More from Ned Kelly
My mother, with an infant baby, and brother-in-law and another neighbour, were taken for aiding and abetting and attempting to murder [Fitzpatrick], a charge for which they are as purely innocent as the child unborn.
This cannot be called wilful murder, for I was compelled to shoot [the police] in my own defence, or lie down like a cur and die.
The ignorant unicorns even threaten to shoot myself But as soon as I am dead they will be heels up in the muroo.
I threw big cowardly Hall on his belly I straddled him and rooted both spurs onto his thighs he roared like a big calf attacked by dogs ... I used to trip him and let him take a mouth ful of dust now and again as he was as helpless as a …
If the public do not see justice done I will seek revenge for the name and character which has been given to me and my relations, while God gives me strength to pull a trigger.
Had I robbed, plundered, ravished and murdered everything I met my character could not be painted blacker than it as present, thank God my conscience is as clear as the snow in Peru.