pete men? murphy artists?

[jcgmoi]

I’m reading James Lee Burke’s Heaven’s Prisoners. Burke has his hero reflect on the French Quarter:

“I got to see them all: male and female prostitutes, Murphy artists, psychotic snipers, check writers, pete men, car boosters, street dealers, and child molesters.”

I understand most of these, and I think ‘Murphy artists’ are prostitutes and pimps who roll customers, but what the hell are ‘pete men’? And whence the ‘Murphy’?

[bibliophage]

From the Wordsworth Book of Euphemism

A jug heavy, a heavy man, a heavy G, a boxman, or a pete, peteman, peter, or Peter G–all safecrackers [p. 188]

A Murphy Game: A procurer invites a potential client to store or deposit his valuables so that a prostitute cannot steal them. Instead, he steals them. This version of the game supposedly dates from the period when the madams of bordellos, called Mrs. Murphys, used male assistants to collect cash from clients so that they and their prostitutes could not be arrested. [p. 212]

[Celyn]

Yes, I have definitely heard of “peterman” as used to mean a safecracker. As for “Murphy”, I wonder whether I ought to stop calling my cat (nice cat, not allowed to receive company of the opposite gender) “Murphy”.

[jcgmoi]

Thanks bibliophage for clearing that up.