****SPOILERS**** Attempting to knock off a mid town Manhattan liquor store results in a deadly shootout where one of the robbers Quint Butcher, Roberts Blossom, ended up fatally wounded in the exchange. There's also Det. Hal Pearlman, Michael Strong, who was gunned down by the retreating and badly wounded Batcher who's now on life support at a local mid town hospital.With Quint's accomplice and big brother Marco, Frank Sutton, in police custody he's given the third degree in telling them where his brother is or else, if Det. Pearlman died, he may well face the death penally even though he wasn't the person who pulled the trigger.
It takes a while for Let. Dan Muldoon, John McIntire, to get Marco to talk but the fact that his kid brother was shot and may well end up bleeding to death if not found and treated in time has him finally open up and tell the police where he possibly may be hiding: In a run down and deserted building in the Manhattan waterfront.It's now up to the police to find Quint before he passes away so if convicted he'll be made to face justice in Sing Sing's electric chair.
***SPOILERS*** It turned out to be a sad Christmas for Marco who sadly finds out that his kid brother Quint was found dead in his secret hiding pace on the New York City docks from loss of blood. The good news is that Quint's victim in the liquor store shooting Det. Hal Pearlman did in fact pull through and lived to see another day as well as cook up a pot of his favorite brew, coffee, for his fellow policemen at the 65th prescient. And the person who enjoyed the coffee the most is Det. James Halloran, James Franciscus, who's place Det. Pearlman took in that deadly liquor store stake out so he could spend Christmas Eve with his family.