Ned Kelly was an Australian outlaw in the late 1800s. Fed up with constant harassment from the upper class, and abuse and brutality from the British Empire and their police force, he and three friends began a two year long crime spree across Victoria Australia. They robbed banks, burned records of debts owed by the poor to the rich, and gave the money they stole to the poor, fighting the police all the way. The four quickly became legendary folk heroes, the Australian "Merry Men," with Ned as their Robin Hood. For two years, the police failed to catch them, or outright turned tail and ran at the mention of their names. Support for the "Kelly Gang" spread like wildfire throughout the common people of Victoria, many offering them food and shelter, for which Ned always repaid them.

In 1880, Ned and his friends devised a plan to deal a crippling blow to the oppressive colonial police force. With the help of some blacksmiths and farmers sympathetic to their cause, they'd forged four suits of bulletproof armor from plough shares and mouldboards. They tore up the train tracks leading to the town of Glenrowan, right alongside a cliffside bend in the track, and lured a trainload of police to the town. When the train derailed and careened off the cliff, they would rain down gunfire on any survivors from above, impervious to any return fire. However, things didn't go quite according to plan. Though they'd taken the townsfolk hostage in the local inn to protect them, a local school teacher, Thomas Curnow, convinced them to let him go. He ran to the tracks, holding a lantern wrapped in a red scarf to warn the train driver of the missing tracks. The train was stopped, and the police proceeded to Glenrowan on foot, laying siege to the inn. In their suits of bulletproof armor, the four outlaws shrugged off volley after volley of police gunfire, until one officer noticed that their legs were exposed. They retreated into the inn, but Joe Byrne, Ned's best friend, was killed when he was shot in the leg, severing a major artery. Ned's brother Dan and friend Steve Hart became trapped in the inn, and took their own lives. Ned, enraged by the deaths of his friends and brother, charged back out of the inn to fight the police, but was eventually incapacitated. A local police officer, Hugh Bracken, refused to allow Ned to be killed by the other officers, and he was instead taken to Melbourne, where he was tried and hanged at the age of 25, despite massive protests and petitions from not only the Australian people, but the British as well. His final words as he walked to the gallows were "Such is life..."

As a result of the Kelly Gang's two year crime spree, the British government investigated their police force, and were shocked by the level of corruption they found. The investigation resulted in the dismissal of numerous officers, and dozens of major reforms. Ned had hoped his death would destroy the police force that had oppressed the poor families of Australia for so long, and in a very real way, it did.

Ned Kelly is one of my all time favorite historical figures. He was a man who saw corruption and brutality from the police, and took a stand. I will always admire him for that.

Anyway, go watch the 2003 film "Ned Kelly," starring Heath Ledger as Ned. Not entirely historically accurate, but close enough, and a damn good movie.

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