AGoon Squad is a group of people, often composed of hired criminals, detectives, or mercenaries, formed to intimidate andassault a specific group of opponents, most often unionized workers.[1][2]
In the United States, a goon squad is a group ofcriminals ormercenaries, commonly associated withlabor relations issues as discussed in theMcClellan Committee,[3] though they may be employed in other situations as well. In cases ofanti-union violence, goon squads are traditionally hired by employers as an attempt atunion busting, and resort to many of the same tactics, includingintimidation,espionage, andassault.[4] In 1930s Seattle, withDave Beck asTeamster leader, cases ofpro-union violence were reported where a goon squad intimidated or assaulted non-union workers andstrikebreakers.[5]
During the labor unrest of the late 19th century in the United States, businessmen hired goon squads composed ofPinkerton agents toinfiltrate unions, and as guards to keepstrikers and suspectedunionists out of factories. One of the best known such confrontations was theHomestead Strike of 1892, in which Pinkerton agents were called in to enforce the strikebreaking measures ofHenry Clay Frick, acting on behalf ofAndrew Carnegie, who was abroad; the ensuing conflicts between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led to several deaths on both sides. The Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York andPennsylvania, as well as theGreat Railroad Strike of 1877.
In some cases, corporations have been formed specifically to provide the services of goon squads. TheCorporations Auxiliary Company was a corporation created to conduct "the administration of industrial espionage",[6] providing goon squads andlabor spies in exchange for payment. In 1921 the Corporations Auxiliary Company was known to masquerade under a dozen different names, and specialized in electing its agents to union office in order to control or destroy unions.[7]
The 2010 novelA Visit from the Goon Squad won the2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel refers to time as "the goon squad" and "a goon", emphasizing how time robs most of the characters of their youth, innocence, and success.[8]
In 2023 five deputies and a police officer inMississippi were charged with and pleaded guilty totorturing two black men at a home. The six officers reportedly referred to themselves as the "Goon Squad".[9]
The term "goon" was reputedly coined by F. L. Allen in 1921,[10] perhaps a variant of the US slang "gooney" which had been around since at least 1872, meaning a simpleton or fool,[11] which may have derived from "gony", applied by sailors to thealbatross and similar big, clumsy birds (c.1839). In the late 1930s,E. C. Segar’s comic stripPopeye had a character named "Alice the Goon". It was from this character that large stupid people or stupid things came to popularly be called "goons" and the term entered into general use.[10][12] "Goon" evolved into slang for a thug (1938),[13] someone hired by racketeers to terrorize political or industrial opponents (1938),[14] or a Germanstalag guard for American POWs (1945).[13]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)In the strikes of the C. I. O. Newspaper Guild, fur workers, and warehousemen the police were used virtually as pickets for the teamsters. A teamster "goon squad" in a car bearing the license plate of Claude O'Reilly, teamster business agent and president of the Central Labor Council, assaulted a crippled newsboy who opposed the A. F. of L regime. C. I. O. fuel-truck drivers were beaten, and one fuel yard which dared to deal with them was bombed.