Editorials

Guilty or Not?

The Story Behind the Menendez Brothers

Nataly Tello, Staff Writer

November 22, 2024

Erik (left) and Lyle (right) Menendez in front of their family home in 1989.

In recent months, Netflix’s sensation “Monsters” has brought the Lyle and Erik Menendez case back to the surface after many years. In 2020, the social media app TikTok made the brother’s case viral. Now, in 2024, society is revisiting the case of the Menendez brothers, exhibiting the same fascination that the story held in the 1990s.

The Crime:

On the night of August 20th, 1989, Jose (age 45) and Kitty (age 47) Menendez were shot to death at a close range. 15 rounds from two 12-gauge shotguns were used on the couple leading detectives to believe it was a mob hit. The District Attorney at the time, Jackie Lacey, said that “one of the Beverly Hills detectives … described it as one of the most … brutal crime scene[s] he had ever seen in his life.” Lyle Menendez, the couple’s oldest son, 21, had called the police that night crying incoherently that “someone” had killed his parents. Lyle and his younger brother Erik, 18, were found crying at the scene on the front lawn.

The Family:

Jose Menendez immigrated to the U.S. after the Cuban revolution in the 1950s. He met his wife Mary Louise “Kitty” Anderson in college, marrying her in 1963. Jose then climbed the social wall getting the job title of Chief Operating Officer at RCA Records before moving to California to run the home video division of Carolco Pictures. These careers allowed the Menendez family to obtain immense wealth, residing in the same neighborhood in Los Angeles as other world-renowned celebrities such as Elton John and Micheal Jackson. At the time of his death, Jose’s net worth was 14.5 million. This would roughly be 35.5 million today.

The Arrest:

Police started noticing peculiar behavior in the recently orphaned sons following the murders. At the funeral, Lyle Menendez made a statement that his father said Lyle would never fit into his shoes, which was ironic since Lyle was wearing his father’s shoes to the funeral. In the following months, the brothers spent half a million dollars of their parents’ fortune on trips, watches, cars, and private coaches. While these are not solid evidence of guilt, it wasn’t until an anonymous tip came forward stating that the brothers had both admitted to the murder of their parents. Lyle’s arrest came in the following days after the tip and Erik turned himself in shortly after that.

The Media:

An international phenomenon, the media stated that two spoiled rotten boys killed their parents in cold blood for their fortune. The trials of the brothers took place together although they both had separate juries. Filmed and broadcasted on television, the story was everywhere asking the question, “Why did these children do these things”.

The Testimonies:

With seemingly the entire world on their backs and the prosecution deeming the boys as greedy monsters, the brothers finally decided to lift the albatross from their necks with the claim that they killed their parents in self-defense. Lyle Menendez took the stand with the statement that he was sexually abused and feared for his life, which shocked the nation.

The Evidence:

The prosecutors deemed these allegations as nonsense and stated the boys were “pulling the abuse card.” Besides Lyle’s statement of being sexually assaulted from the age of six to eight, Erik’s testimony stated that it never ended for him. From the age of six until 18, when Jose was killed, Erik was subjected to his father’s abuse, and his mother let it happen. The boys gave the court descriptive, uncomfortable details of their childhood behind the closed doors of their home, but the juries still didn’t believe them. Family members also came to the stand with statements that the brothers tried to communicate their assault to them, but Kitty would dismiss it. Later in the trial, evidence revealed a letter believed to be dated the year before the murders; Erik claimed, “I’ve been trying to avoid Dad. It’s still happening Andy but it’s worse for me now… Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.” Lyle and Erik were retried again, since the judge had called for a mistrial, this time with separate trials, and not on television, but the deciding factor in their guilt was Lyle’s refusal to take the stand. On the “48 Hours” broadcast Lyle stated, “I was just done after the first trial. … And I didn’t have … the attorney that … I trusted so much to ask me these deep personal questions.”

The Sentence:

The boys were found guilty, serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. They were sent to different prisons until 2018 when they saw each other for the first time in decades.

The Confession:

Recently, a boy band member from the group Menudo, came forward stating that Jose Menendez raped him numerous times while Jose worked at RCA Records. This new evidence affected the brothers’ case because the argument from the prosecutors was abuse never happened. With this news, the District Attorney of Los Angeles is calling for the Judge to call a retrial for the brothers. As of November 2024, there is no response.