Once Upon a Time in Beverly Hills… The terrifying story of the Menendez brothers who murdered their parents in cold blood.

Kim Kardashian would secretly visit them in prison, Ryan Murphy has just given them the second part of his series. Monsters and Netflix is ​​going to make a documentary about their murder. proof that the romance of the Menendez brothers still captivates America. In 1989, Eric and Lyle, aged 21 and 18, murdered their parents, Jose and Keith, in cold blood before squandering their inheritance on luxury clothes, sports cars and expensive vacations. After their arrest, the duo suddenly pleaded self-defense, citing years of brutal abuse by their father with the complicity of their mother. A card that did little to convince jurors, sentencing them to life in prison at their second trial in 1996. Still, the doubt remains. Was this murder, with shotguns, the work of two abused and desperate teenagers, or two sociopaths, spoiled brats and greedy for a cherished family inheritance of $14 million?

Bloody Rolex

July 1993, first trial. The facts are presented in the Los Angeles courtroom. 1989 On August 20, Jose and Kitty Menendez were brutally murdered in their $5 million home at 722 North Elm Drive in Beverly Hills, one of the most beautiful. alleys in the star district. When the police arrive, two opened pots of ice cream are sitting on the coffee table while the evening program is still on TV. On the couch, the body of 45-year-old Jose, the general manager of the Live Entertainment distribution company, is covered in blood. a shotgun was jammed into his mouth, causing the back of his head to explode, firing seven more bullets. 44-year-old Kitty is lying on the ground, completely disfigured. Still alive after the attack, minutes later a fifth bullet struck him in the face to finish him off. Under the gold of the court, the prosecutor presents this macabre scene. The jurors’ disbelieving eyes fall on the two defendants. Aged 21 and 18, they are tall, handsome, wealthy and impeccably dressed. The audience is filled with grumbling. Eric and Lyle Menendez, the sons of the victims, are described as “barbarians,” “monsters” and rabid manipulators.

They were the ones who “discovered” the bodies on the night of the crime. Those who called 911 first responders, one screaming in grief, another in tears, stuttering that their parents had just been killed. They again, who put the investigators on false detectives, then the mobsters, then the mafia, before the cash obtained through their life insurance – about $400,000 – and their inheritance. Lyle buys a Rolex, a Porsche Carrera and a fried chicken restaurant. Eric flies to a luxury house in Israel, paying for one of the country’s top tennis coaches. At the same time, the two brothers gave interviews, pouring out their grief in the press. “I have never seen anything like it and I will never see anything like it,” Eric declared two months after the murders. They were like candles… I never saw my father helpless, and it’s sad to think he ever was.”

Confessions on tapes

If this behavior raises questions, there is also evidence. First, this interesting script, written by Eric Menendez two years before the events, in which he imagined a murder committed by a teenager from a wealthy neighborhood in California. Then the shotgun shell found in Lyle’s pocket. and the shaky alibi that they were in a movie theater at the time of the murder. Finally, before he died, José reportedly threatened to remove the two brothers from his will to punish them for their immaturity. Three years prior to the crimes, Lyle and Eric had become involved in a burglary while the family lived in Calabasas, Los Angeles, embarrassing their father, a Cuban immigrant. “Bruce Jenner (now known as Caitlyn Jenner, father of Kendall and Kylie, editor’s note) he had a house here. The boys were bored … so they started robbing houses … they didn’t think they’d get caught,” Kitty’s friend will say at the trial.

Finally, there are confessions delivered on a silver platter seven months after the murders. Convinced of being protected by professional secrecy, Eric, the youngest, confessed the details of his crime in 1990 to psychologist Jerome Oziel, who tape-recorded all of his encounters. The intern, fearing for his life – he would claim at the bar that he had been executed by Eric and Lyle – confided his dark secret to his lover at the time, one Judalon Smith, who, after being rejected, went on to reveal. availability of these recordings to the police.

Monsters or victims?

In July 1993, all these facts were presented in a courtroom in Los Angeles. Guided by their lawyer, Leslie Abramson, known for her tenacity and her controversial approach to criminal law, the duo is suddenly playing a game of self-defense that has never been mentioned before. It is a real turning point. In front of a jury, the Menendez brothers recount years of brutal rape and torture by their father. They paint a portrait of an aggressive Kitty under the influence of drugs, a child abuser, cruel and sadistic Jose. THE: New York Times reports Lyle’s words on the stand. “I told my mother to tell my father to leave me alone, not to stop touching me. He told me to stop, that I was exaggerating, and that my father should punish me when I did something wrong. He asked me to massage him, to give him a blowjob. He drew me and described how he would kill me if I ran away. Then he stopped and started attacking Eric.” He concludes: “People say I have everything, that I’m rich and that I live in Beverly Hills. But if they saw my childhood photos, they would see blood and tears…I was dying long before the night my parents were killed.”

Are the two orphans victims or have they tarnished the memory of their parents to avoid life imprisonment? During the trial, everyone asks a question. Doubts arise and circulate, sometimes against the prosecution side, sometimes against the defense side. Who to believe? On the one hand, we learn that their attorney, Leslie Abramson, asked the psychiatrist to amend his records to support his clients’ arguments. There are also these letters that Lyle sent to several members of his entourage asking them to lie about Jose. Gross errors, it is true, but which do not refute their version of the facts. Because, on the other hand, Andy Cano, their cousin, claimed during his bar appearance in 1993 that Eric did confess to him when they were 13 years old that his father had abused him. Thirty years later, in 2023, a letter written by Eric in 1988 will be added to the file. “It’s going on, Andy, but it’s worse now. I can’t explain it. (…) Every night I lie awake thinking that he might come (…) I know what you said before, but I’m afraid. You don’t know dad like I do. He is crazy. He warned me a hundred times not to tell anyone.’

Since the members of the jury could not reach an agreement in 1993. In July, this first trial was dismissed by a judge, who opened a second trial in 1996, revealing again the course of events. The first lie is exposed, and the arguments of the defense side are finally destroyed this time. Described as liars, Eric and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life in prison and moved to two separate penitentiaries. “I killed my parents and it was a terrible thing. But there are circumstances that people don’t understand, and I think that if I had spoken up earlier, maybe it would have been avoided,” Lyle said years later, in 2005. People . And Eric added in a letter to his beloved. “What we did is unforgivable, but everything in this house became a blur. There was no escape.”

After Ryan Murphy’s new series about betrayal, the Menendez brothers, who have been in prison for 35 years, are in the light. If both have rebuilt their lives. Eric is married to Tami, with whom he has a daughter, Lyle to Rebecca Snead, a journalist, they defend their version of the facts and hope to one day be able to benefit from parole. On the stand during his second trial, Lyle looked his brother in the eye before swearing. “We were not monsters. We were two young people trapped in an unbearable life. It was not a crime of greed.’