Ned Kelly
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Ned Kelly
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Edward "Ned" Kelly is a legendary Australian outlaw, who killed three policemen, but is also seen by many people as a hero for standing up to colonial authorities. He is noted, along with his gang members, for wearing home-made suits of armour. He was hanged in 1880 in Melbourne.
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- It's no use blaming anyone now.... It is not that I fear death. I fear it as little as to drink a cup of tea. On the evidence that has been given, no juryman could have given any other verdict. That is my opinion. But, as I say, if I'd examined the witnesses, I'd had shown matters in a different light... For my own part, I don't care one straw about my life, nor the result of the trial; and I know very well from the stories I've been told, of how I am spoken of — that the public at large execrate my name... But I don't mind, for I am the last that carries public favour or dreads the public frown. Let the hand of the law strike me down if it will; but I ask my story be heard and considered.
- I do not pretend that I have led a blameless life, or that one fault justifies another, but the public in judging a case like mine should remember that the darkest life may have a bright side, and that after the worst has been said against a man, he may, if he is heard, tell a story in his own rough way that will perhaps lead them to intimate the harshness of their thoughts against him, and find as many excuses for him as he would plead for himself. For my own part I do not care one straw about my life now for the result of the trial. I know very well from the stories I have been told of how I am spoken of, that the public at large execrate my name; the newspapers cannot speak of me with that patient toleration generally extended to men awaiting trial, and who are assumed according to the boast of British justice, to be innocent until they are proved to be guilty; but I do not mind, for I have outlived that care that curried public favour or dreads the public frown. Let the hand of the law strike me down if it will, but I ask that my story might be heard and considered; not that I wish to avert any decree the law may deem necessary to vindicate justice, or win a word of pity from anyone. If my life teaches the public that men are made mad by bad treatment, and if the police are taught that they may not exasperate to madness men they persecute and illtreat, my life will not be entirely thrown away. People who live in large towns have no idea of the tyrannical conduct of the police in country places far removed from court; they have no idea of the harsh and overbearing manner in which they execute their duty, or how they neglect their duty and abuse their powers.
- Interview (8 August 1879); as quoted in The Age (9 August 1879)
Jerilderie Letter (1879)
- The Jerilderie Letter (online at Wikisource); though intended for publication, this remained unpublished until 1930. - Images, transcript and audio of John Hanlon's transcript at the National Museum of Australia - Images and transcript at the State Library of Victoria
- I have seen as many as eleven, big & ugly enough to lift Mount Macedon out of a crab hole more like the species of a baboon or Guerilla than a man.
- but I am a widows son outlawed and my orders must be obeyed.
- Are all my brothers and sisters, and my mother, not to be pitied also, who have no alternative but to put up with the brutal and cowardly conduct of a parcel of big ugly fat-necked wombat headed, big bellied, magpie legged, narrow hipped, splay-footed sons of Irish bailiffs or English landlords, known as 'officers of justice' or 'Victorian Police' who some call honest gentlemen but I would like to know what business an honest man would have in the Police as it is an old saying it takes a rogue to catch a rogue…
Sentencing (1880)
- ... Perhaps not from what you now conceive, but if you had heard me examine the witnesses it would have been different.
- ... my mind is as easy as the mind of any man in this world, as I am prepared to show before God and man.
- More men than I have put men to death, but I am the last man in the world that would take a man's life. Two years ago — even if my own life was at stake — and I am confident, if I thought a man would shoot me — I would give him a chance of keeping his life, and would part with my own; but if I knew that through him innocent persons' lives were at stake, I certainly would have to shoot him if he forced me to do so; but I would want to know that he was really going to take my innocent life.
- I dare say; but a day will come, at a bigger Court than this, when we shall see which is right and which is wrong. No matter how long a man lives he is bound to come to judgement somewhere, and as well here as anywhere. It will be different the next time there is a Kelly trial; for they are not all killed. It would have been good for the Crown had I examined the witnesses, and I would have stopped a lot of the reward, I can assure you, and I don't know but I won't do it yet if allowed.
- That is how the evidence came out here. It appeared that I deliberately took up arms, of my own accord, and induced the other three to join me, for the purpose of doing nothing but shooting down the police ...
- Who proves that?
- That charge has never been proved against me, and it is held in English law that a man is innocent until proven guilty.
- I will go a little further than that, and say I will see you there when I go.
- To Judge Redmond Barry when Ned was sentenced to death by hanging:
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- Surrender be buggered.
- Such is Life. (Reported at the time by two newspapers, The Age and The Herald, but disputed in the diary of Ned Kelly's gaol warden, who was closer than than the journalists present when Ned Kelly was hung.
- Variant: Ah Well, I suppose it has come to this...Such Is Life.
- A day will come in a bigger court than this when we will see who is right or wrong.
- Yes, I will see you where I go.
- I've never killed a man, but if I do, so help me God, you'll be the first!