The Menendez Brothers

José and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez were murdered in their Beverly Hills home on August 20th, 1989. Seven years, three trials, and thousands of hours of TV coverage later, their two sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez, were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Menendez murders captivated America and became one of the most famous criminal cases of the late 20th century, this was due to how televised it was and the almost movie like mix of family drama, Hollywood connections, and the dramatic testimony made by the brothers.

The Menendez family appeared to be the perfect model of the American Dream during the 80s. José, born in Cuba, emigrated to the US as a teen after the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s. He started living in his cousin's attic until he received a scholarship for swimming to go to college, here he met Mary Louise Anderson, a beauty pageant queen, she was a few years older than José. They went on to get married in the 1960s and then moved to New York City, José got a degree in accounting from Queens college rising from a young man who was washing dishes, to a successful entertainment executive.

After he led the US operations of car rental company, Hertz, he moved on to spend the early 80s as the head of RCA Records. He had a part in signing bands such as Duran Duran, The Eurythmics, and Menudo. His family moved from Princeton, New Jersey to Los Angeles only a few years before the murders, this was so José could take a job working in the movie business. Their home was located on one of the most exclusive blocks of Beverly Hills and was one occupied by Michael Jackson and Elton John.

José and Mary's sons, Erik and Lyle, also appeared to fit the platonic ideal of the Reagan-era United States. Lyle was a tennis player and seemed destined to take on a career in business much like his father that he openly worshipped and Erik turned out to be even better at tennis, he ended up a nationally ranked player in his age bracket. It was almost as if they had no choice but to be successful, José was known to be a hard-driving father who would work his children to the bone in everything they were doing.

Their former swim coach was quoted in the Los Angeles Times in 1990 saying; "It seemed like José was so competitive, he was doing everything he could to try to make Erik better, but he was so completely overbearing, it had the opposite effect. Erik had so much less self-confidence because everything he did was never good enough."

Erik took to teenage rebellion after moving to California and was involved in a string of burglaries in 1988, he avoided jail time but was had to go to court-ordered therapy with Dr. Jerome Oziel. Lyle went on to attend Princeton University but was suspended for a year due to plagiarism.

The murders of Mary and José were brutal; 45-year-old José and 47-year-old Mary were rendered nearly unidentifiable due to 15 rounds from two 12-gauge shotguns. The police thought that the killings were a mob hit due to how barbaric they were, the early investigations focused on business rivals and a porn executive who was known to have a bone to pick with José.

The night the murders took place, Erik and Lyle told police they had gone out to see a movie that night, but had to make a stop to get Erik's ID. That was when they discovered the bodies of their parents and dialed 911. The officers who responded to the call found Erik, 18, sobbing on the front lawn before they entered the home.

The months following the murders, the Menendez brothers were not acting like two young men who walked in on their parents' brutal murder scene. Instead, they were acting as if they had just won the lottery. José at this time was worth 14 million dollars, and within six months, the brothers spent an astounding $700,000 of his fortune.

Lyle, 21 at the time of the murders, was said to have purchased a Rolex, a Porsche, clothing, and a restaurant. Erik, however, was more practical, he purchased a Jeep Wrangler, a personal tennis coach, and invested $40,000 in a concert that ended up not happening. They also took exotic vacations thinking they were going to acquire even more money. There was a 5 million dollar life insurance policy on their father, but technicalities stopped them from collecting this.

Dr. Oziel reached out to his former patient, Erik, after the murders and started to counsel him once again. Soon Erik confessed to the killing of his parents. Oziel confided in Judalon Smyth, who he was having an extramarital affair with, she would end up playing a big part in the case.

As the therapy sessions continued, Oziel managed to get both Erik and Lyle on tape confessing to the murders. Erik said they had done it to put their mother out of her misery, while Lyle made sure it was clear that they were both in on the crime.

Smyth was the one who contacted the police to reveal that the brothers confessed to the murders, she also informed them that she had an audiotape of these confessions.

Lyle was arrested first on March 8th, 1990 and Erik, who was in Israel at the time for a tennis tournament, flew back home where he turned himself in on March 11th.

It took two years to figure out whether the taped confessions fell under doctor-patient privilege or if they were admissible as evidence in court. Lawsuits and appeals were going back and forth between the prosecution and the Menendezes' lawyers. The supreme Court of California ruled that two of the three tapes were eligible to be used in the trail, including the one that contained Lyle's admission of guilt.

The trails started in 1993, there were separate juries for each brother and it was televised on a rather new cable network called Court TV. This network not only carried the trails, but endless hours of coverage before and after each day's proceedings. The nation was captivated by the case, it truly had all the elements of a primetime soap opera.

Prosecutors in the courtroom argued that the Menendez brothers were solely after the inheritance, but Lyle and Erik argued that they killed them in self-defense. They claimed their father hadn't just had high expectations and emotionally abused them, but that José had molested them for years--Lyle from ages 6 to 8, and Erik from ages 6 to 18--this claim was filled with graphic descriptions that shocked the nation who watched.

Erik's lawyer, Leslie Abramson, worked alongside Lyle's lawyer, Gerald Chaleff. The two argued that Lyle and Erik were acting in self-defense after growing-up in a violent and traumatizing home. Lyle gave testimony that he confronted his father about the sexual assault of Erik days before the murders and his father responded in anger, he stated he took this response as a death threat.

The defense also went on to attack Mary, deeming her as a husk of a woman who was struggling with alcoholism and drug addiction; a broken wife and useless mother, they called her, she was devastated by José's countless affairs.

The first trails lasted six months and both resulted in hung juries who were unable to agree whether Lyle and Erik were guilty of murder or they were truly acting in self defense.

The second trail went on to take place in 1995, it was far less sensational than the first. Judge Stanley Weisberg didn't allow TV cameras into the courthouse. The judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence that José had been abusing his sons. Years later, a cousin of the brothers told ABC news that she believed Lyle was telling the truth about José sexually abusing them, this was because he told her similar things when they were children. More recently, Roy Rosello of the boy band Menudo has come forward and accused José of sexual assault.

Judalon Smyth testified for the defense during the second trail, she insisted that Dr. Oziel manipulated the brothers into confessing. Her effort fell short, however, and both Lyle and Erik were convicted of two counts of 1st degree murder on March 21st, 1996. They were sentenced to life without parole, each of them received two consecutive life terms that July.

Lyle and Erik were separated and sent to different prisons, that was until 2018 when they were reunited and allowed to serve their sentences at the same facility in San Diego. Robert Rand, a journalist who has covered their case sing 1989, has said that the brothers counsel fellow inmates who have suffered sexual abuse and Erik is said to lead multiple self-help groups. Lyle is now 56 and Erik is 53.

The brothers have both gotten married in prison to women who themselves are not incarcerated. Erik married Tammi Saccoman, his pen pal, in 1999. Lyle first married Anna Eriksson, a former model, who went on to divorce him after she discovered he had been writing other women. He then married Rebecca Sneed, a journalist-turned-attorney in 2003.