NED KELLY: The Stringybark Creek Police Murders
Doug Morrissey
Paperback, 434 pages
ISBN: 9781922449153
Release Date: October 2020
In this his final book in a trilogy of works dealing with Ned Kelly and his
community. Doug Morrissey presents the definitive account of the Stringybark
Creek Police Murders. The ambush murder of three policemen at Stringybark
Creek in October 1878 was Ned Kelly’s greatest crime. Ned shot and killed
Michael Kennedy, Michael Scanlan and Thomas Lonigan and arrogantly blamed
them for their deaths. Sergeant Kennedy endured a two hour interrogation and
suffered a particularly callous and coldblooded death. Thomas McIntyre escaped
the carnage and wrote a lengthy memoir of the Stringybark Creek encounter,
which is annotated and published in Morrissey’s book for the first time. Doug
unravels the Stringybark Creek Police Murders distinguishing myth from fact in
an even handed and scholarly fashion. Newly researched material in the book
provides insight into the family and professional lives of each of the Stringybark
Creek policemen. Victim Impact Statements from Kennedy, Lonigan and McIntyre
descendants are included. Regrettably, Michael Scanlan has no Victim Impact
Statement as no family members could be located. Among the photographs
included is Sergeant Kennedy’s gold watch looted from his dead body by Ned
Kelly. More than the famous Kelly armour, Kennedy’s watch is a potent symbol of
the bushranger’s evil deeds. What he did at Stringybark Creek legally cost Ned
Kelly his life. He aggressively chose to confront the police and the die was cast
for everything that followed.
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