Lyle and Erik Menendez

Lyle and Erik Menendez

José Enrique Menéndez and his wife Mary were shot to death in their Beverly Hills, California, home on August 20, 1989. Their sons, Lyle and Erik, were found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. During the trial, the brothers alleged that they committed the murders because of years of sexual and emotional abuse that they suffered at the hands of their parents. The brothers were not considered suspects at first, but suspicions about their involvement arose when they began to spend money lavishly after the murders.

About Lyle and Erik Menendez in brief

Summary Lyle and Erik MenendezJosé Enrique Menéndez and his wife Mary were shot to death in their Beverly Hills, California, home on August 20, 1989. Their sons, Lyle and Erik, were found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. During the trial, the brothers alleged that they committed the murders because of years of sexual and emotional abuse that they suffered at the hands of their parents. They were first tried separately, with one jury for each brother. Both juries deadlocked, which resulted in a mistrial. For the second trial, they were tried together by the same jury, which found them guilty, and as a result, they are serving a life sentence without parole. The brothers were not considered suspects at first, but suspicions about their involvement arose when they began to spend money lavishly after the murders. They also drove around Los Angeles in their deceased mother’s Mercedes-Benz SL convertible, dined expensively, and went on overseas trips to the Caribbean and London. It is believed that they spent somewhere around USD 700,000 during the time period between the murder and their arrests. They eventually left the family mansion unoccupied, as they decided to live in adjoining condos in nearby Marina del Rey. The police believed that the brothers were most likely culprits since they had obvious financial motives and were spending much more money just after the murder. In an attempt to get a confession from Erik, the police got one of his close school friends to wear a wire while having lunch with him at a local restaurant.

Erik eventually confessed to the murders, however he said no one killed his parents; he eventually said he killed them because he had been sexually abused by his father, particularly their father, José Enrique MenÉndez. In the early stages of the investigation, police tried down leads to narrow their search to people who would have had had a motive to kill José and Kitty. They investigated potential mob leads, but nothing of them came out of them. They tried to make the murders appear connected to organized crime to make it seem like the murders were a case of mistaken identity, but there was no evidence to support this theory. The family lived in Hopewell Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, and both brothers attended Princeton Day School. Lyle enrolled at Princeton University, but during his freshman year, he was placed on academic probation for poor grades and attendance, and was eventually suspended for a year after being accused of plagiarism. Erik had a remarkable talent for tennis, as he ranked 44th in the nation for 18-and-under players. He also hired a full-time tennis coach and competed in a series of tournaments in Israel. In 1986, José’s career as a corporate executive took the family to Beverly Hills,. The following year, Erik began attending high school, at Beverly Hills High, where he earned average grades, but had aarkable talent for Tennis, as  he earned averagegrades, but  the following year he earned an average grades.