nbc-universal television she told archie she was dating this man. if he didn't like it, he could leave. >> he had been stabbed multiple times. nobody saw anything. i went dad? and i touched him. i'll never forget that feeling. >> it was just before dawn when he found his father dead in the driveway. >> there's no doubt in my mind what happened. i immediately knew. >> there was someone else who may have known, too.

>> i turned and looked at my mom, like you know who did this, that son of a bitch. >> there was one thing no one could know, a strange twist still to come. >> it was a bit of a surprise, kind of a shock when you found out she was seeing him again. >> yes. >> a lover's triangle always leaves to trouble. >> you've destroyed me. >> did this one lead to murder? >> what was it like watching him walk out of jail. >> he beat the system. >> deadly triangle. good evening, welcome to "dateline." i'm lester holt. how long does it take a killer to stop worrying about whether he'll ever be caught? a couple of weeks? a couple of months? 25 years? if he's still a free man then, he's probably pretty sure he did, indeed, get away with murder. detectives retire, witnesses forget. the trail grows cold, never to

warm up again. until one day it does. here's keith morrison. [ car starting ] >> what a time it was. the year he turned up in that crazy little car. but a sweet, impossible, unexpected last chance at love, that red, passionate sin. as madonna sang that hit ♪ crazy for you. >> it was 1995, and it was magic. ♪ i never wanted anyone like this ♪ >> all right. call your first witness. >> and now here she was, 2011, in a courtroom of all places. forced to confess her forbidden love, account for her sins. this grandmother, widow, pen i

tant. what story would she tell? >> the main thing going through my mind is to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. >> the truth, such a difficult word. especially when it bubbles up from a past which mary ann mcfarland must have believed was buried forever. >> and where was your husband? >> he was still in the house. >> men. trouble was, there were two, which was the one central fact, the inconvenient truth that caused all the trouble, and might have been forgotten, had it not been for this inquisitive d.a. and this long, lean cop, jim wallace, looking on so intently. >> this is a case, it was a true love story between three people. one woman who was loved intensely, i mean, over the top, by two men, in two very

different ways. >> he was the first. the husband, handsome, athletic, adventurous, a surfer, the real deal. his name was archie mcfarland. good old 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, you know, dad went off to work. my mom stayed at home and did all the home stuff, you know, 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. >> i kind of always looked up to my dad. my dad was a really soft spoken,

easygoing yet affable guy. >> here they were to the outside world, an old fashioned fashimi. inside, something seething. >> it was christmas, 1995, 5:30 a.m. archie started work early, so did gary, just 20 years old then. >> he had come into my room, 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, okay, see you. >> gary showered, dressed, headed outside to a cold, dark morning. it was then he saw something odd lying on the pavement. >> 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 just like disbelief. >> archie was healthy, just 58.

didn't make sense seeing him like this on the driveway. >> i went dad? and i touched him. and there was just -- i'll never forget that feeling, but it just -- it was very lifeless. it didn't feel good. so i started yelling mom, mom, call 911, dad's laying on the driveway, i don't know what's the matter. >> when paramedics arrived, it was much too late to save archie, or in this next moment, the innocent expectations about life, which gary mcfarland now lost for good. >> there was just blood everywhere on the front of him, and i just lost it at that point. >> torrence police detective gill kronky arrived. >> he had been stabbed multiple times, two upper torso, as if the assailant was confronting him. >> couldn't have been a robbery.

not a thing was taken. archie's car, still there. >> nobody saw anything. >> but to the detective, it was clear enough. archie mcfarland had been targeted and executed, and whoever killed him had escaped without leaving behind a murder weapon or fingerprints or even a hair in what must have been a violent struggle. anyway, this was pre-dna. >> they just didn't have any physical piece of anything left on the driveway, and that was the big focus. >> but there was a clue. oh, yes, and it was frankly very, very strange. >> one of the stab wounds was in the groin area. >> what did that tell you? >> it's personal. >> kind of like somebody sending a message? >> yes. >> maybe a sexual message? >> yes. >> and about then on that crisp december morning, as gary and

his mother stood shivering and sobbing over archie's bloody body, the shocking realization suddenly hit. >> and i turned around, looked at my mom, i said you know who did this, that son of a bitch. i just -- i immediately knew. i just, it was like there was no doubt in my mind what happened. >> when we come back, there was someone else who also seemed to know who the killer was. >> how could you do such a horrible thing? do you know what you've done? you've destroyed me. n y hedlngeaiatrle" continues. all the time. in the car, the dressing room. it wasn't always like that. no. love you. love you. but then we tried k-y yours + mine, and things changed. the other day, we made magic on the kitchen floor. this one feels amazing for me, and this one for him, incredible. we got arrested for making public magic. and when they combine, an amazing sensation for us both. it made jail magical. like, seriously, we love magic.

[ female announcer ] k-y yours + mine. his excites. hers delights. together, feel them ignite. keep life sexy.

december 1985, torrance, california, christmas coming, but not for archie mcfarland, whose earthly remains were now a crime scene in the pre-dawn dark of his own driveway. and even before police arrived to begin their search for the usual clues, in fact, even as gary mcfarland cradled his father's lifeless body in his arms as his mother, mary ann, rushed to his side, they knew, both of them, without a shadow of a doubt who did it. >> she immediately started saying "oh, my god, i'm sorry. i can't believe he did it. i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry." >> mary ann met with the cops and told them. >> "janos did it." >> 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'd been having an affair with him. >> yes, off and on. >> his full name was janos kulscar, originally from hungary. once police got the gist of mary ann's tearful confession -- >> she had a picture of him, said "here's his address." >> reporter: they high-tailed it to his apartment at long beach, where they found his car, just about an hour after the murder, sitting all innocent-like, not far from his door. so 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. >> somebody had been pushing the old volkswagen bug pretty hard. so the cops laid low just across the street there and kept an eye on the car, found one just about

like it in the apartment over there and sure enough, a few minutes later, out comes janos, big as life, walking to the car, and his hair was wet, as if he'd just had a shower. >> he said he was going to his brother's house to do laundry. >> laundry, at 6:30 a.m.? seemed a little odd. but the more pressing question, why was his car engine hot? especially if he was just now leaving the house? janos backtracked a bit then. he said he left earlier, then returned to the house. >> because he forgot something, came back home, went into the apartment. >> and what did janos claim he forgot? the laundry, even though cops had spotted a basket of clothes inside his car before he came out of the apartment. so they searched the car and found nothing. nothing suspicious, anyway, no blood or other evidence related

to archie mcfarland's murder. same inside the apartment, except there was this one weird thing, hanging over the bathtub were -- >> some clothes that were wet, a shirt and pants. if he's going to do laundry, why would you spot wash something and leave it to hang in your bathroom to dry if you're going to do laundry, go do laundry. >> janos was arrested and taken back to the torrance pd whether detective kroenke now had 72 hours to compile a case to convince the da to file murder charges, otherwise janos would be released. kroenke was confident he could wrap it up quickly. >> he had his wet clothes, changed his statements all the time, his girlfriend, the victim's wife, was pretty positive he was responsible for it this. >> he kept insisting he had nothing to do with archie mcfarland's murder and crime lab tests didn't find a speck of

blood on his clothes, or him, no scratches on him. was it possible janos wasn't the killer? detective kroenke had an idea. mary ann wanted to see her former lover in jail. what if they taped the conversation? so the two met for the first time since archie's murder, as the tape rolled. >> how could you do such a horrible thing and think you're a man. if you get out of here alive, i'll kill you. do you know what you've done? you've destroyed me. >> i didn't do what you're accusing me. i did not do it. >> if i had a gun, i'd blow your damned brains out right now. >> at one point mary ann became so enraged she even spat on him. >> love? you did this in the name of love? poo on your love! >> i didn't kill him. i did not kill him.

and i don't know anybody who did. >> i hate you with all the passion i can dig up. >> mary ann's tirade seemed authentic. but, of course, the cops weren't sure at least at this point if she knew more than she was saying. did you ever think mary ann has to be involved in this somehow. >> i don't think she could have been directly involved but she could have thrown out some ideas to him, and he might have taken them on his own. >> but janos' guilt seemed clear enough, so kroenke took his case to the d.a., and got a big surprise. without a confession, a witness or a murder weapon the d.a.'s office refused to gamble on such a circumstantial case, so no charges were filed against janos kulscar. what was it like watching him walk out of jail? >> well, it hurts, because you know he's the guy that did it.

and he beat the system. >> i was dumb-founded. to me, there was so much evidence, it just didn't make sense to me. >> then mary ann approached the cops with a second proposal to trap her ex-lover into a taped confession, and a month after the murder, the two of them met at a local restaurant. >> will you tell me, you tell me what happened. >> nothing happened. and why do you think i would do such a thing like this? >> you're not being honest with me and i know it. >> what do you want to hear? do you want me to lie to you? >> again, janos' denials were complete and determined, just like his passion for mary ann. >> would you kiss me last time? >> no. >> please. >> no, the end, this is good-bye. do you understand that? this is good-bye forever. >> that was that, but of course

you know how it is for lovers, ex or otherwise. what may sound like the end isn't always. why don't we check back in, say 20 years. >> coming up, a new detective and a new prosecutor turn up the heat and suddenly a cold case is red hot again. >> as soon as i looked at it, i said hey this guy is good for this murder. >> when "dateline" continues.

it was a mean and bitter christmas for gary mcfarland the year his father was murdered. the spring of '86 brought no solace. the summer surf lost its appeal. >> the whole thing didn't make sense to me. >> didn't make sense because no matter how thoroughly gary wished otherwise, janos kulscar

was as free as a bird. >> kind of made me, you know, question the whole system. >> the cops were sure janos killed archie. gary was doubly sure, and yes -- >> he's still hoofing around, you know, breathing air and has all the freedoms that you and i have. just didn't seem right. >> perhaps not, but the cops were simply stuck. >> the murder weapon, the confession, or an eyewitness, we didn't have any of that. >> so the case went cold. not much more detective kroenke could do. >> you put it away, and then let some fresh eyes look at it later on down the line and see if there's something you missed. >> and then, a very strange development, not a police issue, but for gary, it was awful. it was a few years after the murder, gary was paying his mom's phone bill, and he noticed several calls back and forth to

long beach. he dialed the number. and on the other end was janos kulscar. was it fair to say it was a bit of a surprise? kind of a shock when you found out she was seeing him again? >> yes, yes, it was very difficult. >> 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 and as far as i'm concerned, our relationship's over. >> mary ann accused janos of murder the day it happened, confronted him in jail and now here she was back with them. -- 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 to her son, gary. but the rift in the relationship between mother and son now seemed irreparable. for gary, it was like he had 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 kroenke retired. but remember that fresh set of eyes he was hoping for? it was 2002, an aggressive deputy da named john lewin read

about archie mcfarland. >> and as soon as i looked at it, i said hey, this guy's good for this murder. >> just what police thought back in the beginning, of course. the difference was, where some das avoid circumstantial cases, lewin, who by the way served as an nbc news consultant on other stories, loves them, especially the wriggles of cases gone cold. lewin called a regular partner, veteran detective jim wallace. >> in almost every case there's something you could do, if nothing else there's an opportunity for to you look at the evidence anew and if you see anything that was missed. >> so wallace and lewin began by digging into that love triangle, by re-interviewing 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 slowly kind of fall apart and you see the behavior of the murderer become more and more aggressive

and then the murder occurs. >> and so to the beginning, which was, of course, the love story, or the betrayal, call it what you will. mary ann, as lewin and wallace discovered, was frankly, a little bored with archie. he loved her, unreservedly, and she knew that, but passion? excitement? not so much. and she was a vibrant woman, still attractive, but 47, and in need of something. and then there he was, janos. she met him at a local club. he was just 32, 25 years younger than state old archie. >> he was everything archie wasn't and satisfied everything archie couldn't satisfy for her.

she told archie she was dating this man. she basically told him if he didn't like it, he could leave. >> archie, ever easy-going, accepted it, hoping his marriage would somehow survive. gary was just 18 then, didn't know for sure about the affair, but suspected his mom was seeing someone, especially the day he caught her sneaking off to take a private telephone call. >> i grabbed the phone from her and said "do you have any idea what you're doing to my family?" and i hung the phone up, and that's basically when she left. >> that very day, mary ann moved into janos' one-bedroom apartment, leaving home and kids and, of course, archie. >> he still loved my mom, after she left. he wouldn't let me say anything negative. "she's still your mother. she's still my wife." >> and perhaps archie understood the human heart after all. it took a year but mary ann's heart began to cool there in that cheap little apartment. >> the kind of interest she had in being chased, that infatuation, that period rubbed off.

after a period of time she was certainly passionately being chased by janos but he just became a guy in the apartment. >> archie had a pension savings, life insurance. mary ann was almost 50. did she worry also that janos was too young for her, that maybe his feelings would change? >> but eventually mary ann decides, you know what? this is stressful. i kind of miss my life. i don't have the security that i had. mary ann decides, hey, i want to move back home. >> and archie welcomed her back, forgiving as always. no resentment, no anger? >> he didn't show any. >> none at all? >> that was my dad. >> across town, janos kulscar wasn't so forgiving. he was fuming. >> janos truly loved her, love bordering on obsession. unfortunately, you know, it takes two people to quit the relationship, and janos was just

not going to accept it. >> and here in his little apartment, he prepared a secret plan to get her back. >> when we return, an old pair of pants reveals new secrets. >> they were negative for blood, so something is there, but it's not blood. >> when "deadly triangle" continues. weight loss programs can be expensive. so to save some money, i just got the popular girls from the local middle school to follow me around. ew. seriously? so gross. ew. seriously? that is so gross. ew. seriously? dude that is so totally gross. so gross...i know. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

it's called overboard. and when it comes to clear skin the right amount of the right face wash is key. introducing clearasil perfectawash, the new dispenser automatically delivers the perfect dose for visibly clearer skin, without over-drying. see the results in as little as 12 hours. clearasil perfectawash. the perfect does for visibly clearer skin. get two refills, a three month supply at 1/3rd the price of proactiv.

the phone calls did not stop. mary ann mcfarland moved back home to archie, but her spurned lover, janos kulscar, wouldn't move on. >> my dad's like why does he keep calling?

she's like "i don't know." the whole aura of this guy is that he wasn't accepting it. >> in fact as da john lewin and detective jim wallace reviewed the evidence, they encountered a man who seemed obsessed, who first pleaded with mary ann, then began using language that sounded more threatening. >> "i want you to come back to me" kind of statements. then "you better come back." she was afraid he would skin her alive, she told her daughter. >> skin her alive? >> if she didn't come back to him. >> but janos wouldn't stop calling or even making threats over the phone to archie. >> archie hung up on him. he called back immediately. "you don't hang up on me. unless you call me back, i'm going to get you." >> the next day janos showed up at the mcfarland's house carrying a small pouch. mary ann was in the shower, so

he let her in. the two started talking, then mary ann entered the room. >> janos says "darling, come sit over by me" and mary ann puts the hammer down and says "it's over." >> janos perhaps upset, went to the bathroom. mary ann was curious about that pouch he brought with him. took a peek. >> and inside is a loaded semiautomatic firearm, ready to go. and an extra magazine. >> janos later told mary ann that his plan, if she refused to come away with him, was to go outside and kill himself with that gun. >> our theory was that if you're planning on killing yourself in the front yard, you don't need to bring the gun into the house. you don't need to have an extra magazine with you. i believe that something much 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 those conversations the police recorded between janos and mary ann. >> i remember that morning that i left friday, i remember it. remember that morning when i left? friday? i remember. it never clicked until i came home. >> what did he mean by that? >> he realized 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, if i get rid of him, i get the girl, she gets the security and he's out of the way. >> six days later, he's dead. >> lewin and wallace now believe they had the motive, but that didn't mean janos did commit the murder either. they still needed something, anything to connect him to the bloody crime scene.

>> i knew that there would always be a question, how does janos get away from the crime scene without getting any blood on him. if there's no piece that implicates janos i think there's some lingering doubt. >> the kind of doubt that just might trip up a jury, so wallace took a long, hard look at the original police report. >> i've got a case where it's very visual and for me, everything comes down to, can i see it again? >> and as wallace pored over the crime scene photographs he could see something was off, didn't make sense. archie had been stabbed four times. there was plenty of blood around, and if janos did the stabbing, some of that blood must have wound up on him, on his clothes. wallace knew that the crime lab never found a trace of blood back in 1985, but now he needed to know why not. >> he does the murder. where did he go next? i know this, when they got to his house he had wet clothing hanging in his bathtub. there was one pair of pants, one shirt. in other words, it's one outfit

that needed washing that day, on the day he told us he was going to go to his brother's to do the wash. so what is it about this one outfit that needed a washing that day? >> back in 1985, those clothes were tested for blood, using a chemical called luminol. >> you spray it on the clothing, it will luminesce with blood or body fluids. it turns out these pants were glowing in two areas, two important areas, but when they tested them for the presence of blood, they were negative for blood so something is there, but it's not blood. >> so now, two decades since archie mcfarland's murder, wallace found janos' clothes. they were still in the evidence locker. he sent them off to the crime lab for retesting. and once again, there wasn't a speck of blood on the clothes, but there was something on those pants. janos had supposedly washed them and hung them up to dry, but

still, there it was, something very strange. >> dirt and mud stains all over the pants. when i saw the report, he said there was dirt on the pants. that's when the light bulb went off for me. >> coming up, caught on tape, caught in a lie. >> so this is something you arranged with your brother? >> well, yeah. >> we sent detectives out to interview the brother afterwards. he didn't know the story janos gin. ale dctinte f hesly enough evidence to arrest janos? when "dateline" continues. we know a place where tossing and turning

have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions, such as tongue or throat swelling, occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then get lunesta for $0 at lunesta.com. there's a land of restful sleep.

we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. sometimes the biggest breakthrough in a murder case can come from the most unassuming of clues. for detective jim wallace it was something buried in a routine crime lab report. janos kulscar's pants, which he'd washed the morning of the murder, then hung up to dry in his shower, again tested negative for blood, but this time, the lab report noted something else found on those pants which caught the eye of detective wallace -- dirt. >> if you're washing these pants, what is the goal of washing pants? aren't you trying to wash the dirt out? >> you'd think. >> in this case the dirt was still present except there was luminol glowing in two areas. >> luminol, the chemical police use to detect blood and body

fluid, but this didn't make sense. with no blood on the pants, the luminol was still highlighting something else on two very specific areas of the pants. >> one on each side, right at about the area of the knee, on the front of the pants right about where the knees were. >> if you were kneeling down in something you later wanted to get out by spot cleaning with detergent. he actually did successfully get it out. this would glow because cleaning detergents will also make luminol glow. if you think you have blood, you have cleaning detergent. >> the pants janos apparently washed the morning of the murder were still dirty, except for the knees. why would they spot clean there? wallace went back to the autopsy report. archie's fatal stab wounds were to his torso. it didn't make sense the killer would stab him there while kneeling, but there was that

other wound. remember that rather peculiar one near archie's groin? >> where would that person have to be relative to the victim to make that kind of an injury? i think it would put you on your knees in order to do it, so when you look at that and the spot cleaning on the pants i think you do 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? da john lewin didn't think so. he needed more evidence to file murder charges. >> i wanted to get janos on tape, so the detectives went out and they contacted janos kulscar. >> janos worked in a shop, repairing electronics. detectives showed up at his shop with a hidden tape recorder to ask him all these years later about the murder, about that day. and he remembered every single detail, he said, vividly. >> so what were you going out to your car for? >> i was going to go to my brother. i remember this very good

because the kids get ready going to school, because my brother was working nighttime. >> oh. so this is something you arranged with your brother? >> well, yeah. >> wait a minute. didn't he say back then he was going to do laundry? >> his version now was that his brother called him because a babysitter had to go to school and he had to take over babysitting that morning and he was on his way to the house to babysit. >> the babysitting thing was a brand new alibi. he'd never mentioned that before. >> we sent detectives out to interview the brother afterwards. he didn't know the story janos had given. so that pushed me over the top. >> a few weeks later, cops returned to janos kulscar's electronics shop. this time to arrest him. >> and he was there working on a flat screen tv and he was right in the middle of it, and trying to put things away in a certain position like he's going to come back. it's not like you need to put your tools away so tomorrow you can find them. you're not coming back tomorrow. >> word about the arrest spread

fast, first to gary, who had waited 25 years. >> completely 100% happy, because after so much time goes by, you just think all right it's a foregone conclusion. it's over. >> sure. >> everyone moves on with life. >> including, of course, mary ann, who'd moved on, with janos. didn't just go to him for a little while, in fact, spent the last 20 plus years with janos, the very same man she, herself, once accused of killing her husband, but as it turned out, janos was the only man in her life, ever since archie was murdered. >> she loves janos, and she does not want to believe that he is the killer. >> in the summer of 2011, two and a half decades after archie mcfarland was murdered, the case against janos kulscar finally came to court. and of course, the prosecution's star witness was mary ann mcfarland. what did she know, and what would she admit?

could her testimony sink her lover? or maybe save him? >> coming up, tough questions. >> let me make it very simple. are you in love with him? >> and raw emotions. >> and she went hysterical. she lost it.

june 2011, archie mcfarland had been dead more than 25 years. janos kulscar was 60 now, just about the same age archie was when he was murdered, and as janos sat here in court, silent and watching, prosecutor john lewin set out to find justice, much delayed. though his case, as he admitted to the jury was very much circumstantial and really didn't feature much new evidence. >> janos kulscar woke up on december 19th, 1985, with a plan. this man decided, came to the conclusion that archie mcfarland

was in his way and needed to die. >> the defense argued the evidence was thin, no blood, no murder weapon, no witnesses, and dna found under archie's fingernails, it had now been determined, did not match janos. >> even if everybody right away thinks that janos kulscar is the killer, there has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. >> of course gary mcfarland, as you know, had no doubt that janos killed archie. he told the jury about that awful december morning, when he discovered his dad dead on the driveway, and knew instantly who did it. >> i turned around, looked at my mom, and i said, "i can't believe [ bleep ] you know exactly what." she goes "i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry. i can't believe he'd do this.

i'm so sorry, i'm so sorry, son" and she went hysterical. she lost it. >> so difficult to reign in the emotion, even all these years later. easier for gary to listen to the prosecution, present the evidence suggesting the man spot cleaned the knees of dirty pants to wash away just the blood, easier for him to listen to the prosecution pick apart janos' changing alibis and janos, he never took the stand, just listened stoically as his attorney argued the changing stories were simply honest mistakes. >> when you ask somebody to remember something from 25 years ago, they're not going to remember every single detail and every single thing that they did. >> da lewin had someone, a witness, who he hoped would remember the whole story, that is, if she chose to. the woman who first accused her lover of murdering her husband, and then resumed her affair with him.

so under oath, what would mary ann mcfarland say about janos kulscar now? >> step up, please. >> da lewin didn't believe mare y ann was involved in the murder, but now would she y ann was involved in the murder, but now would shy ann was involved in the murder, but now would she protect her lover or help prosecute him? for two days their battle of wills mesmerized the courtroom as the two duelled over mary ann's relationship with janos. >> let me make it very simple. are you in love with him? >> no. >> you're not? over the past 30 years you've been involved with anybody else? >> no. we're friends and companions. >> companions. ma'am, during that 30 years, you were having sex with him, correct? >> yes. >> i assume you have friends and companions that you don't have sexual relationships with, right? >> no. >> he's the man in your life, is that correct? >> yes. >> mary ann, now 75 years old,

seemed evasive. her usually sharp memory often fuzzy. >> that's all i recall. i don't know. i misunderstood your question. >> watching all this with mixed emotions was mary ann's son, gary. even after all these years, their relationship has never fully recovered. >> it was tough on her, i know. i know she felt like she was on trial, but a lot of the stuff that they went over and they pinned her on was to explain the mind-set of, you know, janos and the whole circumstances that led to this, and it was necessary, but it was tough. >> finally, after three weeks, it was up to the jury to decide. then, after just two hours -- [ beeping ] >> has the jury reached a verdict? >> yes, we have. >> we the jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant, janos kulscar, guilty of the crime of murder.

>> it was just relief. it was like a big weight just 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 kulscar,

the man she loved, the man now convicted of murdering her husband, is the almost certain prospect of spending the rest of his days in prison. in january, barring some last-minute appeal, janos will be sentenced to 26 years to life, just about the same amount of time he spent with mary ann. occasionally you'll still find gary mcfarland at the beach, where his dad, archie, brought him to surf, and he thinks about father and mother, and forgiveness, the lesson gary is still learning from archie mcfarland. >> i still love my mother. i don't harbor bitterness or resentment. there are tons of questions you'd love to ask and get answers to, but i'm not in a position, nor in my opinion

anyone is in a position to completely understand what's going on in somebody else's heart. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this sunday, the fight for michigan is now the fight of the campaign for mitt romney. and senator santorum's momentum threatens to turn the race for the white house upside down. >> in michigan, michigan, is in the center. >> the santorum surge is for real, but are republicans relying too heavy on social issues to ignite the base? and the all-male image that promises to energize female

voters. >> where are the women? >> we will break down the race for us, and with us, ed gillespie, and chief foreign affairs correspondent for msnbc news, andrea mitchell, and helene cooper. first this morning, a preview of the fall campaign. a debate about what government can do to spur economic recovery. you saw the headlines this week. >> manufacturing is coming back and companies are starting to bring jobs back. the economy is getting stronger! the recovery is speeding up. >> what impact will the extension of the payroll tax cut have on jobs? with us this morning, republican chairman of the house budget committee, paul ryan, and democratic congressman, chris van hollen.