Ned KellyJerilderie Letter
Outlaw, murderer, self-proclaimed victim, Ned Kelly is an Australian icon. But who was he? Kelly's extraordinary achievement is to have provided his own answer to that question.
Ned Kelly was Australia's most famous outlaw. The son of an Irish immigrant family, Kelly's father died in prison and the young Ned found himself in a life of crime from his teenage years, facing police persecution and the challenges of poverty.At age 17, Kelly was imprisoned for horse stealing and spent three years behind bars. When he emerged, he joined a group of bushrangers in the colony of Victoria, an area rapidly moving from 'lawless frontier' to civilised society. When his mother was imprisoned in 1878 for assaulting a police officer, and his brother was declared an outlaw after shooting an officer, Kelly and his gang began eluding police capture.
