BONES OF CRIMINALS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20703, 29 April 1929, Page 5

BONES OF CRIMINALS.

NED KELLY’S SKELETON., MORBID SOUVENIR HUNTERS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April IS. Extraordinary scenes followed in the flagged yards of the old Melbourne Gaol when in the process of excavations, the hones of several convicts who had been executed in the dim past, were uncovered. They had rested,there for nearly half u century, and included the remains of Australia’s most famous bushranger, Ned Kelly, and the world-fan,ions murderer, Deeming. The morbid rush of the workmen for souvenirs has disgusted many people with finer tastes—those who cannot imagine what it was that prompted anyone to desire such strange reminders of the grim past. The, discovery of the bones was not unexpected, A few weeks ago a stone marked “E. K.”, and bearing the imprint of a broad arrow, was removed from above the spot by a workman excavating in the old gaol yard for the foundation of the engineering school of the Working Men’s College. The bodies were exposed when It-hc lip of the steam shovel torn the lid from the rough wooden coffin in which Kelly’s body bad been buried. The coffin was about live or six feet below the original surface of the ground. Immediately the discovery was made there was a rush of workmen to the spot. The bones, which were remarkably well preserved, were taken by the workmen to be kept as mementoes. The contractor, Mr H. Lee, himself secured the skull. . There was a complete set of teeth in the upper jaw, hut the morbid souvenir hunters 'removed most of them. So it may be presumed that there are people- in Melbourne''who today proudly point to the fact that they possess, .one of Ned Kelly’s teeth. Neil Kelly, whose career makes one, of the most exciting stories of Australian bnsbranging days, was hanged in Melbourne Gaol on November 11, 1880. It took some days for a feeling of disgust to. arise in the minds of the people generally, but eventually, owing no doubt to the pressure of public opinion, the Government decided that no more bones should be removed by the workmen from the prison burial ground. Any hones that were, found would he taken into the charge of the Prisons Department until it was decided what was to become of them, Tims ended an’incident that docs not redound to the credit of the State of Victoria. •