Plot

While on beat patrol they come across a homeless man who has been stabbed. They suspect a retired policeman, Jack Donohoe, living in the run down area who always seems to be on the scene at crimes there and take him in for questioning. That is followed by a call about a woman shooting a phone booth at Union Station. She has been bilked out of her money by an agent promising her a career in movies after coming from Missouri and then they find that her suitcase was stolen by a man who switched locker keys on her. The suitcase contains her pet rattlesnake, Henry. Donohoe is released when it is determined someone else is guilty and they drop him off at Union Station with a warning. They are called back to Union Station again to arrest a robbery suspect who fires at them. However, Donohue intervenes in the incident.—Anonymous

While on foot patrol, Malloy and Reed see Sam, an old wino they know, collapsing across the street. He apparently had been stabbed. The person who is implicated in the stabbing once again as he has in many other similar cases is Jack Donohue, a hulking man well known to the police as he once was a police officer himself in some eastern US detachment, but was supposedly dismissed from his job for a reason unknown to Malloy and Reed. Donohue is now living like a down and out in a single room apartment. But he always seems to be around when incidents involving the police happen in his neighborhood. As such, the police arrest him on suspicion in the stabbing. Sam, who is currently unable to provide a statement, may be able to shed some light on Donohue's involvement. Next, Malloy and Reed attend to reported shots fired in Union Square. The shooter is Ada Hays, an aspiring actress from West Prairie, Missouri, who is shooting at an empty telephone booth to vent against her sleaze-ball of an agent, Phil Duke, before she hops on a bus back to West Prairie. Beyond Malloy and Reed needing to arrest her for the shooting, Ada's story isn't complete as her suitcase had been stolen from the bus station locker, its contents which may provide Ada with her fifteen minutes of fame. Later, Malloy and Reed are brought back to Union Station upon news of an armed man wandering around. Malloy and Reed's tracking of the armed man, who does use his firearm, will show them Donohue's true motivation.—Huggo

The boys decide to go on foot patrol of part of their beat and come across a man who was stabbed. The man's friend claims he saw who did it, an ex-cop, Donohue (Lee Gordon), with a previous acquittal of inappropriate use of deadly force on duty. Reed (Kent McCord) and Malloy (Martin Milner) struggle with the idea that an ex-cop could have turned vigilante. The boys respond to the scene of a wanna-be actress (Katie O'Pace) shooting up a phone booth at Union Station after being dropped by her agent. The problem deepens when the girl finds out her suitcase, containing her pet rattlesnake, has been stolen from a luggage locker. Donohue is cleared of suspicion for the stabbing when the victim is able to describe his attacker, who was evidently much younger. Malloy warns Donohue not to act as judge and jury, questioning whether Donohue might have an axe to grind against the criminal element, even now that he's no longer a cop. Later, when the boys are called off their lunch break to respond to an armed man sighted at Union Station, Donohue shows up to complicate the situation, despite Malloy's warning.