Dan Kelly (bushranger)

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Dan Kelly (1861 - 28th June 1880) was the youngest brother of Australian Bushranger Ned Kelly. He was a member of the Kelly Gang and was killed at the siege at Glenrowan.

Born in 1861, Dan grew up with his brothers and sisters and their widowed mother near Greta in the state of Victoria. He first came into trouble with the law when aged ten. He and his brother Jim, aged twelve, were arrested by Constable Flood for riding a horse that did not belong to them. In fact they had been doing some work for a local farmer and he had lent the boys the horse to ride home on. Flood did not accept this explanation and the boys were forced to spend a night in the cells before the matter was cleared.

In 1873, fourteen-year-old Jim Kelly was jailed for five years for dealing in stolen cattle. He and his family always claimed that he had simply been helping some relatives, unaware that not all the cattle was theirs.

On April 15, 1878 Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick arrived at the Kelly home and asked for Dan, who was wanted on suspicion of horse theft. While he was there Fitzpatrick made a pass at Dan's sister Kate. The other members of the household reacted by throwing him to the floor and his wrist was slightly cut.

Fitzpatrick later claimed that the Kellys had attacked him with revolvers and that Ned Kelly was also involved. In fact the only other men in the house were Dan, William Williamson and Bill Skillion. Ned Kelly always maintained that at the time of the incident he had in fact been in New South Wales.

Dan's mother was arrested along with Williamson and Skillion for the attempted murder of Fitzpatrick. Although his account of events was believed in court, Fitzpatrick was later dismissed from the force for drunkenness and perjury.

Dan and Ned went into hiding. In October 1878, at Stringybark Creek, they were joined by their friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart. They came across a group of policemen and in the confrontation that followed three of the officers were shot dead.

Now certain to hang if they were captured, the gang turned to bank robbery. Raids were carried out at Euroa in Victoria, and Jerilderie in New South Wales.

The raid on Jerilderie is particularly noteworthy. The gang arrived in the town in early February 1879. They broke into the local police station and imprisoned police officers Richards and Devine in their own cell. The outlaws then changed into the police uniforms and mixed with the locals, claiming to be reinforcements from Sydney. On Monday the gang rounded up various people and forced them into the back parlour of the Royal Mail Hotel. While Dan and Steve Hart kept the hostages busy, Ned and Joe Byrne raided the local bank of about two thousand pounds.

Aside from these raids, the outlaws remained in hiding for the sixteen months that they were at large, mainly in the area of the Greta Swamps.

The gang knew that an old friend of theirs, Aaron Sherritt, was a police informer. On the 26th June 1880 Dan and Joe Byrne went to Sherritt's house and murdered him. The four policemen who were with him at the time hid under the bed and did not report the murder until late the following morning. This delay was to prove crucial since it upset Ned's timing for an ambush.

The outlaws knew that a train loaded with police was on its way to find them. At Glenrowan, on the 27th, they pulled up the tracks in order to cause a derailment. They then rounded up a number of hostages in a local pub.

A schoolteacher called Curnow escaped and got the train to stop before it reached the pulled-up tracks. In the siege that followed, Ned put on his home-made armour and attempted to take on the police at close range. But he was shot in his unprotected legs and captured.

Although they had similar suits of armour, the other three remained in the pub with the hostages while the battle continued. The police later set fire to the building and Dan Kelly's and Steve Hart's bodies were burnt by the flames. They had committed suicide earlier that day (unknown to police when they set fire to the hotel). Joe Byrne had been killed earlier by a stray bullet but his body was dragged from the burning building before it was burnt down.

Two of the hostages were also killed during the battle by police fire.

Dan's body was claimed by his sisters, Maggie and Kate, and was later buried. He was nineteen.

[edit] References

• Alec Brierley, An Illustrated History of the Kelly Gang (1979)

A Short Life, by Ian Jones

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