Harper Deveraux

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Harper Deveraux was a rich and powerful Senator who came to Salem with his wife Anjelica and adopted son, aspiring politician Jack Deveraux in 1987. Harper soon became involved in the mysterious computer disk that Victor Kiriakis and Serena Colville were after. When the disk ended up in his possession he was almost killed by an explosion set up in Mike Horton's lab where the disk was stashed. Harper enlisted the help of Steve Johnson to fake his death, but the blanks in Steve's rifle were replaced with real bullets, and Harper fell into a coma after being shot by Steve.

Harper recovered, but his son, Jack, became very ill with Hodgkin's disease. Jack Deveraux was in love with Nurse Kayla Brady who loved Steve Johnson who was, in actuality, Jack's biological brother. At this point, the truth of Jack's parentage was still unknown. Jack begged Kayla to marry him, and she did after being brutally rejected by Steve after Steve found out Jack was his baby brother. Steve wanted Jack to have a reason to live, so he pushed Kayla away. Kayla decided to help her friend end his life in peace by marrying him. The marriage gave Jack additional impetus to fight his disease and he successfully beat it into remission.

When Jack recovered, he and Kayla moved into the Deveraux mansion. Meanwhile Harper learned that Jack's true family was looking for him, so to keep his identity a secret he stole the adoption papers from Jo Johnson. When the papers turned up missing he thought Kayla had them so he tried to kill her with poison. Later Melissa Anderson was arrested and charged with the attempted murder. Her alleged motivation was her love for Jack Deveraux.

Kayla was unable to consummate her marriage to Jack because she loved Steve, and when she became ill, she had additional reason to push Jack away. Steve learned that someone was poisoning Kayla, so he kidnapped her from the Deveraux household to protect her. During this time, he came clean about why he pushed her away, telling Kayla that Jack was his baby brother Billy. Kayla and Steve reunited and began an affair, but Steve begged Kayla to wait until after Jack's election was over before ending the marriage. Jack continued to try to get close to his wife who always put him off. On election night he was handed pictures of Steve and Kayla kissing, and it was obvious by the clothes Kayla was wearing that it had happened on New Years when Jack had made plans to start his marriage off to Kayla, plans that were thwarted when she pretended to be ill and was unable to leave the location of the new years eve party that they were attending. Jack was blinded by rage and when he and Kayla arrived home at the loft where they now lived, he emotionally confronted Kayla with evidence of her affair after she rebuffed him once again, and then he raped her in a jealous rage.

Jack began to torment Kayla and Steve and then Steve and Jack fought on the rooftop of the loft, leading Jack to fall to his near death. Steve saved Jack's life by giving him a kidney. Not long after, Jack tried to unearth the secret of who Steve's long lost brother was, hoping to dig up some unsavory dirt. He found out that he was that brother, and he was devastated.

When Harper's wife Anjelica became pregnant Harper ordered her to have an abortion. Angelica refused, not knowing that Harper was hiding a secret from her. When Jack learned he was adopted Anjelica learned that Harper was sterile, so the father of her unborn baby was Justin Kiriakis.

Harper developed a strong unbalanced hatret of women after seeing so many women in his life betray him and his son Jack. He began attacking the women of Salem. He attacked Eve Donovan, who survived but was scarred by a knife slash across her cheek. Harper then attacked, and killed Janice Barnes. His next victim was Kayla Brady, who survived the attack but went deaf and mute as a result. Harper then attacked Kimberly, who was working undercover as a prostitute. Kimberly survived, but lost the child she was carrying.

When Kayla recalled the identity of her attacker she rushed to tell her sister Kimberly. Unfortunately Harper took them both hostage and planned to finish the jobs he started on them Harper was eventually stopped by Steve Johnson. Harper was sent to prison, but vowed to get revenge on Steve.

Later that year Victor Kiriakis, with the help of Jack Deveraux, arranged a jail break so that Harper could leave the country. The plan didn't go off as planned, Harper was shot while trying to get to the airport. Jack took him to the Riverfront Clinic where he took Kayla hostage again. Steve rescued Kayla, and Harper was sent back to prison once again.

Harper later escaped from prison in 1990, and tried to stop Kayla and Steve's wedding. By now, Jack had reconciled himself with being Steve's brother, and had learned to take responsibility for the terrible things he had done. After saving Kayla and Steve's life a few times while trying to help the two put their relationship back together after the Toscano incident, Jack was asked by Steve to be best man at Steve's wedding. Before Jack could leave for the church, Harper came and tried to get his help. When Jack begged Harper to go with him back to the prison, Harper knocked him out and took his car. Harper was going to shoot Steve from the bell tower, and Jack, when he regained consciousness, made his way frantically to the church to stop his adoptive-father from killing Jack's brother. In an emotional confrontation, Jack begged Harper not to hurt Steve. Harper refused and Jack rushed forward to stop him from shooting. In the ensuing scuffle, Harper fell to his death while fighting with Jack on the bell tower.