TWO brothers killed their own parents with 12-gauge shotguns before spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of their money — but they insist it’s “kill or be killed.”
Lyle and Erik Menendez were imprisoned for life after murdering their mother and father, Kitty and Jose, at their Beverly Hills mansion on August 20, 1989.
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Prosecutors alleged that the couple, who were then 18 and 21, brutally butchered their parents in an attempt to get their hands on their vast wealth in one of America’s most famous murder cases.
Lyle and Erik became national sensations when their trial was broadcast on TV, as they tearfully claimed they had been abused for a lifetime.
And the case has now been re-examined in the Discovery+ documentary ‘Menendez Brothers: Misjudged?’.
The Sun Online got an exclusive first look at the documentary, which includes Lyle giving firsthand testimony, before it was released on the streaming service today.
The Menendez brothers’ case is also subject to a new wave of interest – with many on social media campaigning to reopen the brother’s case.
Lyle, now 54, has shared in the rare interview how he thinks people are starting to understand their case as sexual abuse becomes more and more talked about.
He said, “Until I would say a few years ago, apparently (there) was just the normal negative anti-Menendez stuff.
“And then there was just a kind of change, an awareness.
“I realized there was just a huge amount of discussion going on leading up to these topics and our case online.
“They start from a perspective of understanding family abuse issues and it’s not very difficult once you understand that, how to get into a murder case.”
Millions watched as the brothers collapsed in court, telling how they endured horrific beatings from their father — encouraged by their mother.
They claimed they felt they had no option but to shoot their parents because they believed they were in a “kill or be killed” situation.
But their accusations did not match the authorities, who were adamant that they killed their parents in a cold-blooded attempt to make money.
In the months following the murders, they spent huge sums of cash on luxury items, businesses, and travel — nearly $1 million before their arrests.
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Lyle Menendez
The brothers were tried separately, and each ended with stalled juries, with an immediate retrial.
Cameras were banned from the second trial — and authorities restricted testimony on the sexual abuse allegations, and the jury was barred from voting on manslaughter charges.
But nearly three decades later, the fascination with the brothers has been rekindled, with thousands swearing they will fight for their release from prison.
Hundreds of so-called fan accounts have sprung up on TikTok, many of whom are outraged that they feel their sexual abuse claims were discounted too easily by authorities.
They insist the brothers were unfairly tried and their accusations were dismissed as “people didn’t want to hear” about sexual abuse, as it was more of a taboo in the 1990s.
Lyle, the older of the two brothers, said he believes the accuser was blinded by a “fog of societal myths”.
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He said: “In the early 90s or when I was in court, this was for the sex abuse priest scandals and the coaching scandals, and the realization that your neighbor can be a predator, and this was when Bill Cosby was still America’s favorite wash. Dad.”
Thousands are now pushing for the case to be reopened, believing the brothers were subject to an unfair trial as prosecutors eschewed allegations of abuse.
Brittany, who runs a page called Menendez Bros & Survivors, is among those wondering how Lyle and Erik were treated by the court during a fight for their release.
She told the documentary, “I think in the early 90s people felt comfortable talking about how the spoiled rich kids killed their parents instead of the abuse, because it’s easier.
“It’s easier to talk about rich kids who just want money than about a father who sexually abuses his sons.
“The prosecution said that boys cannot be raped because they do not have the necessary equipment to be raped.
‘Would that be said today? I really don’t think so.’
The allegations of abuse by the brothers were supported by family members at their initial trials.
Their cousin, Andy Cano, testified that Erik told him about the sexual abuse as a child, while another cousin, Diane Vander Molen, told the court that she once told their mother about Jose’s assault on Lyle.
Erik claimed his father had repeatedly threatened to kill him if he didn’t keep the alleged abuse a secret.
But during their second trial, the jurors heard very little about the abuse claims — and Diane’s testimony was scrapped altogether.
The pair were both sentenced to life imprisonment for first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Web sleuths have also suggested that prosectors came down hard on the pair because they were desperate to win the case.
dr. Sharon Ross, a professor of critical media studies at Columbia College Chicago, told the documentary: “After the first trial of Menendez is in place and they prepare for their new trial, the OJ Simpson trial is underway.
“When the verdict came back that he was innocent, it also caused a huge rift in the American public.
“But the most important thing that came out of the OJ Simpson verdict is that the prosecution lost, and lost in a very embarrassing way. A lot of people felt that the Los Angeles prosecution team was really under pressure to really get the job done for the Menendez. brother’s trial that was about to happen.”
Cliff Gardner, Lyle and Erik’s attorney, said the prosecution “couldn’t afford anything but a conviction” in the second trial.
Lyle and Erik, 51, remain in prison without being eligible for parole.
They were reunited in 2018 for the first time since their sentences began nearly 22 years earlier, and are being held in the same unit at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in California.
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