How Elijah Upjohn went from chicken thief to Ned Kelly’s hangman

Victoria’s “gentleman hangman” strung up Ned Kelly, whipped prisoners and was so despised he was hunted by angry mobs.

Elijah Upjohn was an ex-convict and chicken thief who hanged Ned Kelly.

While Elijah Upjohn once tried to present himself as a “gentleman hangman”, Ned Kelly’s executioner was a former convict, quack doctor, chicken thief and all-round ratbag.

Intriguingly, Upjohn also long worked as a nightman, ridding society of human waste, a job with undoubted parallels to his later job as hangman.

Upjohn is the subject of the new episode of the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters:

His story is told in a new book called Hanging Ned Kelly, by Michael Adams, host of the Forgotten Australia podcast.

Upjohn and other hangmen were so despised that they were hunted by angry mobs.

But Adams says Upjohn differed from other hangmen in that he had tried to turn his life around after serving his time as a convict in Tasmania.

He resettled in Geelong, started a carting business, married and had five sons.

After moving to Ballarat he became a nightman, emptying the town’s cesspools and carting away human waste.

Hanging Ned Kelly, by Michael Adams.

Michael Adams, host of Forgotten Australia podcast and author of Hanging Ned Kelly.

In the 1870s, he promoted quack cures, claiming his concoctions had cured breast cancer.

But in 1880, he was caught after raiding the chicken coop of a bank manager, having wrung the necks of several birds.

In court, he blamed his life’s woes on his wife and children, but was jailed just when Victoria needed a new hangman. Upjohn volunteered, enticed by the £5 fee per hanging.

Melbourne’s hangmen also doubled as the city’s scourgers, so Upjohn also wielded the cat-o’-nine-tails, for £1 a time.

The Old Melbourne Gaol, circa 1861. Picture: State Library of Victoria

“In the period between putting his hand up to be the hangman and hanging Ned Kelly, Elijah warmed up, I guess, by doing a lot of floggings out at Pentridge,” Adams says.

“Initially the reviews were really bad. The reporters were unhappy that he wasn’t putting his back into it.”

But Adams says Upjohn warmed to the task, and was soon ripping into criminals to the satisfaction of newspaper reporters.

On November 11, 1880, at the Old Melbourne Gaol, Ned Kelly became Upjohn the hangman’s first customer.

Ned Kelly in chains at the Old Melbourne Gaol shortly before he was hanged.

Hangman Elijah Upjohn's Victorian prison record.

Later, the prison’s governor said Upjohn needed help with everything except pulling the bolt.

After serving his sentence, Upjohn could have returned to his old life, but chose to remain as Victoria’s hangman and scourger.

At one time, Upjohn tried to present himself as a “gentleman hangman”, giving an interview for The Herald.

Adams says when asked once how he felt about hanging men, Upjohn replied, “I take no mind of it; it doesn’t affect me at all.”

“The other hangmen said similar things but they also all drank epic amounts of alcohol,” Adams says.

“It seems to me they were deeply traumatised.”

To learn more, listen to the interview about Elijah Upjohn with Michael Adams in the In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.