James Kenneth Stephen
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James Kenneth Stephen (February 25, 1859–February 3, 1892), poet and tutor to Prince Albert Victor ("Eddy"), Duke of Clarence and Avondale. Perceived as a misogynist, he suffered from serious physical and mental problems after an accident occurring during the winter of 1886/1887. J.K. Stephen as he signed himself - was a King's Scholar at Eton College. The fact that he was a King's Scholar meant that he was in College - the most historic part of the school - as opposed to one of the normal houses for the majority of boys who are not King's Scholars. Stephen was noted for his prodigious size and physical strength. He was also a renowned intellectual who spoke in a pedantic but highly articulate and entertaining manner. He bore some of the hallmarks of Asperger's syndrome. His father was a barrister-at-law.
At Eton, J K Stephen was a legendary player of the Wall Game. He played for College on St. Andrew's Day four times, as a wall, in 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1877. In the last two years he was keeper, or captain, of College Wall. College beat the Oppidans by 4 shies to nil in his first year as keeper and by 10 shies to nil the next year. Ever after, the King's Scholars have honoured J K Stephen's memory with a toast at the Christmas Soc Supper - In Piam Memoriam J.K.S. ("In pious memory of J.K.S.").
J.K. Stephen went up to King's College, Cambridge as a King's Scholar. He later became a notorious bore, visiting Eton on the slightest excuse and staying with the Master-in-College for several days at a time. J.K. Stephen is rumoured to have been an active homosexual. He was a Cambridge don. A play about him - positing the theory that he was Jack the Ripper - premiered at the Eton Drama festival in 1993. The playwright is Old Etonian and former Eton housemaster Angus Graham-Campbell. The play is entitled, "Sympathy for the Devil".
J.K. Stephen was a published poet. He wrote a satirical pastiche of Thomas Grey's 'Ode to the Distant Prospect of Eton College' in which Stephen pilloried Eton for being Tory. J.K. Stephen wrote misogynistic poesy saying that if all the evil that women had done were collected it could not be contained in the entire world. He calls violence against women 'work'. Jack the Ripper in his letters to the police called the murders 'work'. Moreover, Angus Graham Campbell has a note in his possession which J.K.Stephen wrote to Graham-Campbell's grandafather inviting him to a party whist Graham-Campbell's grandfather was an undergraduate at Cambridge. The handwriting in this note is remarkably similar to that of the Jack the Ripper letters that were sent to the police, taunting them about the murders. Some think J.K. Stephen carried out these horrid crimes because he was distraught that Prince Eddy was due to marry. Some believe that Stephen and Prince Eddy were gay lovers. Prince Eddy was due to wed Princess Alexandra of Denmark - as it happened he died before the marriage could take place and the said Dane married Prince Eddy's younger brother - the future George V.
J.K. Stephen had several brothers but no sisters. He was known as 'Jem' among his family and close friends. He later was committed to a mental asylum called St Andrew's Hospital. He died of mania according to his death certificate. He has been virtually excluded as a suspect for the Jack the Ripper murders on the basis that the murders occured at a certain time of night and J.K. Stephen is recorded to have delivered lectures to dozens of undergraduates the following morning in Cambridge. Looking at railway timetables from 1888 it is impossible that he committed the murders and was able to get back to Cambridge in order to deliver his lectures the next morning. There is a very faint possibility that he could have had access to a car or ridden the 65 miles from London to Cambridge after each murder. [citation needed]
