The Menendez Brothers

I remember hearing about the Menendez brothers on the news and how I dismissed it because, in my head, they were white, rich and had killed their parents. It sounds like a Lifetime movie (and of course, it ended up being one...), right? I've watched documentaries and made for TV-movies, and every depiction showed jurors and lawyers smirking and saying how heartless these kids were because they were rich and lived this privileged life. The more I watch things regarding this whole case, even decades later, it's like...wow....

Everyone kept saying that they just wanted their parents' money because they were rich kids who wouldn't have survived on their own. People looked past the claims of abuse because they'd shot and killed their parents. I get that they lied to the police, but no one believed the claims of abuse. That happens. Abuse does happen, even in rich and famous Beverly Hills homes. As I write this now, I am watching a docuseries on the case and the mentality of everyone involved is....I am at a loss for words! There are people who were, and are still relieved, that the father was murdered. A mother who knew but didn't fight for her babies. A mother who was angered because SHE took part in conceiving these children and then looked around and got angry because now this is the life she has. A father hated by many forcing his son from a very young age to perform sexual acts on him...and these kids, now men, almost in their fifties will never see regular life again. On top of that, one brother claimed that the mother would molest him! Yes, some people have more, sometimes a lot more than others; it doesn't always mean they are undeserving.

I point out often to anyone who listen that we are individuals and that will mean that we all have different realities. Just because one assumes something doesn't make it true. The disadvantage to all of this was the fact that the jury is your "peers." These people had opinions so very similar to the people investigating the case. This was a lose/lose for the brothers. Despite the people who knew the true Jose Menendez, their accounts of the person he was, these guys were still treated as if they were as heartless as their father was always portrayed. The same goes for the people who knew "Kitty," the mother. She was no peach!

I follow true crime a lot. The first case I started following was the Manson trial. When I spoke out saying that Manson was merely a schizophrenic mastermind, people's heads exploded, but let's be real...did he physically kill anyone? Maybe, but was there proof? No! But there was so much proof that those girls did. He needed to be locked away in a psych ward, not prison.

Long story short, I just don't think that the brothers deserved the end that they are getting. It was honestly self-defense. I sort of feel the rage certain people felt about the O.J. trial. I laughed about that, I knew he would get away with that...I guess I had the attitude that the justice system had about the brothers. He was a star athlete with too many connections and was loved by the masses, there was no way he could've done this, right? Eric and Kyle Menendez had no case to win. The people had already decided that these kids had too much already and they would do everything in their willpower to snatch it away from them. It goes back to what I've said so often lately, people are so wrapped up around themselves that they forget to see the big picture. No, they didn't come right out and say they were abused; most abuse victims don't. I don't think it was an act. If they weren't as privileged as they were, would they be able to get their trial retried in the new millennium? It is a case that people are still talking about, hence the miniseries and the documentaries that are popping up all over the place. Why not take that into consideration?