 During its operation , the gaol was the setting for 133 hangings . The most infamous was that of bushranger Ned Kelly at the age of 25 , on 11 November 1880 . After a two @-@ day trial , Kelly was convicted of killing a police officer . As stated by law at the time , executed prisoners were buried ( without head ) in unmarked graves in the gaol burial yard . The head was normally removed from the body as part of the <unk> study of hanged felons . Historian and associate professor of Wollongong University John <unk> states that the lack of monitoring for burial processes was odd , given Victorian society 's normally brilliant attention to detail . 
