Talk:Ned Kelly

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Ned Kelly article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help. Assume good faith Be polite and avoid personal attacks Be welcoming to newcomers Seek dispute resolution if needed Article policies Neutral point of view No original research Verifiability

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1Auto-archiving period: 3 months

This article is written in Australian English, which has its own spelling conventions (centre, realise, program, labour (but Labor Party)) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

This  level-5 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects.

Biography Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation. Australia: Victoria / Melbourne / Crime Top‑importance Australia portal Ned Kelly is within the scope of WikiProject Australia, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Australia and Australia-related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page. Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by WikiProject Victoria (assessed as Top-importance). This article is supported by WikiProject Melbourne (assessed as Top-importance). This article is supported by WikiProject Australian crime (assessed as Top-importance). Need help improving this article? Ask a Librarian^What's this? at the National Library of Australia, or the State Library of Victoria. The Wikimedia Australia chapter can be contacted via email to helpwikimedia.org.au for non-editorial assistance. Crime and Criminal Biography High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of crime and criminal biography on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Ireland Low‑importance Ireland portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ireland, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Ireland on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. Guild of Copy Editors This article was copy edited by a member of the Guild of Copy Editors.

A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on 12 dates. [show] November 11, 2004, June 28, 2005, June 28, 2006, November 11, 2006, June 28, 2007, November 11, 2007, June 28, 2008, June 28, 2009, June 28, 2010, June 28, 2015, November 11, 2023, and June 28, 2025

Police-murderer?

Why does the lead paragraph describe him as a police-murderer? Are police lives more valuable in Australia? Sorry. I'm American. Maybe I don't get it because we at least pretend to value all human life equally even if we dont always live up to it. And also everyone here hates the police except the police, their wives/husbands, and the mob bosses that pay them to ignore their crimes. And Republicans, I guess. They want to enforce their way of life on everyone else by any means necessary. But seriously, are we suggesting that killing a policeman is a worse crime than killing someome else? Not if Im on the jury. 2600:1702:AC1:3BA0:8DB:1F30:8D14:FE09 (talk) 16:19, 4 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Because Kelly was convicted of murdering a policeman. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 22:26, 4 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Was he? The article says he "was convicted of the willful murder of Lonigan". Yes, he murdered someone who was a policeman, but it's not clear to me that the crime was different form murdering a non-policeman. The source is a book, so I can't check. HiLo48 (talk) 09:33, 5 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Back in those days the police and government were very corrupt and they regarded non-police officers not as highly. Ned shooting the officers also showed that if he could kill some police officers then he could easily kill some commoners, so the people feared him. King kobra2 (talk) 10:03, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Reason for killing officers

I think that in the paragraph on the reasoning of Ned killing officers during stringybark incident there should be a mention that in Ned's letters he says that he only killed constable Kennedy because he saw the constable already shot multiple times and wanted to give him mercy. ( I would have edited it myself but I have already been for editing other pages badly, so hopefully someone else with more experience can do it (: ) King kobra2 (talk) 10:13, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Opening sentence of lead

@Captain Cornwall I have again tried to reach a compromise. In a biographical article, the first sentence of the lead should establish: "The main reason the person is notable (key accomplishment, record, etc.)" MOS:BIOFIRSTSENTENCE. My previous compromise attempt read: "Ned Kelly was an Australian bushranger, gang leader, outlaw, bank-robber and police-murderer." I have dropped "outlaw" and "bank robber". You prefer simply "bushranger and gang leader". The problem is that a gang leader can mean anything from a juvenile delinquent who steals sand shoes from other gangs to the mastermind a a major criminal organisation. Kelly and his gang were most notable for robbing banks and killing three police officers. Kelly was convicted and hanged because he killed policemen. I see no reason why the first sentence of the lead should not concisely state exactly what he did. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 23:39, 29 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]