Gun moll
'A gun moll''' is early 1900s slang for the female companion, girlfriend or mistress of a male professional criminal or mob leader. Some gun molls were themselves gangsters and they were accomplices in criminal activities.
Terminology
They may also be called a gangster moll, gangster's moll or mob moll."Gun" was British slang for thief, derived from Yiddish ganef. "Moll" is also used as a euphemism for a woman prostitute or it may be "from nickname of Mary."
Historical examples
Notable gun molls include:- Beulah Baird – Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd
- Jean Delaney – Tommy Carroll
- Phoolan Devi – Indian dacoit, gun moll of Vikram Mallah, later turned into the gang leader after his death
- Victoria DiGiorgio Gotti – John Gotti
- Judith Exner – an American woman who claimed to be the mistress of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and of Mafia leaders Sam Giancana and John Roselli
- Evelyn "Billie" Frechette – John Dillinger
- Buda Godman – John Homer T. French, member of the Lou Blonger Gang of Denver. A photo of Buda holding a gun is found in Philip S. Van Cise's Fighting the Underworld.
- Catherine Greig – James Whitey Bulger
- Maria Victoria Henao – Pablo Escobar
- Karen Hill – Henry Hill
- Virginia Hill – Bugsy Siegel
- Mary Kinder – Harry Pierpont
- Opal "Mack Truck" Long – Russell Clark
- Edna Murray – wife of "Diamond Joe" Sullivan, who was executed for murder in 1924. She then married Jack Murray, who was imprisoned for 25 years in 1925. She then lived with Volney Davis, until they were both arrested for kidnapping in 1935.
- Mary O'Dare – Raymond Hamilton
- Bonnie Parker – Clyde Barrow
- Geraldine "Geri" McGee Rosenthal – Frank Rosenthal
- Kathryn Thorne – George "Machine Gun" Kelly
- Helen Gillis '' – George "Baby Face" Nelson
- Kiki Roberts - Legs Diamond
In fiction
In film noir movies about crime, the gangster's moll is usually an attractive, blonde — often a variant of the bimbo stereotype — who may be a former showgirl. The gangster often uses the moll as a "trophy" to boost his status.Examples include:
- The gangster's girlfriend in the 1931 film The Public Enemy
- the moll in the 1967 film The St Valentine's Day Massacre
- Hilda, the gun moll played by Joan Bennett in the 1939 film ''The Housekeeper's Daughter''