Monash scientists find Ned Kelly’s remains
The notorious Ned Kelly
Long before Underbelly, Victorians feared one of the most notorious criminals in Australian history, the infamous bushranger Ned Kelly.
In an announcement made today, Ned Kelly’s headless body and part of his skull has finally been identified by Monash University Forensic Scientists more than 130 years after his execution in the Old Melbourne Gaol.
Following Ned Kelly’s hanging in 1880, his body, minus the head, was put into a wooden box and thrown in a mass grave along with the bodies of other prisoners at the Old Melbourne Gaol.
The bodies were transferred from the Gaol to Pentridge Prison in 1929 and then exhumed in 2009.
Clinical Associate Professor David Ranson, Assistant Director of Forensic Pathology at Monash University worked with a team of forensics experts who sifted through the remains of the 34 people from the mass grave.
“This has been an exhausting 20 month investigation trying to identify Ned Kelly’s remains from among the bodies exhumed from Pentridge,” said Associate Professor Ranson.
The investigation was launched in 2009 when a farmer, Tom Baxter from West Australia handed a skull to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine claiming that it was Ned Kelly’s.
The skull had been reported as stolen from a glass display case at the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1978.
“The discovery of the skull potentially belonging to Kelly led to the overall investigation where we used a series of CT scans, x-rays, pathology, odontology and anthropology tests on the bodies buried at Pentridge and worked alongside historians to make the identification.
“The positive identification was clarified through a DNA sample taken from a great grandson of Kelly’s sister which was then compared to several different bones taken from the remains.
“This research is an example of both scientific and historical research working together. Not only were we able to get a DNA match but we were also able to get an historic record of the injuries of Ned Kelly which were matched to injuries found on the skeleton,” said Associate Professor Ranson.
It has been confirmed that the skull handed in by Tom Baxter does not belong to Ned Kelly.
Over the next few months the department of Forensic Sciences will determine whose skull it is.
As only a small part of Ned Kelly’s skull was found, the search continues for the missing pieces.