The Jerilderie Letter Read online

  If I had robbed and plundered ravished and murdered everything I met young and old, rich and poor. the public could not do any more than take firearms and assisting the police as they have done, but by the light that shines pegged on an ant-bed with their bellies opened their fat taken out rendered and poured down their throat boiling hot will be cool to what pleasure I will give some of them and any person aiding or harbouring or assisting the Police in any way whatever or employing any person whom they know to be a detective or cad or those who would be so deprived as to take blood money will be outlawed and declared unfit to be allowed human buriel their property either consumed or confiscated and them theirs and all belonging to them exterminated off the face of the earth, the enemy I cannot catch myself I shall give a payable reward for, I would like to know who put that article that reminds me of a poodle dog half clipped in the lion fashion. called Brooke.E. Smith Superintendent of Police he knows as much about commanding Police as Captain Standish does about mustering mosquitoes and boiling them down for their fat on the back blocks of the Lachlan for he has a head like a turnip a stiff neck as big as his shoulders narrow hipped and pointed towards the feet like a vine stake And if there is any one to be called a murderer Regarding Kennedy, Scanlan and Lonigan it is that misplaced poodle he gets as much pay as a dozen good troopers, if there is any good in them, and what does he do for it he cannot look behind him without turning his whole frame it takes three or four police to keep sentry while he sleeps in Wangaratta, for fear of body snatchers do they think he is a superior animal to the men that has to guard him if so why not send the men that gets big pay and reconed superior to the common police after me and you shall soon save the country of high salaries to men that is fit for nothing else but getting better men than himself shot and sending orphan children to the industrial school to make prostitutes and cads of them for the Detectives and other evil disposed persons Send the high paid and men that received big salaries for years in a gang by themselves after me, As it makes no difference to them but it will give them a chance of showing whether they are worth more pay than a common trooper or not and I think the Public will soon find they are only in the road of good men and obtaining money under false pretences, I do not call McIntyre a coward for I reckon he is as game a man as wears the jacket as he had the presence of mind to know his position, directly as he was spoken to, and only foolishness to disobey, it was cowardice that made Lonigan and the others fight it is only foolhardiness to disobey an outlaw as any Policeman or other man who do not throw up their arms directly as I call on them knows the consequence which is a speedy dispatch to Kingdom Come, I wish those men who joined the stock protection society to withdraw their money and give it and as much more to the widows and orphans and poor of Greta district wher I spent and will again spend many a happy day fearless free and bold, as it only aids the police to procure false witnesses and go whacks with men to steal horses and lag innocent men it would suit them far better to subscribe a sum and give it to the poor of their district and there is no fear of anyone stealing their property for no man could steal their horses without the knowledge of the poor if any man was mean enough to steal their property the poor would rise out to a man and find them if they were on the face of the earth it will always pay a rich man to be liberal with the poor and make as little enemies as he can as he shall find if the poor is on his side he shall loose nothing by it. If they depend in the police they shall be drove to destruction. As they cannot and will not protect them if duffing and bushranging were abolished the police would have to cadge for their living I speak from experience as I have sold horses and cattle innumerable and yet eight head of the culls is all ever was found I never was interefered with whilst I kept up this successful trade.

  I give fair warning to all those who has reason to fear me to sell out and give 10 out of every hundred towards the widow and orphan fund and do not attempt to reside in Victoria, but as short a time as possible after reading this notice, neglect this and abide by the consequences, which shall be worse than the rust in the wheat in Victoria or the druth of a dry season to the grasshoppers in New South Wales I do not wish to give the order full force without giving timely warning, but I am a widows son outlawed and my orders must be obeyed.

  A NOTE ON SOURCES

  There is a wealth of primary sources about the Kelly gang, including regional court records, police department correspondence, Selection Files relating to the various Land Acts, and not least the Kelly Collection held in the Victorian Public Record Office. There are, however, three main primary sources that deal with the raid on Jerilderie. They agree about key events but conflict over details and the characters of the individuals involved.

  William Elliott, a schoolteacher, serialised his account in the Jerilderie Herald some thirty years after the event. This was reproduced as an appendix in H. C. Lundy’s Jerilderie: 100 Years (Jerilderie Shire Council, Jerilderie, 1958). Elliott was preoccupied by criticism that Jerilderie’s inhabitants had been ‘cowardly’ in allowing four ruffians to take over their town. He portrays the male inhabitants behaving bravely and heroically.

  Kelly is a figure completely in command—any sign of rage or panic on his part is either not mentioned or explained away as mere ‘bluff’.

  The Reverend J. B. Gribble, another eyewitness, wrote ‘A Day with Australian Bushrangers’ for the English periodical Leisure Hour in 1885. He relates the depredations carried out in the Australian hinterland for his audience at ‘Home’, and provides a markedly different bias—conditioned by the traditional image of the cut-throat bushranger.

  Finally, there are reports, based on interviews with eyewitnesses, that appeared in the Melbourne newspapers in the days following the raid. Although they are sketchy and at times contradictory, these articles provide a clear image of the correspondents’ most immediate and vivid impressions after the hold-up.

  I have found Douglas Morrissey’s PhD thesis, Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves: A Social History of Kelly Country (held in the Borchardt Library, La Trobe University) to be the most meticulous and exhaustive study of the cultural realm that Kelly occupied.

  Other notable secondary sources include: Colin Cave’s Ned Kelly: Man and Myth (Cassell, North Melbourne, 1968); Ian Jones’ Ned Kelly: A Short Life (Lothian Books, Port Melbourne, 1995); Keith McMenomy’s Ned Kelly: The Authentic Illustrated Story (Currey O’Neil Ross, South Yarra, 1984); John McQuilton’s The Kelly Outbreak 1878-1880: The Geographical Dimension of Social Banditry (Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1979); and Charles Osborne’s Ned Kelly (Anthony Blond, London, 1970).

  1 Ned does not mention that Gould’s ‘boy’ at this time was Jim Kelly, his own younger brother.

  2 Ned’s innocence or guilt in this incident is difficult to establish. The McCormacks were recent arrivals in the area and Gould had fiercely contested their presence in his ‘patch’.

  3 This incident led to the bare-knuckled bout between Wright and Ned, after his release from gaol two and a half years later.