Cultural depictions of Ned Kelly a "significant respect for authority". Former criminal and celebrity Chopper Read produced numerous paintings of Ned Kelly, alluding directly to Sidney Nolan's imagery. One of Read's paintings features Kelly with a woman's breasts. He explained that "it relates to the fact that I think Kelly was a homosexual, ... I'm not really a fan of his. I'm tired of people calling me the modern-day Ned Kelly." However, Read compared himself with Kelly in some of his paintings. One such self-portrait titled "Tast Ful Old Criminal" ["sic"] was purchased amid controversy by the State Library of Victoria in 2003. "The Story
Ned Kelly about 10pm, Ned Kelly and Byrne, along with schoolmaster Thomas Curnow, Dave Mortimer (Curnow's brother-in-law), postmaster E. Reynolds and R. Gibbens, went to capture Constable Bracken, stationed between Glenrowan and Benalla. Curnow was driving his buggy with his wife, sister, and the seven-year-old son of the postmaster, Alec Reynolds. Curnow managed to convince Ned to let them go after they had secured Bracken, promising not to leave his house. Ned told him to "go quietly to bed and not to dream too loud", and that if he acted otherwise they would get shot, as one of the gang would be