Character Analysis
Loretta Salino shows up in this movie as a waitress at the diner where Johnny Hooker likes to eat. She comes across as pretty gruff and uninviting at first, giving short answers to all of Johnny's questions. Loretta eventually tells Johnny that she wants to leave Chicago, and when he asks where she wants to go, she replies,
LORETTA SALINO: I don't know. Depends what train I get on.
Little does Johnny know that Loretta is playing hard to get because she's actually an assassin who's been hired to kill him.
At one point, Loretta helps Johnny get away from another gunman who's trying to kill him. But we only find out later on that she does this because she wants to collect the reward for Johnny for herself. She also has a chance to kill him when they sleep together, but a neighbor sees Johnny enter her apartment and Loretta is a cautious enough professional not to leave any witnesses. It's not until another gunman shoots her in the head in the middle of an alley that we find out she's actually the "Salino" who's been hired to kill Johnny.
The moral of this story? Don't assume that all hitmen are, well, men. That's just sexist (and, if you're a conman who's angered a powerful mob boss, super dangerous).