Remorseless Menendez taunt cops for not arresting them immediately as they speak out from jail in bombshell Netflix doc
The Menendez brothers spent seven months as free men after killing their parents — but they say that had nothing to do with their own humor and everything to do with bad police work.
In a recently released Netflix documentary, The Menendez Brothers, Lyle and Erik speak from prison about the case that shocked the nation.
The duo, then just 18 and 21, murdered their parents Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez in their $1 million Beverly Hills home in August 1989.
They made a frantic call to police, claiming they came home from the theater to find their parents slaughtered, sparking fears in one of America’s wealthiest communities that a killer was on the run.
Now, after 34 years behind bars, 51-year-old Erik has revealed he found it absurd that the police working the case did not arrest him and his brother at the scene of the crime.
“There should have been a police response and we would have been arrested,” he said.
The Menendez brothers spent seven months on the streets after killing their parents
The duo, then just 18 and 21, murdered their parents Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez in their $1 million Beverly Hills home in August 1989.
‘We had no alibi. The gunpowder residue was all over our hands. Under normal circumstances they will give you a gunpowder residue test. We would have been arrested immediately.
‘There were grenades in my car, my car was in the search area. All they had to do was search my car. If only they had pressed me, I wouldn’t have been able to resist a single question. I was in a completely broken and shattered state of mind.”
In addition, Erik revealed that he told police that night that he walked into his house and saw that the room was “filled with smoke.”
“I told the detectives I saw smoke, which would have been impossible if I hadn’t done it. It’s unbelievable that we weren’t arrested that night.
“We should have been.”
But Pamela Bozanich, the lead prosecutor on the case, said there was a simple reason the boys were not considered suspects from the moment police arrived: privilege.
Erik, 51, has revealed that he found it absurd that the police working on the case did not arrest him and his brother at the scene of the crime
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, a Rolex watch and two restaurants in the immediate aftermath
“Beverly Hills is a very different kind of police department,” she said. “They have much better customer service for their citizens.”
As a result, the police were “very nice” to the brothers, who stood outside their home sobbing and wailing.
“They were not treated as suspects,” she said.
‘[But] You’d be an idiot police officer if you didn’t take family members into account.’
Police announced in March 1990 that they would arrest Lyle Menendez, seven months after the crime.
They said he was motivated by greed. The brothers would inherit fourteen million dollars from their parents, and began spending it shortly after their parents’ deaths.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, a Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to compete in tournaments.
Near the end of the trial, the jury convicted both brothers of murder and they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The brothers would inherit $14 million from their parents, and began spending it shortly after their parents’ deaths
In total, they spent $700,000 between their parents’ deaths and their arrests in March 1990.
But Erik insisted it is “absurd” to suggest he was having a good time in the immediate aftermath of the murders.
“Everything was meant to cover up this terrible pain of not wanting to live anymore,” he said.
“One of the things that kept me from committing suicide was that I would be a complete failure to my father.”
The Netflix documentary revisits some of the most emotional details of the murder case, in which both brothers revealed that they were abused by their father and that their mother turned a blind eye to the abuse.
Lyle told the jury on the stand that he then in turn took his younger brother into the woods and molested him, doing to Erik what his father had done to him.
Erik said, “I remember him apologizing to me on the witness stand for bothering me. That was a devastating moment for me. He had never said he was sorry to me before.’
The Netflix documentary revisits some of the most emotional details of the murder case, in which both brothers revealed that they were abused by their father and that their mother turned a blind eye to the abuse.
According to Erik, his father started abusing him when he was six years old, and the abuse continued for twelve years.
He held out hope that he would finish high school and move to Stanford, far enough away to escape the abuse.
When his father told him he should attend UCLA instead, he claims his world collapsed around him, prompting him to seek out his older brother.
“It’s important to understand why that was so traumatic,” he said.
“The belief that I would go to college to escape what happened to my father was the most important thing in my life; it drove everything I did.
‘When it was taken from me, when my father said to me: no, you cannot escape me, that was the most devastating moment of my life up to that moment.’
Erik said he was “walking around like a zombie” before eventually getting into trouble with Lyle and revealing the extent of the abuse.
‘It was clear to me that he was scared. Lyle believed at that moment that our parents could kill us.”
The duo claimed they bought guns because they feared their parents might kill them to cover up their secrets and protect the family’s reputation.
They claim that on the night of the murders they opened fire thinking their parents were about to kill them.
The duo claimed they bought guns because they feared their parents might kill them to cover up their secrets and protect the family’s reputation.
They claim that on the night of the murders they opened fire thinking their parents were about to kill them.
Near the end of the trial, the jury convicted both brothers of murder and they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Amid the continued interest in the case and support from Kim Kardashian, there are new reports that the brothers could get a new trial.
Prosecutor Bozanich acknowledges that the Menendez brothers’ father was a “terrible man.”
She said that during the course of the investigation, she “couldn’t find anyone who could say anything nice about Jose Menendez, except his secretary.”
“Everyone else had horrible stories about him and what a monster he is.
“The loss of Jose Menendez was, in my opinion, a real plus for humanity. Jose Menendez was truly a terrible man.”
But she said that “terrible man” ultimately “raised two sons capable of murder, so here you go.”
“I had no reaction to the Menendez brothers. There was no visceral reaction. I didn’t feel like I was in the presence of pure evil.
‘To me they were like potted plants. Poisonous potted plants, but there was nothing about them that I found fascinating. It was just those stupid jock killers.
‘The only reason I’m doing this after 33 years is because that poor woman who gave birth to them both was treated like a doormat by both her husband and her sons and slaughtered like a wild animal in her own home. ‘