Twenty-five years ago, two brothers, Lyle and Erik Menendez, brutally killed their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. It was a grotesque murder where the brothers fired several shots at their parents Jose and Kitty while they were home alone watching television. The two sons claimed to authorities that they had came home to their deceased bodies, and they were out watching the new Batman movie when the killings took place.
After their death, Lyle and Erik and went on a large spending spree with the money they inherited from their wealthy father. Their spending included expensive cars, fancy clothes, and even their own restaurant. This alerted investigators and caused them to start putting a file together on the two brothers. They were not arrested and charged until the brothers confessed during a therapy session that they had killed their parents, and the therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel, reported them to authorities. Lyle and Erik then went on a long trial, but were finally sentenced to life in prison with possible parole. The question behind this should not be how they did it, but why they did it.
Ever since they were younger their father Jose was emotionally and physically hard on the two. The boys both played tennis and were really good at it, but their father was never satisfied with their accomplishments. If either of the boys had lost a match, their father would scream and attack them. This caused the boys to have a great fear of their father, and looked to him as a threat.
Jose was also sexually abusing Lyle and Erik ever since the two were at young age. It began with the older brother Lyle, where Jose would perform all kinds of sexual acts on him. This led to Lyle repeating the same acts to his brother Erik. Once, Lyle told his father that he did not want to do it anymore because he realized how morally wrong it was. Jose agreed to his request, but he just decided to move on and start abusing Erik. Lyle did not know that this was happening to his brother until he confessed to him one night after dinner. From this moment on the two knew that they had to take out their father.
The reason they killed their mother was because they felt that she was dependent on their father, and she would be dead without him. Kitty Menendez was a terrible alcoholic, and drug addicted mother. She would also emotionally abuse the kids. She felt that the kids took away Jose’s focus away from her. The two sons felt that Kitty had no point of living in life, so they decided to kill her.
Killing is morally wrong and all, but Lyle and Erik were trapped in a terrible situation. They believed the only way of getting out of it was by committing a terrible deed. They made an awful choice and are now paying for it by serving life in prison.
