The historical setting
Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, gang leader and police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a homemade suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police. Kelly was born and raised in rural Victoria, the third of eight children to Irish parents. His father, a transported convict, died in 1866, leaving Kelly, then aged 12, as the eldest male of the household. The Kellys were a poor selector family who saw themselves as downtrodden by the squattocracy and as victims of persecution by the Victoria Police.
While a teenager, Kelly was arrested for associating with bushranger Harry Power and served two prison terms for a variety of offences, the longest stretch being from 1871 to 1874. He later joined the "Greta Mob", a group of bush larrikins known for stock theft.
Jerilderie raid
Following the Euroa raid, the reward for Kelly's capture increased to £1,000, and police reinforcements and soldiers were deployed across north-eastern Victoria. The gang distributed most proceeds from the raid to family and other sympathisers. Once more in need of funds, they planned to rob the bank at Jerilderie, a town across the border in NSW. Sympathisers moved into Jerilderie before the raid to provide support. On 7 February 1879, the gang crossed the Murray River between Mulwala and Tocumwal and camped overnight in the bush. The following day they visited a hotel outside Jerilderie, where they drank and chatted with patrons and staff, learning more about the town and its police.
In the early hours of 9 February, the gang bailed up the Jerilderie police barracks and locked up the two constables present, George Devine and Henry Richards, also holding Devine's wife and children hostage overnight. The following afternoon, Byrne and Hart, disguised as police, went out with Richards to familiarise themselves with the town. At 10 am on 10 February, Ned and Byrne donned police uniforms and took Richards into town, leaving Devine in the lockup and warning his wife they would kill her and her children if she left the barracks.
Siege and shootout
By the afternoon of 27 June, the train still had not arrived, as the policemen in Sherritt's hut remained there until morning, for fear that the bushrangers were still outside. The outlaws meanwhile had gathered all sixty-two hostages in the Glenrowan Inn, including sympathisers planted to help control the situation. As the hours passed, the gang plied the hostages with drink and organised music, singing, dancing and games. One hostage later testified, " did not treat us badly—not at all", although he also terrorised a young hostage by repeatedly threatening to shoot him.
Towards evening, Kelly released 21 hostages he deemed trustworthy, then captured Glenrowan's lone constable, Hugh Bracken, with the assistance of hostage Thomas Curnow, a local schoolmaster who had gained the gang's trust to thwart their plans. Believing that Curnow was a sympathiser, Kelly let him and his wife return home, warning them to "go quietly to bed and not to dream too loud". News of Sherritt's death reached the outside world at midday, and at 9 pm, a police special train left Melbourne for Beechworth with four journalists, sub-Inspector O'Connor, his native police unit, wife and sister-in-law.
Trial and execution
Kelly's committal hearing took place at Beechworth Court in August 1880, with the MP and lawyer David Gaunson acting as his attorney. According to Alex Castles, despite expecting a guilty verdict, Kelly wanted Gaunson to argue that police persecution had driven him to bushranging and that the Stringybark Creek killings were acts of self-defence. Gaunson interviewed him on these matters and paraphrased it for The Age. He later said that although he believed Kelly shot the police out of genuine fear for his life, he found his broader stance on police to be untenable and irrational, particularly the view that they were akin to soldiers and thus justified targets of violence. Kelly was committed for trial on charges of murdering Lonigan and Scanlan.
Initially set for Beechworth, the trial was transferred to the Central Criminal Court in Melbourne. While some, including legal experts such as John Harber Phillips, argue the transfer was to secure a conviction from a less sympathetic jury outside the northeast, others, like Castles, contend it was mainly due to fears of jury tampering by Kelly sympathisers. Kelly's trial began on 19 October 1880 before Sir Redmond Barry, the judge who had sentenced his mother over the Fitzpatrick incident.