The first night Ned Kelly was escorted from the Beechworth courthouse to his jail cell, two little boys were waiting to catch a glimpse of the famous bushranger.
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Police would load up Ned in a horse and carriage and drive him the few hundred metres to the gate of the jail, Burke Museum's senior researcher Keith Warren said.
Word got around the town and by the fourth night there were 30 kids gathered expectantly, he revealed.
"Those kids chased behind the carriage and the newspaper of the day describes Ned mock shooting at them out the back window," Mr Warren said.
"You can imagine the story of how 'Ned Kelly shot me' went up and down the dinner table that night - and probably for generations to come."
These previously undiscovered stories are coming to light thanks to the diligence of Burke Museum staff who have been collating preliminary research as part of The Beechworth Historic Courthouse Kelly Trials Project.
Indigo Council is in the process of appointing a museum design company to deliver the project, which will re-create the tales, triumphs and tragedies of the courthouse using state-of-the-art projection technology interwoven with traditional displays and storytelling.
Mr Warren, supported by Burke Museum assistant Hollie Barclay, spent much of 2020 COVID-19 lockdown scouring through court transcripts, public records, history books and other sources to pull together summaries of the 40 trials related to the Kelly family.
Burke Museum and Cultural Heritage manager Cameron Auty said the research had identified who was on trial, which court officials took part, who was the judge, as well as the outcome and any other information available.
Some of the key trials at the courthouse include Ned Kelly's trial for horse theft, Ellen Kelly's trial for attempted murder, and Harry Power's trial for bushranging.
But the aim of this research was to dig deeper into the trials that were less well known - such as Ned's uncle and aunt, his brother Dan and other gang members, according to Mr Auty.
"Another significant finding has been the involvement of Beechworth residents, particularly their roles as jury members, solicitors and police," he said.
"Burke Museum records provided much information about the role townspeople played during the trials.
"We're really excited about bringing this local story to life."
