****SPOILERS**** During a robbery on the NY City docks Det. James Halloran, James Franciscus, confronts the armed robber Peter Cretias, Andrew Cevado, face to face and shoots him dead before he can fire his weapon at him. Cleared of all charges in Cretias' death Det Hallornd can't get the tragic fact that he killed a man out of his mind even if it was a justifiable homicide. Wanting to clear his conscious Det. Halloran goes to see the late Peter Cretias' mother Mrs. Cretias and his wife Yancy, Eugenie Leontovich & Diane Ladd, to pay his respects to the man he gunned down. Det. Halloran was almost thrown out the apartment by an outraged Mrs. Cretias but Peter's wife Yancy showed an unusual kindness and understanding towards him.
Going on his own to find out just who was the man that he took his life Det. Halloran finds out that he was a local hood who was easy in lending out cash to his friends or total strangers but a rat towards those who cared for him like his widow Yancy. In fact it was Yancy who asked Det. Halloran to meet her at Penn Station and lend her money, $23.00, to get on a train out of town to her home back in St. Louis. Knowing her husband better then most Yancy knew that what happened to him was inevitable and didn't hold Det. Halloran responsible for it. He was headed for an early grave or life behind bars and if Det. Halloran didn't send him there someone else would have. Very probably one of his criminal friends or associates if not another policeman whom he would have shot it out with.
It took a while for Det. Halloran to get over what he did in gunning down Peter Cretias but in his talk with Peter's wife about what an unfeeling and violent person he was made that a lot easier for him to accept. Most policemen go through and entire 20 year or more career in the police department without not only shooting or killing someone but not even drawing their gun out of their holster. As we saw in this thought provoking "Naked City" episode Det. James Halloran wasn't to be one of them.
