Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also pete, sneaky) cheap, rotgut wine; also attrib.

1941		A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 242: That same boy [...] started hanging around, full of that cheap wine they call ‘sneaky pete’.
1949		Dan Burley ‘Back Door Stuff’ 29 Jan. [synd. col.] They were peddling one pint of Sneaky Pete [...] for 60¢ including 24 glasses.
1950		Asheville Citizen Times (NC) 20 Nov. 8/3: Tne guests [i.e. hoboes] were warned to show up [...] unaccompanied by bottles of a cheap but highly potent wine ‘sneaky Pete’ or ‘sweet Susie’.
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 98: Pepe [...] seemed to get real pleasure from drinking Sneaky Pete (a vile mixture of beer and cheap wine).
1954		‘Hal Ellson’ ‘Pretty Boy’ in Tell Them Nothing (1956) 121: I want some Pete and reefers.
1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 98: He was pouring a jug of wine into the cocoa. [...] ‘A little Sneaky Pete’—he motioned for Janet to come out of hiding with a quart bottle of brandy—’and a little Sneaky Joe’.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 82: They smoked and drank wine from soda bottles. That’s the way Crutch sold his sneaky pete.
1960		I. Freeman Out of the Burning (1961) 130: The only weapons we had were our shivs and four empty pete bottles. [Ibid.] 134: We knocked off a pint of pete each.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 175: Bleary eyes and mottled skin from all the sneaky in them. [Ibid.] 177: The whiskey and the sneaky. [...] I can’t leave them alone.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 25: He held up his fifth of Sneaky Pete, drained it in three gulps.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 72: You can never judge when wine will hit you – no wonder the Yanks call it ‘sneaky Pete’!
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
2008		W.D. Myers Sunrise Over Fallujah 243: ‘In wine I stick with Petrus Clandestinus [...] You probably know it by its street name,’ Jonesy said. ‘Sneaky Pete’.

2. (US drugs) marijuana mixed with wine.

1955		H. Braddy ‘Narcotic Argot Along the Mexican Border’ in AS XXX:2 88: SNEAKY PETE, n.phr. Marijuana mixed in wine.
1984		Abel Dict. Drug Abuse Terms.

3. (US) a form of spirit distilled from household chemicals.

1959

‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] He knew how to filter after-shave lotion and anti-freeze [...] making Sweet Kucy or Sneaky Pete to sell to the wet-brains on the Bowery.