Mickey Finn
March 26, 2008
Mickey Finn /mick ee finn/ n. A sedative secretly slipped into an unwitting person's drink, incapacitating the victim. According to Herbert Asbury's 1940 book on the Chicago underworld, the secret dose is named after a pickpocket who operated a sleazy South Loop dive named the Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden from 1896 to 1903. Finn was known to slip a powder -- believed to be chloral hydrate -- into drinks of patrons, who were later robbed in a back room.
