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 Aaron Sherritt was born
in 1855.
He was a strong,
athletic youth and had
a
swaggering demeanor and outgoing personality.
He was
said to be second
only to Ned in toughness,
a big call considering he saw Ned as almost superhuman.
Aaron was from a
Protestant family, but wound up attending
a
Catholic school where he was
destined to make the
acquaintance of Joe Byrne,
who was a couple of
years
his junior. The two boys were instantly drawn to one
another
and an
intense bond of friendship was forged,
with them becoming more like
brothers
than mates.
Aaron also had a romance with Joe's sister and Joe in turn
went out
with Aaron's sister.
They even spent time in gaol together.
Ultimately, this union was to end tragically as
the
two men lost their
friendship
and their lives within days of each other.
Joe Byrne murdered Aaron, his best friend after
becoming convinced that Aaron was
spying
for the
police.
Joe's mother had seen Aaron sleeping among a police cave-party and the game
was up!
The romance between Aaron and Joe's sister would now be terminated.
Aaron
had been
providing the police with 'cold' information and
accepting money from
them,
but he never gave enough useful information to endanger the gang.
Joe knew that
Aaron was sending the police on a wild goose chase, however not
all the police believed
Aaron was betraying the gang.
Unfortunately in the end
none of this mattered, Aaron
was seen by the gang as a spy
working for the
police. The police staying in the hut with Aaron and his young wife
often
visited Sherritt Senior to obtain
supplies. The Byrne children (Joe's siblings)
knew this
and therefore it was not a
secret that Aaron was working for the police. It seems that
everyone knew the police were living with Aaron. The biggest
mistake Aaron made was
not to inform Joe exactly how deep his involvement with the
police really was. He paid
for this error in judgment with his life. The police view of
Aaron was that had he not been
killed by the gang, he would also have
been lost to the police
and become a bushranger
himself. 
Herald
Dec 7 1880.
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