Yeah my great grandmother was a “thug”.
For what its worth her maiden name was Reiniche, her married name was Greene, and when she was married a 2nd time her name went from German to Austrian Litchault.
Reading an essay about the WWII era in Chronicles by Tom Landess and he had old bitties in his FLA town who were the town’s war effort Stasi. In brief I was meaning to say the thugs were from my granfather’s time in WWI era America, the busy bodies from the eras of both good wars.