Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to throttle; thus gozzler n.; gozzling n.

1938		A.J. Liebling ‘The Jollity Building’ in Telephone Booth Indian (2004) 66: ‘Really, the Clutch is a gozzler.’ The term means a fellow who gozzles people — chokes them in order to rob them. The gozzling business cannot be very good, because Marty is customarily [...] broke.
1954		Collans & Sterling House Detectives 47: This is an ugly customer who may combine any or all of the traits of sneak thief, burglar and gozzler *. [...] * A throttler, one who gozzles his victim by choking, sometimes to death [HDAS].