Inevitably, these killings were big news. Jose Menendez was a successful executive for a home video company, and even the first Los Angeles Times article reporting the death floated a possible business connection to organised crime
Jose’s sister, Marta, told the press that her brother had been killed because he refused to deal with mobsters. ➡️ After that, the story dropped out of the headlines. Authorities were presumed to be following up their mob leads
Yet, the following March, two arrests were made, and Lyle and Erik Menendez were charged with murdering their parents. The predominant story, which would be told over the next 3 years before the case went to trial, was of 2 brothers who were greedy, spoiled, sociopathic brats.
That two days before the murders, having learnt that their disappointed father was to disinherit them, the brothers had driven to buy shotguns. On that Sunday night, they gunned down their parents, then went out so that they could return home later to feign the discovery
The big break came after Erik confessed to his therapist The story of how this became public was a convoluted one – it was the therapist’s disgruntled former mistress who ultimately told the police
Only in 1993, as their first trial began, was a different narrative presented – one intended to explain both the brothers’ general predicament and the specific lead-up to the actions they took Each brother described, in great detail, stories of sexual abuse from their own father
In the short term, this defence was partially successful. But in 1995 Lyle and Erik were found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life without possibility of parole
However, early in 2020, Court TV posted online footage of the entire months-long first trial, and TikTok became, somewhat unexpectedly, awash with Menendez brothers content Since then, TikTok videos tagged #menendezbrothers have been watched more than 700 million times.
There are now numerous TikTok videos, Instagram accounts, podcasts and YouTube channels focusing on the specifics of the trials – the testimony and the evidence
There are those, of course, who still firmly believe that these were nothing more than two self-centred, evil boys who killed their parents. Others, believe they are misunderstood victims telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
"As I listen to the brothers’ account, what I hear is the sound of two people endlessly trying to explain – to a court, and to the world, but maybe also to themselves – why they did something awful" Read the full interview with Lyle Menendez here 👇 telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…