G-Man (slang)
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G-Man (short for Government Man) is slang for a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. The word "Government" stands for the United States Federal Government, as opposed to state or local government police agencies.
In FBI mythology, the nickname is held to have originated during the arrest of gangster "Machine Gun" Kelly by agents of the Division of Investigation (DOI), a forerunner of the FBI, in September 1933. Finding himself unarmed, Kelly supposedly shouted "Don't shoot, G-Men! Don't shoot, G-Men!"[1] This event is dramatized in the 1959 film, The FBI Story, where its somewhat implausible quality is in no way diminished. It is now known that George Kelly surrendered with the words "I give up, ya got me!", and that the "G-Men" phrase was made up by J. Edgar Hoover's public relations agents.
The term "G-Man" was also as used at least as far back as 1916 in Ireland as a reference to the detectives of the Dublin Metropolitan Police force's "G" Division, whose job it was to collect information on the various revolutionaries within the city.[2]
[edit] Popular Culture
- In 1935, the nickname became fashionable and gained more widespread use with the release of the film G Men starring James Cagney.
- There is a character in the video game Half-Life known as G-Man.
- The J.P. Richardson song "White Lightning" (famously covered by George Jones), contains a reference to the G-Men who were looking for a moonshine still.
[edit] References
- ^ Timeline of FBI History. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved on November 23, 2006.
- ^ Dobbie, Elliot V. K. (December 1957). "Miscellany: Did 'G-Man' Come from Ireland?". American Speech 32 (4): 306-307. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.
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