At an L.A. Courthouse, Menendez Brothers’ Netflix Series Spurs Rallying Cry
On top of the staircase near the entrance to the downtown Los Angeles courthouse where Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted nearly three decades ago of killing their parents in a salvo of shotgun blasts, a woman trumpeted a sign that read, “35 years time served. Let them out!”
Dianne Martin first learned about the case from Ryan Murphy’s polarizing nine-part series detailing — and dramatizing — the 1989 killings of José and Kitty Menendez. That piqued her interest, which led her to watch a Netflix documentary released earlier this month on the brothers. She said she prefers the documentary, though she credits the series for spotlighting the case.
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Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story “blurs the line,” she explained. “You don’t know what’s true or not. I saw the documentary, and then I realized they had such a troubled life at home.”
Martin was referring to newly uncovered evidence corroborating the brothers’ claims that they were sexually abused as children by their father, José, who was an executive of Hollywood video distribution company Live Entertainment Inc. And on Wednesday, Erik and Lyle Menendez’s extended family held a press conference calling for Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón’s help to overturn their convictions or resentence them.
Mark Geragos, a lawyer for the brothers, pointed to Murphy’s series in rallying the public behind the brothers despite its portrayal of the intent behind the killings.
“When the Ryan Murphy series came out, it was such a caricature of them that the pendulum swing — the backlash — created a focus on it,” he said.
After the release of the Netflix dramatization of the 1989 killings of José and Kitty Menendez, the Menendez family cried foul over the depiction. Still, millions of subscribers watched the nine-part series. Kim Kardashian even visited the California prison where the brothers are currently serving their sentences. Earlier this month, a two-hour Netflix documentary featuring interviews with the duo premiered. The convictions and sentences have become a flashpoint of an increasingly bygone culture and criminal justice system that silences accusations of sexual abuse.
Recent content on the Menendez brothers, however problematic, “helped bring more attention to the case,” said Lupe Delos Santos, who attended the press conference. “It changed a lot. There’s a lot of people supporting them now.”
The timing of the announcement by the family was no coincidence. In October, Gascón said his office is reviewing the convictions. The re-examination relates to new evidence in the case that the judge who issued the sentence didn’t account for and could lessen the duration of the brothers’ imprisonment. In a social media post, Gascón shared an image of a handwritten letter by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano corroborating his claims of sexual abuse.
“I’ve been trying to avoid dad,” Erik Menendez wrote. “It’s still happening Andy, but it’s worse for me now. I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy. Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.”
Last year, lawyers for the Menendez brothers cited the letter in a petition to review their sentence. They said it was written in 1988, eight months before the parents were slain.
After a media circus of a trial that ended in a deadlocked jury, Lyle and Erik were convicted in 1996 on two counts of first-degree murder. So-called special circumstances for laying in wait for their victims served as the basis for a Los Angeles Superior Court judge sentencing each brother to two consecutive life terms in prison, though he declined to issue the death penalty.
Evidence of sexual abuse was severely limited in the retrial. At their first trial, the brothers acknowledged killing their parents but said they did so out of self-defense. They said they feared the couple was going to kill them to prevent them from disclosing molestation by the father.
“Instead of being seen as victims, they were vilified — their father’s sexual abuse ignored,” said Brian Andersen, the brothers’ cousin.
Anamaria Baralt, José Menendez’s niece, urged the district attorney’s office to “take into account the full picture.”
Geragos also cited a declaration from Roy Rossello, a member of the boy band Menudo who has also come forward to accuse José Menendez of sexual abuse when he was a minor. If the evidence was presented at their trial, he cited the possibility that the jury would convict for manslaughter rather than first-degree murder.
The alleged oversights by the judge who oversaw the Menendez brothers’ trial has exploded onto TikTok. Jessica Palmadessa, a content creator who attended the press conference, stressed the impact the Netflix content has had while noting inconsistencies in Murphy’s show. “Nobody was talking about this before,” she said. “This wouldn’t have happened without the documentary.”
Delos Santoz was less forgiving. “They didn’t talk about the molestation,” he said. “They presented them as criminals.”
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