With speculation mounting over the possibility of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez being released after nearly 30 years in prison, there’s talk about what the brothers might do with their new-found freedom.
Since their 1996 conviction, Lyle, 56, and Erik, 53, have been preparing for life on the outside. The brothers have both earned multiple university degrees, mentored their fellow students and worked as hospice carers for elderly prisoners.
Earlier this year, Lyle received a degree in sociology and it’s thought he may consider working as a prison reform advocate if he is freed, thanks to newly surfaced evidence.
Now 35 years on since the brothers fatally shot their parents, Jose, 45, and Kitty, 47, on 20 August 1989 in the family’s Beverly Hills home, it seems likely their case will be re-examined and their convictions possibly overturned.
A newly found letter written by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano shortly before the murders – as well as new testimony by a former boy-band member, who was managed by businessman Jose – could corroborate Lyle and Erik’s claim of sexual and emotional abuse by their father.
New evidence unearthed
Musician Roy Rossello alleged last year that Jose drugged and raped him in the Menendez family home in New Jersey in 1986. He was 14 years old at the time.
Last week, Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascon said in a news conference that he is open to allowing prosecutors to consider the new evidence.
“There’s no question the brothers committed the crimes,” George declared. “The question is, to what degree of culpability should they be held accountable to, given the totality of the circumstances?”
For the first 22 years of their life sentences, Lyle and Erik were held in separate prisons. However, they were finally reunited at the low-security Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in 2018.
Despite being incarcerated, both brothers are married. Erik wed pet groomer Tammi Saccoman in June 1999, while Lyle tied the knot with his second wife, journalist Rebecca Sneed, in November 2003. He split with his wife of five years, Anna Eriksson, in 2001.
While locked up, Erik has embraced painting, yoga and religion, while Lyle has served on prisoner councils. Both have also offered support and guidance to prisoners who are victims of sexual abuse.
Their post-conviction lawyer Mark Geragos says he hopes the brothers will be released by the end of the year and believes their futures could include working to help other inmates.
He explains the wider Menendez clan also believes the brothers should be freed.
“Most importantly, 24 of the family members have signed a letter asking the DA to resentence them and let them come home,” he shares. “These are two people I would venture to say you’re never going to have to worry about reoffending.”
In their own words
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole in July 1996 after the judge limited the defence’s ability to call the brothers “battered children”.
Public perception was that Lyle and Erik were “spoilt trust-fund kids” who murdered their “overbearing” folks to inherit a $23 million fortune.
After their parents’ deaths, the brothers spent $1.2 million on luxury goods, businesses and sports cars. They recently explained this was their way of coping.
“Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive,” Erik says in the newly released Netflix documentary The Menendez Brothers.
“One of the things that kept me from killing myself is I felt I would be a complete failure to my dad at that point.”
Reality vs Hollywood
Fact
Alongside the new documentary about the brothers, Netflix is also streaming the drama Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story. In it, Erik confesses to killing Jose and Kitty to their therapist Dr Jerome Oziel. Recordings were made by Jerome and this led to investigators arresting the brothers.
Fiction
After murdering Jose and Kitty, the Monsters versions of Lyle and Erik go to the cinema to create an alibi. However, the real Lyle and Erik never left the house after murdering their parents. “We didn’t have an alibi,” Erik said in 1996. “All we did was say we were at the movies.”
Fact
In a tense scene in the series, Kitty rips a toupee off Lyle’s head, revealing he had gone bald. It’s speculated Lyle lost his hair in 1988 due to intense anxiety from being abused by his father. That same year, he ordered a wig made from human hair that cost $2400. After the trials, he stopped wearing it.
Fiction
Garnering controversy from viewers, the series depicts Lyle and Erik being in an incestuous relationship. There is no evidence the brothers were intimate with each other. Creator Ryan Murphy says this rumour stems from journalist Dominick Dunne, but Vanity Fair, whom he wrote for, denies this.
Fact
In Monsters, the brothers’ lawyer Leslie Abramson plays a game of hangman with Erik while the prosecution delivers its closing statements. In reality, Leslie did play hangman in court with her clients. She explains she often chose the words used in the game to describe the prosecution.
Fiction
In the final episode of the series, OJ Simpson is placed in the cell next to Erik’s. He suggests OJ take a plea deal. This is largely true in real life. However, it was Lyle who developed a friendship with OJ – who was already a family friend – while he was on trial for murdering Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.
Kim fights for their freedom
Reality star and prison reform advocate Kim Kardashian is also calling for the DA to re-examine the case.
Last week, the 43-year-old star wrote a long essay explaining her views. She argued that televising the first trial in 1993 meant Lyle and Erik were unable to receive a fair hearing.
“The media turned the brothers into monsters,” she wrote. “There was no room for empathy, let alone sympathy.”
Kim recently visited the brothers in prison and says they were “kind, intelligent and honest men”.
She adds, “The killings are not excusable, but the trial and punishment these brothers received were more befitting a serial killer than two individuals who endured years of sexual abuse by the very people they loved and trusted.”
Watch Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story today on Netflix.
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