A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878. According to testimony later given by Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick, in early 1878 he was shot at by Ned Kelly when he went to the Kelly house to arrest Ned’s brother Dan. The Kellys' mother and brother-in-law were jailed for their parts in the melee, and Ned and Dan went into hiding together in the Wombat Ranges near Mansfield, Victoria. On 25 October the officers camped at Stringybark Creek, where Ned marked them. The next day, when Kennedy and Scanlan went out to search the surrounding bush, the 'Kelly gang' - Ned, Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart - ambushed Lonigan and McIntyre. Ned shot Lonigan dead; after Kennedy and Scanlan returned, Ned killed them also. McIntrye escaped to Mansfield and related the story to his colleagues. Within weeks the Victorian government advertised huge rewards for the Kelly gang members, and these rewards increased in the ensuing months. The 'siege of Glenrowan' took place in June 1880; Dan Kelly, Byrne and Hart all died there. Kelly survived, and was executed in November that year.
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