Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 – 1918), Saturday 3 July 1880, page 3
THE GLENROWAN TRAGEDY.
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Our Melbourne correspondent writing yesterday says :— There is nothing fresh to report about Ned Kelly’s condition nor his diet, which is still farinaceous. The armor which he wore when captured was brought to Melbourne. It was taken to the Minister of Railways’ office this afternoon, and a few people were allowed to gaze upon it. You will notice that, according to the latest telegrams from the district, the statement that Kelly shot Cherry is contradicted.
(FROM THE “ARGUS.”)
MARTIN CHERRY.
BENALLA, Thursday.
It has transpired that the unfortunate line repairer Martin Cherry was not shot by the police, but by Ned Kelly, and that intentionally. The fact was at first suppressed by those who knew it out of a fear that they might be marked men if they made the disclosure. Three of the prisoners have, however, ventured to tell the police, on the condition that their names should not be published. They were interviewed separately, and their statements all correspond. When the gang fired their first volley from the verandah of the hotel, they retired inside. Ned Kelly, as is already known, was wounded on the foot and arm. He went to the window of the front parlor to fire again on the police, but the blind was down, and having one arm wounded he could not hold it aside and fire at the same time. He therefore ordered the old man Cherry to hold the blind up while he fired. Cherry refused, and Kelly at once shot him with his rifle in the groin, and he fell. From what has transpired, it appears that the Kelly gang fully intended to make a raid on one of the banks in Benalla had their plan succeeded in upsetting the railway train. When Ned Kelly was asked whether he intended to rob the Colonial Bank at Benalla, he said, “Oh no; Brock, the manager, is decent sort of cove; we wouldn’t harm him. We should have stuck up the other bank though.” The bank that narrowly escaped a visit from the Kelly gang is the Bank of New South Wales.
(“FROM THE HERALD”)
NED KELLY DID NOT SHOOT CHERRY.
Benalla, Friday.
The statement made that Ned Kelly shot Cherry in the hotel, because he would not lift up the window blinds, is contradicted by a large majority of those who were in the building during the encounter. They state that after Ned Kelly went outside the first time, he never came back again. Cherry was inside and alive when Ned went out. The boy Reardon, who was accidentally shot, is in a bad way at the Wangaratta Hospital. He is suffering great pain, and as the bullet has not been extracted, his recovery will take a long time — if he recovers at all. It entered his shoulder, glanced off the collar bone, and lodged in his body in the region of the lungs. He is thirteen years of age. He is very cheerful, but in a low state. Speaking on the subject of the shooting of Cherry, he contradicts the statement that Ned Kelly shot him. He says, “I ran out of the hut when I saw mother outside. The police were firing at the house all round. When I got a little way off I heard my little brother crying and calling on me not to leave him, because he could not run fast enough. I then went back to the hotel and picked him up in my arms. I ran down the paddock with him. Just then some one shouted, “There he is. Look out; here comes a man with a gun.” A heavy volley was poured into the hut by the police, and I felt I was shot in the shoulder. I could not carry my little brother any more, and so I put him down and went back to the hotel. Inside, the women were screaming and rushing about from one room to another. The outlaws were followed about by them. Ned Kelly was not in the hut at that time, and Cherry was alive. I was pushed against the wall and bruised. No one would pay any attention to my cries for help or give me a drink.”
A RUDE “INFERNAL MACHINE ” FOUND.
BENALLA, Friday,
Early this morning, one of the children of the stationmaster, whilst crossing from the gate-house to the track at the rear of M’Donnell’s Hotel, came across a keg of blasting powder planted in a log about fifty yards away. The powder was carefully packed in an oil can, and an opening left for the insertion of a fuse. The apparatus could easily be used in its present form for the purpose of blowing up any place if such a course of action were necessary. It was conveyed to the station, and left in charge of the police.
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Glenrowan 