hatchet man vs stooge

hatchet man

noun
  • A male professional killer or gunman. 

  • A male who carries out brutal and unpleasant duties on behalf of another, such as firing dead wood employees. 

  • A male hatchet-wielding participant in a Chinese-American tong war. 

stooge

noun
  • A confederate; a person who is secretly working for the researcher, unknown to the study participant. 

  • A magician's assistant who pretends to be a member of the audience. 

  • One who knowingly allows himself or herself to be used for another's profit; a dupe. 

  • A straight man. 

  • A secret informant for police. 

verb
  • To act as a straight man. 

How often have the words hatchet man and stooge occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )