Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US prison) the electric chair used for executions in the Louisana State penitentiary, Angola from 1941-91.

2021

T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 203: Red Hat, the infamous brick death chapel that housed Gruesome Gertie, the electric chair.

1. a couple in a steady relationship.

1943		Chicago Trib. Graphic Section 26 Dec. 7/1: Jive Talk [...] Going Steady. [...] Gruesome twosome.
1955		W. White ‘Wayne University Sl.’ AS XXX:4 303: gruesome twosome, n. Couple who go steady.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 203: We’re talking me, the goys, Fabienne and the Gruesome Twosome.

2. a pair of individuals, esp, when unpopular, e.g. two teenage girls sharing a very close friendship, a lesbian couple.

1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 137: If you want to give us a good laugh, why don’t you bring one of your Warm Sisters with you and make a gruesome twosome?
1967		(con. 1950s) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 331: ‘Hal and Murph are drunk enough to ride off without us – just themselves and all that booze.’ ‘Now, wouldn’t that be a gruesome twosome?’.
1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire (1980) 221: Him and the Sergeant Major would make a gruesome twosome.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Wanted’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Who are you two after? Not the gruesome twosome are you?
1995		in N. Lichtenstein Walter Reuther 206: The Auto Workers have their sideshow One is fat and one is lean. Who are they but the gruesome twosome.
2004		J.H. MacLean Chinese Adoption Hbk 26: Or you might have to deal with the Gruesome Twosome, the two BCIS offices from hell, San Jose and Denver.