Menendez Brothers Press Conference: Family Breaks Silence on Public Support for Prison Release

Content warning: This story discusses sexual abuse.

Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez have family in their corner.

As the Menendez brothers—who were convicted of murdering parents José Menendez and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez in 1996—await a decision from the Los Angeles district attorney that could lead to their release from prison after over 30 years, several family members showed their support. At an Oct. 16 press conference, the relatives spoke out about the sexual abuse the boys had allegedly faced at the hands of their father.

“The truth is, Lyle and Eric were veiled by the very people who should have protected them, by their parents, by the system, by society at large,” Kitty’s sister Joan Anderson VanderMolen explained at the press conference. “When they stood trial, the whole world wasn’t ready to believe that the boys could be raped, or that young men could be victims of sexual violence. Today, we know better. We know that abuse has long lasting effects, and victims of trauma sometimes act in ways that are very difficult to understand.”

“If it were tried today, the evidence of their father's abuse would not only be admitted in court, it would provide essential context for why they acted as they did,” she continued. “No jury today would issue such a harsh sentence without taking their trauma into account.”

The siblings previously testified that they committed the crimes out of fear and self-defense following years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. New evidence—including an alleged letter Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano the year before the killings, outlining the abuse he had endured—has brought the case back to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón’s focus, as he weighs the brothers’ re-sentencing.

“I’ve been trying to avoid dad. Its still happening Andy but its worse for me now,” the 1995 letter stated. “I never know when its going to happen and its driving me crazy. Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.”

Indeed, José’s niece Anamaria Baralt urged the public to recognize two additional victims in this case—Erik and Lyle.

“Lyle and Eric would continue to be victimized. They would be victims of a system that wouldn't hear them, and they would be victims of a culture that was not ready to listen,” she said during the news conference. “They would be mocked. They would be called cold blooded killers, left to rot in jail and denied any hope of redemption.”

“It's time to recognize the injustice they've suffered and allow them the second chance they deserve,” she noted. “I am here to ask the district attorney's office to take into account the full picture, the truth that was hidden for so long. Lyle and Eric deserve a chance to heal, and our family deserves a chance to heal with them.”

As for the brothers’ side of the story, they shared insight into their experience in Netflix’s The Menendez Brothers documentary detailing the brothers’ 1989 murder of their parents. And in it, Erik revealed why he felt they couldn’t have just left their family’s home.

“Why I didn’t run away was the central part of the trial and the district attorney constantly saying, ‘Well you had the opportunity to leave,’” the 53-year-old said in the documentary. “I was groomed to know I could never get away. The idea had been whipped deep and trained into my brain—programmed into my brain to know I could never escape.”

And while their relationship with their parents was a painful and difficult one, Erik also expressed the regrets he’s lived with since committing the crime.

“One of the misconceptions is that I did not love my father or love my mother,” Erik explained. “That is the farthest thing from the truth. I miss my mother tremendously. I wish that I could go back and talk to her and give her a hug and tell her I love her and I wanted her to love me and be happy with me and be happy that I was her son and feel that joy and that connection. And I just want that.”  

But Lyle, 56, and Erik—who are both incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego—have had each other through it all, even when they’ve had to revisit difficult memories. Decades after the initial trial, Erik shared his reaction to his brother’s apology for molesting him as a child after their father had raped him between the ages of 6 to 8.

"That was a devastating moment for me," he noted in the documentary. "He had never said he was sorry to me before."

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