Author: David

It would be unexceptional to expect that murdering three policemen in the space of a couple of hours would result in unanimous condemnation of the perpetrators. Yet, in the bizarre case of Ned Kelly, a triple police murderer, we have the criminal being upheld as an Australian hero and icon, though as we know from […]

Ive been too busy to write a Post for the Blog this weekend. Heres some music for you instead, and the Lyrics below, of a song that was part of the soundtrack for the Kelly movie from 1970. The best line?  “Bury the truth as you bury the dead” Now four jolly troopers from Mansfield town […]

The Ned Kelly Legend is on Life Support “Why isn’t Ned dead? The Australians we still Believe in” This was the title of an article published a week ago by the on-line news site “The New Daily”. It was described as “News” though most of the discussion was about a paper that was published in […]

The Kelly Trial—The Scene in Court In the Central Criminal Court on Friday October 29th 1880 Ned Kelly was found guilty of the murder of Constable Thomas Lonigan. Immediately after the Jury Foreman had made the announcement, the Clerk of the Court asked Ned Kelly if he had anything to say ( was there ever […]

The Four Police killed by the Clarke Gang in 1867 “Towards evening on 8th January 1867 Special Constable Carroll and his men set out on foot from Jinden, in the midst of the Jingeras, south of Braidwood, intending to visit the house of a man named McGuinness, whom they suspected of harbouring the Clarkes. The […]

The undisputed facts seem very clear: Ned Kelly was a notorious criminal, a multiple police killer, and yet there are people who think he was a hero. How is that possible? How can some people believe Ned Kelly was a hero and others that he was a villain? Well, one thing that makes it easier […]

You cant handle the truth Obviously, people give many different and sometimes complex reasons for sticking up for Ned Kelly. For example there is  the almost universal appeal of the “David and Goliath” image, where Ned Kelly is portrayed as the brave little guy who goes up against a corrupt monolithic  establishment. There is also […]

This little publication of barely 140 pages is an absolute gem of a book. As an introduction to the Kelly story I can’t think of a better one to recommend, but I can certainly think of worse ones. This book, released 27 years ago is streets ahead of the rubbish that was produced just last […]

    This is the man identified by his descendants as Ellen Kellys second husband George King. This is part of the prison record of a NSW Horse Stealer named George King.Is it the same man as in the top picture? George King the NSW Horse stealer   George King was Ellen Kelly’s second husband. They were […]

On the Facebook pages where the Kelly story is currently being promoted and discussed, people who post in support of Ned Kelly as an Australian icon and a hero almost always betray their ignorance of the detail of the story by including in their comments statements which are factually wrong. I am not talking about […]