lewin called a regular partner, a veteran detective jim wallace. in almost every case there s something you can do. if nothing else, an opportunity to look at the evidence anew. so wallace and lewin began, by digging into the love triangle, by reinterviewing mary ann, asking about her relationship with both archie and janos, and about the events that preceded the murder. typically when these murders occur, behaviors start to fall apart. you see the behavior of the murderer become more and more aggressive and the murder occurs. so to the beginning, which was, of course, the love story or the betrayal, call it what you will. mary ann was, frankly, a little bored with archie. he loved her unreservedly. she knew that. but passion, excitement, not so much. and she was a vibrant woman still and attractive. but 47 and in need of something. and then there he was, janos.
i went, dad? and i touched him. and there was just i will never forget that feeling. but it just it was very lifeless. it didn t it didn t feel good. so i started yelling, mom, mom, call 911, dad s lying on the driveway. i don t know what s the matter. when the paramedics arrived, it was too late to save archie or the innocent expectations about life, which gary now lost for good. there was just blood everywhere on the front of him, and i just lost it at that point. gil kranke arrived. he had been stabbed multiple times. two were upper torso as if the assailant was confronting him. couldn t have been a robbery. not a thing was taken.
lost both his parents. and years passed. the silence continued. gary got married, started his own family. but the loss of his father still haunted him. he never got to see me be successful in my career. never got to see me get married. never got to be the grandfather. 17 years went by. 17 awkward christmases. detective kranke retired. but remember that fresh set of eyes he was hoping for? it was 2002 and an aggressive deputy d.a. read about archie mcfarland. and as soon as i looked at it, i said, this guy is good for this murder. just what police thought at the beginning, of course. difference was, where some d.a. s avoid circumstantial cases, lewin loves them. especially the riddles of cases gone cold.
one near archie s groin? where would that person have to be relative to the victim to make that kind of an injury? and i think it would put you on your knees in order to do that. so when you look at that and you re spot cleaning on the pants, i think you have a pretty good description of how it is he got blood on his pants and what he had to do to get it off. finally, some physical evidence, but was it enough? d.a. john lewin didn t think so. he needed more evidence. i wanted to get janos on tape. so they went out and contacted janos kulcsar. he worked in a shop preparing electronics. detectives showed up with tape recorder to ask him about the murder, about that day. he remembered every detail, he said, vividly.
here they were to the outside world, an old-fashioned family. inside, secretly, something seething. it was almost christmas 1985. 5:30 a.m. archie started work early. so did gary, who was just 20 years old then. he had come into my room and he said, hey, gary, i m going to be leaving now, so make sure you get up. i said, okay, no problem. thanks, dad, love you. see you. gary showered, dressed, headed outside into a cold, dark morning. it was then he saw something odd lying on the pavement. and as i got closer and closer, i started saying, wow, that looks like my dad. and when i finally got up and then realized it was my dad, i had that moment of like disbelief. archie was healthy, just 58. it didn t make sense seeing him like this on the driveway.