsibility for

it and fled into the Australian bush. To end the episode today, I thought I'll oppose the question which I asked at the start, if Nellie if Nellie Nelly if Nellie for Tata, if Shrek was in this story, if Ned Kelly was committing these crimes today, do we think that he would be lauded as the folk hero that so many people think he is.

Speaker 1

No, absolutely not, absolutely not.

Speaker 3

I don't know why he is or ever has been, just because the famous mask.

Speaker 4

A lot of that story. I think it's because that over time, the story goes from yeah, the mask is probably the anchor for people into it, and the story goes from you know that story which is all fact too. He was a bushranger, he was fighting against the tyranny of the Yes, that little bit of information gets left out, and then that little bit of information gets left out. Gerialdry letter in folklore is him lamenting the way his family had been persecuted and trying to justify why he

did what he did. But it's not actually what the says.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I'm fascinated by that. Yeah, I think next time we should do far Lap, the story of far Lap poisoned by Nick Kelly.

Speaker 4

Shrek was he poisoned by?

Speaker 1

Not say that.

Speaker 4

I thought of doing this one because I think we were talking about I think we were talking about jack On Wilson. Yes, yes, and we talked about what happened to her husband and that he avoided the death penalty. Yeah, and then I thought, oh, I should I should investigate Robert Ronald, right, which I have.

Speaker 1

I'm telling you that story in the future is the last man hanged in Australia. Australia.

Speaker 4

And then I thought, oh, Kelly too. It's fascinating because there's a whole lot of stuff in it that's not in the focal.

Speaker 3

And there are a lot of comparisons to Daisy Freeman as well.

Speaker 5

They're really yeah, it's quite similar. And that's what I was saying at the start that while Ned Kelly has always kind of been lauded as an Australian hero bush ranger, his like the picture of him, you know, with the two pistols and in the armor, is being very.

Speaker 3

Much used by.

Speaker 4

Sovereign citizen movement.

Speaker 3

Yes exactly, and so.

Speaker 5

I feel like that is that the thought of Ed Kelly is actually changing or turning to be more like, well, hang on, no, he was someone who killed police officers and it was an outlaw, even though that's always been known. I think it's probably he's been being seen less as an Australian hero now because that is being used in a disgusting movement.

Speaker 4

Yeah, and I think people have in time like they looked at it and gone, oh well, Australians Americans and we don't like the law and we don't like you know, rules though so not true Australians line up.

Speaker 3

Better than any Yeah, maybe not in the eighteen hundreds.

Speaker 5

And I think that's the thing as well, because obviously we were colonized and we our country came to be for you know, having convicts. I think probably it was maybe more seen, probably maybe seen more as you know, all the evil British people came over here and the whole place was just trying to you know, jail people for stealing a loaf of bread and all of this.

So they were fighting back against that, and there could be an argument for that, while you also look at the argument that the people were trying to keep the peace and.

Speaker 3

Hold the law will be shot by these outlaws.

Speaker 4

And he hated the Irishman that became policemen, and they only became policemen because it was a job. Yeah, of course they had to have a way to support their families.

Speaker 1

So thank you, Scott, thank you.

Speaker 5

I feel like We've all grown up in Australia learning history at school and this is.

Speaker 1

The most about the.

Speaker 4

Absolutely thank you. So then we should finish with good afternoon, mister Williams like I'm the teacher.

Speaker 3

Then good afternoon, mister Williams. While Sammy's being an.

Speaker 1

Outlaw by not doing it, continue, I want to hear it.

Speaker 3

We're meant to be doing it to thanks.

Speaker 1

Also telling good afternoon.

Speaker 4

We're saying let's get it clean.

Speaker 1

So okay, two, three, good afternoons.

Speaker 3

Putting a school bell sound

Speaker 1

Here, very nice rear that light up

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