“The Menendez Brothers’ case broke on the eve of my tenth birthday, and it’s no wonder it left a lasting impression. Imagining anyone killing their parents was deeply disturbing, and the way the media covered the story made it all the more horrifying. The sensationalized language and constant speculation added a chilling layer to the tragedy, amplifying the public’s shock and fascination,” reflected Arlene Garcia, a criminal law teacher at WPHS.
Whether you remember the notorious televised Menendez Brothers Case from the nineties or found out about it through TikTok edits of actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez in the new season of “Monsters,” you have heard of the Menendez Brothers.
Before going into the case’s significance, it’s essential to understand who was involved and what happened.
José Menendez was a Cuban immigrant who came to America as a teenager during the Cuban Revolution to escape the heated political climate. In 1968 he had his first son Lyle and his next Erik in 1970 with his wife Kitty. Eventually, he became a successful businessman and executive of RCA Records. He signed groups like Duran Duran, the Eurythmics, and Menudo. Despite being seen as charismatic he was disliked by many due to his arrogant and aggressive demeanor.
Kitty Menendez (née Anderson) grew up in Chicago in a broken home. Her father abandoned her family to move in with his mistress and she was reportedly depressed with few friends, growing up. She became a homemaker after the birth of her sons. Her husband had various extramarital affairs leading her to dependency on drinking, prescription pills and even suicidal ideation to win him back. She also had a strained relationship with her sons, as she would leave them suicide notes and threatened to poison her family.
August of 1989, José and Kitty Menendez were shot while watching TV in their Beverly Hills home, in an assumed mob hit. Their two sons Lyle (21) and Erik (18) called the police in hysterics reporting they came home to find their parents dead on August 20th, 1989.
Due to their increased spending on luxury items, they quickly became potential suspects. However, this was not considered evidence they committed the crime. Once the police found the store where the guns were bought, they were able to trace the case back to the brothers and they were arrested. Initially the brothers pled not guilty out of fear of the truth, ruining their father’s identity after his death.
In March 1990, the police were given a tip from Judalon Smyth, the mistress of the brothers’ psychologist Jeremy Oziel. She claimed that the brother’s confessed to killing their parents on a tape in a therapy session. In August that year officials decided this could be used as evidence in the murder case, as they were believed to have threatened Dr. Oziel, allowing patient confidentiality to be breached. The tapes were seized from Oziel’s home, and would become part of the legal battle.
Another breaking point in the case was when an emotional letter written by Lyle to Erik was found, which served as a confession and led them to pleading guilty.
Media and the public thought that the motive behind the murder was wealth to accumulate a 14-million-dollar inheritance, however later it would be revealed to be much darker.
“Broadcasting trials brings transparency, allowing the public to see the justice system in action, but it can also lead to sensationalism. Televised cases often make people part of a live spectacle, where complex issues become part of a narrative that can shape or even warp perceptions of fairness,” explained Mrs. Garcia.
From the outside it looked like they had everything, two supportive parents, a successful father, a home in the Hills. Erik was a tennis star; Lyle was accepted into Princeton University. But this was far from the truth.
There was a startling dynamic between the brothers and their father who they looked up to despite his impossibly high expectations. The brothers reported that their father had been abusing them sexually, physically and emotionally throughout their lives. Lyle, he had molested between the ages six to eight and Erik for a decade from ages six to eighteen.
They claim to have feared for their lives, as their father threatened to kill them if they told anyone about the abuse and the only time their father was nice to them was when he abused them, so they did not try to make it stop. The extent of the abuse was so much so that Erik wanted to kill himself to end it. Eventually, Erik confided in Lyle about the abuse, and Lyle told his father he knew, who dismissed the discussion. Kitty, their mother, even confessed to Lyle she knew about what was going on with Erik and did nothing. This led to the catalyst for the murder as the brothers felt their parents would kill them.
Various family members recall stories where Jose was aggressive and violently with his sons. A cousin of the brothers reports that as a child Lyle told her that his father had been molesting him and she told Kitty Menendez who didn’t believe her.
Once this was revealed, the debate became whether it counted as a homicide or as manslaughter (self-defense). After a month of deliberation, the jury could not all come to a verdict, and it was declared a mistrial.
“It became harder to view the case in simple terms. The abuse revelations complicated the narrative, shifting some public sympathy and raising questions about trauma and accountability. Cases involving trauma now tend to be examined through a more nuanced lens, with abuse allegations given greater weight in understanding motives and actions,” said Mrs. Garcia.
In 1995, there was a second trial, under the same judge but without anyone to testify other than the brothers. The judge stated since Erik and Lyle were not women, they couldn’t use the “battered woman syndrome” and excluded all evidence of abuse. The trial would end much quicklier, and the brothers were convicted in less than a week. They would be separated and sentenced to life with no parole in a high security prison.
So why are we hearing about it now over thirty years later?
“The #MeToo movement brought forward a significant cultural shift, encouraging society to acknowledge and believe survivors. In the context of the Menendez case, such a movement might have generated more public and legal empathy toward the brothers’ claims of abuse, potentially influencing both public perception and legal considerations,” said Mrs. Garcia.
Abuse was seen as only plausible if you were a woman and child abuse was not taken seriously at the time, which inherently influenced the original results of the case, as their abuse was demeaned because of their gender and wealth.
Additionally, the backlash of the new season of “Monsters” led to people being upset about how the case was portrayed. A few weeks later Netflix released a documentary “The Menendez Brothers” which took a different look at the case providing clips and interviews from the brothers themselves. In the wake of the case’s publicity, Roy Rossello a former member of boy-band Menudo came out saying that José Menendez sexually assaulted him as a teenager. Further, the way that cases are tried now is much different than they were at the time causing the sentence to likely be different.
Given the new evidence and recent publicity of the case the Menendez brothers will be resentenced. At as soon as December 11th they will have a resentencing court hearing.
Additional Sources: Netflix Documentary, “The Menendez Brothers”
