janos? who was janos? detectives pressed mary ann for more. she told us that her boyfriend was responsible for this. that s right, boyfriend. she had been having an affair? yes. off and on. his full name was janos kulcsar, originally from hungary. and once the police got the gist of mary ann s tearful confession she had a picture of him and said, here s his address. they high tailed it over to his apartment in long beach, where they found his car. this was an hour after the murder. sitting all innocent like not far from his door. the officers, having had some experience with this sort of thing, performed a little test to see just how innocent that car was. and the engine hood was hot to the touch, so it appeared that it had just been driven back.
one woman who was loved intensely over the top by two men in two very different ways. he was the first, the husband. hand sell, athletic, adventurous. a surfer. the real deal. his name was archie mcfarland. good ol arch. everybody loved him. laid back, kind, reliable. ten years older than mary ann but crazy about her. she brought a daughter with her when they married in the early 60s, and together they had a son gary. they settled down near the ocean, an l.a. suburb called torrence. we had a great typical nuclear family. dad went off to work. my mom stayed at home and did all the home stuff, the stuff that you see in leave it to beaver. you will see when gary talks about his dad how close they were. and it wasn t just because archie introduced him to surfing.
how could she? go back to the lover who gary was sure stabbed his father, her husband, and left him to die in the driveway? when i first found out, all ties were cut. i wrote her a letter. dropped it in her mail slot. as far as i m concerned, our relationship is over. mary ann, remember, accused janos of murder the very day it happened, confronted him in jail. now here she was back with him. while they didn t actually move in together, they were certainly a couple, passion apparently undimmed. i just believe that in her own mind that it was okay to go back with him because there was really no proof that he did it. just how much mary ann knew, if anything, about janos role in her husband s murder, she wasn t saying. certainly not her son, gary. the rift in the relationship between mother and son now seemed irreparable. for gary, it was like he had
it was just relief. it was like a big weight was lifted off my shoulder. janos got a free 25-year ticket that most people who commit a murder don t get. conspicuously absent on the day that finally brought justice for her late husband and a conviction for her lover was mary ann mcfarland. she does not want to believe he did this, for a lot of reasons. if mary ann were to accept that he committed this crime, she admitted that she would hold herself morally responsible. so some people decide i m not going to accept reality unless it absolutely punches me in the face. and i guess we didn t punch hard enough. reality for janos kulcsar, the man she loved, the man now convicted of murdering her
more sinister was going to happen that day. in fact, nothing happened. janos went home. but he came back here to mary ann s house a few days later, lewin and wallace learned. it was on the friday before the murder. he met with mary ann alone and had an epiphany. it was something he referred to in one of the conversations the police recorded between janos and mary ann. remember that morning that i left, friday? i remember. it never clicked until i came home. sometimes i m slow on things, you know, but it clicked. clicked? what did he mean by that? he realized, you know what? she doesn t love archie. she s not going back to archie because she loves him. she loves me. so if i could just find a way to get rid of archie, i don t need to kill myself. if i get rid of him, i get the girl, she gets the security, and he s out of the way.