Menendez Brothers Mysteries Unraveled: Everything You Need to Know About Caged Parent Killers Desperately Fighting for Freedom

On the evening of August 20, 1989, Lyle Menendez called 911, screaming: "Someone killed my parents."

Hollywood executive José Menendez, who was 45 at the time, and his wife, Kitty, 47, were found dead after they were shot multiple times with a shotgun while inside their Beverly Hills mansion. Lyle, who was 21 at the time, and his then-18-year-old brother, Erik, said they had returned home from the movies when they saw the gruesome scene.

Investigators who responded to the scene initially suspected that the crime was connected to José's business dealings, as the patriarch was working for a film studio at the time.

Meanwhile, Lyle and Erik blamed the Mob.

Lyle and Erik were eventually tried for the murders as they suspiciously began spending their parents' money. Within six months after the killings, the brothers spent about $700,000 of their father's fortune.

In March 1990, police received a tip from Judalon Smyth, the mistress of Beverly Hills psychologist L. Jerome Oziel, who reached out to his former patient Erik and counseled Lyle after the incident. She said both brothers were in his office in November 1989 to discuss why they killed their parents.

The psychologist taped his session with the brothers on December 11.

Before Judalon informed the police about the confession, Erik had allegedly confided first to his best friend Craig Cignarelli, who later testified in the trial.

Craig said years after the murders: "Honestly, when the second jury came back with a guilty verdict, there was a part of me which just said, 'I'm done. It's finally over.' And it felt like there was this sense of relief, followed by this really strange feeling of sadness. Like, wow, it's finally closed, and I actually have just lost my best friend for life. He's going to be sitting in a jail cell for the next 50 years."

On March 8, 1990, days after Judalon dropped the tip, the Beverly Hills Police arrested Lyle outside the mansion where José and Kitty were killed. Two days later, Erik surrendered at Los Angeles International Airport following a trip from Israel.

The Supreme Court of California soon ruled that two of the three tapes from the psychologist could be used as evidence in the trial.

The Menendez brothers' trial started with opening statements in July 1993, during which the defense said Lyle and Erik killed their parents in self-defense. The brothers eventually took the stand and claimed they were sexually abused by their father.

According to Lyle, the abuse started when he was only 6 years old but stopped after two years. Meanwhile, Erik testified that it never ended for him.

A judge declared they would be retried following the first trial, which lasted six months. At the time, juries were unable to agree on whether Lyle and Erik were guilty of murders or if they acted in self-defense.

The second trial began in October 1995, months before Lyle and Erik were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder on March 21, 1996.

Then, in July 1996, a judge sentenced the brothers to life without parole, giving both two consecutive life terms.

In 2023, Lyle and Erik's lawyers submitted petitions to overturn sentences, dropping two new pieces of evidence to support the brothers' claims. One was an accusation from former Menudo member Roy Rosselló, alleging José raped him as a teenager.

The other evidence was a letter written by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano months before the killings. In the December 1988 communication discovered in 2018, he told a family member about José's abusive nature.

Part of the letter read: "I've been trying to avoid dad. It's still happening Andy but it's worse for me now… Every night I stay up thinking he might come in."

One of the brothers' appellate attorneys, Cliff Gardner, said on 48 Hours: "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."

At an October 4 news conference, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said his office started reviewing the Menendez murder case over two new factors the prosecutors are looking at, and it could lead to a potential resentencing or new trial.

George also told CNN: "Sensitivity to sexual assault is much more significant today. I think 35 years ago, cultural norms were a little different. There's no question that a jury today would look at this case probably very differently."

He added: "There's no question that they committed the killings. The question is to what degree of culpability should they be held accountable to, given the totality of the circumstance."

The brothers were initially imprisoned separately for more than 20 years: with Lyle in Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif., and Erik at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County.

Lyle, now 56, was transferred to another housing unit at Richard J. Donovan in February 2018. Two months later, Erik, 53, moved into the same unit as his brother.

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