Archie McFarland Murder: Cold Case, Conviction, and Appeals

The Archie McFarland murder was a 1985 Torrance, California, cold case in which a 58-year-old office equipment technician was stabbed to death in his own driveway by Janos Kulcsar, the man who had been having an affair with his wife. Kulcsar was arrested the same day but released for lack of evidence. The case sat dormant for nearly two decades before Torrance detectives and a Los Angeles County prosecutor reopened it in 2002, rebuilt it on circumstantial evidence and Kulcsar’s shifting alibis, and won a first-degree murder conviction in 2011. He was sentenced to 26 years to life.

The Killing in the Driveway

Just before dawn on December 9, 1985, Archie McFarland was attacked outside his home in the 4000 block of 184th Street in Torrance. He was stabbed four times in the chest while standing and once in the groin after he collapsed.¹ His 20-year-old son Gary found him bleeding in the driveway. He died from his wounds.

No murder weapon was ever recovered. There were no eyewitnesses. Prosecutors later described the killing as occurring in the “pre-DNA” era of forensic investigation.²

The Affair and the Threats

The killing grew out of a tangled romantic history. Archie had met his wife, Mary Ann, at Pitney-Bowes in the 1950s.³ By the early 1980s their marriage was struggling. Mary Ann met Janos Kulcsar, began an affair, and eventually left Archie to live with him.

The relationship lasted roughly three years. At some point before the killing, Mary Ann decided to return to Archie and try to repair her marriage.⁴ Kulcsar did not accept it. Prosecutors later described him as becoming “increasingly upset and threatening” in the weeks before the murder.⁵

Seven days before the killing, Kulcsar called the McFarland home. When Archie told him to “go fly a kite” and hung up, Kulcsar called back and said, “Don’t you hang up on me. I will get even with you.”¹ The next day, Kulcsar showed up at the house, sat down in the living room with Archie, and told him, “You know I’ve been seeing your wife.” During that visit, Mary Ann discovered a gun inside a bag Kulcsar had brought in. She later testified she took it from him and threw it into some bushes after he claimed he intended to kill himself.³ Six days later, Archie McFarland was dead.

Why the Case Went Cold

Police arrested Kulcsar the morning of the killing. His car engine was still hot and his clothes were wet.¹ But with no confession, no witnesses, and no murder weapon, prosecutors concluded they lacked enough to charge him. He was released.

About a month later, at detectives’ request, Mary Ann secretly recorded a conversation with Kulcsar at a restaurant. She confronted him about a comment he had made on December 3, when he arrived at her home with the gun, saying “this story wasn’t over yet.” On the tape she asked him directly, “Did you do this awful thing?”³ She later testified she made the recording because she “wanted to be assured he didn’t kill her husband.”

The case still stalled. And then something more surprising happened: roughly six months after the murder, Mary Ann resumed her relationship with Kulcsar and moved into his Long Beach home.¹ Prosecutor John Lewin later said Mary Ann “did not want to believe that Kulcsar was responsible” and that “she loves him.”⁵ The couple stayed together for more than two decades.

Reopening the Investigation

In 2002, Torrance Police Detective Jim Wallace and Deputy District Attorney John Lewin reopened the file.⁶ They re-examined the original evidence, re-interviewed Mary Ann to reconstruct the full timeline of the affair, and scrutinized the recorded interviews police had conducted with Kulcsar over the years.²

What they found was telling. Kulcsar had given four different alibis for his whereabouts on the morning of the stabbing. As Lewin put it, Kulcsar “could not keep his lies straight.”⁵

Investigators also took a fresh look at physical details from the original arrest. Police had found Kulcsar washing or soaking clothes in his bathroom at 6:30 a.m. A laundry basket sat in his car, whose engine was still hot to the touch. A report noted dirt on his pants, which investigators now used to connect him to the outdoor crime scene.² There was no DNA match and no newly discovered weapon. The case was built entirely on circumstantial evidence and a suspect who kept contradicting himself.

Kulcsar was interviewed again in 2009 and arrested on April 1, 2010, charged with first-degree murder.⁷ He was held on $1 million bail.³

Trial and Conviction

The trial took place in Torrance Superior Court in 2011 and lasted roughly a month. The prosecution’s case rested on motive, opportunity, and Kulcsar’s history of contradictory statements. No physical evidence directly tied him to the stabbing, and Lewin acknowledged the case was built on circumstantial evidence.

Mary Ann McFarland, then in her mid-70s, was the prosecution’s key witness. She testified about the affair, her return to Archie, Kulcsar’s escalating threats, the gun incident, and the secretly recorded restaurant conversation.¹ Prosecutors made clear she was not a willing participant in the case against him; she had spent 25 years living with the man accused of killing her husband. Lewin told the court she had wanted to believe Kulcsar was innocent because she loved him, and prosecutors said they did not believe she was involved in the murder.⁵

On June 21, 2011, the jury deliberated for about two and a half hours before finding Kulcsar guilty of first-degree murder.¹

Sentence and Family Statements

On January 18, 2012, Torrance Superior Court Judge Mark S. Arnold sentenced the then-60-year-old Kulcsar to 26 years to life in state prison. “The evidence was overwhelming that the only person in the world with a motive to commit this crime is the defendant,” the judge said. “I will sleep very well after the sentence is going to be imposed on you, Mr. Kulcsar. I am very confident you did what you are accused of doing.”⁴

Lewin was equally blunt: “He slaughtered him like a dog. This is a man who has earned the sentence he is going to get.”⁴

Archie’s son Gary addressed Kulcsar directly at sentencing: “I don’t hate you. I hate what you did.” He added, “Sometimes our faith in the system can be waning. I really appreciate the fact that the system does work.” His sister Linda said the sentence “regrettably won’t bring my father back” but that “justice has been done.” Mary Ann, who had spent a quarter century caught between the man she married and the man who killed him, said only, “It’s just a tragedy for all those involved. For my family and for his family.”⁵

Appeals

Kulcsar challenged his conviction in both state and federal court. He argued that the 25-year delay between the killing and the filing of charges violated his due process rights by producing “unavailable evidence and fading memories,” and that the evidence of premeditation required for first-degree murder was “thin.”⁸

Both arguments failed. The California Court of Appeal rejected his claims, and on March 15, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of his federal habeas petition, finding that his assertions of prejudice from the delay were “either not caused by the delay or were purely speculative” and that the jury’s verdict was supported by “substantial circumstantial evidence.”⁹

1
Press-Telegram. Jury Convicts Long Beach Man of 1985 Murder
2
Internet Archive. Dateline
3
Whittier Daily News. Victim’s Wife Testifies in 1985 Slaying Case
4
Daily Breeze. Long Beach Man Sentenced for Killing Lover’s Husband 26 Years Ago
5
Los Angeles Times. Cold Case Sentence
6
Los Angeles Magazine. The Ice Man
7
Daily News. Prosecutor: Romantic Triangle at Heart of 1985 Stabbing Death
8
FindLaw. Janos Kulcsar v. Debbie Asuncion
9
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Kulcsar v. Asuncion, No. 17-55898