Ned Kelly wore armour made from the mould boards of old ploughs. A black smith helped the Kelly gang work the steel, and used logs to shape it. Maggie skilling, Ned’s sister sewed soft blue quilting inside the head pieces. Ned’s suite weighed 40 kilograms! The armour deflected bullets but restricted movement, it also left the Kelly gang venerable in the arms and legs where a bullet could easily enter the exposed flesh.
On Thursday 6 February 187, Ned, his brother Dan, and Kelly gang members Joe Byrne and Steve rode 60 kilometres into New South Wales to the town of Jerilderie. The following Saturday, they captured the police station and locked two policemen in their own prison cells. The next day Ned and Dan walked into town waring police uniforms, forcing constable Hennery Richards to escort them. Townsfolk thought they were reinforcements coming to protect them from the Kelly gang. On Monday the gang had no trouble holding up the bank and capturing the Royal Hotel to hold their prisoners. They left Jerilderie with £414 which is equal to about $0 000 today.
After the Jerilderie raid the Victorian government raised the price for each of the gang members heads to £000 (a total of about £1,000,000 today). But the gang was free for 18 months by employing there bushmen skills, their friends’ help and the police incompetence. Aboriginal trackers were brought from Queensland to help, worrying Ned because he was aware that the aborigines were clever, forcing him to make a plan as he knew they could not live like this forever.
The gang decided to shoot Aaron Sherritt, Joe Byrne’s friend, because the believed he had betrayed them by siding with the police. Aaron’s murder brought the police to Wangaratta by train. The gang would derail the train at Glenrowan and kill the police. A small army of Kelly men would then set up their own government in the north-east of Victoria, a crazy plan that had a slim chance of succeeding.
On Saturday, 7 June 1880, Joe Byrne shot Aaron Sherritt dead or though it is not certain that he betrayed the gang. Ned, Steve and Joe ripped the train tracks on a steep, curved embankment north of Glenrowan and captured the town. Once again the police slowly reacted and the train didn’t reach Glenrowan for 0 hours. This incompetence saved the police. Ned organised a dance in Glenrowan Inn to pass time and entertain the prisoners.
Then Ned made the mistake that would lead to his capture. He released the town’s school teacher, Tom Curnow, who stopped the train when it arrived, warning the police of the danger ahead. A gun battle followed, with the police moving in closer to Ned capture by surrounding the inn with 46 police men, then shooting the building for 7 hours, caring little for the civilians inside. Ned left during the battle to warn his supporters in the surrounding hills.
On his return Ned was shot in the legs and captured. Finally the inn was captured and set alight, two charred bodies were found in the ruins, thought to be Dan and Steve Hunt. Joe had been shot earlier. The police killed innocent people the innkeeper’s 1 year old son, Jack Jones and two local workmen.
Ned died as a convicted criminal but was remembered by most people as a hero because he never stole from the poor, only people who he thought were enemies to the poor such as banks and the police. This along with his manners brought him great respect in public, so much that a petition was signed by the public to release him. This was not accepted and he was hanged on the eleventh of November 1880.
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