Where does the word "Goon" come from?

Your article seems largely based on the Online Etymological Dictionary which is pretty reliable.

mid 19th century: perhaps from dialect gooney ‘booby’; influenced by the subhuman cartoon character ‘Alice the Goon,’ created by E. C. Segar (1894–1938), American cartoonist.- Google

Interesting. Eugene the Magical Jeep was another Popey character of Segar’s, and the four-wheeled Jeep may have been name for him.

Peter Sellers
Spike Milligan
Harry Secombe
Michael Bentine

“goon… n [prob. short for E.dial. ‘gooney’ simpleton] (1921) 1 : a stupid person 2 a : a man hired to terrorize or eliminate opponents ” -from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th ed.

Asked by rojo
I found this but it seem rather, unfulfilling? What are your thoughts?

Fat chance this frisson find will fulfill.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/dragoon

dragoon (n.)
1620s, from French dragon “carbine, musket,” because the guns the soldiers carried “breathed fire” like dragons (see dragon). Also see -oon.

dragoon (v.)

1680s, literally “to force by the agency of dragoons” (which were used by the French kings to persecute Protestants), from dragoon (n.). Related: Dragooned; dragooning.

dragon (n.)
early 13c., from Old French dragon, from Latin draconem (nominative draco) “huge serpent, dragon,” from Greek drakon (genitive drakontos) “serpent, giant seafish,” apparently from drak-, strong aorist stem of derkesthai “to see clearly,” from PIE *derk- “to see.” Perhaps the literal sense is “the one with the (deadly) glance.”

Goon and goony may be false cognates ie. for the birds.

Actually @Pinguidchance to me an abbreviated version of the term “dragoon” being the original source makes more sense than the simpleton/fool origin particularly when used to persecute or threaten others.

The gangsters of the early 20th century, like in Chicago, had lots of hipster like words, like “heater” for a gun, “Chicago typewriter” for a Thompson machine gun, and so on. Makes sense that the word “goon” would mean an enforcer, a hit man, “muscle.”

Found this in a 1960 edition of Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary-
“goon…, n. [Prob fr. gorilla+baboon.] Slang, orig. Western U.S. One hired as a slugger, bomber, incendiary, or the like, by racketeers or outlaw unionists for terrorizing industry workers; from the subhuman creatures of a comic strip by E. C. Segar (d. 1938).”