THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS: VICTIMS OF CHILDHOOD ABUSE WHO MURDERED THEIR OWN PARENTS

Among crimes that shook the world in the 90s, the Menedez brothers and their family saga gripped the nation's attention. It started as a suspected case of mob-related violence and ended with the conviction of two sons for killing their parents.

Initially, the duo, Erik and Lyle were suspected of having killed their parents for unsupervised access to their father's fortune which was worth millions. But further investigation revealed that a childhood filled with trauma and disregard for these brothers had pushed them to the brink. Despite the strong allegations the prosecutors threw at them, the brothers remained steadfast in their denial about the murder being planned. They claimed that their action was the result of a fight and Lyle's attempt to get Erik out of their father's stranglehold.

Jose Menendez, an astute businessman

Jose Menendez lived the proverbial "American dream," after coming to the country at the age of 16 and building his empire from the ground up. He made his way through Southern Illinois University with the help of an athletic scholarship. It was here that he met his future wife, Mary Louise who was lovingly called 'Kitty' by her close ones. They married in 1963 and moved to the Big Apple. The pair soon welcomed two sons, Joseph Lyle Menendez was born in 1968, followed by Erik Menendez in 1970.

Menendez became executive vice president at Hertz, a subsidiary of Radio Corporation of America, and then the head of the records division in the company. Vanity Fair reported that he signed famous groups like the Eurythmics, Duran Duran, and Menudo during his tenure. He moved his family to California to further pursue his business ambitions and settled in a Beverly Hills mansion once owned by Elton John and Prince. Six years later he joined the independent film company Carolco Pictures, which produced the “Rambo” big-screen franchise. All these dealings helped Jose build a fortune worth $14 million.

The family's dark reality

But despite all his success, Jose was an extremely strict father to both his children. Charles Wadlington, Lyle and Erik's childhood tennis coach of five years testified that, "He was just a scary guy. You could tell he had some kind of hold over them." The children went on to allege that their father was sexually abusing them and it started with Lyle, who testified in court that his father showed him violent pornography before molesting him after he turned 6. About his mother Lyle said, "I told my mom to tell Dad to leave me alone, that he keeps touching me." He further added, "She told me to stop it, that I was exaggerating and my dad had to punish me when I did things wrong."

Then Jose turned his attention to Erik. "He would have me massage him, and he would have me perform oral sex on him. He would graphically describe to me how he would kill me if I ran away," Erik said about that time in The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All. According to the testimony, as time went on, Kitty also began participating in the abuse. She forced Lyle to watch her undress and also put her face on the sheets when he wet the bed.

Alongside the Menendez brothers, Roy Rosselló an ex-member of the 1980s boy band Menudo also accused Jose of sexual abuse in the Peacock special "Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed." Lyle and Erik’s cousin Diane Vander Molen revealed in an interview with ABC News that after Lyle shared his ordeal with her, she had talked to Katie but to no avail. The traumatized children began acting out in their teens and participated in antisocial activities like burglary. They were caught in one and Jose “used his money and influence to shield them from any real consequences,” according to Vanity Fair.

Night of the fateful murder

Lyle graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1987 and went to Princeton University for further studies. Things weren't smooth sailing for him and he was reportedly suspended for plagiarism after his first semester. In early 1989 he returned to the University but eventually dropped out. Erik was in his senior year when the murder happened and wanted to attend UCLA as an aspiring Tennis player. In order to explore the world during his break, Lyle asked Jose to fund a trip for him and his girlfriend. After Jose refused his girlfriend took it upon herself to pay for the trip. Erik on the other hand got into movies and wrote a screenplay centered around an 18-year-old who murders his rich parents for their money.

Things came to a head between the brothers and parents on Aug. 20, 1989, in their Beverly Hills home. Lyle fought with Jose, as he wanted to take Erik away from their father's abusive company. Seeing no resolution, the brothers armed with 12-gauge shotguns shot their parents more than a dozen times. Lyle called 911, and in between sobs informed the operator that he found his parents' dead bodies after coming home from seeing a movie. Later on, he attributed the sobs to the stress of seeing the whole murder unfold in front of his eyes. 

Arrest and conviction

The brutality on the scene made the officials initially suspect a mob hit, but they turned their attention toward the brothers who were splurging a lot in the months following the murders. Lyle bought a cafe, a Rolex watch, and expensive clothing while Erik hired a full-time tennis coach to pursue the sport professionally. The police finally found solid evidence against the brothers, when Erik's confession to his therapist was revealed to them, as reported by NBC. The break came with Judalon Smyth who was having an affair with the married psychologist, Dr. Jerome Oziel coming forward with the information. She also informed the authorities, that Oziel had taped confessions from the brothers. "Almost had no choice to do what I did. And I hate myself for doing it," Lyle said in the recording, "I did what I thought my mother would want me to do, which is please kill me."

Lyle was arrested in March 1990, and Erik was arrested at the airport three days later. They were charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The brothers went through their first trials separately, which ended in hung juries. In their second trial, they were tried together, and the jury sentenced them to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Years later Lyle shared that he felt unfairly targeted by the prosecution. "There are, like, two to three hundred cases a year, where a parent is killed by a child. And they are almost all related to abuse. And they are almost all settled. This case they picked out as different," Lyle told Dateline in 2017. "And I think that it was very easy because it was Beverly Hills and my father had a lot of money, to sort of sell this headline that these brothers killed for money."

Imprisonment

The brothers were held separately, with Lyle in Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, and Erik about 500 miles away at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County. They reunited in 2018 when both of them were assigned to the same unit in the Richard J. Donovan facility. Both the brothers were ecstatic after finally being able to see each other.

The brothers filed a petition to overturn their conviction in 2023 citing a newly discovered letter where Erik detailed the abuse he was withstanding to his cousin and Rosselló's allegations in the documentary Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed. "The new evidence not only shows that Jose Menendez was very much a violent and brutal man who would sexually abuse children, but it strongly suggests that — in fact — he was still abusing Erik Menendez as late as 1988," the filing reads in part, according to documents obtained by The Los Angeles Times. “Instead, the crime was manslaughter, not murder. The killings occurred in imperfect self-defense, after a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse from their parents.”