If you’re like me, you may be on the side of social media that’s currently raging about the infamous Menendez brothers. Erik and Lyle Menendez are two brothers who were convicted in 1996 for the brutal murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. The brothers allegedly underwent years of physical, mental, and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents. Just this past month, Netflix released a nine-episode true crime anthology series entitled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, providing some insight towards the lives of the family and the impact the murders had. Although, after receiving backlash from the family themselves, a new documentary has been released just weeks later, which provided the brothers with the opportunity to speak out for the first time in 30 years. The almost two-hour long film, entitled The Menendez Brothers, features audio clips from 20 hours of phone interviews with the brothers from prison, and includes on-camera interviews with extended members of the Menendez family and people involved in the trials, including a prosecuting attorney and several jurors, as well as some journalists. Though I thought the Monsters series was relatively interesting, this new documentary was far more informative and dug much deeper into this case than the series did.
Key Takeaways from the Menendez Brothers
The brothers, Erik, now 53, and Lyle, now 56, expressed that there were many things not previously told, and now that they’ve spent so much time in prison and will likely continue to serve life sentences, they decided to shed some more light on the family’s secrets. The documentary allows for viewers to hear from the brothers themselves about how they felt leading up to the murders. Both brothers expressed that they truly felt that they were in danger, and that their parents were going to hurt them. It was revealed that their father threatened their lives on multiple occasions, typically regarding their threat to exposing his sexual abuse towards them. They also explained how their mother became very depressed after learning Jose had been having an affair, and would write suicide notes to her sons.
After the murders occurred, the brothers explained how they should’ve been arrested immediately. Erik claimed to have seen gun smoke in the room, even though the brothers initially claimed to have returned to the house approximately two hours after the murders had occurred. The documentary also featured interrogation tapes between detectives and the brothers. They seemed to have had very unusual post-murder behavior as well, including excessive spending sprees. The documentary explains how Lyle became like his father overnight, and Erik expresses how this behavior was not in a joyous celebration of their parents death. “Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive,” he stated in the documentary. Because of this huge shift in behavior, and the fact that the brothers inherited a $14.5M estate from their parents, the initial motive was believed to be money. When the place where the brothers purchased the guns was found, and due to prior suspicions and evidence, the brothers were arrested in 1990.
This case blew up overnight, and became heavily covered in the media. The documentary shows multiple clips from news platforms, talk shows, and even a Saturday Night Live sketch, all discussing the Menendez brothers’ case. This media presence carried on into their trial, which was even televised as a reality show. They later released a sitcom adaptation of the trial. Family members apparently called platforms to try and get these shows to stop, but they were ultimately ignored. The prosecutor for the first trial, Pamela Bozanich, discussed how she had never seen such a heavy media presence during a trial before, and how the courtroom was filled with cameras. The documentary includes multiple clips of the trial itself, and many different testimonies, including from both of the brothers.
The documentary revealed how the brothers had hesitated to bring their family’s secrets to light. Lyle expressed that he didn’t want to ruin his fathers reputation, as he was a bit more suppressed with his feelings at the time. Lyle wrote his brother a 17 page letter in jail, explaining a variety of things. There was one quote from the letter included in the documentary that really struck me: “We alone know the truth – we alone know the secrets of our family’s past.” The letter was brought to light because there were rumors of the brothers attempting to escape prison. The police were then allowed to do a search of each of the brothers’ cells, where they found the letter in Erik’s room. Lyle had instructed Erik to destroy the letter after reading it. In the documentary, Lyle stated, “I would rather lose the murder trial than talk about our past and what had happened.”
Another interesting piece featured in this documentary was drawings from Erik. Defense expert Dr. Ann Burgess was interviewed for the film, and explained how she commonly has defendants draw what had happened to them as a technique. She had asked Erik to draw what had happened, starting with the week before the crime, and the documentary showed some of these frames. The graphic and intense details exhibited in the drawings are heartbreaking, but it allows everyone to see what the brothers have been keeping inside, and it gives them another outlet to decompress from these events and emotions. Erik now states that he uses drawing as an outlet in prison still, sometimes painting for 12 hours a day.
Prosecutor Bozanich explains how there were zero character witnesses on the parent’s behalf. The only person who had a good thing to say about the father was his secretary, and everyone else found him to be a horrible man. There were 56 witnesses involved in the first trial, one of them being Diane Yander Molen, a cousin of the two brothers. She testified that once in 1976, when they were younger, Lyle confided in her about what was happening between him and his father. Diane then told Kitty, the mother, who didn’t believe her. That was the last she heard of the trauma until the trial.
Erik was hoping to go to Stanford University to gain distance from his father. Jose had replied to this by insisting that Erik go to UCLA and stay at home with them. Erik describes this as the most devastating moment in his life at the time. “The belief that I would go to college, to get away from what was happening with my father was the most important thing in my life. It drove everything I did,” Erik stated in the documentary. This provoked him to break the silence with his brother and tell him that the abuse was still occuring. Lyle confronted Jose, where he learned that his mother was aware the abuse was occurring as well. “I don’t understand how she didn’t protect them,” Kitty’s sister, Joan Vander Molen, stated.
This documentary provided a lot of insight on the struggles faced during the trial. Since the brothers had already confessed to the murders, they weren’t tried to be proven guilty or not guilty, but rather, for what kind of crime was committed. The defense was arguing that this was a case of imperfect self-defense, meaning the defendants honestly believed they were in danger, even if it wasn’t at that exact moment. This would bring their charge down from first-degree murder to a manslaughter charge, which would be a less extreme punishment for the brothers. A juror from the first trial, Hazel Thornton, described the jury’s deliberation as, “a battle of the sexes,” as all the men raised their hands in favor of first-degree murder, and none of the women did. The jury deliberated for a month, which resulted in them being hopelessly deadlocked. The hung jury resulted in a mistrial.
Shortly after the mistrial, the Los Angeles district attorney decided to retry the case. During this time, O.J. Simpson was arrested, and his case took over the media. Simpson had previous ties to the Menendez family, as he was hired by Jose for his brand, Hertz. Erik also was on the same level in prison as Simpson. The retrial occurred a week to 10 days after Simpson was acquitted, which reflected badly on the Menendez brothers, being other high-profile defendants. There is some speculation that this heavy loss for the district attorney is partly to blame for the alternative approach taken in the Menendez brothers’ retrial.
The second trial was approached in an entirely different manner. The judge made the decision to prohibit any of the trauma as evidence for the retrial, and there was no television presence allowed. Erik was the only one to testify in the second trial; all prior witnesses, including Lyle and other extended family members, did not testify. Because of this, the jury was not given the option of manslaughter; it was simply a matter of whether there was a crime committed or not. The second jury voted unanimously, in less than a week, for first-degree murder with special circumstances. The brothers were then sentenced to life without parole. First trial juror Thornton expressed her disagreement with this trial method by stating, “The second jury convicted the brothers because they saw a completely different trial that was engineered to guarantee murder verdicts.”
The brothers’ start to prison life was incredibly tough. They ended up doing a Barbara Walters interview in 1996, and they revealed in the documentary that the only reason they did the interview was in hopes of not being separated. The brothers were taken to two separate facilities, where Erik went on a hunger strike to try and keep them together. They were held in maximum security prisons, constantly being held in chains and handcuffs.
As time went on, the brothers found their own senses of freedom in prison. Lyle has devoted his life to male sex abuse survivors, and he receives letters from many others who relate to his struggles. Erik continues to use art as his outlet, and one juror from the first trial, Betty Oldfield, even has an oil painting of his hanging in her home. The two of them often wrote back and forth while Erik was in prison. The brothers were recently reunited in prison after 41 years apart, and they continue to see each other and talk everyday.
The Menendez brothers’ case has blown up in the media yet again, beginning on TikTok in 2020. People are beginning to speak out on this case and express their feelings about the sentencing, and many more people are coming forward, stating that they believe the brothers should be freed. The documentary explained how the case proceeded the #MeToo movement, proving that men can be victims and survivors of sexual abuse as well. The brothers filed a habeas petition in May 2023, seeking to revoke their murder convictions in light of the new evidence. The Los Angeles district attorney, George Gascon, announced in October 2024 that his office is reviewing the case and will make a decision regarding a potential resentencing or retrial.
My Overall Thoughts
The Menendez Brothers documentary was very interesting and informative. Watching this after watching Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story put a lot of things into perspective. There was a lot portrayed in the series that could have been misinterpreted or taken out of context, and the documentary allows the audience to compare the two and hear from the brothers themselves about the events that occurred. I really enjoyed the aspect of having the phone interviews with the brothers, along with the in-person interviews of other people involved in the case. Although some provided provocative and controversial opinions on the case, it was interesting to hear different perspectives from witnesses during the actual time of the murder.
I also really enjoyed the approach they took to this documentary. A timeline method was used, and each date included interviews from different people on the matter, footage and recordings from the time of, and statements from the brothers. The personal statements from Erik and Lyle after 30 years of silence were so emotional, and it was interesting to see how they reflect on everything now. The documentary provided a lot of important insight to the case, and it does shed a new light on it. I’m intrigued to see what happens with this case if it proceeds more now, and I’m curious as to how this will impact similar situations in the future.