Remember the evidence.
Now that TikTok, Netflix, Ryan Murphy, Kim Kardashian and public sentiment are working to free the Menendez brothers, convicted in 1996 of brutally murdering their parents, it is also essential to remember why they were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The crime itself is not and has never been under discussion.
On the night of August 20, 1989, while their parents, José and Kitty, were watching television in their Beverly Hills mansion, Lyle and Erik Menéndez each took a 12-gauge shotgun and shot their parents several times.
Lyle was 21 years old; Erik was 18 years old.
The mitigating factor, at his first trial and now reviewed, was the alleged, and credibly claimed, years of sickening sexual abuse that Joseph inflicted on his two children.
On August 20, 1989, while their parents, José and Kitty, were watching television in their Beverly Hills mansion, Lyle and Erik Menéndez each took a 12-gauge shotgun and shot their parents.
The mitigating factor, at his first trial and now reviewed, was the alleged, and credibly claimed, years of sickening sexual abuse that Joseph inflicted on his two children.
But does that justify premeditated murder? Does that mean we, or the legal system, should now believe all the claims of these men (not ‘boys’, as they were successfully rephrased in not one, but two trials) that they are proven liars?
The facts of this crime, which Lyle and Erik have never disputed, are as follows:
Two days before massacring José and Kitty, the brothers traveled to San Diego, where they used a fake ID to purchase the murder weapons.
That night, they entered the family study and shot Kitty and José 16 times.
In 2017, Erik and Lyle claimed that José had caused a huge fight, causing the brothers to fear for their lives.
It’s not like that. The evidence shows clear premeditation and deliberate actions by the brothers, immediately after the murders, to create an alibi and get rid of all incriminating evidence.
Consider the sole voice of reason in the otherwise wildly sympathetic new Netflix documentary, ‘The Menendez Brothers,’ a companion piece to Ryan Murphy’s latest blockbuster, ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.’
Pamela Bozanich, prosecutor in the case, tells us that José had the back of his skull blown off. As police officers worked the crime scene, Bozanich says, “his brain fell to the ground.”
Kitty had tried to run away. Surviving a gunshot to the torso, neither Lyle nor Erik stopped.
Instead, Lyle went out, reloaded, then returned, placed the muzzle against Kitty’s cheek and pulled the trigger, rendering her unrecognizable.
As Lyle himself testified: “I just walked up and shot him nearby.”
The brothers also shot José and Kitty in the knees, to make it look like a mob attack.
They then headed to a local movie theater and bought tickets. This would be their alibi – they were at the cinema – and they returned home to hide all the shell casings and get rid of the murder weapons, which were never recovered.
Only once the scene was clear of evidence did Lyle call 911.
‘Someone killed my parents!’ he groaned.
But does that justify premeditated murder? Does that mean we, or the legal system, should now believe all the claims of these men that they are proven liars? (Pictured: Lyle (left) and Erik with their parents José and Kitty.)
When the police arrived, they found the brothers hysterical (“overacting,” Bozanich says) and treated them as victims, not suspects, even though patricides are most often committed by young white men with no history of violence.
Investigators did not even examine Lyle and Erik’s hands for gunshot residue, which the brothers later admitted was still all over their hands.
Erik and Lyle were interviewed for this new Netflix documentary and spoke by phone from prison.
“It’s pretty incredible that we didn’t get arrested that night,” Erik says. “We should have been.”
Immediately afterwards, as Beverly Hills police searched for the killer (or killers), the brothers eagerly spent their $14 million inheritance. Among his purchases: a new Porsche Carrera, a Jeep Wrangler, three Rolexes, two restaurants and a tennis coach for $50,000 a year.
All of this, Lyle now claims, was a kind of retail therapy, in the literal sense.
“Everything,” he says in the document, “was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive.”
Months after the murders, while speaking with his therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel, an admittedly compromised character who later gave up his license after violating professional ethics, Erik confessed.
Oziel testified that Erik went into great detail: His father, he said, was a “domineering” perfectionist, “impossible to please.” Kitty, he said, was collateral damage.
“The mother was included in the plan because she would have been a witness,” Oziel said at trial.
Oziel said the brothers also rationalized her murder as a kind of favor: that her life without Joseph would have been so depressing that killing her was a form of “euthanasia.”
Oziel, who had begun recording his sessions with Erik, asked Lyle to come inside.
Again: Confess to the murder of his parents? It’s not a problem. Admitting serial sexual abuse as mitigation? It never came up.
Lyle, incredibly, now complains to Netflix that Oziel’s betrayal especially hurt him: he thought ‘a normal therapist’ would ‘solve this’ (his confessed patricide) ‘confidentially.’
Now: Were Lyle and Erik sexually abused by their father? Most likely.
Since his conviction in 1996, new evidence has emerged: a letter Erik wrote to his cousin months before the murders, clearly implying that José was sexually abusing him: “I’ve been trying to avoid dad… never I know when it’s going to happen.” make it happen… Every night I stay awake thinking I might get in’ — adds credibility to his claims.
As are the accusations of Roy Rosselló, former member of the Puerto Rican band Menudo, who says that José drugged and raped him when he was a teenager.
However, it seems notable that the brothers’ attorney, Leslie Abramson, whose so-called “abuse excuse” defense in the first trial resulted in a hung jury, declined to be interviewed by Netflix.
In a statement, he said: “I would like to leave bygones behind.”
That, in my opinion, is quite damning. If the world is finally embracing a defense that had once been considered ridiculous, well, why not take a victory lap?
The brothers’ lawyer, Leslie Abramson (right), whose so-called ‘abuse excuse’ defense in the first trial resulted in a hung jury, declined to be interviewed by Netflix.
Will we allow Gen Z to re-litigate long-solved felonies on TikTok? Does Kim Kardashian, playing lawyer in her Skims wigs and thongs, judge?
Especially since we are on the verge of a historic outcome: the Menéndez brothers could very well be freed.
What does that mean in the future?
Will we allow Gen Z to re-litigate long-solved felonies on TikTok? Does Kim Kardashian, playing lawyer in her Skims wigs and thongs, judge? Do Netflix documentaries dictate the scales of justice?
And does child abuse now mean that any kind of vigilante justice is forgiven? Is this premeditated homicide now justifiable?
Note prosecutor Bozanich, who readily admits that Joseph was a “monster” and that his death “was a real asset to humanity.”
‘The only reason we’re doing this special,’ he says, ‘is because of the TikTok movement… If that’s how we’re going to judge cases now, why don’t we do a survey?’ Everyone can vote on TikTok!… Your beliefs are not facts. They’re just beliefs.’
Keep this in mind as celebrities, Menendez’s relatives, and Gen Z protesters gather at a press conference in Los Angeles today to demand “justice” for these cold-blooded killers.
If they prevail, Lyle and Erik Menendez will undoubtedly earn a jubilant People magazine cover, a multimillion-dollar book deal, a reality show, and a re-entry into polite society.
Is that true justice?