With speculation mounting over the possibility of Lyle and Erik Menendez being released after 28 years in prison, there are countless theories about what the brothers might do with their new-found freedom.
Since their 1996 conviction, Lyle, 56, and Erik, 53, have been preparing for life on the outside. The brothers have both earned multiple college degrees, been mentors in college programs, and have worked as hospice carers for older prisoners.
Earlier this year, Lyle received a degree in sociology and it’s thought he may consider working as a prison reform advocate if he is freed, thanks to newly surfaced evidence.
Now 35 years on since the brothers fatally shot their parents, Jose, 45, and Kitty Menendez, 47, on August 20, 1989 in the family’s Beverly Hills home, it seems likely their case will be re-examined and their convictions possibly overturned.
A newly found letter written by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano shortly before the murders as well as new testimony by a former boy band member, who was managed by businessman Jose, could corroborate Lyle and Erik’s claim of sexual and emotional abuse by their father.
NEW EVIDENCE UNEARTHED
Musician Roy Rossello alleged last year he was drugged and raped by Jose in the Menendez’ family home in New Jersey in 1986 – he was 14 years old at the time.
Last week, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said in a news conference that he is open to allowing prosecutors to consider the new evidence.
“There’s no question [the brothers] committed the crimes,” the district attorney said, “The question is, to what degree of culpability should they be held accountable to, given the totality of the circumstances?”
For the first 22 years of their life sentences, Lyle and Erik were held in separate prisons, until finally being reunited at the low-security Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California in 2018.
Despite being incarcerated, both brothers are married. Erik wed pet groomer Tammi Saccoman in June 1999, while Lyle tied the knot with his second wife, journalist Rebecca Sneed, in November 2003 after splitting with his first wife of five years, Anna Eriksson, in 2001.
While locked up, Erik has embraced religion while Lyle has served on prisoner councils. Both have also offered support and guidance to prisoners who are victims of sexual abuse.
Their post-conviction lawyer, Mark Geragos says he hopes the brothers will be released by the end of the year and believes their futures could include working in some way to help other inmates.
He explains the wider Menendez family also believe the brothers should be freed.
“Most importantly, 24 of the family members have signed a letter asking the DA to resentence them and let them come home,” he shares, adding, “These are two people I would venture to say you’re never going to have to worry about reoffending.”
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole in July 1996, after the judge limited the defence’s ability to call the brothers “battered children”.
Public perception was Lyle and Erik were “spoilt trust-fund kids” who murdered their “overbearing” parents to inherit a US$14 million fortune.
After their parents’ deaths, they spent US$700,000 on luxury goods, businesses and sports cars. They recently explained this was their way of coping.
“Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive,” Erik said, explaining this in the newly released Netflix documentary The Menendez Brothers.
“One of the things that kept me from killing myself is I felt I would be a complete failure to my dad at that point,” he says.
KIM FIGHTS FOR THEIR FREEDOM
Reality star and prison reform advocate Kim Kardashian, 43, is also calling for the DA to re-examine the case.
In a post for NBC News last week, she wrote a long essay explaining her views, arguing that televising the first trial in 1993 meant Lyle and Erik were unable to receive a fair trial.
“The media turned the brothers into monsters,” she wrote.
“There was no room for empathy, let alone sympathy.”
Kim recently visited the brothers in prison and wrote how they were “kind, intelligent and honest men”.
“The killings are not excusable [but] the trial and punishment these brothers received were more befitting a serial killer than two individuals who endured years of sexual abuse by the very people they loved and trusted.”
REALITY VS HOLLYWOOD
Alongside the new documentary about the brothers, Netflix is also streaming the drama series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez story. Here’s what the show got right and wrong about the Menendez brothers.
FACT: In it, Erik confesses to killing Jose and Kitty to their therapist Dr Jerome Oziel. Recordings were made by Dr Oziel and this led to investigators arresting the brothers.
FICTION: After murdering Jose and Kitty, the Monsters version of Lyle and Erik go to the cinema to create an alibi. However, the real Lyle and Erik never left the house after murdering their parents.
“We didn’t have an alibi,” Erik told ABC News in 1996. “All we did was say we were at the movies.”
FACT: In a tense scene in the series, Jose rips a toupee off Lyle’s head, revealing he had gone bald. It’s speculated Lyle lost his hair in 1988 due to intense anxiety from being abused by his father.
That same year, he ordered a wig made from human hair that cost US$1,450. After the trials, he stopped wearing them.
FICTION: Garnering controversy from viewers, the series depicts Lyle and Erik being in an incestuous relationship. There’s no evidence the brothers were intimate with each other.
Creator Ryan Murphy says this rumour stems from journalist Dominick Dunne, but Vanity Fair, who he wrote for, denies this.
FACT: In Monsters, the brothers’ lawyer Leslie Abramson plays a game of hangman with Erik while the prosecution deliver their closing statements.
In reality, Leslie did play hangman in court with her clients, and explains she often chose the words used in the game to describe the prosecution.
FICTION: In the final episode of the series, OJ Simpson is placed in the cell next to Erik’s and Erik suggests OJ take a plea deal.
This was largely true in real life, however, it was Lyle who developed a friendship with OJ – who was already a family friend – while he was on trial for murdering Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.
