Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to cheat, to deceive, to take advantage of; to suffer or give bad luck.

1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Nov. 3/1: It’s unkind of you to ‘hoodoo’ poor Joe Shannon who is a good fellow.
1887		Wichita Eagle (KS) 11 Nov. 7/1: Every old gambler has a grist of yarns about the horrible ways he has hoodooed himself playing for some stupid trifle.
1908		N.Y. Press 5 July in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 114: Something turned up to hoodoo the performance.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 578: hoodoodle, v. To defraud. ‘A lightning-rod agent hoodoodled him out of four hundred dollars.’.
1918		NY Tribune 16 June 6/2: Seated on a captured German mortar is Charles Darwin in the act of hoodooing all German guns.
1937		D. Fuchs Low Company 194: Leave me alone! [...] You’re hoodooing my luck.
1947		A. Crudup ‘Hoodoo Lady Blues’ lyrics] Now Miss Hoodoo Lady, please give me a hoodoo hand; / I want to hoodoo this woman of mine, I believe she’s got another man.
1966–67		in DARE.
1984		I. Doig Eng. Creek 108: Why had I let the sight of him hoodoo me like this?