button man

plural button men

1. slangA contract killer; a professional assassin.

   But death is never symmetrical and tidy, and the button man had nothing to say.

   2005, Jeffery Deaver, Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936, page 44

   2 more examples

   I was called a "buffoon" in the paper of record, the New York Times, and the Washington Post described me fondly as "Clinton's gunsel," his button man

   2000, James Carville, Stickin': The Case for Loyalty, page 13

   "Twenty years ago, he was Little Pete Drago, a button man for the boys on Mulberry Street. He's probably got twenty notches on his piece

   2000, Stuart Woods, Worst Fears Realized, page 177