Australian farmer claims skull is Ned Kelly's

guardian.co.uk ^ | Friday 13 November 2009 | Toni O’Loughlin in Sydney

[Fred Nerks]

Forensic tests to determine whether skull handed in to authorities came from outlaw who was hanged in 1880

Ned Kelly’s death maskand what was claimed to be his skull at the Old Melbourne Gaol museum. The skull was stolen in 1973. Photograph: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

A farmer in Australia has handed in a skull for forensic testing, claiming that it is that of Ned Kelly, the country’s most notorious outlaw.

Tom Baxter, from the remote town of Derby in Western Australia, says he had the skull in his possession for the past 30 years. This week he handed it in to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine after visiting the grave where a headless skeleton believed to be that of the outlaw was found last year.

Baxter did not explain how he had acquired the skull, saying only: “I don’t even consider that it was an act of theft and I haven’t admitted to being the person who took it.”

The whereabouts of the bushranger’s skull is one of Australia’s most enduring historical mysteries: it was separated from his body soon after he was hanged in 1880 for murdering a policeman.

After a series of bank raids and a shoot-out in which three police were killed, Kelly’s last stand was a 10-hour gun battle in which he was clad in homemade helmet and armour that became the stuff of legend.

Even before his death, such was the interest in Kelly that 30,000 people signed a petition protesting against his execution. After he was hanged, authorities removed his head and handed it to phrenologists...

[Fred Nerks]

His grave

Ned Kelly armour

[Fred Nerks]

GGG PING?

A novel use for farming implements.

[Francis McClobber]

I thought his skull was at Ned Kelly’s Last Stand in Phuket Thailand.

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.glenrowan1880.com/

NED KELLY’S LAST STAND AT GLENROWAN

[Francis McClobber]

Very neat. I first learned of Ned when I rolled into the Last Stand.

[JoeProBono]

[Fred Nerks]

Jerilderie Letter

Ned Kelly

1879
Australian Manuscripts Collection

Only two original documents by Ned Kelly are known to have survived. The most significant of these is the Jerilderie Letter, dictated by Ned Kelly to Joe Byrne in February 1879. It is the only document providing a direct link to the Kelly Gang and the events with which they were associated.

Approximately 8000 words long, this letter has been described as Ned Kelly’s ‘manifesto’. It passionately articulates his pleas of innocence and desire for justice for both his family and the poor Irish selectors of Victoria’s north-east.

Donated to the State Library in 2000, the Jeriderie Letter brings Ned Kelly’s distinctive voice to life, and offers readers a unique insight into the man behind the legend.

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/collections/treasures/jerilderieletter1.html

[tlb]

Ned Kelly (1970)

Mick Jagger ... Ned Kelly

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066130/