Bill Skillion's talkative 'brother'? [Brian Stevenson]

Everybody wants a piece of the legend.

How many people have our readers met that have some distant, distant claim to fame related to the Ned Kelly story? And I mean distant. Well, even when many of the participants were still alive, there were folks around who were anxious for a share of reflected glory, no matter how loose the connection. And they were not above exaggerating their role in the proceedings either!

A case in point is one character who stepped forward to 'confess' his connections to the Kelly Gang at the unlikely venue of a Salvation Army meeting in Lithgow in November 1905. The confessor claimed to be James Skillion, brother of William, who many readers will know was married to Maggie Kelly and was sentenced to six years in gaol for his part in the so-called attempted murder of Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick.

William seems to be a luckless character all around. Six years in gaol for, at most, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and for, at least, a passing resemblance to Joe Byrne, and then to lose your wife to another while you were inside is not the stuff of which tales of lustrous and glittering fortune are made. And we can be sure that no one would have ever heard of poor old Bill, unable, in the words of his celebrated brother- in- law, to discern a revolver from a saucepan handle, had it not been for his family connections, but in turn of the century Lithgow, someone was eager to claim a connection, genuine or not, to him.

No one seems to have recorded (in a widely available source, anyway) whether William Skillion had a brother called James. In any case, this individual claiming to be James Skillion recounted some of his experiences to the Salvation Army meeting, no doubt enthralling his audience with his tales, presumably more than they would be had the meeting been a routine one.

And what good tales they were!

According to the Adelaide Advertiser of 20 November, 'Skillion told the Lithgow audience that in his capacity as telegraph for the gang he assumed various disguises, sometimes carrying a swag, at other times wearing a belltopper, and sometimes dressing in Kate Kelly's clothes.'

A belltopper, folks, is a sort of tall silk hat, remarkably unsubtle attire for someone in the Kelly country who was hoping to remain disguised. Lucky, was it not, that Kate and 'James' were the same dress size?

Skillion talked freely of his other escapades, and showed the audience the marks of a bullet wound in the fleshy part of his leg. Those of you who recall the claims of one of the many fake Dan Kellys around from a few years back will no doubt be relieved to realise that this chap at least did not have his initials carved into his buttocks!

According to James, the Kellys were generous with the proceedings of the money from their robberies. Indeed, he received three thousand pounds for his part in the affairs, and spent it in travelling through America and Great Britain with Kate Kelly and Kate Byrne, Joe's sister. (From what I recall, the Kellys used at least part of the money for needs more pressing than a Northern Hemisphere vacation for their relatives and associates.) James further claimed that the proceeds were shared amongst about 100 sympathisers, which means that his role must have been prominent indeed, given that the total proceeds from one of the two major robberies, Euroa, was only two thousand pounds.

Well, James seems to have only enjoyed his reflected glory for a short time. The sombre taciturnity of the Kelly family, the interviews with Cookson apart, is well known, but for some reason the utterances of James Skillion - if this was his name - were too much for Jack Kelly, also known as Jack King, and half-brother to Ned and Dan, and to Maggie, who had married Bill Skillion. (Maggie had been dead since 1896.)

Jack broke his silence with a letter to the Melbourne Argus, that was published on 24 November. Like his brothers, he was working with horses - but in an honest line of work at Wirth's Circus. He noted in his letter that William Skillion was still alive, and living in Greta, but directed most of his remarks to the subject of James.

Jack was scathing even with the minor details. James Skillion's so-called bullet wound, he claimed, was 'probably the mark left by a boil.' Jack also pointed out that the total spoils known to have resulted from the Euroa robbery were only two thousand pounds, one thousand less than James claimed to have received. Kate Kelly, according to Jack, never travelled outside of New South Wales or Victoria. Jack stated that he knew nothing of Kate Byrne, but that Joe Byrne's sister was Mary - actually, Byrne had four sisters, two of whom were named Catherine and Mary.

Jack also noted that Skillion had not named the person who made Ned's armour. 'For his reticence on the subject I can easily account by saying that Skillion doesn't know himself. I do know, but I do not think there are three other mean alive today who possess the same knowledge.'

There is a certain weariness about Jack's concluding remarks: 'Of late I, as well as the other remaining members of the Kelly family, have from time to time been annoyed by statements emanating from the lips of notoriety-seekers of the Lithgow-Skillion calibre - people who desire to become notorious, but are not endowed with a sufficient amount of courage to enable them to risk either liberty or life in so doing ... I am not aware that any James Skillion ever played any important part in connection with the gang of which I write. In fact, I am perfectly satisfied in my own mind that the claimant to notoriety never even saw my brothers.'