- "It's the first and last thing my father taught me. Without honor, there is nothing."
- — Like many criminals, Waring has a code
John T. Waring is a racketeer who was a silent partner in the Los Angeles company T&H Imports and used it as a front for his criminal activities. When his warehouse was raided by the Treasury Department, US Marshal P. Renfro was killed and the company's imports appraiser Scott Seaver saw Waring stand over Renfro's body in his office with his gun drawn. As the bullet was never found, Scott's eye witness testimony was the only evidence in Renfro's death and led to another life sentence for Waring in addition to the two for his other crimes.
When Shawn blows Scott's witness protection cover in a misguided attempt to help Juliet, he and Gus visit Waring in prison to plead with him not to have Scott killed. Waring agrees on the condition that they prove his innocence in Renfro's death. He claims that the murder was pinned on him; he was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time and Renfro was already dead when he found him. Although Gus doesn't believe a word coming out of Waring's mouth, Shawn is convinced and agrees to his proposal.
After a visit to the warehouse together with Scott sheds more light on the situation, Shawn eventually pieces together that it was Renfro's partner, Federal Marshal Daniel Wayne, who killed him – but by accident. During the raid on Waring's warehouse Wayne had spotted a gun through an open window and shot at its owner without realizing this was his partner. Waring then entered his office and instinctively drew his gun when he saw Renfro on the floor, at which point Scott wandered in and saw what he would later testify to in court. Some time after both had left the scene, Wayne came in and, finally realizing what he had done, staged the scene by closing the window and repositioning Renfro's body in order to make it seem as if Waring had run into Renfro and murdered him in cold blood. Now that the truth is out, Waring's wish that his children do not think of him as a murderer has been fulfilled; however, of course his two other life sentences should still ensure he'll be spending the rest of his life behind bars anyway.
Trivia[]
- Shawn believes that there's "something really Billy Zane-ian" about Waring and that he has "Billy Zane-ian qualities". This is a reference to the common misconception that it was Billy Zane instead of Waring's Arnold Vosloo who portrayed Imhotep in adventure flick The Mummy. Also, in a 2005 interview Vosloo confirmed that such a misconception existed the other way around as well by remarking that some people mistakenly believe him to have played the villainous Cal Hockley from Titanic, a role really portrayed by Billy Zane.