Alaska a/k/a Laksa ???

[SirRobertAnderson]

I think I may have found another connection between the Titanic and the Whitechapel Murders... a Malay cook called 'Lasca'.

One of my numerous obscure talents is being able to speak Malay. And there is a Malay dish called Laksa. Interestingly enough, it's a dish associated with the areas near Penang as well as Singapore, so you have a Straights connection which of course fits nicely with a sailor.

So perhaps Alaska is a corruption of Laksa .

Anyone want to do a bit of poking in the newspaper archive for someone with that name getting pinched for a violent crime before or after 1888 ?

[Dan Norder]

If someone drops an R (or the listener otherwise doesn't hear it) any Malay is bound to be called Lasca.

Works along the same principle as the various people called Frenchy.

[A.P. Wolf]

Dan, how many times do I have to spank your asp before you cry 'old yellow'?
Malays were not Lascars.

SACCHAR, GLOSSE, SAVAU, killing : murder, 1st June, 1808.

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey Ref: t18080601-31

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/thumbs/1800s/180806010026.gif
See original (http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/facsimiles/1800s/180806010026.html)
Trial Summary: