Why was Ned Kelly an outlaw?
Ned Kelly started the "Kelly Gang" because he felt that the poor
needed something more. So, Ned stole from the rich and gave to the
poor, acting like a transition program. He stole no money from
himself. After years of stealing, there was one big war. His two
mates shot each other to escape the world, and Ned himself was shot
twenty-six times all over despite his "armor". Few years after,
Ned's crimes caught up to him and he was hung.
The above is a completely contrived answer, with absolutely no
truth.
To begin with, Ned Kelly did not steal from the rich and give to
the poor. He stole from whomever he wanted, and kept it all for
himself, apart from giving some to his own immediate family. There
was no war. His mates did not shoot each other.
Ned Kelly did have a "beef" against the law, and this is why he
started bushranging, and recruited family and friends as his gang.
The story goes that Ned Kelly was influenced to become a
bushranger. His family was not particularly liked by the law, and
so when he was persecuted by a few of the policemen, he reacted and
decided to become an outlaw. He figured that if he was going to be
charged for something, he would give them a real reason.
Kelly became a protege to another bushranger, Harry Power who
was a notorious bushranger of Victoria, originally transported to
Van Diemen's Land in 1841 for stealing shoes. Upon his release, he
continued his life of crime, which landed him in Pentridge Gaol. He
became a bushranger when he escaped from Pentridge in 1869. At
first he worked solo, but decided after while that he would like an
accomplice. A friend of his named Jack Lloyd had a nephew, Ned
Kelly, just 15 years old and already embittered by frequent run-ins
with the police. Lloyd recommended the young Ned Kelly to Harry
Power. Power became a mentor to Ned Kelly, taking him on as an
apprenctice in 1870, and teaching him the finer points of
bushranging.
Ned Kelly gradually progressed to crimes of increasing
seriousness and violence, including bank robbery and murder, soon
becoming a hunted man.