Mickey Finn (drugs)

In slang, a Mickey Finn — or simply a Mickey — is a drink laced with a psychoactive drug or incapacitating agent (especially chloral hydrate) given to someone without their knowledge with intent to incapacitate them. Serving someone a Mickey is most commonly referred to as slipping someone a mickey, but it is sometimes spelled "mickie".

History of term

Michael "Mickey" Finn

The Mickey Finn is most likely named for the manager and bartender of a Chicago establishment, the Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden Restaurant, which operated from 1896 to 1903 in the city's South Loop neighborhood on South State Street. In December 1903, several Chicago newspapers document that a Michael "Mickey" Finn managed the Lone Star Saloon and was accused of using knockout drops to incapacitate and rob some of his customers. Moreover, the first known written example (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) of the use of the term Mickey Finn is in 1915, twelve years after his trial, lending credence to this theory of the origination of the phrase.

Mickey Finn

Mickey Finn may refer to:

See also

Mickey Finn (inventor)

Charles A. "Mickey" Finn (June 21, 1938 – April 24, 2007) was an American inventor who specialized in designing and producing weapons systems for the U.S. military. He retired from defense work and began designing sporting equipment, including the Mickey Finn T-Bar Putter, a golf putter.

Background

For thirty years Finn designed weapons systems for the U.S. military and other government agencies. In the industry he was referred to as "Q", after the special weapons supplier Q in James Bond fiction, and the name of Finn's original research company Qual-A-Tec.

After extensive research into black operations, author Tom Clancy used Finn's name to add an extra measure of realism to The Cardinal of the Kremlin. Finn retired from the defense industry after this public mention and started a business selling military and hunting knives.

Finn won the U.S. Army contract to design and build the M9 bayonet for the M16 rifle. Out of 49 companies that bid on the contract, Finn won because his bayonet was the only one tested that had zero percent test failure. Finn and his M9 bayonet design were profiled in the January 5, 1987 issue of People magazine.

Mickey Finn (comic strip)

Mickey Finn was an American comic strip created by cartoonist Lank Leonard, which was syndicated to newspapers from 1936 to 1976. The successful lighthearted strip struck a balance between comedy and drama. It was adapted to a 400-page Little Big Book and was reprinted in several comic book series throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Publication history

Distributed by the McNaught Syndicate, cartoonist Lank Leonard's Mickey Finn debuted as a daily strip on Monday, April 6, 1936. The Sunday strip, which eventually focused on the supporting character of Uncle Phil, began on May 17 of that same year.

Leonard was assisted by Tony DiPreta (from 1945–50) and by Mart Bailey from 1950 in New York. In 1952, Bailey moved to Miami to help Leonard with the strip until July 1959. After Leonard retired in 1968, Morris Weiss continued the strip, though under Leonard's byline.

Morris Weiss, Leonard's assistant from 1936 to 1943 and again from 1960 on, took over following Leonard's illness in 1968. Weiss continued through the final Sunday strip on December 21, 1975 and the daily strip's finale on July 31, 1976. Other 1940s assistants were Ray McGill, John Vita, Allie Vita and Larry Tullapano. Early in his career, DiPreta did the strip's lettering.