James Kenneth Stephen – Was he Jack the Ripper? James Kenneth Stephen was an English poet. He was born in 1859, in London, to James (a lawyer) and Mary Stephen. He died in 1892 at the age of 32, locked up in a psychiatric hospital. In the last century he was also named as a suspect in the Whitechapel murders, committed by the murderer (or murderers) known as Jack the Ripper. This is a much debated topic. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Between April 3, 1888 and February 13, 1891, eleven women (mostly prostitutes) were murdered in the Whitechapel neighborhood of London. at least five of them were killed by Jack the Ripper, and the remaining six were attributed to him but not proven (although the likelihood is that Jack's body count is only the original five). Many suspicions have been raised in the century since the murders, but no one has been definitively identified as the killer. Suspects range from poor dockworkers to princes in line to the British throne. James Stephen is just one of the men in the discussion. In reality, there is very little chance that James Stephen was Jack the Ripper. His "connections" to the case (if they can be called that) are very uncertain and depend on his links to others suspected of being Jack the Ripper. There are several suspects who can be properly linked to the case, such as Aaron Kosminski, Walter Sickert, Karl Feigenbaum, and Montague Druitt - Stephen isn't really one of them. Initially introduced as a suspect by author Michael Harrison in 1972, Stephen's connections to the case are very tenuous and do not have much credibility. His connection to the case comes from Prince Albert Victor, whom Stephen acted as guardian, with whom he became friends and eventually became a little obsessed, to the point that he refused to eat after hearing of the death of the former and died of hunger. It was also suggested that they had a secret relationship, but this was never proven. For what it's worth, both Stephen and Albert have had several public romances or crushes with women. Albert was touted as a possible suspect, but government records show he could not have committed any of the murders as he was not in London on any of the dates involved in the case - and even if he could have been, Jack's methodology suggests knowledge of Whitechapel (a very poor neighborhood in London) that someone of Prince Albert's social status would not have had. Albert was in places like Scotland, Sandringham and Yorkshire while the murders were committed, but never in London. Stephen himself, therefore, seems less and less likely to be the man the detectives were looking for. At six feet tall, he towered over all the men spotted by witnesses, all in the 5'5-5'8 range. Another "evidence" cited by Harrison is Stephen's misogyny demonstrated in some poems (although it can be argued that his statements, such as those about the perceived inconsistency between the amount of problems caused by women and men, are satirical and not should be taken seriously) and his mental instability probably caused by a head injury when he was around 25 years old, which obviously cannot be taken as evidence. It should be noted that Stephen was not known to be violent, especially in a murderous way. He was also not known to have been in the area at the time of the murders, although of course this doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't Jack the Ripper. As a professor at Cambridge (which is sixty miles from London), he would have to be in two different places at the same time in order to commit murder inLondon and back to Cambridge to teach the next morning - sixty miles in one day. overnight is not doable without a car, especially with the less well-maintained 19th century roads. Experts generally agree that the killer was originally from Whitechapel. A letter addressed to GeorgeLusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee (a group of men who patrolled the area in an attempt to stop the murders), presumably written by Jack himself, suggests that Jack could not write or use a pen very well, which did not applies to Stephen. The dates of the murders (weekends and holidays) suggest that Jack had a regular job which would not apply to Stephen either. Overall, Jack's literacy (or lack of) in letters, his knowledge of anatomy (demonstrated by the way he dealt with organs in attacks), and the dates of his murders suggest to me that he could have been a butcher ignorant or other similar occupation who lived in the poor Whitechapel area, a long way from an upper-class poet who lived much further north. To be fair to Stephen's accusers, he cannot be completely ruled out as a suspect by the dates of the murders: he was committed to an asylum in November 1891 and died there a few months later, dying of starvation. The last murder that investigators are sure was committed by Jack was committed in November 1888, and the last murder suspected to have been committed by Jack was committed in February 1891. In 1896 he was struck by one of the blades of a mill wind whilst on holiday in Felixstowe on the east coast of England. Although no serious effects were immediately noted, anecdotes from people who knew him and dealt with him later suggest that he at times became belligerent, strange, and generally very different from his usual behavior. He became prone to sudden outbursts of temper and bizarre actions, although he was never known to stoop to murder. He suffered from bipolar disorder and it may have been aggravated by his injury. He has also been called misogynistic due to some objectionable poems. While I agree with the idea that he was a sarcastic person and these poems are mostly jokey, he has a few poems with suspicious lines such as the ones describing his indifference towards the murder of an annoying woman. Michael Harrison suggested that Stephen was reciting one of his poems, "Air: Kaphoozelum", in which ten women are killed (although Harrison did not adequately fact-check and named one woman who was not even killed). Overall, though, the likelihood is that Jack's victims are limited to the first five women, and with each victim added thereafter, it becomes increasingly difficult. Graffiti located near one of the crime scenes with anti-Semitic sentiments suggests a connection to Freemasonry. , but there is no evidence that Stephen was a Freemason and he was not known to express any anti-Semitism. Links have been made to a leather apron worn by criminals active at the time of the murders, which of course could be linked to Freemasonry (which has received confusing and varying accusations of anti-Semitism and a massive Jewish conspiracy), but as the apron was of skin is more likely not as white as has been suggested. A leather apron may have been owned by a butcher or an artist such as Walter Sickert. While Stephen certainly did and thought some questionable things, none of these are really a valid and conclusive link to the murders. Michael Harrison's accusations never really made sense and have unfortunately been given credence by many "Ripperologists" in the years since he first suggested Stephen's role in.