Belated Resolution
In March 1965, news about the case was rekindled, so to speak, when Patrolman Beck filed a lawsuit against Kyriacou, hoping to be awarded $1,000,000 as compensation for his suffering. Badly disfigured, he stated that since recovering, he had been able to work only part-time as a taxi driver, earning on average $35 per week to supplement his pension, while accumulating more than $30,000 in medical expenses. No mention was made of any disability payments from NCPD-related sources. He also took the opportunity to deny rumors that he had been part of an arson plot with Kyriacou, and he stood by his earlier statements.
Later, when the suit was before the court, the diner owner testified on his own behalf. He said that he and Beck had indeed conspired to burn down the little house. They together had poured three gallons of gasoline around the interior, after which Beck was to ignite the blaze. Despite Beck’s denials, the fire investigation showed that he had in fact been inside the house prior to the explosion – he had left his NCPD flashlight in an upstairs room.
Armed with better knowledge of how much gasoline had been deployed, investigators revised their theory of the explosion. The house’s windows were closed tight; gasoline was rampant and began to vaporize. When Patrolman Beck opened the door, something on his person – a static spark, a lighted match, whatever – detonated the vapors in the sealed house, the way that spark plugs detonate similar vapors in the sealed cylinders of an automobile engine.
Charles Beck had been thought an innocent victim, but no longer. He abruptly dropped the lawsuit without explanation. Kyriacou’s lawyer announced that the charges against his client, which previously had been upgraded to first-degree arson, and could have led to a 40-year prison term, had been revised in accord with new developments. Kyriacou had agreed to plead guilty to a single count of felony arson and pay a fine of only $1,000. He would not be incarcerated.
In the years that followed, Archie Kyriacou seems to have put behind him the once-overwhelming frustrations about the little house next to the Empire Diner. In the end, he retired to Suffolk County, but his ties with Hicksville had remained strong. Like those of fellow Greek immigrant Harry Dounelis, who had owned the Hub Diner, his remains were laid to rest in Plainlawn Cemetery.
