A gun moll is a female companion of male professional criminal, and in some contexts the term more specifically suggests that the gun moll handles a firearm. When the term arose[1], in the first decade of the 20th century, the "gun" portion came ultimately from the Yiddish word, meaning "thief", that is variously transliterated into English as ganef, gonif, goniff, or ganof[2], and not from "gun" in the sense of a firearm. The "moll" portion derives from Molly, a diminutive of Mary, used as a euphemism for whore or prostitute. In the U.S., the term has mostly been applied a woman associating with an American gangster of the 1920s to '30s, and in most cases remarkable only because of his notoriety. Extended use of the term without awareness of the Yiddish root, however, has invited interpretations of "gun" as suggesting more than simply criminal associations. Bonnie Parker and Blanche Barrow were gun molls in this stronger sense, and especially notable examples in general, because of their accompanying the rest of the Barrow Gang to the planned locations of violent crimes, and in Parker's case, apparently directly assisting at least to the extent of loading guns in the midst of shootouts.
Contents |
Prominent Gun molls
- Beulah Baird - Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd
- DaLonne "Dee David" Chisam (later Cooper) - Mickey Cohen and Fred Sica
- Jean Delaney - Tommy Carroll
- Evelyn "Billie" Frechette - John Dillinger
- Mary Kinder - Harry Pierpont
- Kathryn Thorne - George "Machine Gun" Kelly Barnes
- Opal "Mack Truck" Long - Russell Clark
- Bonnie Parker - Clyde Barrow
- Helen Wawzynak - Lester Joseph Gillis, aka George "Baby Face" Nelson
- Virginia Hill - Bugsy Siegel
- Judith Exner - Sam Giancana
Related terms
- Italian and Italian American gangsters and mafioso often refer to their mistress as a comare, often Americanized to goomah, goomar, or gomatta.
- gunman - a man who uses a gun to commit a crime
- gunsel - a derogatory name for a criminal carrying a gun; from the Yiddish gendzel, "little goose", thought to be a slang term for catamite
- moll - common term for whore or prostitute, and also the nickname of a 17th century criminal Moll Cutpurse
In popular culture
- The Lady in Red (1979)
- Ruby (1977)
- Jigsaw (1949)
- Gang Smashers (1938)
- Outside the Law (1921)
