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José and Mary Louise Menendez were killed by their sons on the evening of Sunday, August 20, 1989. Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers, shot their parents with shotguns at close ranges multiple times in their Beverly Hills mansion.
While on trial, the brothers accepted that they had killed their parents, José and Mary Louise Menendez, after suffering years of mental and s*xual abuse. The brothers were eventually sent into lifetime imprisonment without any chance of bail. However, after three decades, new evidence surfaced that may prove that the brothers were not guilty.
The 48-hour episode The Menendez Brothers' Fight for Freedom discusses the new evidence found in José and Mary Louise Menendez and the possibility of having a new trial again. The José and Mary Louise Menendez episode was first aired on March 2, 2024. The episode was re-aired on Sunday, July 28, 2024, at 10 pm EST on Investigation Discovery. It is now available to stream on Paramount +.
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The official synopsis reads:
"Lyle and Erik await a judge's decision on whether new evidence can support their claim."
Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of s*xual abuse and r*pe.
Why did the boys kill José and Mary Louise Menendez?
José and Mary Louise Menendez were a wealthy couple who lived in a Beverly Hills mansion with their two sons, Lyle (21) and Erik (18). José worked as an executive for RCA Records and signed a contract for its home division. Their sons lived a life of luxury compared to the outside world.
The younger brother, Erik, was a promising tennis player. He and his friend Michael Joyce entered the Boys' National Tennis Championship in 1989.
Lyle attended Princeton University but had poor grades and was suspended for plagiarism. During the summer of 1976, one of the brothers' cousins, Dianne Vander Molen, came to stay with the José and Mary Louise Menendez. She realized something was off about the way the father treated the kids.
Lyle secretly told Dianne that he was being s*xually abused by his father. When Dianne told Mary about this, she sided with her husband, saying the kid was lying. Eventually, Mary took Lyle upstairs to have a conversation, and that was the last time Lyle ever opened up about anything.
On the evening of August 20, 1989, José and Mary Louise Menendez were sitting in their living room, watching the television when suddenly, their two sons arrived with shotguns and shot the parents in closed range. After the murder, Lyle called 911 emergency, saying they had entered the house, and found someone had killed José and Mary Louise Menendez.
In the beginning, no one had any suspicions of the murder. The investigators rather connected the case with a mafia gang. This was common for wealthy families as acts of revenge for financial rivalries. But soon after the murder, the behavior of the two kids drastically changed.
After inheriting the wealth of José and Mary Louise Menendez, they immediately started investing it in different businesses and spent it on luxuries like buying Rolex watches. It felt like they already knew this would happen and had pre-planned everything for it. Even at their father's funeral, Lyle read a speech that said his father always told him:
"you can never fill my shoes." And he jokingly said, "guess what? I'm wearing my father's shoes today."
These were very mild evidence and couldn't be used to put the brothers on trial. However, in March 1990, six months after José and Mary Louise Menendez's death, things took a very sharp turn when the police got strong evidence through Judalon Smyth.
She was the mistress of the psychologist Lyle and Erik had been consulting. She said the brothers confessed during one of the sessions that they had killed José and Mary Louise Menendez. As proof, she had an audio recording of it.
The record was handed to the police, and it included the voices of the brothers confessing about the murder. Lyle was arrested from his Beverly Hills home on March 8, 1990. Two days later, Erik was taken from the airport while returning from Israel.
What happened to Lyle and Erik Menendez?
On July 20, 1993, the trial for the murder of José and Mary Louise Menendez began. At first, they were put on separate juries, but it seemed highly probable that both of them would face death sentences or first-degree murder. The defense in opposition asserted that they did it all as an act of self-defense and hence deserve a lesser punishment.
During the trial, the brothers finally opened up about the s*xual abuse they had suffered from both José and Mary Louise Menendez. Lyle testified that he was exposed to s*xual abuse by both of his parents when he turned six; but his father stopped it when he turned eight. However, for Erik, the torture never ended, and finally, he disclosed it to his elder brother.
The brothers described that the main purpose behind the killings of José and Mary Louise Menendez was darker than the years of abuse. Lyle tried to confront his brother's s*xual abuse facing his parents. However, he soon realized that José and Mary Louise Menendez were planning to kill the brothers to keep their secret from getting out. This could ruin Jose's public reputation and affect his business.
They said that on the night of the murder, the parents were going to kill them. Jose was a powerful man, and the brothers couldn't run anywhere. So, to prevent themselves from getting killed, this was the last resort.
Several of their relatives, friends, and acquaintances supported the brother's confession and testified that they had observed many incidences where they got a hint of Jose's abuse of his kids.
Like Diane Vander Mole, another cousin Alan Andersen confessed that as a kid, whenever he visited José and Mary Louise Menendez, he always felt something off about them. Lyle and Erik were taken to the shower by Jose, and at that time, Mary would prevent Alan from getting near the room.
In October 1995, the brothers were put on a second trial, and this time, there was only one jury. The prosecutor argued that the entire crime was preplanned the brothers had bought the shotguns beforehand, and the defense was backed up with a large amount of evidence. This time, Lyle declined to make any opposition and was declared as a case of first-degree murder. The brothers were eventually sentenced to lifetime imprisonment without any chance of bail.
However, two new pieces of evidence have arrived on the surface after three decades of the case being dismissed. Cliff Gardner, one of the legal attorneys of the Menendez brothers at that time, has found a habeas petition for their release. In a discussion with 48 Hours, Gardner said:
"The boys were abused as children. They were abused their whole life. …And this is a manslaughter case, not a murder case. It's just that simple."
The imprisonment for manslaughter is shorter than first-degree murder. Gardner says the murder was committed as an act of self-defense after years of abuse. For this, their trial should have been sorted, which is why they should receive bail now.
The first piece of evidence was a letter that Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano back in December 1988. It described how he had been trying to avoid his father, but now the abuse had significantly increased.
Another piece of evidence came from Roy Rossello, a member of Menudo, a Puerto Rican boy band. He described that while working for RCA Records, he was drugged and r*ped by Jose, who was an executive at that time.
All this evidence seems to give the case a new shape and serves as a faint light of hope for the brothers serving decades of imprisonment. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has taken up the habeas petition and started to investigate the case again.
Lyle and Erik are now serving their imprisonment in the RJ Donovan State Prison in San Diego, California.
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