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These facts about the shocking true crimes of 90s criminals Lyle and Erik Menendez will seriously creep you out. Welcome to WatchMojo.WORLD and today we’re looking at disturbing facts about the Menéndez brothers. Our countdown of creepy facts about Lyle and Erik Menendez includes O.J. Simpson Connections, Erik Menéndez’s Screenplay, Another Potential Victim, and more! Do you have any other interesting facts about the Menéndez brothers? Share them in the comments.
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00:00What's the problem?
00:02I'm sorry to tell my parents.
00:03Pardon me?
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at disturbing facts about the Menendez brothers.
00:09Every family has a secret. It just depends on how bad that secret really is.
00:15Murder and the movies. On August 20th, 1989, Lyle and Eric Menendez murdered their parents
00:21Jose and Kitty at their mansion in Beverly Hills. Although the brothers eventually confessed to this
00:27act of parasite, they initially tried to stage it as a mob hit.
00:31I think one of the Beverly Hills detectives described it as one of the most brutal crime
00:35scene he had ever seen.
00:37After disposing of the shotguns, they purchased movie tickets, headed home, and called the police.
00:43Lyle and Eric claimed they were at the Taste of LA Film Festival, where they watched Batman
00:48since the line for License to Kill was too long. Both parents were shot multiple times,
00:53with Kitty practically unrecognizable. The authorities had little trouble believing
00:58organized crime was responsible for this gruesome scene.
01:00At the time, the home video industry was known for having ties to the mob.
01:04But suspicions shifted to the Suns as they spent roughly $700,000 on property,
01:10extravagant vacations, and other luxuries.
01:13They acted like they had won the lottery.
01:16O.J. Simpson connections.
01:17Four years prior to joining O.J. Simpson's dream team, Robert Shapiro played a small yet
01:23significant role in the Menendez case. On March 8, 1990, Lyle was arrested while Eric
01:29was at a tennis tournament in Israel.
01:31Eric Menendez, who was out of the country at the time, surrendered to police days later.
01:36Shapiro arranged Eric's surrender upon returning to California three days later.
01:40Shapiro represented Eric at the brothers' first arraignment before Leslie Abramson replaced him.
01:45The brothers previously met O.J. Simpson in the 70s,
01:49around the same time their father helped arrange the football star's Hurts car rental endorsement.
01:53Nobody does it better than Hurts.
01:55Nobody does it better.
01:59After his arrest in 1994, Simpson was placed in a cell next to Eric's.
02:04Believing he was guilty, Lyle suggested Simpson take the plea deal.
02:08Of course, Simpson was acquitted, which Eric felt hurt the brothers' subsequent retrial.
02:12Because his verdict was so shocking, there was a sense of extreme injustice that happened.
02:18And now we're going to have to right it with every defendant that comes up.
02:23Mark Jackson's basketball card.
02:25Simpson isn't the only former athlete with an unlikely link to the Menendez brothers.
02:29While NBA point guard Mark Jackson's connection is less direct, it's still eerie to think about.
02:35On Jackson's 1989-90 trading card, Lyle and Eric can be spotted watching the Knicks game from the front row.
02:41Check it out.
02:43This is a Mark Jackson card, right?
02:45And then you go for the Knicks, you push into the background.
02:48Those are the Rio Menendez brothers.
02:50Despite the press surrounding the Menendezes, this card didn't gain national attention until
02:55decades later when crime novelist Stephen Zurantz noticed that the brothers purchased
02:59courtside tickets during their spending spree.
03:01Zurantz struggled to find photographic evidence until he stumbled upon Jackson's card.
03:06He shared his discovery on social media, and it wasn't long until the image went viral.
03:12And there they are, front row seats, which were obviously very expensive at the time.
03:16And now it's just a little piece of history.
03:18Internet sleuths deduced that the photo must have been taken after the murders, but before
03:23the arrests.
03:24At first I just said, oh wow, you know, it's a little emotional.
03:27I know, what are the last times that Eric and I have a picture of us frayed together?
03:31The brothers committed burglary before the murders.
03:35While the Menendez brothers are notorious for a particular crime, this wasn't their first
03:39run-in with the law.
03:40They just got bored with life and they wanted excitement.
03:44They wanted challenges.
03:45Lyle and Eric reportedly committed, quote, hot prowls, breaking into other people's homes.
03:51For Lyle, this was a gateway to burglary, with Eric following.
03:55Taking money and jewelry from homes in Calabasas and Hidden Hills, the brothers bagged over $100,000
04:00in stolen goods.
04:02Joe, when he found out that the children had been arrested, the main message was, how stupid
04:09of you to get caught.
04:10You're like sheep that follow.
04:12Among the property taken was a van, which they got pulled over in.
04:16Their father did damage control, apologizing to the households and writing checks for the
04:21stolen items.
04:22And Jose kind of said, let's distance ourselves from the Calabasas crowd.
04:25The brothers avoided any serious charges, but the Menendez family moved away from their
04:30ransacked neighbors to a new home in Beverly Hills.
04:33What seemed like a fresh start was the beginning of the end.
04:37Eric Menendez's screenplay.
04:39Before the murders occurred, Eric Menendez wrote a 66-page script entitled Friends.
04:45No, it wasn't about six 20-somethings living in New York.
04:48According to Craig Signorelli, a high school classmate who wrote the screenplay with Eric,
04:53the story centered on a, quote, sophisticated, good-looking teenager named Hamilton Cromwell.
04:58In the opening scene, Cromwell murders his parents with the intent of inheriting their
05:03fortune.
05:03We needed the characters to get money somehow and thought, well, here's an interesting
05:07way to do it.
05:08And it showed the Darwinistic tendencies of the child toward the parents.
05:12Although it wasn't entered as evidence when the case went to trial, many recognized the
05:17parallels between the script and the murders.
05:19He's already got the idea and he's already beginning to execute in his mind the crime
05:25that he will eventually commit, murdering his parents for money, for the insurance money.
05:29What remains debatable is whether the Menendez brothers' motivation coincided with Hamilton
05:34Cromwell's.
05:35That's how the prosecution saw it.
05:37In any case, the script never got produced.
05:40But the Menendez case has inspired numerous Hollywood productions.
05:43I thought that it was probably pretty unreal, a bit of nonsense.
05:48I didn't contemplate that he was really planning to do such a thing.
05:52Confession to Psychologist
05:53Growing increasingly suspicious of the brothers, the cops convinced Craig Signorelli to wear
05:58a wire, but he couldn't get a confession from Eric.
06:02Although Menendez didn't confide in his friend, he did open up to Jerome Ozeal, his psychologist.
06:07Eric came in, and he was extremely agitated and extremely depressed, and he began talking
06:17with me about the fact that his parents had been murdered.
06:22Ozeal didn't alert the authorities, but he shared this revelation with his mistress,
06:27Judalon Smith, believing anyone close to him might be in danger.
06:30After Smith told the police, Ozeal broke up with her.
06:33Meanwhile, the brothers were taken into custody, a confession tape emerging as a smoking gun.
06:40Not many Hollywood murder mysteries ever took a more dramatic turn than police are describing
06:44in a couple of savage Beverly Hills killings.
06:47Ozeal claimed he withheld this information out of fear for his life and his family's well-being.
06:52He was very fearful that I would tip the police or tip the newspapers.
07:02He didn't believe that there was any way for him to be safe, now that I had this information.
07:07In 1997, Ozeal lost his psychology license, accused of breaking doctor-patient confidentiality
07:13and having relations with female patients.
07:16Married behind bars
07:18On July 2, 1996, the same day the brothers were sentenced to life in prison, Lyle tied the
07:24knot with Anna Erickson, a salon receptionist and retired model who wrote to him during his incarceration.
07:29The marriage ended in 2001 after Erickson learned that Lyle was having an affair with a pen pal.
07:35Two years later, Lyle married Rebecca Sneed, who he had known for nearly a decade.
07:40Erick got hitched as well, marrying Tammy Ruth Sackerman in 1999.
07:45He started a hospice program.
07:47He's well-liked by fellow prisoners.
07:50Sackerman discussed their relationship in her book, They Said We'd Never Make It.
07:53Although conjugal visits aren't allowed, the brothers remain married to their respective
07:58spouses to this day.
07:59A kiss when you come in, a kiss when you leave, you can hold hands, and that part of it is
08:07very difficult and people don't understand.
08:09While some might call this romantic, others can't help but find it at least a little creepy.
08:15The alleged motivation
08:16The prosecution asserted that the brothers murdered their parents for the inheritance
08:20and life insurance money after their father threatened to cut them out of his will.
08:24They were buying Rolex watches.
08:27They were buying real estate.
08:29According to Lyle and Eric, the murders were not motivated by money,
08:33testifying that their father had been abusing them in more ways than one since their youth.
08:37Their mother also allegedly participated.
08:40Fearing their lives were in danger, the brothers acted first.
08:44One of their lawyers, Cliff Gardner, says the new evidence
08:47corroborates those claims and lessens their culpability.
08:51Some family members believe there was a history of abuse.
08:54Others say otherwise.
08:56I never saw anything in the home.
08:58Never.
08:59Either way, proving self-defense was easier said than done.
09:03After a mistrial, the brothers were tried again, resulting in a guilty verdict and life sentences.
09:09The outcome divided the public.
09:11Decades later, people still debate their motivations and whether abuse justifies murder.
09:17Our society has just become more knowledgeable about trauma.
09:21Another potential victim.
09:23New evidence has recently surfaced enforcing the allegation that the brothers suffered at the hands of their father.
09:28This includes a letter Eric wrote to his cousin Andy Cano in December 1988.
09:32The letter is significant. Why?
09:35Well, the state's position was that Andy was a liar.
09:38Andy was making it up.
09:40Supposedly, Eric and Lyle were not the only ones who Jose Enrique Menendez subjected to abuse.
09:45Roy Rusello, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo,
09:50claims that he crossed paths with Jose Menendez when he was working for RCA Records.
09:54After drinking a glass of wine at Jose Menendez's house,
09:57Rusello says that he lost control of his body and was taken advantage of.
10:01I met Roy and he talked to me about it.
10:03It was a difficult conversation for him.
10:05It was difficult for me to hear.
10:07This allegedly happened in the 80s,
10:09although Rusello wouldn't speak publicly about it until 2023.
10:13Rusello's accusations have further fueled the campaign to reopen the Menendez case.
10:18It can take years for people to recognize what happened,
10:22to have the courage to come forward.
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10:4022 years apart.
10:42Although initially tried separately,
10:45Lyle and Eric Menendez were tried together for their second trial.
10:48After their sentencing in July 1996,
10:51the brothers could still see one another across the prison yard.
10:54September 1996 would mark their last face-to-face interaction for more than two decades.
10:59Important to you to stay together when you get moved to the state prison?
11:05Very important.
11:06That is what's gotten us through these six years and through our life.
11:10The two were sent to separate maximum security prisons 500 miles away from each other.
11:16The brothers were allowed to communicate through letters and snail mail,
11:19but not over the phone.
11:21They wouldn't see each other again until 2018 when Lyle was transferred to Eric's housing unit.
11:26On Wednesday, Eric Menendez was transferred to his brother's section in a California state prison.
11:33Sharing an emotional embrace, the brothers believed the impossible had finally happened.
11:37And the person in the chairs was just quite an emotional moment.
11:41While Lyle called the moment, quote,
11:43remarkable, it also served as a chilling reminder of the time lost.
11:48Do you have any other interesting facts about the Menendez brothers?
11:51Share them in the comments.
11:52But some of the idea also came from two of the prison's most infamous inmates,
11:57the Menendez brothers.
11:58Do you agree with our picks?
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