Lyle and Erik Menendez

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Joseph Lyle (Lyle) Menendez (born January 10, 1968) and brother Erik Galen (Erik) Menendez (born November 27, 1971) were convicted in a highly publicized trial for the shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, residents of Beverly Hills, California.

The parents

Jose was born in 1944 to an upper-middle class family in Havana, Cuba. His father was a well-known soccer player who owned his own accounting firm. His mother was a swimmer who was elected to Cuba’s sports hall of fame. Jose had two older sisters, Teresita, known as "Terry", and Marta. Although the family was not rich, Jose’s parents’ accomplishments in sports guaranteed them an honored place in Cuban society. Jose was five years younger than Terry and was spoiled and adored by his mother.

Kitty was born in 1941, the youngest of four children of Charles and Mae Andersen. Her family lived in Oak Lawn, a suburb south of Chicago. During her early childhood, Kitty’s family was solidly middle class. Her father owned a heating and air-conditioning business that did well and her mother stayed at home to care for Kitty and her two older brothers, Milt and Brian, and Kitty’s older sister, Joan.

The brothers

The Menendez brothers grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and attended Princeton Day School. Lyle attended Princeton University but eventually dropped out. Erik attended Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles. He was listed in UCLA's 1989 incoming freshman facebook, but did not attend.

The murders occurred on August 20, 1989, in the den of the family's 722 Elm Drive home in Beverly Hills. The brothers then drove off and dumped their shotguns on Mulholland Drive and bought tickets at a local movie theater, seeing the movie Batman to use as an alibi. When the brothers returned home, Lyle called 911 and cried, "Somebody killed my parents!" The police were careless, and did not suspect the brothers at all. At their trial, Eric said he spotted a shotgun shell they had left on the floor, and removed it when the policeman talking to him looked away. In the following months, the brothers led a life of luxury and lavish spending, later adding to investigators' suspicions that they were involved in their parents' deaths. Prosecutors later alleged that the brothers spent about $1 million in their first six months as orphans. The brothers caught themselves-the police did not really suspect them until Eric confessed to his psychiatrist, who after being threatened to keep quiet by Lyle, told the police. On December 8, 1992, the Menendez brothers were indicted by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on charges that they murdered their parents.

The Menendez brothers and the murder of their parents became a national sensation when the new television network Court TV broadcast the trial in 1993. The younger brother's defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, vaulted to fame with her flamboyant defense, alleging that the brothers were driven to murder by a lifetime of abuse from their parents, including sexual abuse from father Jose. Despite the competent defense, the past criminal records of the brothers stood in contrast to the "escape from parental abuse" theory. The trial ended in two deadlocked juries (while the brothers were tried together, each had a separate jury). After a less publicized second trial, both brothers were convicted of two counts of first degree murder, plus conspiracy to commit murder. On July 2, 1996, Judge Stanley M. Weisberg sentenced Lyle and Erik Menendez to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Judge Weisberg sentenced the brothers to consecutive sentences for the murders and the charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

At present, Lyle is being held in Mule Creek State Prison. Erik is in the Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California. Each brother has married since entering prison, but neither is allowed conjugal visits. In 2005, Tammi Menendez, Erik's wife, self-published a book entitled They Said We'd Never Make It - My Life With Erik Menendez, though Erik said on the Larry King Live show that he had heavily edited the book. Under the terms of the sentences for their multiple crimes, the brothers are expected to spend the remainder of their lives in prison. According to Erik on the same Larry King show, he and his brother have not spoken to each other for more than ten years.

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Last updated on Monday March 03, 2008 at 21:06:04 PST (GMT -0800)
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