When it came time to hang Ned Kelly, the job fell to
crap-carrier-turned-quack-doctor-turned-drunken-chicken-thief Elijah Upjohn.
Such is life indeed. Hanging Ned Kelly looks at the life and times, crimes and
demise of Australia's most famous anti-hero from a new perspective: that of the
'rogue and vagabond' who finally put the noose around his neck. Here, Elijah
Upjohn's tale becomes the rusty scalpel that slices open the underbelly of
colonial Victoria. Written by Michael Adams, creator of the acclaimed podcast
Forgotten Australia, this is an odyssey into an infernal underworld seething
with serial killers, clueless cops, larrikin vigilantes, renegade reporters,
racist settlers, furious fallen women and cunning waxworks showmen. Looming over
them all: the deranged hangmen paid to execute convicted men and women - some of
them innocent or unfairly condemned - in Melbourne before it was marvelous.