Lyle Menendez Confesses That He Killed His Parents

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Lyle Menéndez, one of the two brothers who killed his wealthy parents in the famous 1989 case, spoke after spending 26 years in prison after being convicted of the crime.

In a recent telephone interview for ABC News as part of a two-hour special titled Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers, the 48-year-old man said he found his childhood prepared him "surprisingly well for the chaos of prison life".

Menendez and his brother Erik were 21 and 18 years old, respectively, when their parents, José and Mary Kitty Menéndez, were killed while sleeping in a den at their Beverly Hills mansion on the night of August 20, 1989.

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The case shocked the United States and garnered media attention. Investigators initially believed the murder had been a Mafia coup because of the way they were executed, but the brothers' psychologist's girlfriend told authorities that Erik had confessed during a session and that Lyle had subsequently threatened the doctor if revealed it.

Police subsequently arrested them and were accused of killing their parents out of simple greed, but during the trial the defense claimed that the boys had been sexually abused by their parent.

That argument served to keep the jury from reaching a conclusion on their guilt and they went to a second trial in 1996, in which they were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

The brothers were arrested after the revelation. "I am the boy who killed his parents, and no river of tears has changed that and no regret has changed it," Menéndez told ABC. "I accept it. Sometimes you define yourself for a few moments in your life, but that's not what you are in your life."

"My wealthy father and high social class, and my mother was a kind of socialite, of those who go to the social club," said Menéndez. "No one is going to intervene in how they raised their family."

After spending 26 years in prison, the Menéndez brothers have come to terms with the idea that they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. Erik married in 1999 with Sammy, whom he met through letters by mail and Lyle, has been married twice; the first time with a former Playboy bunny, Anna Eriksson, known as “Repunzel,” and the second time with attorney Rebecca Sneed.

Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers will air on Thursday, January 5 on ABC.