Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a pessimist, a kill-joy.

1909		R. Beach Silver Horde 58: Why, he was the darndest crape-hanger I ever met till you got him gingered up .
1913		Tacoma Times (WA) 17 Feb. 1/3: [cartoon caption] Old Mr Crapehanger Blocks a Romance.
1915		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 27 May [synd. cartoon] I don’t want to knock the old boy or be a crepe-hanger or nothin like that but it [i.e. a suit] looks like something the cat dragged in.
1919		K.H. Day Camion Cartoons [caption in letter] 🌐 ‘If we do go with the army of occupation we won’t get home for – say – eight months.’ ‘Yes! You crape hanger [...] If you don’t dry up you’re going to get crowned.’ [Ibid.] We Have This Kind . . . And These Crape Hangers [illus.of man talking rubbish].
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 133: Gottlieb’s gods are the cynics, the destroyers – crapehangers, the vulgar call ’em.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 146: ‘Come on, crape hanger,’ said Weary.
1949		E.J. Edwards Chosen 124: Rube gave him a disapproving glance. ‘Crape hanger!’.
1966		‘Tom Pendleton’ Iron Orchard (1967) 109: What are you, one of those natural-born crepe-hangers?
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 178: My staff was trying to be inconspicuous, with about as much success as the proverbial crepe hangers at the wake.
1979		R.H. Pilpel To the Honor of the Fleet 71: Why had they sent such a sour old crape hanger down to meet him anyway.
2007		L. Carlyle Never Lie to a Lady 184: ‘Aren’t you the crape-hanger from hell,’ he grumbled. ‘Life is fraught with risk, Kemble. And death comes to us all.’.

2. a murderer.

1928

C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 116: My kind have their names for each other: [...] crape-hanger — either a gloom or killer.