Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US black) a threatening glance, a threat, the evil eye; the starer; thus bad-eyed adj.; bad-eye adv., menacingly.

1896		Ade Artie 67: ‘He has a bad eye,’ said Miller.
1920		‘Pardners’ in J.A. Lomax Songs of the Cattle Trail 60: You bad-eyed, tough-mouthed son-of-a-gun.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 161: After Willy died she went off with ‘Bad Eye,’ another gangster.
1945		L. Hoban ‘Time to Kill’ Crack Detective Jan. 🌐 The guy holding the other end [...] was giving me the bad eye.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle 92: A big, tough-looking boy with a bad eye on him.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 21/1: Bad-eye, n. A menacing glance; an angry or threatening stare. ‘Take a powder (get out of here), crumb (phony). You ain’t puttln’ the bull on (intimidating) me with that bad-eye crap.’.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 242: The people around me didn’t say anything, nor look bad-eye at me, but they knew.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 197: badeye, n. – one who stares menacingly.
1972		D. Dalby ‘The African element in Amer. Eng.’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 177: bad-eye—‘threatening, hateful glance’.