Black Snake (3 page)

Breaking Rocks

Prison life was hard. First Ned had to serve three months of solitary confinement—one month for each year of his sentence. This was the prison policy at the time. Locked in a cell by himself, he was not permitted to speak to anyone. Ned and other prisoners serving similar sentences were allowed out of their cells into the yard for one hour of exercise each day. So that the isolation continued even when the prisoners were together for this short time, they had to wear hoods that completely covered their heads, with only two small holes for them to see through.

The rest of Ned’s sentence was served doing hard labour. He worked in government quarries cutting blocks of bluestone with a hammer and chisel. Then he joined work gangs and helped build sea walls around Port Phillip Bay. Six months were taken off Ned’s sentence for good behaviour. He was 19 when he was released.

Home Free

He arrived home in February 1874 to find his world had changed. One of his sisters was dead; another was married. His brother Jim was serving a five-year jail sentence for cattle stealing. His mother was about to remarry, and he had a new baby half-sister.

Fresh from two-and-a-half years in prison, Ned was determined never to go back there again. He got a job in a timber mill. He wanted to get his revenge on Wild Wright who had been the cause of his imprisonment, but he didn’t want to get into trouble again. A public brawl could have easily ended up with him being arrested, so instead Ned agreed to fight Wild in an organised boxing match. Wild was an experienced fighter, but the years of hard work in prison and months of tree felling since his release meant that Ned was a strong young man. He had the satisfaction of beating Wild Wright.

He spent the next three years working hard, earning an honest living. He had jobs driving bullock teams, breaking horses and shearing, but most of the work he did was felling trees for a sawmill. He was a trusted worker and became an overseer, yet the period of honest toil didn’t last. Ned later claimed that he had been driven to crime by what we would today call police persecution and harassment. He said that whenever a horse or a cow went missing in the district, the police would accuse him or another member of his family.

Wholesale and Retail

By the beginning of 1877, Ned had given up tree felling and bullock driving. He had passed up the chance of continuing to work for his sawmill bosses. Instead, he had taken up what he called “wholesale and retail horse and cattle dealing”. This was Ned’s idea of a joke. He really meant horse and cattle theft.

He was joined in this venture by his brother Dan; his step-father, George King; some of his cousins and two friends called Aaron Sherritt and Joe Byrne.

This gang of thieves was no ragtag band. The operation was well organised. The gang found an old hut, deep in the Wombat Ranges. They fixed up the hut and cleared many acres around it. They built fences. They took the stolen stock up to this remote spot where they could corral them away from the prying eyes of settlers, squatters and policemen.

Tricks of the Trade

“I was blamed for stealing this bull from James Whitty… I was blamed for stealing a mob of calves from Whitty and Farrell which I knew nothing about. I began to think they wanted me to give them something to talk about. Therefore I started wholesale and retail horse and cattle dealing.”

Ned’s reason for turning to horse theft, Jerilderie Letter

Stealing the stock was easy enough. The tricky thing was to sell the animals again without the buyer realising they were stolen. One way to do this was to change the brand. Every stock owner had his own brand—a symbol, such as initials, that was burnt into the hide of the animal. This way, if an animal got lost or stolen, the owner could prove it was his. The gang devised ways of changing brands, for instance by turning an H into an HP joined together. As a fresh brand would have looked suspicious, they found ways of making new brands look old. One technique they used was to pull out the animal’s hairs with tweezers in the shape of the new brand, then prick the bare skin with a needle that had been dipped in iodine. This made the skin burn and the mark it left looked like an old brand.

The gang stole stock in Victoria and then took the animals over the Murray River, swimming them across at deserted places instead of using busy bridges. They then sold the animals openly in saleyards in New South Wales, far from their owners and reports of their theft.

Sometimes one of the gang would pretend he was a squatter’s son taking horses to sell at a market. He would stop at another squatter’s property and ask if he could put his animals in a paddock overnight so they didn’t stray. Another gang member would arrive and say he was interested in buying the horses. The two would agree on a price and then ask the squatter to witness the receipt that they wrote out. They would then pretend to go off in opposite directions. This way there was a “genuine” receipt to offer as proof that the animals weren’t stolen when they really tried to sell them.

Close of Business

The gang weren’t the only ones involved in horse and cattle theft at the time. There was a complicated network of thieves. Thieves stole from other thieves and it was impossible to tell whether stock offered for sale was genuine or not. Buying stolen stock was considered to be almost as serious a crime as stealing it.

Eventually, other men were arrested for receiving horses that the gang had stolen, though Ned was suspected of being the main culprit. Knowing that it was only a matter of time until someone informed on him, Ned sold his remaining horses and disappeared into the bush.

Ned’s brother Dan decided to go home. With no evidence to prove that he was involved in the theft of stock, the police left him alone—for a while. Before long, though, a warrant was issued for Dan’s arrest. He was charged with a theft that had happened more than six months earlier.

Ned’s prison record listing his “particular marks”, including scars and freckles.

Ned after beating Wild Wright in a boxing match.

Area of Kelly Gang activities in Victoria

What if you were there...

The day had seemed no different to any other. Mother and I had spent it washing the sheets and making quince jam. We had just eaten our dinner. I was rocking the baby, looking down at her innocent sleeping face, thinking here’s another mouth to feed, but also another sister. Funny how a new baby can appear in the family, a stranger, unable to speak or do anything but cry, but within two days you can’t help but love them fiercely. My mother was heaping coals on the fire around the bread she was baking. The yeasty smell was starting to overpower the smell of smoke. My brother Daniel had come in late and was still eating.

There was a knock at the door. I waited for Daniel to get up and answer it, but he made no move, concentrating on demolishing the plate of stew in front of him. I sighed and gently lowered the baby into her cradle—actually a fruit box on roughly cut rockers. Another more insistent knock and Danny finally hauled himself up and over to the door, still holding his knife and fork and yelling, “Can’t a man eat in peace?”

Dan opened the door. “I’ve come to arrest you, Dan Kelly, on a charge of horse stealing.” I recognised our visitor’s voice. It was Constable Fitzpatrick from Benalla. I’d met him before at the Sports Day. I’d thought him quite handsome at the time.

Danny glanced back at mother and me. “Can I at least finish my dinner?” he said. No one invited him in, but Fitzpatrick came in anyway. He didn’t bother to take off his helmet.

Mother turned to the trooper, her hands on her hips, her face red from the fire. “Where’s the warrant, then?” she demanded. She turned to Dan. “You shouldn’t have let him in if he’s got no warrant.”

“It’s all right, Mother,” Danny said calmly, sitting down at the table again and scraping up the last of his stew. “Is that bread ready yet?”

Mother pulled the loaf of bread from the fire and put it on the table. Danny wasn’t in a hurry. He hacked an inch-thick slice from one end and used it to mop up his gravy. He drained his tin mug of tea. Finally he pushed his chair away from the table. “I’ll just get my coat.”

Danny went into the other room. Mother followed him, still protesting that he didn’t have to go anywhere if there was no warrant. Constable Fitzpatrick came over to where I was sitting with the baby. He leaned his sweaty face towards me. I smelt the brandy on his breath and the stale smell of a shirt needing a good wash.

“Don’t you dare touch me.” I pushed him away. Fitzpatrick staggered back onto a chair. He reached out and grabbed me by the arm and pulled me onto his lap. “Get your greasy hands off me,” I yelled.

Danny and mother rushed back into the room. I was thrown to the floor as Fitzpatrick stood up. Mother, screaming abuse at the policeman, picked up the coal shovel and brought it crashing down on his helmet while he was still fumbling to get his revolver out of its holster. Danny dived at the gun. At that moment the door was flung open and Ned was standing in the doorway. There was a flash and a crack as a gun went off. Fitzpatrick screamed out like a girl. The revolver had gone off as Dan grappled to take it from Fitzpatrick. A bullet had nicked the trooper’s wrist. My brothers were on their knees holding him down. They both had guns held at his head.

“If you touch my sister again,” said Ned, his voice trembling with rage. “There’ll be a bullet in your head next time.”

Kate Kelly, Ned’s sister

The Whole Truth

This isn’t quite the version of events that Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick reported to his colleague in Benalla when he woke him at 2 a.m. with his wrist bandaged and his helmet dented out of shape. He said Mrs Kelly attacked him with the shovel, unprovoked, and then Ned appeared and shot him in the arm. He said that Ned dug the bullet from his wrist and bandaged it up, apologising for shooting at him. Ned then begged him not to let on that it was Ned who’d fired the shot. Fitzpatrick didn’t mention Kate.

Seven versions of these events have been recorded.