Ned Kelly
In 1978 the skull of infamous bush ranger Ned Kelly vanished from it's museum display case at the Old Melbourne Gaol. In 2009 a Western Australian farmer, Tom Baxter negotiated with Heritage Victoria to hand the skull back. He had stolen the skull as a young man because he was appalled that the remains of an Australian Political hero could be displayed as a trophy. Since the hand over a team of scientific investigators have been working on identifying the skull and the skeletal remains thought to be Ned Kelly's . The skeleton had been removed from a mass grave at the Old Melbourne Gaol along with an estimated 34 other executed prisoners remains. The objective was to identify Ned Kelly's remains by matching DNA with living relatives. Then to see if the DNA matched that of the Skull. Working concurrently, Lawyer Fiona Leahy and historian Helen Harris were on the paper trail to find out what had happened to Ned Kelly's remains after his execution. Was there an autopsy in which doctors may have tried to shed light on the great criminals brain! Some newspapers of the time (1880) suggested there was an autopsy but no proof has been found and the articles were possibly just sensationalising the truth. There had previously been 2 times in which the mass graves had been dug up providing chance for souvenier hunters to grab a bone or a skull. In fact in 1929 on the 1st occasion the site was dug up a construction worker named Alex Talbot had taken a skull (believed to be Neds) home to keep it safe from bone scavengers. This skull was handed back to an un-named government official, only to be many years later stolen by Tom Baxter. The DNA provided by living descendant Leigh Oliver proved the bones to be Ned Kelly but not the Skull. There is a suggestion that after performing craniofacial superimposition on the skull it could belong to Fred Deeming. An English prisoner at the gaol executed for killing his wife and children, who also happens to be (according to British and American newspapers of the time) one of the top suspects in the case of Jack the Ripper. So what has happen to Ned Kelly's real skull? No one knows! But at least Ned Kelly's death wish will come true for him 132 years after his execution. He will receive a proper Christian burial.
