The Menendez brothers spent seven months as free men after they murdered their parents – but they say that had nothing to do with their own wit, and everything to do with poor policing.
In a newly released Netflix documentary, The Menendez Brothers, Lyle and Erik speak from prison about the case which shocked the nation.
The duo, then just 18 and 21, killed their parents Jose and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez inside their million-dollar Beverly Hills home in August 1989.
They made a frantic call to police claiming they returned home from the theatre to find their parents had been slaughtered, prompting fears within one of America’s wealthiest communities that a murderer was on the run.
Now, after 34 years behind bars, 51-year-old Erik has revealed he found it absurd that police working the case didn’t arrest him and his brother at the scene of the crime.
‘There should’ve been a police response, and we would’ve been arrested,’ he said.
The Menendez brothers spent seven months on the streets after they murdered their parents
The duo, then just 18 and 21, killed their parents Jose and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez inside their million-dollar Beverly Hills home in August 1989
‘We had no alibi. The gunpowder residue was all over our hands. Under normal circumstances, they give you a gunpowder residue test. We would have been arrested immediately.
‘There were shells in my car – my car was inside the search area. All they had to do is search my car. If they had just pressed me, I wouldn’t have been able to withstand any questions. I was in a completely broken and shattered state of mind.’
Beyond that, Erik revealed he told police that night that he walked into his home and saw the room was ‘filled with smoke.’
‘I told the detectives I saw smoke which would’ve been impossible if I didn’t do it. It’s pretty incredible we were not arrested that night.
‘We should’ve been.’
But Pamela Bozanich, the lead prosecutor on the case, said there was a simple reason the boys weren’t considered suspects from the very first moment police arrived: privilege.
51-year-old Erik has revealed he found it absurd that police working the case didn’t arrest he and his brother at the scene of the crime
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, Rolex watch and two restaurants in the immediate aftermath
‘Beverly Hills is a very different kind of police department,’ she said. ‘They have much better customer service for their citizens.’
As a result, police ‘were very nice’ to the brothers, who were sobbing and wailing outside their home.
‘They weren’t treated as suspects,’ she said.
‘[But] you would be an idiot police officer not to consider family members.’
Police announced they were arresting Lyle Menendez in March 1990 – seven months after the crime.
They said he was motivated by greed. The brothers stood to inherit $14million from their parents, and set about spending it shortly after their parents’ deaths.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to begin competing in tournaments.
By the end of the trial, the jury convicted both brothers of murder and they were sentenced to life in jail with no chance of parole
The brothers stood to inherit $14million from their parents, and set about spending it shortly after their parents’ deaths
In all, they spent $700,000 between the time of their parents’ deaths and their arrests in March 1990.
But Erik insisted it is ‘absurd’ to suggest he was having a good time in the immediate aftermath of the murders.
‘Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive,’ he said.
‘One of the things that stopped me from killing myself was that I would be a complete failure to my dad.’
The Netflix documentary re-hashes some of the most emotional details of the murder trial, in which both brothers disclosed they were being molested by their father, and that their mother turned a blind eye to the abuse.
Lyle told the jury on the stand that he then, in turn, took his younger brother to the woods and molested him, doing to Erik what his father had done to him.
Erik said: ‘I remember when he apologized to me on the stand for molesting me. That was a devastating moment for me. He had never said he was sorry to me before.’
The Netflix documentary re-hashes some of the most emotional details of the murder trial, in which both brothers disclosed they were being molested by their father, and that their mother turned a blind eye to the abuse
According to Erik, his father began molesting him when he was six years old and that abuse continued for 12 years.
He had held onto a hope that he would graduate high school and move to Stanford, far enough to escape the abuse.
When his father told him that he must instead go to UCLA, he claimed his world crashed down around him, prompting him to seek out his older brother.
‘It’s important to understand why that was so traumatic,’ he said.
‘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.
‘When it was taken from me, when my father told me no you are not getting away from me it was up until that moment the most devastating moment of my life.’
Erik said he began ‘walking around like a zombie’ before eventually breaking down to Lyle and disclosing the extent of the abuse.
‘It was clear to me he was scared. Lyle at this point believed our parents could kill us.’
The duo claimed they purchased guns because they feared their parents could kill them to cover up their secrets and protect the reputation of the family.
On the night of the murders, they claim they opened fire under the impression that their parents were imminently going to kill them
The duo claimed they purchased guns because they feared their parents could kill them to cover up their secrets and protect the reputation of the family
On the night of the murders, they claim they opened fire under the impression that their parents were imminently going to kill them.
By the end of the trial, the jury convicted both brothers of murder and they were sentenced to life in jail with no chance of parole.
Amid ongoing interest in the case and support from Kim Kardashian, there are new reports the brothers could receive a retrial.
Prosecutor Bozanich accepts that the Menendez brothers’ father was a ‘horrible man.’
She said during the course of the investigation she ‘couldn’t find anyone to say anything nice about Jose Menendez except for his secretary.’
‘Everyone else had these awful stories about him and what a monster he is.
‘The loss of Jose Menendez, in my opinion, was an actual plus for mankind. Jose Menendez was a really awful man.’
But she said, ultimately, that ‘awful man’ went on to ‘raise two sons capable of murder, so there you go.’
‘I had no reaction to the Menendez brothers. There was no visceral reaction. I didn’t feel like I was in the presence of pure evil.
‘They were like potted plants to me. Poisonous potted plants, but there was nothing about them I found fascinating. They were just these dumb jock killers.
‘The only reason I’m doing this after 33 years is because that poor woman that gave birth to both of them was treated like a doormat by both her husband and her sons and she was slaughtered like a wild animal inside of her own home.’
