New evidence may back Menendez brothers' sexual abuse claims. But can it free them?
LOS ANGELES — It was never a question of whether they killed their parents.
Lyle and Erik Menendez bought two shotguns with cash. The next day, the brothers drove to a shooting range. And the following night, they murdered Jose and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez as the couple ate ice cream and watched a movie in their Beverly Hills mansion.
"No! No! No!" Jose Menendez, their 45-year-old father, yelled as shotgun blasts echoed in the family's living room on Aug. 20, 1989, the brothers would later tell a therapist. He was struck five times, including in the back of the head. Their 47-year-old mother, wounded, crawled on the ground as the brothers reloaded before administering a final fatal blast.
The brutality of the crime led many — including law enforcement — to speculate whether the killings were mob hits. But when the couple's two children were identified as suspects, and the nation became engrossed in the gruesome killings and the family's inner workings, everyone wanted to know why?
The answer prosecutors offered was simple: money. Used to living a life of privilege, the brothers executed their parents because they had threatened to cut them off from the family's $14-million estate.
But during two highly scrutinized trials that launched the Menendez brothers into true crime notoriety, defense attorneys argued the killings came after years of violent, repeated physical and sexual abuse suffered at the hands of their father, a top executive at RCA Records.
The first trial ended with two hung juries. In the second, allegations of abuse and supporting testimonies were restricted, and Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1996.
