With their names back in the news, the Menendez Brothers have earned themselves a new hearing. But will it matter? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re breaking down the legal saga of the Menendez brothers — including new evidence that may see the brothers walk free.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Now to the Menendez brothers case we're hearing new audio of them speaking from behind bars
00:03as the Los Angeles district attorney says he'll review new evidence while considering
00:07resentencing the brothers. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're breaking down the legal saga
00:12of the Menendez brothers including new evidence that may see the brothers walk free. Nobody wanted
00:17to believe me. It was a culture of silence and that culture of silence existed up until the 90s.
00:28Before anything an introduction to the twisted world of the Menendez brothers. On August 20th
00:341989 Lyle and Eric Menendez returned to their Beverly Hills home from a trip to the movies
00:40and the Taste of LA festival. What they found was an unthinkable horror. They found their parents
00:45Jose and Kitty Menendez brutally slain in their living room. At least that's what they wanted
00:50people to believe had happened. We're really gonna do this?
00:59Yeah. In reality the Menendez boys in response to what they claim was years of torture and abuse
01:05on their parents part had taken their parents lives themselves. They were able to disguise
01:09this fact until early 1990 when a guilt-stricken Eric confessed his and Lyle's heinous crime to
01:15Dr. L Jerome Oziel a therapist who had been hired by Jose. How can I make you feel better Eric?
01:21I came here so that you tell me I'm not a bad person.
01:26Tell me I'm not a bad person. You killed your mom and dad Eric. Oziel fearing the repercussions of
01:32treating patients such as Eric and Lyle convinced the brothers to allow themselves to be recorded
01:36as a means of quote insurance. In the early fall of 1988 did you begin seeing Eric and Lyle Menendez
01:43relating to incidents which occurred in Calabasas in which the defendants were involved? Yes I did.
01:49The therapist foolishly spilled the beans to Judilon Smith his mistress. When the doctor
01:54refused to leave his wife for Smith she used his secret against him. This meant informing the police
01:59that among other allegations of misconduct he was in possession of material that incriminated the
02:04Menendez brothers for their parents murder. Lyle and Eric who had posited that their father was
02:09murdered in cold blood by one of his so-called quote business enemies or even the mafia were
02:14arrested on March 8th and 11th of 1990 respectively. Hey mafia after what we've been through I'd like
02:20to see you try. Okay is that okay? We're targets okay? We're getting you full-time security 24-7 okay?
02:28Oziel has claimed that the brothers directly threatened his life which did violate doctor
02:33patient confidentiality and as such his recordings were mostly admissible as evidence.
02:38Were you happy about what you had done? No it was beginning to hit me what I had done
02:44when I went back to the house that night and I I couldn't I couldn't accept that.
02:51My question was were you happy then? No I was not happy. When their court case finally kicked
02:56into action after having been delayed for two years Lyle and Eric Menendez also faced an entirely
03:01different kind of trial that is in the court of public opinion. Via the nascent court tv
03:07totally flipped expectations on their head. He proceeded to indicate to me by touching himself
03:16uh down and and saying that his dad and him had been touching each other down there.
03:21General public sentiment regarding the brothers was largely unfavorable with skeptics claiming
03:26that the Menendez brothers appeared smug and arrogant in court. They also pointed to their
03:31seven hundred thousand dollar spending spree after their parents murder as proof of their status as
03:36spoiled rich kids only in it for the substantial inheritance they stood to receive. And as far as
03:41transportation goes? Well you have the limousine. Right but for both of us. You're asking for a
03:50second limousine? Yeah that'd be great. That all changed however when Lyle Menendez took the witness
03:55stand. His moving testimony detailing a lifetime's worth of severe mental emotional and physical
04:01abuse from his father Jose was a game changer for him and Eric. Leslie Abramson's legal defense
04:06strategy which had initially seemed like a long shot paid off for a moment. The result was a quote
04:12hopelessly deadlocked jury as described by judge Stanley Weisberg and a mistrial was declared as a
04:18result. The brothers legal defense was completely thrown out the window by two rules that were
04:23implemented for their second trial. One the media was banned from the courtroom and two claims and
04:28discussion of the aforementioned abuse were heavily restricted. Lyle and Eric were both
04:33sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole having been spared the death penalty.
04:39When the judge decided what evidence we could consider we were given either first degree murder
04:44as an option or no crime whatsoever. We voted unanimously to convict. Much to Eric and Lyle's
04:52shock and dismay they were separated after their 1996 sentencing and didn't see each other for well
04:58over 20 years. That I could not protect him. I just felt no peace like a part of me was just
05:07across the state. That is until 2018 when Lyle was transferred to the same prison as Eric. The
05:13former was moving from Mule Creek State Prison to the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility.
05:18The brothers shared a predictably emotional reunion having kept in touch for their entire
05:23respective terms in prison. They had of course managed to keep busy in the interim. Lyle had been
05:28married, divorced and then married again and Eric had married in 1999. I feel like I've known you
05:35forever Eric and that I'm going to know you for the rest of my life. All my love. Tammy.
05:42Over time the case went from trial of the century to an historical footnote
05:46having already been overshadowed by the OJ Simpson murder case by this point.
05:51OJ suddenly you know took over all the media. OJ was Menendez on steroids. While Lyle and Eric had
06:00resigned themselves to quiet lives in prison new developments were still to come. In 2018 Eric's
06:05aunt discovered a letter that Eric had written to his cousin back in 1988. The letter details Eric's
06:10fear of his father and a history of abuse. Then in May 2023 came another bombshell. Jose Menendez
06:17born in 1944 was an accomplished businessman having held high-ranking executive positions
06:23at corporations like Hertz Global Holdings and RCA Records. In his professional capacity at RCA
06:29Lyle and Eric's father was instrumental in signing the enormously popular Puerto Rican boy band Menudo
06:34to the record label.
06:35While this factoid mostly went unnoticed throughout the Menendez brothers trial, it came to light in 2023 when Roy Rusello, a Menudo member, publicly accused the late Jose of having assaulted and drugged him at 14 years of age. Upon learning this, Lyle and Eric filed paperwork to request a new hearing which would ostensibly prove that Menendez was a drug lord.
07:05The trial would be followed by the brothers' claims of abuse at Jose's hands.
07:08This is done. This is done. You understand? No more between you two. And you are never, never to touch him. Not ever.
07:17However, nothing would come of the Menendez brothers filing until over a year later.
07:22Just a few weeks prior, Ryan Murphy's Monsters, the Eric and Lyle Menendez story debuted on Netflix.
07:28Hey, OJ? OJ?
07:33Yeah, who is that?
07:34I'm, I'm Eric. Eric Menendez.
07:38The ubiquitous showrunner followed up on the smash success of the first season of its true crime anthology series Monster, which explored the life and crimes of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer with a Menendez-inspired follow-up.
07:49Much like the show's Dahmer season, Monsters was a colossal hit for the streaming giant, quickly rising to the top of Netflix's top 10 most-watched films.
07:58This, coupled with a grassroots TikTok following for the brothers, significantly reignited public interest in the case, as well as sympathy and outrage on the brothers' behalf.
08:07Nobody wanted to believe me. It was a culture of silence. And that culture of silence existed up until the 90s.
08:18In what must have been a strange feeling of deja vu for those who had followed the Menendez case, Lyle and Eric were back in the news for the first time since 1996.
08:27Now to the Menendez brothers' case, we're hearing new audio of them speaking from behind bars, as the Los Angeles District Attorney says he'll review new evidence while considering resentencing the brothers.
08:36After a massive wave of support for the brothers grew after Netflix's Monsters, LA District Attorney George Gascon's office confirmed that they were reviewing the Menendez brothers' application for a new hearing, set for November 26th, 2024.
08:50Said the DA,
09:08While Eric Menendez had originally released a statement condemning Murphy's Monsters miniseries, one has to wonder if his meetings with Cooper Koch and Kim Kardashian have swayed his opinion.
09:18Kim saw the show and she loved it. And she became very interested in the case. And she called me and told me she loved the show and then was like, do you want to go? Do you want to come with me? And I was like, yes.
09:34What did you think of the Netflix documentary The Menendez Brothers? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
09:40I went to TikTok and found thousands of videos.
09:46Most of them are becoming very well educated on the case.
10:10You