A farmer in Australia has handed in a skull for forensic testing, claiming it is that of Ned Kelly, the country’s most notorious outlaw.
Tom Baxter, from the remote town of Derby in Western Australia, said the skull had been in his possession for the last 30 years. This week he handed it in to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine after visiting the grave where a headless skeleton, believed to be that of the outlaw, was found last year.
Baxter did not explain how he had acquired the skull, saying only: “I don’t even consider that it was an act of theft and I haven’t admitted to being the person who took it.”
PHOTO: AFP
The whereabouts of the bushranger’s skull is one of Australia’s most enduring historical mysteries: It was separated from his body soon after he was hanged in 1880 for murdering a policeman.
After a series of bank raids and a shoot-out in which three police were killed, Kelly’s last stand was a 10-hour gun battle in which he was clad in homemade armor that became the stuff of legend.
Even before his death, such was the interest in Kelly that 30,000 people signed a petition protesting against his execution. After he was hanged, authorities removed his head and handed it to phrenologists to study for evidence of his criminal nature. Phrenology — the study of skulls to determine a person’s character and mental ability — was popular in the 19th century.
His torso was buried at Old Melbourne Gaol. When it closed in 1929 all the human remains there were transferred to Victoria’s Pentridge prison. During the transfer, workers plundered a grave marked EK in the belief it was Kelly’s, while the foreman collected the skull and handed it to the Australian Institute of Anatomy. It was put on display in Old Melbourne Gaol, by then a museum, in 1971, but was stolen in 1978 and has been missing ever since.
Speculation over its whereabouts was renewed last year when archeologists exhuming a mass grave at Pentridge prison found what they believe to be Kelly’s skeleton.
Kelly’s exploits have inspired films, TV series, songs and books — and a fierce debate about his place in Australian history. Opinion remains divided over whether he was a cold-hearted killer or a young man driven to crime because of poverty and social injustice.
Victoria State Attorney General Rob Hulls said forensic tests would be conducted to determine if the skull was authentic. A Kelly family descendant has previously offered to provide samples for genetic tests.
“To some, he was a revered Aussie icon. To others, he was nothing but a cold-blooded killer. Whatever people’s views he is a dominant part of the historic fabric of this nation,” Hulls said.
Jeremy Smith of Heritage Victoria said doubts remained about whether the skull displayed at the jail was Kelly’s.
“It’s quite possible that the skull was confused or mixed with another skull, so we can’t have a high degree of confidence,” he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of