Edward Kelly gives statement of his murders of Sargeant Kennedy and others and makes other threats Edward Kelly gives statement of his murders of Sargeant Kennedy and others and makes other threats
Public Record Office Victoria
Public Record Office Victoria (State Archives of Victoria, Australia)
North Melbourne, Australia
Some of the hostages held at Younghusbands station by the Kelly Gang during their robbery of the National Bank in Euroa on 9 December 1878 reported witnessing Joe Byrne, one of the Gangs members, at work on a long letter. The letter seems to have been prompted by the reports of Mr Donald Cameron MLAs criticisms of the progress of the police hunt for the gang in Parliament on 14 November of that year. After the robbery, two copies of the letter were posted, one to Cameron, the other to Superintendent John Sadleir, the man in charge of the police in the north-east district. The note on this copy of the letter indicates that it was believed that at least one of the letters was posted in Glenrowan, a few days after the Euroa robbery. Cameron received his copy three days later on 17 December. Meanwhile, Chief Commissioner Standish had seen Sadleirs copy of the letter and had sent atelegramadvising against releasing it to the press for publishing. Reporters were allowed to read the letter and the papers on 18 December contained more or less full summaries of its content. The copy of the letter reproduced below seems to have been made afterwards from Camerons copy of the letter. Comparison with one of the two letters known to be written byByrnereveals the handwriting is not a close match, so it is not an original. There are two sets of annotations. One, in pencil, on the first page of the letter proper, seems to be an instruction where to file the letter in the 1880 volume of correspondence of the Chief Secretarys Department. The second set of annotations in red ink indicate the etter was registered with this corespondence on 1 November 1884, a considerable time after Kellys death. Why the letter was registered in 1880 rather than in 1878 when the original was written is not clear, but it is obvious that the letter was no routine matter.
- Title: Edward Kelly gives statement of his murders of Sargeant Kennedy and others and makes other threats Edward Kelly gives statement of his murders of Sargeant Kennedy and others and makes other threats
- Creator: Public Record Office Victoria, Public Record Office Victoria
- Provenance: VPRS 4966 UNIT 1 ITEM 3 RECORD 1, VPRS 4966 UNIT 1 ITEM 3 RECORD 1
- Transcript:[T12640 13]once tried to handcuff me at Benalla and when they could not Fitzpatrick tried to choke me. Lonigan caught me by the privates and would have killed me but was not able Mr. McInnes came up and I allowed him to put the handcuffs on when the Police were bested. This cannot be called wilful murder for I was compelled to shoot then in my own defence or lie down like a cur and die. Certainly their wives and children are to be pitied but those men came into the bush with the intention of shooting me down like a dog and yet they know and acknowledge I have been wronged. And is my mother and her infant baby and my poor little brothers and sisters not to be pitied more so who has got no alternative only to put up with the brutal and unmanly conduct of the Police who have never had any relations or a mother or must have forgot them. I was never convicted of horse stealing I was once arrested by Constable Hall and 14 more men in Greta and there was a subscription raised for Hall by persons who had too much money about Greta in honour of Hall arresting Wild Wright and Gunn. Wright and Gunn were potted & Hall could not pot me for horsestealing but with the subscription money he gave 20 to James Murdock who has presently been hung in Wagga WaggaHide TranscriptShow Transcript
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