10 Creepiest Lyle and Erik Menendez Interview Moments

WatchMojo

When the Menendez brothers give interviews, creepy things tend to be said. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re breaking down the most chilling moments from the Menéndez brothers’ case — in their own words.

Transcript

00:00We turn next tonight here to the case that captured the attention of this country,

00:04the Menendez brothers, Eric and Lyle.

00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're breaking down the most chilling moments

00:10from the Menendez brothers' case, in their own words.

00:13I learned from the time I was a small boy to hold in pain and not express it physically.

00:24August 20th, 1989. The Menendez murders. Eric tells all.

00:28Later that night, my dad was pounding on my door, telling me to open up the door in my bedroom.

00:34I remember holding the gun, sitting on my bed, waiting to see if he was going to break down the door.

00:40As we'll get into a little later, the Menendez brothers have always said

00:44that Jose and Kitty Menendez's abuse was so bad that it caused them to fear for their lives.

00:49To that end, Eric's comments about the night of the murders themselves will put a chill down your spine.

00:55I remember this terror coursing through me that this was it. It was all going to happen now.

01:01You know, for the first time, I was going to confront my dad, not back down.

01:07Eric asserts that in the midst of building family tension, Jose pounded on his door.

01:12Eric feared that he would be killed.

01:14As the younger brother elaborates, Eric claims to have been sitting in bed with his gun in hand,

01:19waiting for his father to make a move.

01:21While, per Eric's account, Jose eventually gave up, this incident foreshadows the horror that was to come.

01:27In my mind, it didn't even matter that I was holding this gun.

01:30I felt like as soon as dad broke through that door, I was going to die.

01:33But I didn't care, because I was never going to let dad come in my room and do that again.

01:42It was the same life before or afterwards.

01:45With more money.

01:46With more money.

01:48Speaking to Barbara Walters for ABC's 2020 after their stunning sentence had been handed down to them,

01:53Lyle and Eric answered some of the nagging questions that remained after their years-long ordeal in court.

01:58Walters' characteristically blunt interviewing style left no stone unturned,

02:02nor did it let the Menendez brothers off the hook.

02:05It got to a point where I have all this money and so much pain, I don't know what to do with it.

02:11And eventually...

02:13I don't know, you're losing me.

02:15At one point, the veteran journalist drilled down on the brothers' $700,000 spending spree.

02:20Walters demanded answers as to how two people could even feel like shopping for luxury items

02:25after having committed such a heinous crime.

02:27In response, Eric revealed that no amount of money could fill the hole they had created,

02:32and that it might have simply been a coping mechanism.

02:35I don't think that it's understandable.

02:39People react to a traumatic event like that in different ways.

02:45Just a normal kid. 2020.

02:47I don't know if anyone can be portrayed fairly in the media who they are.

02:50Well, let me say it.

02:52There are people, a great number of people, who think that you two are spoiled brats.

02:58In the same 2020 interview, Walters asked the brother about media speculation regarding the case,

03:03their upbringing, and even themselves.

03:05Lyle and Eric commented that this speculation did not affect the facts of the case,

03:10nor did it imply their guilt.

03:12That's not who I am, but I can't defend that.

03:19Because I came from a family of wealth, it doesn't make me spoiled.

03:25In response to Eric's claim that he's a quote-unquote normal kid,

03:29Walters is bewildered and reminds him that he is a convicted murderer,

03:33found guilty of having taken both of his parents' lives.

03:36While Eric's statement may seem absurd on the surface,

03:39his follow-up, in which he declares himself to be a normal person

03:42who has gone through abnormal experiences, places it in context.

03:46Appearances are indeed often deceiving.

03:49But I don't think you aren't guilty because they found you spoiled.

03:53Or evil.

03:55Or evil.

03:56Just a normal, just a normal kid.

03:59Oh, Eric, you're a normal kid who killed your parents.

04:03Preparation for prison. ABC World News Tonight.

04:06I am the kid that did kill his parents,

04:09and no river of tears has changed that,

04:12and no amount of regret has changed it.

04:15Lyle's 2017 press interview,

04:17his first in over 20 years since the in-person Walters interview,

04:21revealed a calmer, more mature Menendez brother.

04:24While sticking firmly to his long-held positions regarding the case,

04:27Lyle expressed remorse and lamented the futility of the case,

04:31sharing that he and his brother's decision to kill their parents

04:33could likely have been avoided with greater forethought.

04:36My own childhood prepared me surprisingly well

04:41for the chaos of prison life.

04:43The elder brother's more revealing quote from the interview, however,

04:47was a remark that illustrated the depths of Jose's depravity.

04:50That is, Lyle's childhood had essentially trained him to handle prison.

04:55It's still a failed, destructive ending.

04:58That's part of the tragedy of it.

05:01It could so easily not have happened.

05:03New allegations against Jose. 48 hours.

05:07For me, it was very meaningful to just have things come out

05:13that caused people to really realize,

05:15okay, at least this part of what it's about is true.

05:18Throughout the Menendez brothers' trial,

05:20a massive obstacle that they ultimately failed to overcome

05:23was the lack of physical evidence of the alleged abuse they suffered.

05:26While those allegations were backed up by court testimony,

05:29as well as written and verbal accounts on Lyle and Eric's part,

05:32they were still found guilty and sentenced to life in prison

05:35without the possibility of parole.

05:37What do you remember about the Menudo Band members going to your home?

05:42Only that my father had sort of intimate involvement

05:47with that particular group.

05:49They usually would not have too much involvement

05:51with groups other than negotiations.

05:53However, in 2023, new evidence came to light

05:56that tentatively carried the potential of freeing the brothers.

05:59Roy Rossello, a member of Puerto Rican band Menudo,

06:02claimed that Jose Menendez had drugged and assaulted him as a minor.

06:06Lyle's recollection of Menudo visiting the family home

06:09will surely creep you out.

06:10People in the industry were talking about

06:12that maybe something had happened

06:13because there was a sex scandal in the group.

06:16Trading it all away.

06:17Dateline NBC.

06:19I would trade my entire defense for a 30-second video of my father.

06:24In a phone interview with Dateline NBC's Keith Morrison,

06:27Lyle Menendez put the abuse his father inflicted upon him

06:30in no uncertain terms.

06:32When asked by the investigative journalist

06:34if he was avoiding responsibility by blaming the aforementioned abuse,

06:37the elder Menendez brother asserted that, in essence,

06:40a video of his father's atrocious behavior

06:42would trump any legal defense and convince any juror.

06:45I would trade my whole case for it

06:47because I think it's so sanitized and so easy to use the word abuse

06:51over the abuse that abuse wasn't so bad.

06:53Pressed by Morrison as to why the brothers didn't simply pack up and leave,

06:56Lyle countered by declaring that no matter where they tried to run and hide,

07:00their father would catch them,

07:02and that the consequences would be dire.

07:04We finally just kind of got overwhelmed with this panic and emotion

07:08and made the decision to run in that room.

07:10Lyle's devil's pact. Dateline NBC.

07:13I said nothing.

07:15And I just feel like part of that pact I have with my dad

07:19is I'm keeping this secret.

07:21Lyle commented on the events of the case with years worth of hindsight.

07:24Perhaps one of the interview's most chilling moments

07:26was Lyle's articulation of his feelings regarding Jose's alleged abuse.

07:30And for you to have done this to my brother,

07:34it was like I kept my part of that sort of devil's pact.

07:37And you didn't.

07:38Reflecting on keeping the abuse under wraps,

07:40Lyle described feelings that are unfortunately all too common

07:43for victims of such mistreatment.

07:45Most uncomfortably of all, Lyle stated that his mother felt

07:48that the boys had somehow come in between her and her husband.

07:51While, of course, the truth in the Menendez case is likely unknowable,

07:55details like these provide uneasy insights into the minds of abusers.

08:00You know, reflecting afterwards, you know, it haunts me.

08:03It does haunt me.

08:05on taking their mother's life, 2020.

08:08And my mother was on the couch, and she had been drinking.

08:11And she said, what's wrong with you?

08:14And I said, nothing, nothing. You wouldn't understand.

08:16It's inarguable that the Menendez case has been endlessly debated,

08:20scrutinized, poured over, and analyzed.

08:23What is often easy to forget, however,

08:25is that there are real human players at its core,

08:28not just characters in a Netflix miniseries.

08:30As such, hearing about the actual abuse that the boys are alleged

08:34to have suffered will tend to remind you of that.

08:36What do you think? I'm stupid.

08:38And she told me that she knew,

08:41that she had known all my life what my father was doing.

08:45When prompted by Walters to explain why they had decided to kill their mother,

08:49Eric's response is stomach-churning for a number of reasons,

08:52chief among them, a clearly emotional Eric's account

08:55of confessing the abuse to Kitty Menendez goes terribly awry,

08:59with his mother revealing that she had always known,

09:02and that she blamed her sons for it.

09:04And I just saw dad and mom as the same person at that point.

09:07I saw them as a single person.

09:09Why they did it, 2020.

09:11Do you still think about the night of the murder?

09:14Every day.

09:15You both do?

09:16Since their 1990 arrest, the Menendez brothers have maintained

09:20that their decision to permanently take care of their parents

09:23was motivated not by greed or bitterness,

09:26but retribution for past abuse,

09:28as well as alleged threats on their lives.

09:30First thing that comes to mind is terror.

09:33I was so afraid.

09:35A few days before, I had said to myself,

09:38I'm never going to let my father touch me again,

09:41after I told Lyle that it had been continuing on.

09:43When prompted by Walters to comment on what had caused them to snap,

09:47Eric and Lyle shared that in their view,

09:49they were afraid that their father, Jose Menendez, would snap first.

09:52It goes without saying that while the events as described by the brothers

09:56are horrifying and heartbreaking,

09:58it is shiver-inducing to hear the reasoning, rationale,

10:01and level of insight that would lead to such an atrocity.

10:04But you'd bought the guns.

10:05It wasn't something that just happened that moment.

10:07You'd thought about it.

10:09No.

10:10You bought the guns in advance.

10:11They just weren't in the house.

10:12Yes, we bought the guns in advance.

10:14So, this didn't just happen that moment.

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10:36I learned from the time I was a small boy

10:40to hold in pain and not express it physically.

10:45Regardless of personal beliefs,

10:47it seems safe to say that as described by Lyle and Eric Menendez,

10:51the abuse they claimed to have endured was soul-crushing,

10:54mind-numbing, and everything in between.

10:56For a disturbing concrete example of this,

10:59look once more to Eric's own words as part of A&E's

11:02Eric Tells All docu-mini-series.

11:04It came all the way down to not being allowed to cry,

11:07not being allowed to express pain.

11:10And what would happen when I expressed pain,

11:14shame, or I would get hit for that.

11:16The younger brother claims that Jose's boys were forbidden

11:19from demonstrating any kind of emotion,

11:21and that he, quote,

11:22trained them to repress their pain and inner turmoil.

11:25As such, Jose allegedly forced Lyle

11:28to strike Eric's, quote,

11:29pressure points until he was in agony.

11:32As Eric describes,

11:33any resistance only led to harsher treatment.

11:47If you or someone you know is struggling,

11:50please don't hesitate to call

11:51the National Domestic Violence Hotline

11:53at 1-800-799-SAFE or 7233.

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