From 1883 Alice lived, off and on, with an Irishman named John McCormack (also Bryant) who was in the employ of some Jewish tailors in Hamburg Street as a porter, at various East End common lodging and doss-houses.
On January 1889 Alice was arrested for causing a disturbance in a butcher’s shop in Long Causeway, Peterborough, very near the Minster Precincts. Besides that, Alice worked for her Jewish neighbours as a washerwoman and charwoman, and from April she resided with John McCormack mainly at Mr. Tenpenny’s common lodging house, 52 Gun Street, Spitalfields. It was managed by Mrs. Elizabeth Ryder, wife of Richard John Ryder.
After she was murdered on July 17th, 1889, it would be several hours before she was identified, but John McCormack came forward during the day and recognised her. He stated that he did not know whether the deceased had been married, and that the reason of her going out last night was that they had had a slight quarrel, and that she had never, to his knowledge, been out late at night previously. He also said that she was a hard-working woman and was very much upset about her fate. He also identified the clay pipe as belonging to her.