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Ned Kelly is an Australian folk hero. When his family was persecuted by cruel, corrupt police, he fought back and was executed. Then a royal commission was held and those police responsible were sacked. He was a cop killer. But he killed murderers of decency and 7freedom. The same police force still does horrible things to its political masters' enemies. And mothers can still love their sons and daughters with all their hearts.

The skull that sparked a hunt for Ned Kelly's skeleton may belong to a serial killer once arrested in WA and suspected of being Jack the Ripper. An investigation into the identity of the skull began after former Derby farmer Tom Baxter handed it over in 2009, claiming it belonged to Kelly. It has never been revealed how he got the skull, which was stolen from a glass cabinet in the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1978. Heritage Victoria senior archaeologist Jeremy Smith said yesterday that Mr Baxter had claimed the skull came into his possession about a week after it...

The headless remains of the infamous Australian outlaw Ned Kelly have finally been identified, officials said Thursday, solving a mystery dating back more than 130 years. Considered by some to be a cold-blooded killer, Kelly was also seen as a folk hero and symbol of Irish-Australian defiance against the British authorities. After murdering three policemen, he was captured in Victoria state in 1880 and hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol in November of the same year. But his body went missing after it was thrown into a mass grave. The bodies in the grave were transferred from the jail to Pentridge...

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...

Painting of the notorious bank robber Ned Kelly has become the most expensive piece of Australian art ever sold, fetching $5.4 million (£ 3.3 million) at an auction in Sydney. Sidney Nolan's painting of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, entitled First Class Marksman "The First Class Marksman" was painted in 1946 by Sidney Nolan (1917-1992) and shows the infamous outlaw standing on a dusty outback road, rifle at the ready. In the painting, Kelly is depicted in his famous homemade armour, with iron helmet and distinctive narrow eye slit. The First Class Marksman was the only one in Nolan's early series...

THE remains of notorious bushranger Ned Kelly have been found at the former Melbourne prison, Pentridge. An exhaustive 20-month search through historical and genetic records has unearthed one of the most colourful chapters in Australian history, and a man who Attorney-General Robert Clark this morning called "one of the most controversial characters" in our national identity. A DNA sample from Kelly's sister's great grandson, Leigh Oliver, confirmed the remains were those of the bushranger. Doctors and scientists at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine identified the body. Kelly's remains have long been rumoured to be at Pentridge. Attorney General Robert...