Harlem sunset

plural Harlem sunsets

1. USrarenoirA fatal wound caused by a knife fight.

   One time there was five smokes carved Harlem sunsets on each other down on East Eighty-four.

   1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, A. A. Knopf, page 14

   3 more examples

   This wasn't some punk carving Harlem sunsets on a drugstore attendant. This was a professional job.

   1976, Frank Ormsby, “War Memorial”, in Seamus Heaney, editor, Soundings, volume 3, page 15

   The blade had been inches from showing Moe a Harlem sunset. A longer knife, or an extra twist, and Moe would've bled to death before the meat wagon arrived.

   2004 February 1, Desdemona, “{ASSM} Rough Cut: Chap 1 by Desdmona (crime drama)”, in alt.sex.stories.moderated (Usenet)

   2006, Richard E. Sall, Straightjacket, p. 38, We had some mean turf wars with rival Latino and Italian gangs, and I've still got the scars to prove it: one under my left eye from some Romano's chain, and one just to the right of my right shoulder blade from some bitch who tried to give me a Harlem sunset –yup, that can happen in Detroit, too.