Ned Kelly bones confirmed as famous Australian outlaw thanks to DNA - NY Daily News Ned Kelly bones confirmed as famous Australian outlaw thanks to DNA Ned Kelly bones confirmed as famous Australian outlaw thanks to DNA Thursday, September 1, 2011, 8:39 AM The headless remains of Australia 's most famous outlaw have officially been identified. DNA tests confirmed that a set of bones discovered buried at a former prison in Melbourne are what's left of Ned Kelly , a notorious criminal whose gang robbed banks and killed several police officers in the late 1800s, officials said Thursday. Scientists used DNA from one of Kelly's surviving relatives to confirm the identity of the remains. "To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing," Victoria Attorney General Robert Clark said in a statement. The remains were identified with the help of descendent Leigh Olver , a teacher in Melbourne and the great grandson of Kelly's sister. "It's such a great relief to finally have this side of the story resolved," he said, according to the Australian Associated Press .

"Personally, a place of dignity, a place very appropriate. Where that is will be determined later." Kelly wearing his famous bucket in a shoot-out. (Hulton Archive/Getty) The outlaw's bones were first exhumed from his burial site in 1929. Those remains were looted at the time, however, and his skull vanished. The fate of the skull continues to be a mystery. The same DNA used to confirm the identity of the remains showed that a skull long thought to be Kelly's is actually not his. Kelly, whose first name was really Edward, was hanged at the Old Melbourne Jail in November 1880 after being arrested following a deadly shootout with police. The outlaw has become a folk hero to many in Australia as an Irishman who fought against the British rule in the Land Down Under. The young man, who was only 25 when he was sentenced to death, was in and out of jail for years before his execution. His crimes included bank robbery and cattle rustling, but it was his frequent clashes with police that earned him scorn and later praise. Kelly was infamous for using cleverly designed suits of armor that protected them from bullets, and which he and his gang wore during their final clash with police.

He was also outspoken about his disdain for how the English police treated Irish Catholics, which was detailed in a famous letter written in 1879. With News Wire Services Skeleton of Ned Kelly, Australian Outlaw and Folk Hero, Is Identified - The New York Times The New York Times Science |A Hero’s Legend and a Stolen Skull Rustle Up a DNA Drama Search A Hero’s Legend and a Stolen Skull Rustle Up a DNA Drama By CHRISTINE KENNEALLY MELBOURNE, Australia — Even with the best scientific techniques, you can’t always get what you want. But if you try, as the Rolling Stones put it, sometimes you get what you need. Consider the case of Ned Kelly ’s skull. In Australia, Kelly needs no introduction; for Americans, it may help to think of him as Jesse James, Thomas Paine and John F. Kennedy rolled into one. Born about 1854 to an Irish convict exiled to Australia, Kelly became a folk hero as a very young man. He took up arms against a corrupt British constabulary, robbed banks and wrote an explosive manifesto.

He was shot and arrested in a final shootout in which he wore homemade metal armor, and in 1880 he was hanged by the Anglo-Irish establishment he despised. As with any semimythical hero, Kelly’s public has always hungered to get closer to the legend. His armor, cartridge bag, boots and a bloody sash became state treasures. Continue reading the main story But perhaps the most priceless among them is his missing skull — the subject of a tangled forensic drama that was finally resolved on Wednesday, at least in part, after decades of investigation, debate, tantalizing leads, stalemates, false starts and what can only be called skulduggery. Advertisement Continue reading the main story After his execution, Ned Kelly was buried in a mass grave at a prison, the Melbourne Gaol. There his remains might have quietly and invisibly decomposed but for a mistake by 19th-century gravediggers: They used a type of lime that slowed decomposition instead of hastening it. So when the grounds were dug up for development in 1929, startled workers found the site full of skeletons. Officials began to move the remains to another prison.

But in a scene of chaos that became a local scandal, a crowd of schoolboys and other onlookers ran amok among the coffins, seizing bones — including, it was thought, the skulls of Ned Kelly and Frederick Bailey Deeming, the notorious British serial killer who may have been Jack the Ripper. Photo An undated photograph of Ned Kelly, top, and his headless remains in Melbourne. Credit Top, Old Melbourne Gaol, via Reuters; Victorian Forensic Medecine, via Reuters While the jail remains were reburied at Pentridge prison, the skulls were recovered soon after being stolen. They then embarked on a separate, winding journey through the back doors of a number of institutions. In the 1970s, one skull was put on display in a jail museum alongside Kelly’s death mask, a plaster cast impression made shortly after his execution. (It is unknown whether that mask was the original or a copy.) But in 1978 the skull was stolen again, and a man named Tom Baxter told journalists that he had it. Mr. Baxter held onto the skull for over three decades, promising to return it if the government gave Kelly a Christian burial.

The government did not respond, and the stalemate continued until 2008, when yet another excavation uncovered more prisoners’ remains. At least 3,000 bone fragments were exhumed and sent to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine . It was thought that Ned Kelly’s bones might be among them. Shortly after that, Mr. Baxter handed over a fragile, sun-bleached skull to the authorities. The forensic institute conducted a 21-month investigation of the skull, mixing historical detective work with an array of innovative scientific analyses. Scientists used historical photographs, cranial plaster casts and a copy of the Kelly death mask to determine whether the skull from Mr. Baxter had indeed been unearthed in the 1929 exhumation. When it came to the skull’s genetic material, however, the scientists faced some serious obstacles. DNA is well preserved in bone but highly vulnerable to contamination. They could not simply cut a square out of the skull, grind it to a powder and extract DNA from that; Joy Beyer, a molecular biologist at the institute, said she was told that the skull could not be damaged.

Finally, the institute sent samples from the skull and other remains to a forensic laboratory in Argentina that specializes in degraded and aged remains. That lab successfully extracted DNA from almost all of the samples. Advertisement Even so, the DNA meant little in isolation. The investigators needed something, or someone, to match it against. Video embed Hoping to find DNA in Kelly’s dried blood, they located the boots, bag and sash he wore the night he was shot. “Dried specimens on cloth can preserve DNA for hundreds, even thousands, of years,” said David Ranson, a pathologist at the institute. But the boot and the bag had no usable DNA. The sash, which they found in a country museum, had been thoroughly washed before it was put on display. And a search for the original Kelly death mask — which might hold a stray eyelash or some skin — came up empty. Next, the investigators looked for relatives. They found Leigh Olver, an art teacher who was descended from Ned Kelly’s mother, down a direct line of women. He donated blood for analysis, and they compared his mitochondrial DNA with that of the skull. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter.

You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy On Wednesday, the forensic institute announced the disappointing results of that analysis. It appears that after all this time, after being abducted more than once, placed on display for the world to see, hidden for decades, cherished, handled, sought after and tested, the skull is not Ned Kelly’s. “Mr. Olver’s DNA and the DNA from the skull do not match,” said Fiona Leahy, a historian and legal adviser at the institute. There was one rather powerful note of consolation. The investigators found a match between the Olver DNA and one set of bones dug up at Pentridge, including a palm-size fragment of skull. So while most of Kelly’s skull is still missing, the rest of him appears to have been found. As for the stolen skull, it could belong to the serial killer, Frederick Deeming, who died in 1892. The forensic institute is seeking a maternal relative to test DNA. What of Kelly’s skeleton? Should it be returned to the extended family? Or should there be a public grave? Many Australians regard Kelly as a national hero. Countless books and movies tell the story of his life. But others see him as a villain.

“You can’t just bury the man,” Mr. Olver said. “Someone is going to dig him up again in half an hour.” A version of this article appears in print on September 6, 2011, on Page D3 of the New York edition with the headline: A Hero’s Legend and a Stolen Skull Rustle Up a DNA Drama. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Australia IDs bones of robber/folk hero Ned Kelly Australia IDs bones of robber/folk hero Ned Kelly KRISTEN GELINEAU - Associated Press Share View photos In this undated photo released by the State Library of Victoria, a framed photograph shows Ned Kelly, Australia's most infamous criminal, the day before he was hanged at a prison called the Old Melbourne Gaol - now a historic site - in Melbourne, Australia. The headless remains of Kelly have been identified, officials said Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011, ending a decades-long mystery surrounding the final resting place of a man now seen by many as a folk hero.

(AP Photo/State Library of Victoria) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES More SYDNEY (AP) — The headless remains of Australia's most storied criminal, Ned Kelly, have been identified, officials said Thursday, ending a decades-long mystery surrounding the final resting place of a man now seen by many as a folk hero. Kelly, who led a gang of bank robbers in Australia's southern Victoria state in the 19th century, was hanged in 1880. His corpse's fate was unknown, though it was long suspected his body lay alongside 33 other executed inmates in a mass grave at a prison. Officials pinpointed the location of the grave site in 2008 and later exhumed the bodies for analysis. A DNA sample from one of Kelly's descendants confirmed that one of the skeletons — which was missing most of its skull — was that of the notorious Ned, said Victoria Attorney General Robert Clark. "To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing," Clark said in a statement.

Kelly, whose father was an Irish convict, led a gang that robbed banks and killed policemen from 1878-80. These days, he is considered by many Australians to be something of a Robin Hood or Jesse James-like character, fighting the British colonial authorities and championing the rural Irish underclass. For years, Australians have wondered what became of Kelly's remains. After he was executed at the age of 25, his body was buried in an unmarked grave at a prison called the Old Melbourne Gaol. But when the facility closed in 1929, officials decided to exhume Kelly's body along with the remains of other executed convicts and move them to the nearby Pentridge Prison. The exhumation, however, turned into something of a debacle when a mob of onlookers descended on the site and stole some of the remains, including what was believed to be Kelly's skull. That skull was later recovered and put on display at the Old Melbourne Gaol — now a historic site — next to Kelly's "death mask," a plaster cast of his face made after his execution. In 1978, the skull was stolen again. Thirty-one years later, on Nov.

11, 2009, a farmer from Western Australia state named Tom Baxter handed the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine what he said was the stolen skull, which featured the inscription "E. Kelly" on its side — Kelly's actual first name was Edward. Baxter has not revealed how he got ahold of the skull. Scientists at the institute set out to determine who the skull belonged to, and to identify Kelly's full remains among the tangle of skeletons exhumed from the Pentridge site. Through CT scans, X-rays, anthropological and historical research and DNA analysis, the team finally identified one skeleton as Kelly's. Most of its head was missing. Stephen Cordner, the institute's director, said the DNA left no doubt the skeleton was Kelly's. Tests on the remains also uncovered evidence of shotgun wounds that matched those Kelly suffered during his criminal rampage. "The wear and tear of the skeleton is a little bit more than would be expected for a 25-year-old today," Cordner said. "But such was Ned's life, this is hardly surprising." As for Baxter's "E. Kelly" skull? Not Ned's. The whereabouts of Kelly's skull remain a mystery, Cordner said.

The DNA sample used for comparison came from Leigh Olver, a teacher in the Victoria capital of Melbourne and the great-grandson of Kelly's sister Ellen. On Thursday, he told reporters in Melbourne that he hoped his notorious ancestor will finally be laid to rest in a place of dignity. "It's such a great relief to finally have this side of the story resolved," Olver said. Kelly's story has been documented in several books and movies, including a film starring Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and another starring late actor Heath Ledger. Kelly's use of homemade armor to protect himself from police bullets was even given a nod during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when actors on stilts dressed in similar armor were featured in the opening ceremony. "I think a lot of Australians connect with Ned Kelly and they're proud of the heritage that has developed as a result of our connection with Ned Kelly and the story of Ned Kelly," Olver said.

"In our family, he was a hero." Reblog Australian outlaw Ned Kelly's remains to go to family - BBC News BBC News Australian outlaw Ned Kelly's remains to go to family 2 August 2012 Close share panel Image caption Ned Kelly's body was thrown into a mass grave after he was hanged in 1880 The remains of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly will be handed to his descendants for burial more than 130 years after he was hanged for murder. The headless remains of Kelly, who led a gang in Victoria in the late 1800s, were identified last November through DNA tests. The bones were found in a mass grave outside the former Pentridge Prison. The site's property developers wanted to keep the remains but Kelly's family wanted the bones returned. State officials have issued a new licence for exhumation, which means that the developers will not be able to keep the remains for display in a museum, Australian media reported. "The Kelly family will now make arrangements for Ned's final burial," Ellen Hollow, a great-granddaughter of Kelly's sister, said in a statement. "We also appeal to the person who has the skull in their possession to return it...

so that when the time comes for Ned to be laid to rest his remains can be complete." Ned Kelly was seen by some as a cold-blooded killer and by others as a folk hero who fought colonial authorities. Media captionNed Kelly's great grand-nephew spoke to BBC Radio 5 live The bushranger killed three policemen before being captured in Victoria in 1880 and was hanged for murder at Old Melbourne Jail in November of the same year. But his body went missing after it was thrown into a mass grave. The bodies in the grave were transferred from the prison to Pentridge Prison in 1929 and then exhumed again in 2009. The exploits of Kelly and his gang have been the subject of numerous films and television series, including a portrayal by Rolling Stone Mick Jagger in a 1970 film.

Mystery solved: headless remains are Aussie ‘hero’ outlaw Ned Kelly | Toronto Star World Mystery solved: headless remains are Aussie ‘hero’ outlaw Ned Kelly &rdquo;To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing.&rdquo; Australian authorities have identified the remains of bushranger Ned Kelly, 131 years after the iconic outcast was hanged for murder and his body buried in the yard of a Melbourne gaol. (REUTERS) By Kristen GelineauAssociated Press Thu., Sept. 1, 2011 SYDNEY—The headless remains of Australia’s most storied criminal, Ned Kelly, have been identified, officials said Thursday, ending a decades-long mystery surrounding the final resting place of a man now seen by many as a folk hero. Kelly, who led a gang of bank robbers in Australia’s southern Victoria state in the 19th century, was hanged in 1880.

His corpse’s fate was unknown, though it was long suspected his body lay alongside 33 other executed inmates in a mass grave at a prison. Officials pinpointed the location of the grave site in 2008 and later exhumed the bodies for analysis. A DNA sample from one of Kelly’s descendants confirmed that one of the skeletons — which was missing most of its skull — was that of the notorious Ned, said Victoria Attorney General Robert Clark. “To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing,” Clark said in a statement. Kelly, whose father was an Irish convict, led a gang that robbed banks and killed policemen from 1878-80. These days, he is considered by many Australians to be something of a Robin Hood or Jesse James-like character, fighting the British colonial authorities and championing the rural Irish underclass. Article Continued Below But devotion to Kelly appears to come with risks, according to one researcher.

Men with a Ned Kelly tattoo had a suicide rate in Australia 2.7 times higher and a homicide rate 7.7 time higher than men who didn’t, Adelaide University Professor Roger Byard will report in a forthcoming study, according to the medical news website Medical Express . Only three of the 20 white men he studied with Ned Kelly tattoos died of natural causes, the study found. Eight deaths were suicide, seven were accidents and two homicides. Eleven showed evidence of drug and alcohol abuse. The study by Byard, a senior pathologist in South Australia and a licensed family physician in Canada, is to be published in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine . For years, Australians have wondered what became of Kelly’s remains. After he was executed at the age of 25, his body was buried in an unmarked grave at a prison called the Old Melbourne Gaol. But when the facility closed in 1929, officials decided to exhume Kelly’s body along with the remains of other executed convicts and move them to the nearby Pentridge Prison.

The exhumation, however, turned into something of a debacle when a mob of onlookers descended on the site and stole some of the remains, including what was believed to be Kelly’s skull. That skull was later recovered and put on display at the Old Melbourne Gaol — now a historic site — next to Kelly’s “death mask,” a plaster cast of his face made after his execution. In 1978, the skull was stolen again. Thirty-one years later, on Nov. 11, 2009, a farmer from Western Australia state named Tom Baxter handed the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine what he said was the stolen skull, which featured the inscription “E. Kelly” on its side — Kelly’s actual first name was Edward. Baxter has not revealed how he got ahold of the skull. Scientists at the institute set out to determine who the skull belonged to, and to identify Kelly’s full remains among the tangle of skeletons exhumed from the Pentridge site. Through CT scans, X-rays, anthropological and historical research and DNA analysis, the team finally identified one skeleton as Kelly’s. Most of its head was missing.

Stephen Cordner, the institute’s director, said the DNA left no doubt the skeleton was Kelly’s. Tests on the remains also uncovered evidence of shotgun wounds that matched those Kelly suffered during his criminal rampage. “The wear and tear of the skeleton is a little bit more than would be expected for a 25-year-old today,” Cordner said. “But such was Ned’s life, this is hardly surprising.” As for Baxter’s “E. Kelly” skull? Not Ned’s. The whereabouts of Kelly’s skull remain a mystery, Cordner said. The DNA sample used for comparison came from Leigh Olver, a teacher in the Victoria capital of Melbourne and the great-grandson of Kelly’s sister Ellen. On Thursday, he told reporters in Melbourne that he hoped his notorious ancestor will finally be laid to rest in a place of dignity. “It’s such a great relief to finally have this side of the story resolved,” Olver said. Australia Identifies Bones of Storied Criminal Ned Kelly | Fox News Australia Identifies Bones of Storied Criminal Ned Kelly Published September 01, 2011 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 livefyre Email Print Sept.

1: In this photo supplied by Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, the right tibia of Australia's most infamous criminal, Ned Kelly is shown in Melbourne, Australia. Through CT scans, X-rays, anthropological and historical research and DNA analysis, a team of scientists finally identified one of the skeletons exhumed with the remains of other executed inmates from a mass grave, as Kelly's. SYDNEY – The headless remains of Australia's most storied criminal, Ned Kelly, have been identified, officials said Thursday, ending a decades-long mystery surrounding the final resting place of a man now seen by many as a folk hero. Kelly, who led a gang of bank robbers in Australia's southern Victoria state in the 19th century, was hanged in 1880. His corpse's fate was unknown, though it was long suspected his body lay alongside 33 other executed inmates in a mass grave at a prison. Officials pinpointed the location of the grave site in 2008 and later exhumed the bodies for analysis. A DNA sample from one of Kelly's descendants confirmed that one of the skeletons -- which was missing most of its skull -- was that of the notorious Ned, said Victoria Attorney General Robert Clark.

"To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing," Clark said in a statement. Kelly, whose father was an Irish convict, led a gang that robbed banks and killed policemen from 1878-80. These days, he is considered by many Australians to be something of a Robin Hood or Jesse James-like character, fighting the British colonial authorities and championing the rural Irish underclass. For years, Australians have wondered what became of Kelly's remains. After he was executed at the age of 25, his body was buried in an unmarked grave at a prison called the Old Melbourne Gaol. But when the facility closed in 1929, officials decided to exhume Kelly's body along with the remains of other executed convicts and move them to the nearby Pentridge Prison. The exhumation, however, turned into something of a debacle when a mob of onlookers descended on the site and stole some of the remains, including what was believed to be Kelly's skull.

That skull was later recovered and put on display at the Old Melbourne Gaol -- now a historic site -- next to Kelly's "death mask," a plaster cast of his face made after his execution. In 1978, the skull was stolen again. Thirty-one years later, on Nov. 11, 2009, a farmer from Western Australia state named Tom Baxter handed the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine what he said was the stolen skull, which featured the inscription "E. Kelly" on its side -- Kelly's actual first name was Edward. Baxter has not revealed how he got ahold of the skull. Scientists at the institute set out to determine who the skull belonged to, and to identify Kelly's full remains among the tangle of skeletons exhumed from the Pentridge site. Through CT scans, X-rays, anthropological and historical research and DNA analysis, the team finally identified one skeleton as Kelly's. Most of its head was missing. Stephen Cordner, the institute's director, said the DNA left no doubt the skeleton was Kelly's. Tests on the remains also uncovered evidence of shotgun wounds that matched those Kelly suffered during his criminal rampage.

"The wear and tear of the skeleton is a little bit more than would be expected for a 25-year-old today," Cordner said. "But such was Ned's life, this is hardly surprising." As for Baxter's "E. Kelly" skull? Not Ned's. The whereabouts of Kelly's skull remain a mystery, Cordner said. The DNA sample used for comparison came from Leigh Olver, a teacher in the Victoria capital of Melbourne and the great-grandson of Kelly's sister Ellen. On Thursday, he told reporters in Melbourne that he hoped his notorious ancestor will finally be laid to rest in a place of dignity. "It's such a great relief to finally have this side of the story resolved," Olver said. Kelly's story has been documented in several books and movies, including a film starring Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and another starring late actor Heath Ledger . Kelly's use of homemade armor to protect himself from police bullets was even given a nod during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when actors on stilts dressed in similar armor were featured in the opening ceremony.

"I think a lot of Australians connect with Ned Kelly and they're proud of the heritage that has developed as a result of our connection with Ned Kelly and the story of Ned Kelly," Olver said. "In our family, he was a hero." Advertisement Remains of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly identified - BBC News BBC News Remains of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly identified 1 September 2011 Read more about sharing. Close share panel Media captionVictoria Attorney General Robert Clark said it was historically very significant while Kelly's great-great-nephew, Leigh Olver, said he felt privileged The headless remains of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly have been identified, 130 years after he was hanged for murder, officials have said. His body was dumped into a mass grave, later transferred to another mass grave and again exhumed in 2009. Although his skull is still missing the body was identified by comparing a DNA sample with that of a relative. Ned Kelly was seen by many as a cold-blooded killer and others as a folk hero of Irish-Australian resistance.

The bushranger killed three policemen before being captured in Victoria state in 1880 and was hanged for murder at Old Melbourne Jail in November of the same year. But his body went missing after it was thrown into a mass grave. The bodies in the grave were transferred from the prison to Pentridge Prison in 1929 and then exhumed again in 2009. Image caption Ned Kelly has become part of Australian folklore Scientists at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine said they had identified the body after a DNA sample was taken from a Melbourne school teacher who is a direct relative - the great grandson of Kelly's sister. The state's Attorney-General Robert Clark said he found the discovery amazing. According to the ABC network , the forensic team had to sift through the remains of 34 people mingled together in the mass grave. "To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing," said Mr Clark.

The exploits of Ned Kelly and his gang have been the subject of numerous films and television series, including a portrayal by Rolling Stone Mick Jagger in a 1970 movie of the same name. Bones of Ned Kelly, Australia's Most Famous Outlaw, Found After 131 Years - ABC News ABC News CSI: Melbourne. Bones of Legendary Australian Outlaw Ned Kelly Identified By JOEL SIEGEL WATCH California Gang Ran 'Campaign of Hate' Against Blacks 0 Shares Email A 131-year-old mystery -– what happened to one of the world's most famous outlaws -- has been solved. Ned Kelly is something of a folk hero in Australia, that nation's Jesse James, his notoriety built on a two-year spree of daring bank robberies and blazing police shootouts. He was captured, convicted and hanged in 1880, but over the years a question bedeviled historians: What happened to his body? The answer could be an episode of CSI: Melbourne. Using X-rays, CT scans and DNA testing, researchers spent nearly two years trying to determine whether headless remains found in a wooden box in 2009 were Kelly's.

A lab in Argentina with expertise in obtaining DNA from war-crime victims was brought in to assist. Confirmation came when a DNA sample taken from a Melbourne schoolteacher, who is a great grandson of one of Kelly's sister, proved to be a match. Ned Kelly Was a Bank Robber and a Folk Hero in Australia "To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing," said Robert Clark, attorney general of Victoria state in Australia. The Ned Kelly story has become celebrated in Australia and around the world, retold in books, musical and movies, including a 1970 film starring Mick Jagger. Buses take tourists to the sites of Kelly's notorious shootings in Victoria. Kelly was a son of an Irishman shipped to Australia by British authorities for the crime of stealing two pigs. After his dad's death, Ned Kelly became a petty criminal himself, but his real troubles began after shooting a policeman, allegedly for harassing his sister. Kelly and his gang were on the run for two years, robbing the banks and the rich.

Although the gang killed a number of policemen, Kelly was celebrated as a champion of Australia's rural Irish, who felt oppressed by the British colonial authorities. Police eventually cornered Kelly in a hotel. After a nine-hour siege, he emerged in a suit of armor, but was shot in the leg and elbow, and captured. The other members of his gang were killed. After his conviction, Kelly was hanged, uttering the famous last words, "Such is life." His body was buried in an unmarked grave at a prison. When the facility closed in 1929, officials exhumed Kelly's body along with the remains of other executed convicts to move them to a nearby prison. But a mob of onlookers descended on the site and stole some of the bones. For years, Australians wondered what had become of Kelly's remains. Two years ago, a farmer stepped forward to say he had the skull. To determine if it was Kelly's, scientists exhumed and tested the tangle of skeletons at that second Melbourne prison. The bones of Kelly were identified -- but the skull was not a match. The whereabouts of Kelly's skull remain a mystery.

The Associated Press contributed to this report 0 Shares Remains of Australia's most infamous criminal ID'd Remains of Australia's most infamous criminal ID'd KRISTEN GELINEAU - Associated Press Share View photos In this photo supplied by Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, the headless remains of Australia's most infamous criminal, Ned Kelly is shown in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011. Through CT scans, X-rays, anthropological and historical research and DNA analysis, a team of scientists finally identified one of the skeletons exhumed with the remains of other executed inmates from a mass grave, as Kelly's. (AP Photo/Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine) More SYDNEY (AP) — The headless remains of Australia's most infamous criminal, Ned Kelly, have been identified, officials said Thursday, ending a decades-long mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the folk hero's body. Kelly, who led a gang of bank robbers in Australia's southern Victoria state in the 19th century, was hanged in 1880. His final resting place was unknown, though it was long suspected his body lay alongside 33 other executed inmates in a mass grave at a prison.

Officials pinpointed the location of the grave site in 2008 and later exhumed the bodies for analysis. A DNA sample from one of Kelly's descendants confirmed that one of the skeletons — which was missing most of its skull — was that of the notorious Ned, said Victoria Attorney General Robert Clark. "To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing," Clark said in a statement. Kelly, whose father was an Irish convict, led a gang that robbed banks and killed policemen from 1878-80. These days, he is considered by many Australians to be something of a Robin Hood or Jesse James-like character, fighting the British colonial authorities and championing the rural Irish underclass. For years, Australians have wondered what became of Kelly's remains. After he was executed at the age of 25, his body was buried in an unmarked grave at a prison called the Old Melbourne Gaol.

But when the facility closed in 1929, officials decided to exhume Kelly's body along with the remains of other executed convicts and move them to the nearby Pentridge Prison. The exhumation, however, turned into something of a debacle when a mob of onlookers descended on the site and stole some of the remains, including what was believed to be Kelly's skull. That skull was later recovered and put on display at the Old Melbourne Gaol — now a historic site — next to Kelly's "death mask," a plaster cast of his face made after his execution. In 1978, the skull was stolen again. Thirty-one years later, on Nov. 11, 2009, a farmer from Western Australia state named Tom Baxter handed the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine what he said was the stolen skull, which featured the inscription "E. Kelly" on its side — Kelly's actual first name was Edward. Baxter has not revealed how he got ahold of the skull. Scientists at the institute set out to determine who the skull belonged to, and to identify Kelly's full remains among the tangle of skeletons exhumed from the Pentridge site.

Through CT scans, X-rays, anthropological and historical research and DNA analysis, the team finally identified one skeleton as Kelly's. Most of its head was missing. Stephen Cordner, the institute's director, said the DNA left no doubt the skeleton was Kelly's. Tests on the remains also uncovered evidence of shotgun wounds that matched those Kelly suffered during his criminal rampage. "The wear and tear of the skeleton is a little bit more than would be expected for a 25-year-old today," Cordner said. "But such was Ned's life, this is hardly surprising." As for Baxter's "E. Kelly" skull? Not Ned's. The whereabouts of Kelly's skull remain a mystery, Cordner said. The DNA sample used for comparison came from Leigh Olver, a teacher in the Victoria capital of Melbourne and the great-grandson of Kelly's sister Ellen. On Thursday, he told reporters in Melbourne that he hoped his notorious ancestor will finally be laid to rest in a place of dignity. "It's such a great relief to finally have this side of the story resolved," Olver said. Kelly's story has been documented in several books and movies, including a film starring Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and another starring late actor Heath Ledger.

Kelly's use of homemade armor to protect himself from police bullets was even given a nod during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when actors on stilts dressed in similar armor were featured in the opening ceremony. "I think a lot of Australians connect with Ned Kelly and they're proud of the heritage that has developed as a result of our connection with Ned Kelly and the story of Ned Kelly," Olver said. "In our family, he was a hero." Reblog Ned Kelly's remains identified after 130 years - Telegraph Australia Ned Kelly's remains identified after 130 years It was one of the longest-enduring and most baffling mysteries to face Australian historians and scientists: what ever happened to the body of famed bush ranger and folk hero Ned Kelly? By Bonnie Malkin , Sydney 7:37AM BST 01 Sep 2011 But 130 years after Kelly was hanged for the murder of three policemen in Old Melbourne Gaol, the nation has finally got an answer. Researchers from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine have announced that, after an exhaustive 20-month search that included testing of more than 30 skeletons and a trip to Argentina, Kelly's remains have been positively identified.

The remarkable discovery was made by matching DNA from Kelly's sister's great grandson, Leigh Olver, with skeletal remains found in a mass grave in Pentridge Prison in Melbourne. The almost-complete skeleton, found in an unmarked wooden axe box, bore bullet wounds on the elbow, thigh and foot, sustained in the moments before Kelly was captured. Robert Clark, the Victorian Attorney General, said the efforts of the forensic team to identify the remains of "one of the most controversial characters" in Australian history were extraordinary. "To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, and moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners most of whom are not identified, is amazing," he said. Related Articles Ned Kelly's headless remains to be returned to his descendants 02 Aug 2012 Kelly wrote his place in Australian history when he and a gang of three other men took up arms against the British constabulary, robbing banks and becoming a symbol of Irish-Australian defiance against the authorities. After shooting dead three policemen in 1878, the gang remained on the run for two years, while Kelly's fame as a Robin Hood-style figure grew.

But his luck ran out in 1880, when – wearing a home-made suit of steel armour – he was finally arrested following a shoot-out with police. He was hanged in Old Melbourne Gaol later that year, aged just 25, and his body dumped in a mass grave in the prison yard. In 1929, during building work at Melbourne Gaol, the graves were relocated to Pentridge Prison, further complicating efforts to find him. There he may have remained forever, but in 2009, the hunt to track down Kelly's body was kick-started when a farmer handed a skull to police, claiming it belonged to Kelly. In an attempt to find a match for the skull, researchers exhumed 34 bodies from Pentridge Prison. The resulting CT scans, X-rays and pathology and odontology tests found that the skull did not belong to Kelly – and may in fact belong to notorious British killer and Jack the Ripper suspect Frederick Deeming – but that one set of bones did.

Dr Richard Bassed, part of the VIFM team that worked on the Kelly remains, said identifying the remains was only possible because when Kelly was killed prison wardens covered his body in lime, which, instead of accelerating decomposition, actually helped to preserve the bones. But extracting DNA from the remains was difficult, and researchers had to call in the help of a lab in Argentina, which has experience in obtaining DNA from war crime victims. Eventually the hard work paid off. "We spent a huge amount of effort over a long period of time, our biggest fear was that we wouldn't get any result at all," he said. "Getting a result was great, the fact that we found an almost complete skeleton with injuries consistent to his bullet wounds was beyond what we had hoped for." But the search is not over. The team still wants to find Kelly's skull, which Dr Bassed said it could be anywhere, but would be easily identifiable because it would be missing a piece at the back. "When Melbourne Gaol was knocked down for development there were stories of passers-by coming in and picking up bones and skulls and running off with them," he said.

"So it could well be sitting in someone's grandfather's shed or in a dusty cupboard, and hopefully one day someone will notice it. "Maybe this story will help bring his skull back to him, it would be great to have him all back together." In the meantime, Kelly's family will be consulted on the appropriate resting place for his remains.

Question: The remains of what late-1800s Australian folk hero were identified by DNA in 2011?
Answer: Ned Kelly