1882: Ned Kelly's Executioner Jailed for Indecent Exposure in Melbourne

Elijah Upjohn had hanged Ned Kelly at Melbourne Gaol in 1880, earning five pounds for the job. Two years later he was back in front of a City Court bench, this time as the accused: drunk in Carlton, he exposed himself in front of witnesses, to whom he tossed peppermints moments before.

Fined 10 pounds or three months, Upjohn refused to pay and was sent to Melbourne Gaol, the very institution he had served as executioner. While locked up he kept working, flogging inmates at Pentridge under sentence, and walked free at year's end with wages still owed to him.

Elijah Upjohn: Executioner of Bushranger Ned Kelly
Elijah Upjohn: Executioner of Bushranger Ned Kelly

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On This Day in True Crime History
1863·Given a Glass of Brandy and Told to Shoot: A Servant Hanged in Melbourne for a Shanty Murder
1863·The Lover Whose Pistol Misfired: David Gedge Hanged in Melbourne for a Murder Near Mansfield
1863·On the Scaffold, She Begged Her Lover to "Clear Her": the First Woman Hanged in Melbourne
1880·Such Is Life: Ned Kelly Hanged in Melbourne for the Murder of Constable Lonigan
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