WEBVTT
00:00:01.289 --> 00:00:04.389
The rain over Northeastern Victoria didn't wash
00:00:04.389 --> 00:00:06.809
away the dirt. It just turned into a soup that
00:00:06.809 --> 00:00:09.470
stuck to your boots like bad memories. It was
00:00:09.470 --> 00:00:13.490
April 1878, and the Australian bush didn't care
00:00:13.490 --> 00:00:16.070
about justice any more than a cheap bookie cares
00:00:16.070 --> 00:00:19.969
about your rent money. I'm sitting on a three
00:00:19.969 --> 00:00:23.170
-legged stool in Greta, nursing a glass of colonial
00:00:23.170 --> 00:00:26.050
brandy that tasted like turpentine and regret,
00:00:26.570 --> 00:00:28.969
watching the flies do laps around a kerosene
00:00:28.969 --> 00:00:32.140
lamp. In my line of work, you learn to read the
00:00:32.140 --> 00:00:36.020
silence. Out here, the silence was heavy, pregnant
00:00:36.020 --> 00:00:37.899
with the kind of trouble that wears a uniform
00:00:37.899 --> 00:00:42.000
but doesn't look you in the eye. Her name was
00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.039
Kate Kelly. Fourteen years old, but in the bush
00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:47.780
years are measured in droughts and heartaches,
00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:50.899
not calendar pages. She had eyes the color of
00:00:50.899 --> 00:00:54.200
a bruised plum and a spine made of iron bark.
00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:57.000
But that night, she was just a kid caught in
00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.380
the headlights of a system designed to run her
00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:02.369
down. The setup was as old as the hills. You
00:01:02.369 --> 00:01:05.129
had the squatters, the big -money gents who owned
00:01:05.129 --> 00:01:07.650
everything from the fertile valleys to the local
00:01:07.650 --> 00:01:10.950
politicians. And you had the selectors. The Kellys
00:01:10.950 --> 00:01:15.390
were selectors. Irish. Poor. Catholics in a Protestant
00:01:15.390 --> 00:01:18.629
circuit. To the law that made them guilty of
00:01:18.629 --> 00:01:23.370
breathing without a license. Enter Alexander
00:01:23.370 --> 00:01:29.950
Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick was a constable. which
00:01:29.950 --> 00:01:33.329
meant he had a badge, a horse, and a license
00:01:33.329 --> 00:01:36.030
to make a nuisance of himself. He wasn't a big
00:01:36.030 --> 00:01:39.090
man, but he carried himself like he'd personally
00:01:39.090 --> 00:01:41.670
invented the British Empire. He had a reputation
00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:44.469
that smelled worse than a dead sheep in a water
00:01:44.469 --> 00:01:48.510
tank, frequently drunk, always broke, and a liar
00:01:48.510 --> 00:01:51.310
by instinct. If he told you it was raining, you'd
00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:53.909
look out the window to double check. He rode
00:01:53.909 --> 00:01:56.049
into the Kelly selection that evening under the
00:01:56.049 --> 00:01:58.730
guise of a warrant for Dan Kelly, Ned's younger
00:01:58.730 --> 00:02:01.790
brother. A horse stealing charge. Around these
00:02:01.790 --> 00:02:04.629
parts, stealing a horse from a squatter was practically
00:02:04.629 --> 00:02:09.550
a hobby, a way of balancing the ledger. The Kelly
00:02:09.550 --> 00:02:12.889
cabin smelled of wood smoke, boiled mutton, and
00:02:12.889 --> 00:02:16.729
the damp wool of survival. Ellen Kelly, the matriarch,
00:02:16.930 --> 00:02:18.969
was there with a newborn babe at her breast.
00:02:19.449 --> 00:02:22.909
Dan was at the table, eating his supper, and
00:02:22.909 --> 00:02:25.370
Kate was in the corner, trying to stay invisible.
00:02:26.210 --> 00:02:28.740
Fitzpatrick didn't care about the warrant. Not
00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:31.680
really. He cared about the power. He sat himself
00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:34.500
down, reeking of cheap schnapps and authority,
00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:37.280
and started looking at Kate. Not the way a cop
00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:39.900
looks at a citizen. The way a stray dog looks
00:02:39.900 --> 00:02:43.879
at a butcher's shop. You're a pretty little thing,
00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:46.860
aren't you? Fitzpatrick said, his voice thick,
00:02:47.259 --> 00:02:49.659
his eyes tracking her like a hawk on a field
00:02:49.659 --> 00:02:53.300
mouse. Kate shrunk back, but Fitzpatrick didn't
00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:56.479
take the hint. He moved in close. Too close.
00:02:56.719 --> 00:03:00.439
Dropping a heavy sweaty hand on her arm. It wasn't
00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:03.319
police business anymore. It was an assault cloaked
00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:08.319
in a blue coat Now Ellen Kelly wasn't the type
00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:10.879
of woman to file a formal complaint and wait
00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:13.620
six months for a magistrate to ignore it She
00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:17.099
was a bushwoman She picked up a heavy iron coal
00:03:17.099 --> 00:03:19.520
shovel from the hearth and brought it down on
00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:22.400
Fitzpatrick's helmet with the force of a falling
00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:26.159
red gum clang It sounded like a church bell tolling
00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:29.620
for a funeral that hadn't happened yet. Dan Lumet.
00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:33.000
Fitzpatrick scrambled back, drawing his revolver,
00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:36.180
but Dan was faster, wrestling the iron out his
00:03:36.180 --> 00:03:40.340
hand. According to Fitzpatrick's later report,
00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:43.360
the one written in nice, neat ink on government
00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:45.979
paper, Ned Kelly burst through the door right
00:03:45.979 --> 00:03:48.759
then and put a bullet through his wrist. But
00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:51.280
Ned wasn't even in the territory. He was miles
00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:54.360
away, probably tracking cattle, or looking for
00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:57.080
clean break. The doctor who looked at Fitzpatrick's
00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:00.159
wrist the next day said it plain. It wasn't a
00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:03.180
bullet wound. It was a scratch. A superficial
00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.979
nick probably from the edge of the shovel or
00:04:05.979 --> 00:04:08.520
the latch on the door during the scuffle. A cheap
00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:12.199
flesh wound used to buy an expensive lie. Fitzpatrick
00:04:12.199 --> 00:04:15.240
rode out of their bloody, embarrassed, and looking
00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:19.680
for vengeance. The law didn't wait for a trial.
00:04:20.279 --> 00:04:23.019
They didn't need one. They arrested Ellen Kelly.
00:04:23.259 --> 00:04:26.259
a mother with a nursing infant, and dragged her
00:04:26.259 --> 00:04:28.560
to the lockup. They put her in front of a judge
00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.680
who looked at her Irish face and saw a weed that
00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:34.339
needed pulling. They gave her three years of
00:04:34.339 --> 00:04:36.879
hard labor based entirely on the word of a drunk
00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:41.180
cop with a scratched wrist. When Ned heard what
00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:43.500
they'd done to his mother, something cracked
00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:46.379
inside him. The system hadn't just been him.
00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:49.579
It had broken his family. He and Dan took to
00:04:49.579 --> 00:04:53.259
the wombats. The deep Unforgiving ranges where
00:04:53.259 --> 00:04:56.100
the scrub grows thick and the law doesn't go
00:04:56.100 --> 00:05:00.420
without a company of infantry. A few months later,
00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:03.259
at a place called Stringy Bar Creek, the trap
00:05:03.259 --> 00:05:05.899
was sprung. Four cops came looking for Ned and
00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:08.620
Dan, carrying enough firepower to start small
00:05:08.620 --> 00:05:11.139
war. They weren't looking to arrest, they were
00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:14.139
looking to kill. Ned ambushed the camp. When
00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:16.879
the smoke cleared from under the blue gums, three
00:05:16.879 --> 00:05:21.430
officers lay dead in the dirt. That was the point
00:05:21.430 --> 00:05:24.509
of no return. You kill three troopers in Her
00:05:24.509 --> 00:05:27.069
Majesty's colony and you're no longer a thief.
00:05:27.529 --> 00:05:29.930
Your target. The government passed the Felons
00:05:29.930 --> 00:05:32.949
Apprehension Act. A fancy piece of legalese that
00:05:32.949 --> 00:05:35.209
meant anyone with a rifle could put a bullet
00:05:35.209 --> 00:05:38.230
in Ned Kelly's brain and collect a fat sack of
00:05:38.230 --> 00:05:41.949
gold for the trouble. But Ned wasn't running
00:05:41.949 --> 00:05:44.790
anymore. He was digging in. He didn't just want
00:05:44.790 --> 00:05:47.509
to survive. He wanted to make a statement. He
00:05:47.509 --> 00:05:50.589
took the iron moldboards from stolen plows. The
00:05:50.589 --> 00:05:53.389
very tools used to break the stubborn soil, and
00:05:53.389 --> 00:05:56.269
he beat them into something else. He forged a
00:05:56.269 --> 00:06:00.230
suit of armor for pieces of iron, 44 kilograms
00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:03.610
of heavy, unyielding defiance. A cylindrical
00:06:03.610 --> 00:06:06.569
helmet with a slit just wide enough to see the
00:06:06.569 --> 00:06:11.589
world that hated him. By June 1880, it all came
00:06:11.589 --> 00:06:14.769
down to a tiny whistle stop called Glenrowan.
00:06:15.069 --> 00:06:17.629
Ned had a plan. He was going to derail a police
00:06:17.629 --> 00:06:20.730
train, take the survivors hostage, and forced
00:06:20.730 --> 00:06:22.970
the government to release his mother. It was
00:06:22.970 --> 00:06:26.069
a grand, desperate play. A republic of Victoria,
00:06:26.629 --> 00:06:29.290
born out of the mud and the blood of selectors.
00:06:31.269 --> 00:06:33.709
But plans in the bush have a habit of rusting.
00:06:34.129 --> 00:06:36.589
A local schoolteacher sneaked out and warned
00:06:36.589 --> 00:06:39.790
the train. The cops arrived in force, surrounding
00:06:39.790 --> 00:06:41.990
the Glen Rowan and where the Kelly Gang was holed
00:06:41.990 --> 00:06:45.310
up. The siege lasted through the night. The hotel
00:06:45.310 --> 00:06:48.029
was riddled with thousands of rounds of ammunition.
00:06:48.470 --> 00:06:52.360
Inside, The gang drank, waited, and put on their
00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:57.680
iron skins. At dawn, the mist rose off the flats.
00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:01.180
Out of the smoke walked Ned Kelly. He looked
00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:03.699
like a ghost from an industrial nightmare. A
00:07:03.699 --> 00:07:06.899
man of iron walking through the eucalyptus, his
00:07:06.899 --> 00:07:09.720
long gray coat draped over the metal plates,
00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:13.139
his revolver barking into the fog. The police
00:07:13.139 --> 00:07:16.100
fired and the bullets just pinged off his chest
00:07:16.100 --> 00:07:19.040
like hailstones on a tin roof. He kept coming,
00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:22.220
laughing through the ice slit, tapping his helmet
00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:25.540
with his pistol. Click clack. I'm a widow's son,
00:07:25.819 --> 00:07:28.120
he shouted into the morning air. You can't hurt
00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:32.360
me. For a minute, the cops thought they were
00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:34.779
fighting a demon. But a uniform doesn't make
00:07:34.779 --> 00:07:38.100
you smart, it just makes you persistent. Eventually,
00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.480
a sergeant noticed the fatal flaw in the blacksmith's
00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.259
design. The armor covered his head, his chest,
00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:47.430
his back. But his legs were bare. moving like
00:07:47.430 --> 00:07:50.470
heavy trunks through the swamp grass. They blow.
00:07:52.389 --> 00:07:54.910
Two blasts of buckshot caught him in the thighs
00:07:54.910 --> 00:07:58.250
and the shins. The iron giant stumbled. The weight
00:07:58.250 --> 00:08:00.790
of his own defiance brought him down into the
00:08:00.790 --> 00:08:04.089
mud. They swarmed him like ants on a fallen beetle,
00:08:04.629 --> 00:08:08.310
tearing the helmet from his head. For months
00:08:08.310 --> 00:08:10.889
later, they stood him on a scaffold at the Melbourne
00:08:10.889 --> 00:08:14.120
jail. Fitzpatrick wasn't there to see it. He'd
00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:16.060
already been kicked out of the police force for
00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:18.899
being a habitual liar and a drunk, his badge
00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:23.540
taken away too late to save anyone. Before they
00:08:23.540 --> 00:08:26.060
put the hemp rope around Ned's neck, he looked
00:08:26.060 --> 00:08:29.199
out at the witnesses, his eyes as cold and steady
00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:32.159
as the high country. He didn't beg. He didn't
00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:34.720
apologize. He just summed up the whole rotten
00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:39.879
business in four short words. Such is life, he
00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:42.960
said. The trapdoor dropped. and the Iron Man
00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:45.519
became a legend. But back in the Greta Bush,
00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:48.779
the rain kept falling, turning the soil into
00:08:48.779 --> 00:08:51.480
mud, waiting for the next poor bastard to try
00:08:51.480 --> 00:08:56.179
and plow it. As always, stay curious, my friends.
00:00:01.289 --> 00:00:04.389
The rain over Northeastern Victoria didn't wash
00:00:04.389 --> 00:00:06.809
away the dirt. It just turned into a soup that
00:00:06.809 --> 00:00:09.470
stuck to your boots like bad memories. It was
00:00:09.470 --> 00:00:13.490
April 1878, and the Australian bush didn't care
00:00:13.490 --> 00:00:16.070
about justice any more than a cheap bookie cares
00:00:16.070 --> 00:00:19.969
about your rent money. I'm sitting on a three
00:00:19.969 --> 00:00:23.170
-legged stool in Greta, nursing a glass of colonial
00:00:23.170 --> 00:00:26.050
brandy that tasted like turpentine and regret,
00:00:26.570 --> 00:00:28.969
watching the flies do laps around a kerosene
00:00:28.969 --> 00:00:32.140
lamp. In my line of work, you learn to read the
00:00:32.140 --> 00:00:36.020
silence. Out here, the silence was heavy, pregnant
00:00:36.020 --> 00:00:37.899
with the kind of trouble that wears a uniform
00:00:37.899 --> 00:00:42.000
but doesn't look you in the eye. Her name was
00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.039
Kate Kelly. Fourteen years old, but in the bush
00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:47.780
years are measured in droughts and heartaches,
00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:50.899
not calendar pages. She had eyes the color of
00:00:50.899 --> 00:00:54.200
a bruised plum and a spine made of iron bark.
00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:57.000
But that night, she was just a kid caught in
00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.380
the headlights of a system designed to run her
00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:02.369
down. The setup was as old as the hills. You
00:01:02.369 --> 00:01:05.129
had the squatters, the big -money gents who owned
00:01:05.129 --> 00:01:07.650
everything from the fertile valleys to the local
00:01:07.650 --> 00:01:10.950
politicians. And you had the selectors. The Kellys
00:01:10.950 --> 00:01:15.390
were selectors. Irish. Poor. Catholics in a Protestant
00:01:15.390 --> 00:01:18.629
circuit. To the law that made them guilty of
00:01:18.629 --> 00:01:23.370
breathing without a license. Enter Alexander
00:01:23.370 --> 00:01:29.950
Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick was a constable. which
00:01:29.950 --> 00:01:33.329
meant he had a badge, a horse, and a license
00:01:33.329 --> 00:01:36.030
to make a nuisance of himself. He wasn't a big
00:01:36.030 --> 00:01:39.090
man, but he carried himself like he'd personally
00:01:39.090 --> 00:01:41.670
invented the British Empire. He had a reputation
00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:44.469
that smelled worse than a dead sheep in a water
00:01:44.469 --> 00:01:48.510
tank, frequently drunk, always broke, and a liar
00:01:48.510 --> 00:01:51.310
by instinct. If he told you it was raining, you'd
00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:53.909
look out the window to double check. He rode
00:01:53.909 --> 00:01:56.049
into the Kelly selection that evening under the
00:01:56.049 --> 00:01:58.730
guise of a warrant for Dan Kelly, Ned's younger
00:01:58.730 --> 00:02:01.790
brother. A horse stealing charge. Around these
00:02:01.790 --> 00:02:04.629
parts, stealing a horse from a squatter was practically
00:02:04.629 --> 00:02:09.550
a hobby, a way of balancing the ledger. The Kelly
00:02:09.550 --> 00:02:12.889
cabin smelled of wood smoke, boiled mutton, and
00:02:12.889 --> 00:02:16.729
the damp wool of survival. Ellen Kelly, the matriarch,
00:02:16.930 --> 00:02:18.969
was there with a newborn babe at her breast.
00:02:19.449 --> 00:02:22.909
Dan was at the table, eating his supper, and
00:02:22.909 --> 00:02:25.370
Kate was in the corner, trying to stay invisible.
00:02:26.210 --> 00:02:28.740
Fitzpatrick didn't care about the warrant. Not
00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:31.680
really. He cared about the power. He sat himself
00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:34.500
down, reeking of cheap schnapps and authority,
00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:37.280
and started looking at Kate. Not the way a cop
00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:39.900
looks at a citizen. The way a stray dog looks
00:02:39.900 --> 00:02:43.879
at a butcher's shop. You're a pretty little thing,
00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:46.860
aren't you? Fitzpatrick said, his voice thick,
00:02:47.259 --> 00:02:49.659
his eyes tracking her like a hawk on a field
00:02:49.659 --> 00:02:53.300
mouse. Kate shrunk back, but Fitzpatrick didn't
00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:56.479
take the hint. He moved in close. Too close.
00:02:56.719 --> 00:03:00.439
Dropping a heavy sweaty hand on her arm. It wasn't
00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:03.319
police business anymore. It was an assault cloaked
00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:08.319
in a blue coat Now Ellen Kelly wasn't the type
00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:10.879
of woman to file a formal complaint and wait
00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:13.620
six months for a magistrate to ignore it She
00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:17.099
was a bushwoman She picked up a heavy iron coal
00:03:17.099 --> 00:03:19.520
shovel from the hearth and brought it down on
00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:22.400
Fitzpatrick's helmet with the force of a falling
00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:26.159
red gum clang It sounded like a church bell tolling
00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:29.620
for a funeral that hadn't happened yet. Dan Lumet.
00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:33.000
Fitzpatrick scrambled back, drawing his revolver,
00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:36.180
but Dan was faster, wrestling the iron out his
00:03:36.180 --> 00:03:40.340
hand. According to Fitzpatrick's later report,
00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:43.360
the one written in nice, neat ink on government
00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:45.979
paper, Ned Kelly burst through the door right
00:03:45.979 --> 00:03:48.759
then and put a bullet through his wrist. But
00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:51.280
Ned wasn't even in the territory. He was miles
00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:54.360
away, probably tracking cattle, or looking for
00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:57.080
clean break. The doctor who looked at Fitzpatrick's
00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:00.159
wrist the next day said it plain. It wasn't a
00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:03.180
bullet wound. It was a scratch. A superficial
00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.979
nick probably from the edge of the shovel or
00:04:05.979 --> 00:04:08.520
the latch on the door during the scuffle. A cheap
00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:12.199
flesh wound used to buy an expensive lie. Fitzpatrick
00:04:12.199 --> 00:04:15.240
rode out of their bloody, embarrassed, and looking
00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:19.680
for vengeance. The law didn't wait for a trial.
00:04:20.279 --> 00:04:23.019
They didn't need one. They arrested Ellen Kelly.
00:04:23.259 --> 00:04:26.259
a mother with a nursing infant, and dragged her
00:04:26.259 --> 00:04:28.560
to the lockup. They put her in front of a judge
00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.680
who looked at her Irish face and saw a weed that
00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:34.339
needed pulling. They gave her three years of
00:04:34.339 --> 00:04:36.879
hard labor based entirely on the word of a drunk
00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:41.180
cop with a scratched wrist. When Ned heard what
00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:43.500
they'd done to his mother, something cracked
00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:46.379
inside him. The system hadn't just been him.
00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:49.579
It had broken his family. He and Dan took to
00:04:49.579 --> 00:04:53.259
the wombats. The deep Unforgiving ranges where
00:04:53.259 --> 00:04:56.100
the scrub grows thick and the law doesn't go
00:04:56.100 --> 00:05:00.420
without a company of infantry. A few months later,
00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:03.259
at a place called Stringy Bar Creek, the trap
00:05:03.259 --> 00:05:05.899
was sprung. Four cops came looking for Ned and
00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:08.620
Dan, carrying enough firepower to start small
00:05:08.620 --> 00:05:11.139
war. They weren't looking to arrest, they were
00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:14.139
looking to kill. Ned ambushed the camp. When
00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:16.879
the smoke cleared from under the blue gums, three
00:05:16.879 --> 00:05:21.430
officers lay dead in the dirt. That was the point
00:05:21.430 --> 00:05:24.509
of no return. You kill three troopers in Her
00:05:24.509 --> 00:05:27.069
Majesty's colony and you're no longer a thief.
00:05:27.529 --> 00:05:29.930
Your target. The government passed the Felons
00:05:29.930 --> 00:05:32.949
Apprehension Act. A fancy piece of legalese that
00:05:32.949 --> 00:05:35.209
meant anyone with a rifle could put a bullet
00:05:35.209 --> 00:05:38.230
in Ned Kelly's brain and collect a fat sack of
00:05:38.230 --> 00:05:41.949
gold for the trouble. But Ned wasn't running
00:05:41.949 --> 00:05:44.790
anymore. He was digging in. He didn't just want
00:05:44.790 --> 00:05:47.509
to survive. He wanted to make a statement. He
00:05:47.509 --> 00:05:50.589
took the iron moldboards from stolen plows. The
00:05:50.589 --> 00:05:53.389
very tools used to break the stubborn soil, and
00:05:53.389 --> 00:05:56.269
he beat them into something else. He forged a
00:05:56.269 --> 00:06:00.230
suit of armor for pieces of iron, 44 kilograms
00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:03.610
of heavy, unyielding defiance. A cylindrical
00:06:03.610 --> 00:06:06.569
helmet with a slit just wide enough to see the
00:06:06.569 --> 00:06:11.589
world that hated him. By June 1880, it all came
00:06:11.589 --> 00:06:14.769
down to a tiny whistle stop called Glenrowan.
00:06:15.069 --> 00:06:17.629
Ned had a plan. He was going to derail a police
00:06:17.629 --> 00:06:20.730
train, take the survivors hostage, and forced
00:06:20.730 --> 00:06:22.970
the government to release his mother. It was
00:06:22.970 --> 00:06:26.069
a grand, desperate play. A republic of Victoria,
00:06:26.629 --> 00:06:29.290
born out of the mud and the blood of selectors.
00:06:31.269 --> 00:06:33.709
But plans in the bush have a habit of rusting.
00:06:34.129 --> 00:06:36.589
A local schoolteacher sneaked out and warned
00:06:36.589 --> 00:06:39.790
the train. The cops arrived in force, surrounding
00:06:39.790 --> 00:06:41.990
the Glen Rowan and where the Kelly Gang was holed
00:06:41.990 --> 00:06:45.310
up. The siege lasted through the night. The hotel
00:06:45.310 --> 00:06:48.029
was riddled with thousands of rounds of ammunition.
00:06:48.470 --> 00:06:52.360
Inside, The gang drank, waited, and put on their
00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:57.680
iron skins. At dawn, the mist rose off the flats.
00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:01.180
Out of the smoke walked Ned Kelly. He looked
00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:03.699
like a ghost from an industrial nightmare. A
00:07:03.699 --> 00:07:06.899
man of iron walking through the eucalyptus, his
00:07:06.899 --> 00:07:09.720
long gray coat draped over the metal plates,
00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:13.139
his revolver barking into the fog. The police
00:07:13.139 --> 00:07:16.100
fired and the bullets just pinged off his chest
00:07:16.100 --> 00:07:19.040
like hailstones on a tin roof. He kept coming,
00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:22.220
laughing through the ice slit, tapping his helmet
00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:25.540
with his pistol. Click clack. I'm a widow's son,
00:07:25.819 --> 00:07:28.120
he shouted into the morning air. You can't hurt
00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:32.360
me. For a minute, the cops thought they were
00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:34.779
fighting a demon. But a uniform doesn't make
00:07:34.779 --> 00:07:38.100
you smart, it just makes you persistent. Eventually,
00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.480
a sergeant noticed the fatal flaw in the blacksmith's
00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.259
design. The armor covered his head, his chest,
00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:47.430
his back. But his legs were bare. moving like
00:07:47.430 --> 00:07:50.470
heavy trunks through the swamp grass. They blow.
00:07:52.389 --> 00:07:54.910
Two blasts of buckshot caught him in the thighs
00:07:54.910 --> 00:07:58.250
and the shins. The iron giant stumbled. The weight
00:07:58.250 --> 00:08:00.790
of his own defiance brought him down into the
00:08:00.790 --> 00:08:04.089
mud. They swarmed him like ants on a fallen beetle,
00:08:04.629 --> 00:08:08.310
tearing the helmet from his head. For months
00:08:08.310 --> 00:08:10.889
later, they stood him on a scaffold at the Melbourne
00:08:10.889 --> 00:08:14.120
jail. Fitzpatrick wasn't there to see it. He'd
00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:16.060
already been kicked out of the police force for
00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:18.899
being a habitual liar and a drunk, his badge
00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:23.540
taken away too late to save anyone. Before they
00:08:23.540 --> 00:08:26.060
put the hemp rope around Ned's neck, he looked
00:08:26.060 --> 00:08:29.199
out at the witnesses, his eyes as cold and steady
00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:32.159
as the high country. He didn't beg. He didn't
00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:34.720
apologize. He just summed up the whole rotten
00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:39.879
business in four short words. Such is life, he
00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:42.960
said. The trapdoor dropped. and the Iron Man
00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:45.519
became a legend. But back in the Greta Bush,
00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:48.779
the rain kept falling, turning the soil into
00:08:48.779 --> 00:08:51.480
mud, waiting for the next poor bastard to try
00:08:51.480 --> 00:08:56.179
and plow it. As always, stay curious, my friends.
