Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a robber, a hold-up man.

1927		H. Yenne ‘Prison Lingo’ in AS II:6 280: ‘Histers’ (stick-up men).
1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 116: My kind have their names for each other: [...] stickup or heister — holdup man.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 99: Hister. – A ‘stick-up’ man or gunman.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl. 44: heistman, n. A stickup artist.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 121: A guy like that wouldn’t be white meat to a heister.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 162: Not a knocked-out heister, maybe [...] even rolling drunks.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 116: heistman A holdup man.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. ix: The heistman who clips a jug for fifty grand.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 176: You were either a big operator [...] or a petty heister.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 195: Pickpockets, pimps, porch climbers, jack rollers, sluggers, heisters, and gunmen I had seen before court judges.
1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 129: I don’t consider a gambler a criminal, I don’t think most people do – like burglars, heisters, things like that.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 70: The desperate heist men congregated to plot new [...] robberies.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 43: A guy’s been hittin’ on me to find a good heist man.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 65: She laid her suction cunt and a sawed off shotgun on a snot nose heistman [...] to rip off their merchandise.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 283: Jack shot the heisters in the back.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 15 Aug. 3: They hook up with a teenage couple [...] also addicts and nickel-and-dime heisters.
1999		Disend ‘Afterword’ in Black You Can’t Win (2000) 308: A serious heister needs steely nerves.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 156: We traced that gun. It’s hot. You’re a heist man.
2005		‘Gut Feeling’ at coldbloodedgames.typepad.com 8 May 🌐 I ignored [...] that gnawing feeling in the pit of ya stomach that tells ya when something is off. All good thieves and heisters [...] know to walk away from a job when they get it.
2009		(con. 1960s) J. Ellroy Blood’s a Rover 25: Dead guards and scorched heist men — still unidentified.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 23: [A]n ace heister who pulled in multi-million-dollar scores.

2. a car thief.

1972

P. Fordham Inside the Und. 91: The natural auxiliary to any gang who needs an escape-car is a ‘heister’.