DICTIONARY OF CRIME 4th EDITION M to Z
Part Two of Two: M to Z
A PSYCHOLOGIST’S DICTIONARY OF CRIME VOLUME ONE – ‘M’ TO ‘Z’
This is the Part Two of the fourth edition of our dictionary. The entire dictionary is too long for a single post so I have split this edition of the dictionary into two.
For Part One of this Dictionary, 1-L, click here.
In fact, even this single post is too long for e-mail. I suggest getting the app. It will make your whole experience of Substack that much better:
As ever, some of the language is a little blue.Reader discretion is advised. Please don’t read on if you are easily offended.
All terms are from the UK unless otherwise specified.
M
Mad hatter
Drug dealer
Magic bullet theory
Another term for single bullet theory.
Malefactor
Baddie, or one who does wrong.From Latin malefact, meaning ‘done wrong’. See maleficium.
Maleficium
The evil done by a witch. In Early Modern times, witches were blamed for a wide range of disasters, including milk souring, crib death, and one’s penis going missing.
Man for breakfast
Term used by settlers in the Old West for a murdered body found at dawn. One could rate the safety of various drinking establishments in the early days of, say, Los Angeles, by saying how many men they had for breakfast this week.
Marching powder
Cocaine.
Mark
The sucker in a confidence trick.
Mary Jane
Hipster term for marijuana.
Masher
Annoying, if not necessarily criminal, fellow who makes a habit of trying to seduce women he does not know.
Mate of Death
Term often used in Germany to refer to a city’s executioner, who often doubled as its chief torturer. Other terms included ‘Suspensor’ and ‘Scharfrichter’.
Mattoon, Mad Anaesthetist of
Also known as the Mad Gasser. Criminal who almost certainly never existed, but exemplifies the interesting psychological phenomenon of mass hysteria. The criminal – if he or she ever existed – was active in Virginia, USA, in 1933-4. Over the course of three months, a number of families smelt odd odours in their houses and felt ill. A reward was posted, and vigilante posses roamed the streets. On one single day, police investigated nine individual cases, and found each one had a natural explanation, involving neither madness not anaesthetists. The whole craze seemed to be a case of over-excitable imaginations.
Meat-eater
Cop (particularly in the NYPD) who is exceptionally corrupt. Cf. grass-eater.
Memphis Mafia
Ever-changing entourage of Elvis Presley, including quite a range of extras from his life-story. Some were family-members, some were hangers-on, some were both, neither, or in between. Some were directly employed; others subsisted on such benefits as free cars and even houses. Very few members of the Memphis Mafia were ever women.
Mercader
Russian spy term for a hit squad. Named for the Spanish agent who assassinated Leon Trotsky in Mexico City.
Mercy seat
Term originally meaning the covering of the Ark of the Covenant, or throne of God, or seat in a church used to support a person who prays for a long time. Used ironically in a song by Nick Cave to refer to the electric chair.
Merry Pranksters
Group of young people from the anti-establishment counterculture in the US in the mid to late 1960s who crossed the country under the leadership of the author Ken Kesey, in a psychedelically-painted bus with the non-word Furthur at the front in place of a destination. The Merry Pranksters were responsible, along with the rock band The Grateful Dead, for the notorious Acid Tests.
Meth mouth
Common symptom of prolonged methamphetamine abuse is witches teeth. Severe gum disease with either tooth decay or missing teeth. Close to 100% of meth users have cavities; more than half have untreated tooth decay; about a third have missing teeth. There can also be damage to the actual jawbone.
Mickey Finn
Term first appearing in the 1890s. Drink served at a dive bar in (usually) New York, although it was named after a barkeeper from Chicago. It contained chloral hydrate, which does nothing good for the heart. The idea was to render a likely-looking victim senseless so he could be robbed more easily. The original Mickey Finn supposedly purchased the recipe from a New Orleans voodoo doctor.
Mill ken
Flash term for housebreaker.
Minor Attracted Person (MAP)
Term recently introduced to replace ‘child-molester’ or ‘paedophile’.
Miscreant
Ne’er do well or bad person. I’d always assumed it simply meant one who was ‘mis-created’, but in fact comes into English from an Old French word meaning ‘disbelieving’. Hence, a ‘miscreant’ is a ‘heretic’.
Missouri toothpick
A long sharp knife.
Mitney
Now obsolete, but never very common, term for a police officer. Probably derived from the habit of putting his or her mitts on the shoulders of culprits when arresting them.
Molly whop
American prison slang. A beating, either given or received.
Mouthpiece
Criminal defence lawyer (slang).
Mugger money
Small quantity of cash carried in a readily-accessible pocket to hand to muggers in the hope they might go away without investigating whether you also have a wallet, purse, money belt, etc.
Murder ballad
Genre of music, rooted in folk, that became popular in northern Europe in the 16th century. Murder ballads usually form a narrative covering the planning, commission, and aftermath of a crime. Today, the genre is probably most closely associated with the US, although many murder ballads popular there have British sources. The transplanted music has taken on overtones from blues, hillbilly, country, and other genres. They often, although not exclusively, depict male murderers and female victims. Murder Ballads is also the title of a studio album by the rock band, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
Mustache Pete
Derogatory name given to old-school, Sicilian-type mafioso of the sort who ran organised crime in its early days in the United States. The Mustache Petes were wiped out by Lucky Luciano and his associates under cover of a big internecine Mafia war in 1931. Luciano thereafter became Capo di Tutti Capi in all but name.
Mutt and Jeff
Interview or interrogation technique where the two police officers take opposing views of the topic, in the hope that the interviewee or suspect will respond better to one than the other. Also known as ‘good cop-bad cop’, a staple of cop shows on television.
For Part One of this Dictionary, 1-L, click here.
N
Nabbing cull
Flash term for a police officer.
Necktie party
A hanging or lynching in the Wild West.
Neon nod
Heroin and LSD
New Journalism, The
Type developed in the 1960s and 70s, featuring such elements as an overtly literary approach derived from fiction and subjective viewpoint. Generally published in countercultural magazines, or, often, collected in book form. One example of the latter is Tom Wolfe’s eponymous collection from 1973. Distant roots may be found in yellow journalism of the late 19th century. Defining examples include a number of studies of crime and the counterculture: Wolfe’s ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’ (1965); Norman Mailer’s study of protests against the Vietnam War, ‘The Armies of the Night’ (1968); Hannah Arendt’s ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’ (1963); and, most famously, Truman Capote’s study of Mid-West murder, ‘In Cold Blood’ (1965).
Night Train
Two meanings: i) Brand of cheap, high-alcohol, fortified wine. ii) To have sexual intercourse with someone who is asleep.
Ninja turtle
American term referring to a correctional officer wearing riot gear.
No-tell hotel
See hot-sheet motel.
Nonce
A prisoner who was found guilty of sexual crimes, especially ones involving children. The word has connotations of contempt and potential violence towards the prisoner – hence they are Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise, which is where the acronym is often said to derive. I’ve also heard it that it’s an abbreviation for ‘nonsense’. Both could be true.
Nordic Noir
Also called Scandi Noir, by those who don’t know there is a difference between ‘Nordic’ and ‘Scandi’ (which include a a lot of people who live in that part of the world). World-conquering genre of crime fiction, usually of the police procedural sort, set in the snowier parts of Europe. Everyone wears thick jumpers and there is no sunshine. Famous examples include work by the Swedish novelist, Henning Mankell, and the Icelandic Arnaldur Indrioason. There are also well-known Nordic Noir televisions shows, including ‘The Killing’ and ‘The Bridge’. Don’t forget the Martin Beck novels by May Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, or Stieg Larsson’s ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ and its interminable sequels.
Nose candy
Cocaine
Nub
Verb, to hang.
Nut
Expenses incurred in casing a jug.
O
Obbo
Abbreviation of ‘observation’: in this sense, by police of criminal activity.
Obtemper
Term from Scots law, meaning to comply with a judgment or decree.
OG
Respectful term for experienced criminal or prisoner. Acronym for Original Gangsta.
Oil
Obsolete American bank robbers’ term for nitro-glycerine.
OJ’d, To be
Passive verb, doubtless outdated now, meaning to have one’s media appearance curtailed, shifted, or cancelled in order to accommodate more coverage of the OJ Simpson trial, or other important news event which will doubtless garner more viewers or listeners. Used, for example, in comments like, ‘I’m sorry, Jason, your interesting section on Crime and Psychology has been OJ’d, because we’ve just heard he’s bought a new pair of gloves’.
Old Bill
Police. Derived from the moustaches frequently worn by policemen after the First World War, which looked like those worn by the character Old Bill in cartoons by Bruce Bairnsfather. Cf Fuzz.
Old lag
A person seeking lawful status who has been imprisoned many times, or for a long period of time.
Old Nick; Old Scratch
The devil.
On the shoot
Cowboy term meaning ‘looking for trouble’.
One-fifty-one
US slang for crack cocaine, probably derived from a US penal code number. See also 5150.
Ouid
Algospeak for ‘weed’ (or Mary Jane): a term that raises the hackles of moderators everywhere.
Out, The
The world outside prison.
Outfit, The
Name given to the organised-crime group that took over after the fall of Al Capone in Chicago. The first to take over the reins was Frank ‘The Enforcer’ Nitti, but he was not around for long. The Outfit proper is usually associated with Tony Accardo (‘The Genuine Godfather’), Murray ‘Curly’ Humphries, Paul ‘The Waiter’ Ricca, and its representative in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Johnny ‘Mr Handsome’ Rosselli. The Outfit is probably the most interesting organised-crime syndicate in history.
Outlaw country
Also sometimes known as redneck rock. Subgenre of country music invented by a group of country artists including Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. Fans often date the movement to Jennings’ ‘Ladies Love Outlaws’ (1972). Many felt that mainstream country music had become somewhat anodyne by the 1970s and 80s. The outlaw country artists harked back to earlier styles, such as honky tonk, and added rock and rockabilly elements. The seminal recording is ‘Wanted! The Outlaws’, which, ironically for a reaction against mainstream music, became, for a while, the most successful country record ever pressed. You can read more here: What Is Outlaw Country?: A Guide to History & Artists | Holler
Owl Hoot Trail
Wild-West outlaw lifestyle.
Owned
Internet and roadman slang – defeated in some way.
P
Pad
Three meanings: (i) Regular, systematic pay-off to police. I haven’t seen this term used except with reference to the NYPD (ii) Drugs or other illicit or stolen material added to a haul in order to make an unscrupulous police officer look good (iii) Prison cell.
Padmate
Person in the same prison cell as you.
Paperwork
US trucker slang for a speeding ticket.
Peddlers’ French
Another term for flash.
Peeler
Colloquial term name for police officer, rarely heard nowadays. For derivation, see Bobby.
Pennyweighter
Someone who stole small amounts of gold from a mine in the American West.
Pentiti
Italian term for grass, or informant. Usually refers to those who inform against the Mafia or other criminal organisations. The term became well-known in English-speaking countries after the famous Maxi show-trials of the 1980s.
Perp walk
When a detainee is taken into a police station in such a way that the press can see and photograph it. It makes for good publicity. Devised in early 20th century by police departments who wanted to reassure the public they were doing plenty to fight crime. Cf frog march.
Person seeking lawful status
Euphemism for prisoner.
Petite maison
Literally ‘small house’. Property used by financially-unembarrassed French noblemen for meeting mistresses and prostitutes.
Pettifogger
Uncomplimentary term for ‘lawyer’. ‘Petti’ derives from the French for ‘small’, and ‘fogger’, at one time, meant ‘lawyer’ – so, a ‘small lawyer’.
Phoney
Derives from ‘fawney man’, a peddler of what might now be called slum jewellery. Fainne is an Irish term for a ring.
Pigeon fucker
Term used in Alcoholics Anonymous. It refers to a sponsor who takes sexual advantage of a sponsee, who is likely to be emotionally vulnerable. Derives from the slang term ‘pigeon’, for a young woman who is easily duped.
Plainclothes Tracy
Original name of the comic-strip character and fictional dick, Dick Tracy.
Plunderbund
Group of interested parties that come together for the purpose of making an unethical profit from the public.
Pluries
Third writ in a series, issued after the first two have been ignored or proven ineffective.
Pocket advantage
Small gun carried half-cocked in the coat pocket. It can be drawn and fired before one’s opponent has time to react. Term from the Wild West.
Podiacide
An amalgamation of the words ‘podiatry’ and ‘suicide’, meaning ‘shooting oneself in the foot’. Self-inflicted injury to one’s standing or public image. The word became well-known in 2006, when it was used in the United Nations.
Police procedural
Genre of crime fiction concentrating, as the name suggests, on the actual police investigation of a crime. Authors in this genre set themselves the daunting task of making details not just of the investigation but also of the cops’ lives interesting for the reader. The invention of the genre is usually credited to Ed McBain (Salvatore Lombino), whose 87th Precinct books remain among the very best examples of the genre. Click here for a really good account of European police procedurals.
Pop
Verb, meaning to use oil or other explosives to open a bank vault door without express permission of the manager.
Potrepreneur
Dealer in marijuana
Prison Blues
Garment factory created in Pendelton, Oregon, as a way of defraying the cost of keeping people in prison. The business was set up using drug money from police seizures. Jobs there are apparently highly sought after, and go only to prisoners with records of good conduct. There can be a three-year waiting time for an interview, which provides motivation to stay on the right side of the authorities. It also provides a skill which may be useful on release. Check out the Correction Connection Prison Blues summary page of business.
Prog
Beg, pilfer, scrounge, or steal. The objects of theft are generally the stuff of life, such as food.
Propaganda
The term originated in 1622, with a new administrative body of the Catholic Church. They wanted to ‘propagate’ the Catholic faith. It had no secular meaning until the late 18th century, and no negative connotations until the 19th. The word comes from Latin, meaning the ‘things that are to be propagated’.
Provo
Slang for member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
Provocation
In espionage, an action designed to force one’s opponent into a particular behaviour or response, of which one can then take advantage.
Prushun
US slang - a boy who travels with a hobo, commits minor crimes for him, such as theft, and provides sexual services.
Psychic homicide
Term for voodoo death; one that emphasises the malice involved in planting the curse.
Psychophysiological death
Alternative, tongue-twisting term proposed by some for the term voodoo death, which nevertheless seems to have got a hold of the literature.
Pulp fiction
So called because it used to be printed on the cheap, using rough, low-quality paper stock made from second-rate wood pulp. Everyone knows what pulp fiction is, but, like ‘free will’ or ‘personality’ it’s difficult to define. There are some common elements though: fast action, tough heroes, snappy dialogue, probably a derringer or two, and a focus on crime or suspense. You’d hope to see a hero on the cover wearing a fedora, and probably a blonde in the distance, generally in some sort of peril.
For Part One of this Dictionary, 1-L, click here.
Q
Quacksalver
Con artist of a particular kind - one who claims to have medical expertise, but does not. Probably tries to sell over-priced, useless, and possibly poisonous remedies. The earliest use of the term seems to have been in the 16th century. It’s the word from which we derive the more modern derogatory term for a doctor – quack. Cf Saltimbanco
Quality of life crimes
Those that are not necessarily all that dangerous or even feared, but which do exactly what the name implies – spoil citizens’ everyday experience of the world. They include public urination, vandalism, and graffiti-spraying.
QE
A criminal turns Queen’s Evidence (or, today, King’s) against their accomplices in order to benefit from a lighter sentence.
Quietus medicine
Spy term for deadly poison.
Quisling
Particular kind of traitor – one who collaborates consciously with enemy or occupying forces at the cost of their own country. The word derives from Norwegian wartime leader, Vidkun Quisling, who did just that with occupying Nazi forces.
R
Rakehell
Obsolete 16th century term for a wealthy or fashionable gentleman whose habits were less than upright or respectable.
Rampallion
Scoundrel or ruffian. Vakabon.
Rat bag
Australian term for a plain-clothes police officer.
Real Book, The
Definitive updating of the Fake Book made by two (anonymous) students at Berklee College of Music. They carefully noted down keys, chord changes, and so on, in important versions of jazz standards and put them into an easy-to-use book that jazz musicians everywhere use night after night. The whole enterprise was carried out without regard for copyright law or royalties. Today you can buy a legal Real Book Official Real Book: Best-Selling Jazz Song Book of All Time. Perhaps that means it’s not a real Real Book at all, but a fake Real Book.
Red-light bandit, the
Two meanings: i) Name given to Caryl Chessman, infamous post-War Los Angeles criminal who used to pose as a motorised policeman, waving a red light from his car. He was involved in robbery, kidnapping, and rape. Chessman was arrested on 23 January, 1948. Ii) Title of countercultural film made under Brazilian dictatorship by the then-21 year old director Rogerio Sganzerla. It comes across like a mislocated film noir, with its focus on the life of crime, the role of the city, and generalised sense of doom.
Reliability
Jargon term meaning the extent to which a test continues to give the same result, however often you use it. Official crime statistics are often unreliable, owing to the dark figure, among other things. They may give you different estimates month by month, even if the actual level of crime remains constant.
Resipiscence
Coming from the Latin meaning ‘recover one’s senses’. Recognition of past crimes or mistakes and the resolution to do better in future.
Resurrection Man
Grave-robber of the same approximate era as Burke and Hare. Not nearly as nice as it sounds.
Ring faller
Criminal of the 16th century, who would drop worthless rings in front of impressionable folk and file them when they bent over to pick the rings up.
River crab
The way in which modern-day Chinese people refer to internet censorship, online, without getting censored. The reasoning is that the word for ‘river crab’ sounds very similar to the word ‘harmonious’ (in Chinese) as used by the one-time leader, Hu Jintao, in his slogan, ‘harmonious society’.
Roadman
More modern than it sounds. A street-smart fellow, usually a teenager and usually from London. Roadmen have their own slang, some of which you will find here.
Rolling Stone
Completely non-existent town invented by conman William Haddock. He went so far as to equip his invented community with its own newspaper. Haddock sold property that didn’t exist to people who hadn’t checked, and then he went off and invented more.
Romance scam
Kind of internet fraud. Fraudsters pretend to be in love with their victims. They plead financial hardship and request help, which they receive in the millions every year – and that’s just the ones we know about.
Rookery
Common term for a slum in (especially) Victorian London, known as a breeding-ground for crime and an inexhaustible labyrinth for criminals fleeing the law. This is worth a look: The 8 Worst Slums Of Victorian London - London Walks
RTFL
A reminder among police officers to familiarise themselves with events since their last shift: ‘Read The Fucking Log’.
Rumfustian
A hot drink reputedly popular among Caribbean pirates. The indiscriminate list of ingredients includes beer, gin, and sherry; eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and probably the ship’s cat and some gunpowder too.
Running Smabble
Flash term for an unsophisticated crime, whereby a thief would run into a shop at night, blow out the candle, and steal anything they could get their hands on.
Russian Babies
Those born to German women after the Soviet occupation of Berlin in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. There was no active police presence. There was a very high incidence of rape during the period. Complaints to Soviet officials were mostly met with denial or deflection. One victim was allegedly told ‘I’m sure they don’t really hurt you. Our men are all healthy’. You can read more about this whole period on the Curing Crime Substack: Bombed, Broken Berlin (substack.com)
S
Saltimbanco
A seller of quack medicine. It comes from a Romance word meaning ‘one who jumps up onto a bench’ (you may know the Picasso painting Saltimbanques), which gives an idea of how a saltimbanco used to operate. Cf Quacksalver; snake-oil salesman.
Sam Browne belt
Part of army, and then police, uniforms, named after the one-armed British Army officer who invented it. There is one thick leather belt around the middle, which forces the officer to stand up straight, and a thinner one running across the shoulder. The idea is for this second strap to keep the first in place, and the sword hanging from it conveniently to hand. Dropped from most police uniforms in the middle of the twentieth century when the thinner belt became known as a suicide strap, thereby lessening its appeal.
Samizdat
A kind of forgery or evasion of censorship, whereby people copy and distribute literature that the state has banned. The term is most closely associated with the former Communist countries of eastern Europe.
Sandbag
To lower expectations for some dubious reason or another: for example, to make an opponent think a game will be easier than it is, or to make one’s customers think a company is less profitable, in order to cause excitement when it apparently does well. It’s common in politics: candidates sometimes keep expectations low so that they can impress us by ‘confounding’ them.
Satan’s Circus
Manhattan district, Fortieth Street south to Twenty-fourth, between Fifth and Seventh Avenues, once notorious for brothels.
Scandi noir
Not all of my northern-European friends would thank me for writing this – but please see Nordic Noir.
Scapegrace
A rascal or bad person; one who escapes the grace of God.
Scorch
Early 20th-century term meaning ‘to arrest’. From it we get ‘scorcher’ for a police officer (i.e., one who does the arresting).
Scrape clinic
Illegal or backstreet abortionists.
Screw
Slang for prison warder. The term derives from the crank that prisoners used to have in their cells. They had to turn the crank a certain number of times in order to get fed (‘If a man will not work,’ it was said, ‘neither shall he eat’). The handle just dragged a paddle through some gravel. As the prisoner grew stronger, the warder could tighten the ‘screw’ on the outside of the wall to make the job more difficult. Cf Kanga
Screwball
Heroin and meth.
Scuffle-hunter
Type of portside manual labourer in London who tended to be engaged in actively stealing merchandise rather than loading it off or onto merchant ships. A scuffle-hunter would wear a large apron in which to conceal stolen goods. They were tremendously effective and expensive in the years before the River Police.
Sea food
Nickname given to US naval personnel by male sex workers on the West Coast.
Seggs
Neologism used by online ‘sex’ workers to evade moderators’ censorship or the disabling of accounts. See Accountant.
Sewerslide
Suicide. Abbreviation used online – even in forums devoted to mental health - in order to avoid censors’ algorithms.
Sexsomnia
Rare psychological syndrome in which a person has sex while asleep. Sexsomina has been linked to a cumber of sex crimes, including rape.
Shakedown
American slang for blackmail.
Sheriff’s ball
American term for occasions when executions have been turned into paying attractions.
Shitbird
Originally a colloquial military term for a useless and ignorant person, now spread to civilian life. The term may have been used more frequently by the crime novelist James Ellroy than by everyone else added together.
Shoes on semolina
See brothel-creepers.
Shoe
Or SHU – Secure Housing Unit in a prison.
Shootist
Contemporaneous Old West term for someone we would call a ‘gunfighter’ today.
Shoulder-surf
To steal PIN numbers at cashpoints by looking over people’s shoulders.
Sicily of Spain
Nickname among law-enforcement officials for Galicia, centre of the startlingly-large world trade in illegally-caught fish.
Signature
Term developed by the FBI to refer to idiosyncratic features of a crime scene. They indicate behaviour on the part of the criminal, over and above what was necessary to commit the crime. If modus operandi is how the criminal committed the crime, signature helps tell us why.
Simony
Named for Simon Magus, who tried to buy the power to confer girfts of the Holy Spirit. The word means trading in religious or spiritual matters: such as the attempt to purchase, say, a bishophric. This is forbidden by ecclesiastical law.
Sin eater
Individual – most probably from the Celtic parts of the UK – who consumes a ritual meal in order to take on board the sins of a person who has recently died. It saves the dead person from damnation. Sin eaters, carrying the load of sins from all those whose sins they had absorbed, were pariahs. Sin eating seems more or less to have died out by the 20th century.
Single-bullet theory
Not so much a scientific ‘theory’ as a proposal. Credited to a member of the Warren Commission called Arlen Specter, single-bullet theory proposes to solve some of the puzzles to do with ballistics evidence in the Kennedy assassination, by suggesting that the same bullet that went through the President’s neck may also have caused injuries to Governor Connally, sitting in front of him. Not unnaturally, single-bullet theory was and remains controversial. Also known, somewhat dismissively, as ‘magic bullet theory’.
Skim
Noun: money taken off the gross before anyone sees it, or, verb, to take money off the top. See also ice.
Slammer
Prison
Sleeves
Jailhouse tattoos running neck to wrist, showing gang affiliation.
Slubberdegullion
One who is oafish and ill-presented. This word should appear more often in the political news.
Slum jewellery
Fake Rolex watches, imitation-gold chains, etc.
Slum the ken
Flash term meaning break into the house
Smersh
Mingling of the Russian words smert (death) and shpionam (spies), meaning ‘death to spies’. Unit created by the Red Army in 1942 to remove anti-Soviet elements in Russia. In the Anglosphere, the word was immortalised by Ian Fleming in his James Bond novels.
Smoke wagon
Revolver of the kind used in the Wild West.
Smokey bear
CB-radio speak for police officer. Gives us the following: Bear bite – speeding ticket; Bear cave – Police station; Bear in the air – police helicopter
Snakehead
People smuggler, often Chinese, who specialises in routes to the West.
Snake-oil salesman
One who trades in useless medicines or other scams to do with healthcare. The term comes from 19th-century American con artists, who got the idea from Chinese immigrants working on the First Transcontinental Railroad. They treated physical pains with oil from the Chinese water snake. Since the Chinese water snake was pretty thin on the ground in the United States, charlatans decided to use rattlesnakes instead. They often enriched the mixture with cocaine or other drugs. Today, a snake-oil salesman is not necessarily a criminal (although that may be the implication): they simply endorse or promote useless products. Essentially, a modern word for Quacksalver.
Social bandit
Criminal identified by Marxist historians, who view certain crimes as micro-mutinies against the state. Social bandits are as much legend as flesh and blood. They have certain powers - such as invisibility - and a promise to return after death to save their agrarian communities from the unjustified encroachments of modern, capitalistic, power. Examples include Scotland’s Rob Roy, India’s Rangine, and America’s Jesse James.
Sorry
Cockney rhyming slang for ‘bad’, by way of ‘sorry and sad’.
Somnabulism
Syndrome in which a person literally walks while asleep. Crimes committed while asleep include anything up to and including somnambulistic homicide. See also sexsomnia.
Southern Gothic
Type of literature that might as well carry a trademark. Produced by residents of the American South, and dealing in macabre, dark, sometimes blackly humorous material. Lots of shadowy experiences, internecine quarrels, and Spanish moss. The genre is best understood not so much by reading about it as by reading it – and especially by reading Flannery O’Connor. William Faulkner’s short story, ’The Hound’, is unmissable.
Snollygoster
Merriam-Webster has this as ‘an unprincipled but shrewd person’. Not much used where I live. Term seems to date from late 19th century America. Early uses of it have it referring to politicians who want office regardless of what they have to do to get it. Probably comes via German schnelle geeschter, meaning something like ‘speedy spirit’.
Starrer
That particular type of thief, much less common now owing to burglar alarms, who used to smash jewellers’ windows and steal their merchandise. The term probably derives from the ‘starring’ effect on the glass as it gets thwacked.
Stegophily
See Urban climbing.
Stigma (pl Stigmata)
Marks on the physical body believed by the Positivist Criminologists of the 19th century (among others) to distinguish criminals from civilians. They were pretty wide-ranging – from left-handedness to tattoos to facial assymmetry.
‘Stop me before I kill again’
This well-known phrase is a light misquote. A message written in lipstick at a murder scene, probably (but not definitely) by William Heirens, December 1945. He seems to have written on a mirror in the apartment belonging to his victim, Frances Brown, ‘For heaven’s sake catch me before I kill more, I cannot control myself’. Heirens died in prison in 2012, aged 83, after 65 years incarcerated, with the reputation of a serial killer. Some still believe he may have been innocent of the crimes for which he was committed. The phrase may have been popularised by the 1960 film, Stop me Before I Kill!, starring Claude Dauphin.
Stormy petrel
Person who enjoys controversy or argument for its own sake.
Suck-start a rifle
US military slang for committing suicide by shooting oneself in the head.
Sucker list
Record (probably written) of people who have previously fallen victim to a confidence trick, and may therefore make promising marks in future.
SUD
Medical acronym - Sudden Unexpected Death. The usual cause turns out to be heart attack or haemorrhage or something else readily identifiable. Nevertheless it has been used as an explanation for psychophysiological death.
Suicide blonde
‘Dyed by her own hand’.
Suicide strap
Narrow leather strap across the shoulder of a Sam Browne belt, often used as part of police uniforms. Desperate villains often tried to use them as strangulation devices. For rather obvious reasons, suicide straps fell out of favour in the middle years of the 20th century.
Superflu
Symptoms of withdrawal from addiction to hard drugs.
SW
Sex Worker. Abbreviation used online in order to avoid censors’ algorithms.
Sweatbox
Two definition: (i) Device for punishing recalcitrant prisoners – usually a very narrow box or cell, often (and rather literally) situated somewhere hot. (ii) Prison van. Reportedly they are cramped and can get very hot.
Swedish Desperado, The
John Yegg. The Swedish Desperado was perhaps the first to extract nitro-glycerine – or oil – from dynamite for the purpose of safe-cracking. Alcohol led him into bank robbery and alcohol kept him there.
Sweeper
Clause sometimes put into property leases that allow the landlord to recover costs that they could not reasonably have foreseen.
Swikedom
Treachery or other deceit.
T
Tail Drawer
Flash term for man who steals your sword while you are actually wearing it.
Tenderloin
Once the area of Manhattan – Sixth Avenue and the streets around it, roughly congruent to Satan’s Circus. This was a red-light district at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century. The name was supposedly given it in honour of the high-quality steaks its meat-eater policemen could afford on account of graft. Now more commonly refers to a portion of downtown San Francisco, once notorious for gambling and blind tigers, now still a high-crime area, featuring seven out of the ten highest-crime areas in the city. It feels like it, too, late at night, let me tell you. In the years 2015-18, more than 300 lamp-posts had to be replaced because they’d been corroded by urine, and I’m not making that up.
Thanatomania
Belief, common in some cultures, that one will inescapably die as the consequence of being cursed by, say, a witch doctor, medicine man, or voodoo practitioner.
Thieftaking
Practice made perfect by the London criminal, Jonathan Wild, who made himself rich turning criminals in and collecting the reward for crime that (often) he himself had conceived and plotted.
Time to feed the warden
American prison slang – the need to urinate.
Trepanning
Two meanings: i) early kind of psychosurgery in which special, heavy-duty tools were used to open up the skull of a ‘lunatic’, in order to let the demons in their heads escape. ii) Victorian term for kidnap of very young children, who would be kept locked up for two to three months. After that, the kidnappers discovered, children could be allowed out. They would be unable to find their own way home. At one time, around 400 Londoners made their living this way.
Triggernometry
The art of gunmanship, especially in the Old West. Gunfighters were experts in leather slapping.
Trollfolk
Norse word originally meaning ‘witches’, but which came to mean something closer to ‘those who live in the forest’, or, in English, ‘trolls’.
Trunk music
A corpse put into the back of a car. The corpse probably belonged to someone who got on the wrong side of organised criminals. The term seems to refer to the gurgling noise that the corpse makes when it has been left for a long time.
Truther
Conspiracy theorist who wants to reveal the ‘truth’ behind some large event that certain forces have tried to cover up. The term is closely associated with ‘moon truthers’, who believe that astronauts never landed on the Moon. There are also ‘9/11 truthers’.
Tweaker
Methamphetamine addict.
Twocer
Someone who Takes Without Owner’s Consent. Generally refers to car crime.
U
Umbrella Man
Two meanings for this unusual phrase: i) Louie Witt, identified in photographs taken in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, at the site of the Kennedy assassination. He was relatively close to the President when the assassination happened, and considered suspicious because he was holding an umbrella on a day that had clear skies. It turned out he was simply trying to invoke memories of Neville Chamberlain, the UK Prime Minister sometimes seen as an appeaser of Nazis. Chamberlain had been supported by JFK’s father, Joseph P Kennedy Sr. Opening the umbrella was interpreted by some as a sign to the gunman to ‘shoot now’. ii) Tony Hernandez, once president of Brooklyn gang the Vampires, who recruited Salvador Agron, who later became famous as the Capeman. He used an umbrella with a sharpened tip as a weapon in street fights. Mentioned briefly in Paul Simon’s musical, The Capeman.
Unalive
Algospeak. Often used as a verb, referring to suicide, as in ‘he unalived himself’. Abbreviation used online in order to avoid censors’ algorithms.
Undies
Undercover police officers, of course.
Unsub
Abbreviation of ‘unknown subject of investigation’ – ‘the villain we are looking for. Term used originally by the FBI, it seems, because giving a nickname to the villain was considered bad form.
Up the river
The way to prison, or going to prison. Comes ultimately from the location of Sing Sing Prison, on the Hudson River.
Upbraid
Verb: scold. Based on an Old English word meaning to claim that someone has done something worthy of punishment, or to allege that they have been involved in unworthy activity.
Urban climbing
Pastime involving climbing buildings or other artificial structures. Often illegal. Another term for ‘stegophily’.
V
Vakabon
Much like English ‘vagabond’. This Creole word means something like ‘rascal’ or ‘troublemaker’.
Validity
Jargon term meaning the extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure. It is very easy to ask people whether they have ever been the victim of blackmail. It is more difficult to know whether the trust their answer, because they may be keen to have you think that they are virtuous people who could never be blackmailed. Official crime statistics are often lacking is validity and well as reliability.
‘Vengeful Society’, the
Term invented by the journalist Timothy Appleby to refer to the US since the execution of Gary Gilmore in 1976. There was a glut of executions in the years immediately afterwards.
Vex
To make someone angry, of course. The term seemed to go out of a fashion for a long time but is now back as part of roadman slang.
Voodoo death
Dramatic but perhaps regrettable misnomer for deaths caused in all parts of the world – not just where voodoo is practiced – apparently as a result of witchcraft or sorcery. The term has connotations of Victorian scientists’ exoticism, but, since its adoption in the early 20th century by anthropologists, seems to have stuck. This may be because alternative and related terms such as thanatomania and psychophysiological death are just so much less imaginative, let alone the difficulty you might have pronouncing them.
VPU
Vulnerable Prisoner Unit.
W
Wand waver
Male flasher.
Wardrive
Sounds much more exciting than it is. It just means to drive around looking for vulnerabilities in wifi, in order to steal passwords and such.
Warp speed
Verb: to drive at a speed well over the legal limit. Noun: the extreme speed at which one is or was travelling.
Warren Commission
Official investigation by the US government into the assassination of President Kennedy, and the source of many conspiracy theories (some of which may well be true). The Commission was appointed by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson. It was headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, who reportedly did not want the job at all. Among its members were President-to-be Gerald Ford, Arlen Specter, who came up with single bullet theory, and, most controversially, Allen Dulles of the CIA. Given that some pointed the finger at the CIA in the first place as one possible suspect, this last appointment has been discussed at particular length. The Commission lasted from 5 December 1963 to 24 September 1964. It dealt with 5-600 witnesses (as you might have started to suspect, there were important omissions) and over 3000 reports. The Commission reported that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone assassin who committed his crime with no help from anyone. There was no conspiracy, it said, which is exactly what you would expect it to say, some responded, if there was a conspiracy. Hence, the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Wet job
Also, sometimes, ‘wet work’. An assassination, usually one carried out on behalf of a government or government agency. Occasionally used in the context of an organised-crime hit. English translation of a term used by the Russian KGB.
Whack
Cocaine mixed with angel dust.
where the money is, It’s
Answer given by notorious yegg Willie Sutton when he was asked why he robbed banks. It also made the title of his autobiography.
Whiskey Boys
Rebellious group in the US who were upset when Alexander Hamilton slapped a tax on liquor. Vigilantes organised themselves to spread terror amongst taxpayers and revenue-collctors alike. They disguised themselves as women, and set upon one of the latter, cropped his hair, tarred-and-feathered him, and stole his horse. When the Whiskey Boys refused to negotiate, President Washington ordered the army in. The Whiskey Boys were simple criminals and the law was there to be obeyed. Hamilton joined 13 000 other men in a spectacularly anti-climactic march across the Allegheny Mountains. They managed to arrest a mere twenty rebels. One of them died in prison. Two were sentenced to be hanged. Washington, however, pardoned both. America’s new government had made a meagre, expensive, but unmistakable point about the law and its willingness to enforce it.
White hat
A ‘good’ hacker, who tests out the security of computer system. Cf black hat
White rock
Cocaine (not crack)
White shotgun
Translation of the Italian term lupara bianca. It refers to the assassinationnof an enemy of organised crime – often informants or pentiti – who disappears without trace.
Whizzer
Pickpocket – one who could get away quickly.
Wife-beater
Short-sleeved, often dirty, undershirt, properly known as A-style. There are various stories about how the shirt got its name. One, from 1947, refers to a Detroit man named James Hartford who beat his wife to death and was photographed wearing an A-style shirt as he emerged from their home. Even before that, Hollywood had started to use the A-shirt as a shorthand way of conveying certain of a character’s traits to the audience, however. Hollywood again – Bruce Willis wears one almost the whole way through the movie ‘Die Hard’.
‘Wild Bill’
Sobriquet adopted by just about every American called William who has had anything to do with the legal system: outlaw, peace officer, spy. Examples include lawman, actor, and all around rampallion, Wild Bill Hickock; shootist Wild Bill Longley, and CIA founder Wild Bill Donovan. Don’t forget jazz musicians Wild Bill Davis and Wild Bill Davison.
Wilderness of mirrors
Arresting phrase used by quondam poet and legendary CIA operative, James Jesus Angleton, to refer to his world of counter-espionage.
Winnie the Pooh
In China, where state censorhship of the internet is rife, some use pictures of the famous bear to represent President Xi Jinping
Wire split
Same as cannon-shooter (i.e., police officer involved in apprehending pickpockets or files).
Witch-pricker
One whose job it was, in Early Modern times, to use whatever means were necessary to find the devil’s mark on those accused of maleficium. These means involved bodkins, needles, knives, and so on. Most witch-prickers were of course complete charlatans. The name invites its own insults.
Witches teeth
Methamphetamine. Decayed or rotting teeth are a symptom of prolonged methamphetamine abuse. See Meth mouth.
Witches’ mark
Found on the body only of English and Scottish witches in the Early Modern period. Looked like an extra teat or nipple. Used by imps for suckling from the witches’ body.
Witchfinder General
Title created and adopted by Matthew Hopkins in the middle of the 17th century. Hopkins was briefly abroad in the East of England, but in just two years was responsible for the deaths of about 300 women and the collection of a large amount of money in fees. He died, not, as has been rumoured, on a fire, after being accused of being a witch, but, probably, of tuberculosis.
‘With great power comes great responsibility’
In the case of most authors who have had a decided and notable effect on the culture, on can quote a few lines. In the case of Stan Lee, the man who – to a much-debated extent – was behind Marvel’s caped crimefighters, that is not the case. If pushed, most comics fans could only come up with this phrase, forever be linked to Spider-Man. But it’s not what Stan Lee wrote. Here’s the actual line: ‘[…] in this world, with great power must also come – great responsibility!’ Very similar phrases had already appeared in a decree from the French National Convention (1793) and the works of Churchill (1906) and Roosevelt (1945).
X
X row
Another term for Death Row, used because all the inmates there are ‘nameless’.
X’d out
American, gang-related. Comes from the term ‘crossed out’ – like the name of a rival gang member that someone has been authorised to murder.
Y
Yegg (sometimes ‘yeggman’)
American bank-robber or robber of some other large financial institution, especially during the 1920s. The most famous yegg was John Dillinger. Given lots of public support and a degree of hero worship, they were the social bandits of their era. Probably named for ‘Swedish Desperado’ John Yegg, one of the first Western bank-robbers. Yegg was an engineer who perfected the use of oil in blowing safes.
Yellow journalism
Sensationalist and poorly-researched; focussed on crime and other spectacular subjects; designed to sell newspapers.
Yimyom
Fentanyl.
Yo ho ho
A phrase that pirates didn’t use. Invented by the great writer Robert Louis Stevenson especially for his novel, ‘Treasure Island’, which is responsible for a lot of mistaken pirate lore. Stevenson just liked the sound.
Yob
Young, loutish fellow. Backslang from boy.
You Got Nothing Coming
Title of autobiographical book by Jimmy Lerner about his time in prison for murder, taken from a piece of prison slang meaning, effectively, ‘No’, or, rather, ‘Emphatically no’.
Yuld
One who is naïve or gullible. A promising potential mark for a con trick.
Z
ZeroZeroZero
The purest cocaine available, 24-carat, dyed-in-the-wool. Rock solid; dope. Named after flour – the finest-milled you can find; the kind you use to make pasta. Also, book by Roberto Saviano about the intercontinental cocaine trade, and Sky television series based on it.
Zip
Two meanings: i) Derogatory term used by US mafiosi to refer to Sicilian counterparts. ii) Methamphetamine.
Zombi
Not quite what you think - Zombi is identified by one expert as a ‘voodoo snake deity in the Southern United States’ (Bodin, Ron: ‘Voodoo – Past & present’)
Zombie
Two meanings: i) Police officer who is either lazy, close to retirement, or both. ii) Someone who is constantly high on illegal drugs.
Zone of transition
Area of city identified by certain sociologists as that in which the most crime occurs. It is an undesirable place to live, but has cheap housing, which new migrants to the city can afford. It also has short commutes to the factories. As soon as they have saved enough money, they can move out again. Hence few stay there long, and even fewer have an investment in the area. It is usually located just outside the Central Business District.
Zoned
Under the influence of marijuana (same as dankrupt and krunked).
Zoomer
A drug dealer who isn’t. Sells crack cocaine that isn’t, either, and then runs away fast.
Zulu
Fake crack cocaine, often sold by a zoomer.
For Part One of this Dictionary, 1-L, click here.