Alaska
A sailor named George M. Dodge, told the story of how on 13 August, after arriving in London from China aboard the steamship Glenorchy, he met a Malay cook named Alaska, at Queens music hall Poplar. The Malay told him a tale of how he had been robbed of all his money by a woman of the town, and said that unless he found the woman he would kill and mutilate every woman in Whitechapel that he met. The Malay was described as 5ft 7" tall, 35 years of age and weighed about 10-11 stone. Dodge claimed that the Malay lived in a street near the East India Dock Road, though would not reveal exactly where until he had checked if there was a reward offered. Detectives were sent to make inquiries at the Glen Line steamship company, though could find no trace of the man.
Mr Wood, the manager of the Queen's music hall, where Dodge claimed to have met Alaska, said that he had heard nothing of the alleged robbery of the Malay. Axel Welin, secretary of the Scandinavian sailors temperance house, West India Docks, which was extremely popular with foreign sailors, scanned the books, but could find no trace of Dodge, nor the Malay. Mr Freeman, the manager and superintendent of the Asiatic home, said that he had been at the home for thirty years and had never heard of a Malay named Alaska. The newspapers appeared to be of the opinion that the story was nothing more than a sailors yarn.
