Front Burner - Could the Menendez brothers soon be free?

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

In 1996, after two hung jury trials, brothers Lyle and Eric Menendez were convicted of killing their parents in one of the most high profile trials in American history. The brothers argued they had killed their parents following years of sexual, psychological and physical abuse at the hands of their father, but it was ultimately decided that they had killed their parents in a premeditated fashion, in pursuit of their parents' million dollar estate. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.The case was a phenomenon, and one of the first to be broadcast on television via wall-to-wall coverage inside the courtroom. 35 years later, following a Netflix series and a pair of documentaries dedicated to the Menendez brothers' story, and the entry of new evidence, the brothers have put in a new bid for freedom.Robert Rand has been covering the Menendez brothers since the day after the murders, and has published reporting, books and documentaries dedicated to the story. He joins the show to discuss whether the brothers may soon be free men, how their story went on to help create the "True Crime" genre, and why had the murders taken place today things may have happened differently. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. I was just firing as I went into the room. I just started firing. In what direction? In front of me.

What was in front of you? My parents. Hey everybody, Jamie here. So 35 years ago, two boys committed a crime that would go on to become one of the most high-profile in modern American history. The Menendez brothers, Lyle and Eric, aged 21 and 18 at the time, were accused and then convicted of killing their parents in a bid to claim their $14 million inheritance. The brothers, though initially denying involvement in the crime, eventually claimed to have killed their parents as a response to many years of sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of their father. The case gave way

to two trials, referred to at the time as the trial of the century, and split opinion between those who believed the boys to be victims of sex crimes and others who believed them to be premeditated killers. The highly publicized trials, which took place in the mid-90s, were covered extensively on primetime television, every detail, every entry of new evidence, by media all over the world. The first trial was even carried live, a style of coverage many believed to have given way to the genre we now call true crime. Eventually, the Menendez brothers would be convicted of the murder of their parents

and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And that appeared to really be the end of this story. That is, until a pair of documentaries and a Netflix miniseries dedicated to their story were released in the last two years, catapulting the brothers back into mainstream consciousness. Eric and I killed our parents together, so I'd say that makes us pretty close. This was followed by new evidence

and the possibility of a resentencing, which could stand to see Lyle and Eric Menendez walk as free men after more than three decades in prison. Robert Rand is one of the only working reporters who has covered the Menendez family's story from the very beginning. He's also the author of The Menendez Murders, which he has recently updated, and he joins the show to talk about all of this today. Robert, hi, it's such a pleasure to have you. Thank you for coming on to FrontBurner. Thank you for having me. So let's start at the very beginning. You spent time with the Menendez brothers before they were arrested, right? And just what if anything stuck out to you about them? What was that like for you, that meeting? In the fall of 89, I was assigned

not to write a story about the murder investigation. The Beverly Hills police weren't saying very much, obviously. But I was assigned to write a biography about Jose Menendez. Jose Menendez is chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Live Entertainment, joining us here in Los Angeles. I should point out, this is the company, folks, that brings you the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video. Here is a Cuban immigrant coming to this country as a teenager with very little driving, driving, driving through industry after industry.

My father was the head of Hertz. Nobody does it better than Hertz. I hired OJ to be a spokesman on those commercials. He became the head of RCA Records, directing the lives of very significant stars at the time. Hall and Oates, King Rogers, Dolly Parton. He helped create Japan Doodle. Rags to Riches' immigrant saga ends in a terrible tragedy. I've been in this business for over 33 years, and I've heard of very few murders that were more savage than this one was. No signs of a break-in or a burglary, only the bodies of entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty in the family TV room, torn by shotgun blasts that one of the neighbor kids heard.

As part of that reporting, I came out to L.A. for a couple weeks and spent three days with Eric and Lyle Monendez two months after they killed their parents and five months before they were arrested. They weren't suspects publicly. I had no reason to be suspicious of them. And they told me very loving, very caring, emotional stories about how much they missed their parents. When did it start to become clear that it was Lyle and Eric who were responsible for the murders? Well, I had been doing a deep dive into the home video business and all of my sources, which were considerable, told me that they didn't believe that this had anything to do with home video. People told me a lot of people do many things to get even in Hollywood, but they usually don't kill each other. And so that never really

made sense based on what I was hearing from a number of people. And then as the investigation was going on in the seven months of the fall of 89, I realized that Eric Alamnendes had become the primary suspects. were going to publish this biography about Jose Menendez, I had a phone call from Marce Cano, the brother's aunt who lived in West Palm Beach, Florida. And she told me that the brothers had been coming out of a bank in Beverly Hills and somebody had walked by them and said, you're next. So that was very startling to hear. And I hung up with her and I called Les Soler, the lead detective for the Beverly Hills Police, who I met when I was in California. And I said, so tell me about these death threats that the brothers got this morning. And Detective Zoller replied, what death threats? So I hung up with him and that made no sense to me. And I spoke with my editor, Tom Schroeder at the Miami Herald and told him everything.

And he said, the brothers did it. I said, well, I'm not really sure that, you know, they did. I spent three days with them. You know, I don't think they did. And he said, no, the brothers did. And a few minutes later, their aunt, Marcia Cano, called me yelling at me and saying, why did you call the Beverly Hills police? Eric and Lyle didn't want them to know about those death threats. That made no sense. I called Dr. Zoller back and started asking him some direct questions. And he wouldn't really tell me, but in so many words, he made it clear that the brothers were the sole focus of the investigation at that point, which was the end of December of 89, and Eric and Lyle Menendez were arrested the first week in March of 1990. Hard Copy has learned exclusively that the Beverly Hills police have uncovered details of a murder plot as twisted as any movie mystery.

We were waiting for the glue, if you will, to bind it all together. And just recently, that glue has come about, and I feel that we have a very tight case indeed. Police arrested Lyle at the family mansion yesterday, younger brother Eric's reportedly returning from an overseas trip to surrender. Police say the motive was apparently money, a $14 million inheritance to be shared by the brothers. After they were arrested, there was an almost, I don't know if you would say that this is fair, but an almost immediate public obsession with the story, right?

Two rich kids in one of the most coveted neighborhoods in the world, a family that from the outside appeared to represent the American dream. And somehow all of this culminated in a brutal double homicide. And what did that public obsession feel like at the time? Is there anything in particular that you would attribute it to? It was unbelievable for me. It was not only here in the States, but all around the world. People became very interested in this story. This was Beverly Hills. It was a movie executive making $2 million a year. The Menendez family

were really, from the outside of that mansion that they lived in, they were the perfect all-American family. They had achieved the American dream. And behind the gates of that mansion, the real story was that there was a dysfunctional family that was spinning wildly out of control. But because they were rich, because they appeared to be perfect from the outside, people didn't question the parents. And I wrote the cover story for people magazine that came out a couple of weeks after the arrest with the headline murder in Beverly Hills. Now cops say they did for the money. And I don't believe that was ever really the story.

I believe they were abused. You know, I've spent many years covering the case. I was at each trial every day for six months. But the media loved that story. And the L.A. County DA's office has a dozen people that do nothing but public relations. And so what their job is, this sounds terrible, but it's true. What their job is, is to put out their spin on the story. Again, you have to remember this was 1990, long before the internet, long before social media. And so the PR people at the LA County DA's office put out this story, really rich kids kill Ozzie and Harriet on a Sunday night in Beverly Hills. And the media loved that story.

And the defense, in hindsight, made a tactical error in that they chose not to go public with any of their defense until two weeks before the first trial. And that's when they revealed that the brothers had been sexually abused by their parents. And so the general public reaction when the story of their defense came out was, well, why are we just hearing this for the first time? Right. Because that narrative was kind of baked in. The narrative that came out of it. People had heard for three years was kind of baked in. The narrative that came out of it. The story people had heard for three years

was about three rich kids. In the first trial, for people who might not be familiar, my understanding is each of the brothers were tried separately. Would you state your name again for the record, please? Joseph Lyle Menendez. Eric Galen Menendez, M-E-N-E-N-D-E-Z.

And each with their own jury. And then there was this defense that they had killed their parents due to years of sexual, physical, and mental abuse at the hands of their father. And just what was the reaction or sense in the room as the brothers spoke at length about the abuse that they had suffered at the time? It was actually a single trial. There were two juries, a separate jury for each brother, because some of the evidence only applied to one brother or the other brother. And in that trial, you had very dramatic testimony from each of the brothers. I just told him that I didn't want to do this, and that it hurt me.

What do you believe was the originating cause of you and your brother ultimately winding up shooting your parents? Um, me telling... You telling what? Me telling Lyle that, uh... Was it you telling Lyle about something that was happening? My dad. My dad. But what was the heart of the defense was over 50 witnesses, teachers, coaches, family members, friends, testified about things they had seen. about things they had seen. And they presented, the defense presented a very detailed picture of what life was like behind the gates of that mansion. And so that was very different from the

story that people had heard for three years about greedy rich kids. And as a result, half of the jurors, all the women voted for manslaughter. At the end of the first trial, there were two mistrials. Neither jury could reach a unanimous verdict. I interviewed all the jurors after the first trial, and all the women had believed this detailed picture that was painted by the defense with over 50 witnesses. All of the men told me, well, a father would never do that to his sons. And that was the attitude in 1993. You know, it was years before the Me Too movement, years before the Me Too movement. And I interviewed every male juror and every single one told me in some form a father would never do that to his sons.

And actually, Leslie Abramson, the famous attorney with the blonde curly hair who represented Eric Menendez, said in her closing argument. Would you feel any differently about what happened to my client if my client's name was Erica Menendez? And the reality is that's the way society was in 1993. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here.

You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing.

In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. Tell me what happened in the second trial, right? So this one, correct me if I'm wrong, it was one jury for both brothers. And much of the testimony and evidence related to the allegations of sexual abuse were dismissed by the judge and never presented to the juries. The defense was able to formulate an argument which portrayed the brothers as premeditated killers. And eventually,

they were convicted of first-degree murder. And just, were you shocked when a guilty verdict was read out loud? No, I wasn't shocked at all because the jury in the second trial heard a completely different set of evidence than the two juries in the first trial. What happened was that the trial judge, Stanley Weisberg, the first thing he did on day one of the trial was he kicked the TV camera out of the courtroom. The first trial had been carried live, gavel to gavel, on Court TV. People not only in the States, but all over the world were watching this like a soap opera, like a novella. They were just hooked on, you know, the drama behind the Gates of Night Mansion. And in the second trial, the first thing the judge did was kick the cameras

out of the courtroom. And so that cut way down on the amount of media coverage because TV stations had no video to use in their stories. There were sketch artists, just like old-fashioned trials. And then the judge proceeded to reverse almost all of his evidence rulings, and he did not allow the defense to put on most of their witnesses from the first trial. And the witnesses that were allowed to testify, they were severely limited in what they could say. And so this trial was taking place in the backdrop of a political scene in Los Angeles with the L.A. County DA's office. They had lost a string of high profile cases. There was a case called the McMartin Preschool case.

of high-profile cases. There was a case called the McMartin Preschool case. Then there was a case known as the Rodney King beating trial, where four LAPD officers were acquitted of a beating that was captured on videotape, and the acquittal set off the L.A. riots in the spring of 92. What began just over a year ago with the beating of one man continues tonight with parts of los angeles in flames well barbara now that the sun has come up we can see the extent

of the damage and the destruction wrought by last night's fires and rioting the officers hit king more than 50 times kicked him and shot him with stun guns during that encounter back in march of 1991 their acquittals one year later caused an uprising that would leave 55 people dead and more than 2,000 injured. And then they lost, they had two mistrials, which is basically a loss for Menendez I. And then we have O.J. O.J. was acquitted. Right. And the second Menendez trial had the terrible misfortune of starting about a week after the O.J. acquittal. We, the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of penal code section 187A, a felony upon Nicole Brown Simpson, a human being as charged in count one of the information. Simpson, a human being, as charged in count one of the information.

And so, again, there was this political backdrop to everything that was going on in which the DA's office was determined that they were going to convict the brothers in the second trial. Yeah. Can you remind me how this played outside the courtroom? You know, maybe not how the juries felt, but, you know, what was the general public sentiment around it? Like, I do remember SNL skits kind of parroting the brothers, and there was some stuff that when you look back on it now, it seems kind of brutal. It has not aged very well, some of the comedy that was done back then, because basically

what was happening was that SNL and Letterman and many other shows, they were totally making fun of the brothers. They were just a punching bag for joke after joke after joke in the late night shows. Can you tell the court who did murder your parents? Our other two brothers, Danny Menendez and Jose Menendez Jr. And after viewing the evidence and seeing the testimony in the first trial, let my boys go. Oh, come on. They're so adorable. They are too fine to go to prison. They are not, Lyle. Yes, they are, you little weasel. Give them here. Oh, whoa.

Mom and Dad's new rug. We're really going to get it this time. Unless we get them first. And I think today you would never have, you know, major media people doing the kind of jokes that they were doing back then. I mean, Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, you know, major media people doing the kind of jokes that they were doing back then. I mean, Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, you know, as he was doing during the OJ case, during Menendez, he was doing all kinds of skits and, you know, parodies and making fun of them. Hi, folks.

Want to help out the Menendez brothers? They're broke. How about the Menendez brothers? There they broke. And today, again, because society has evolved so much over the past 30 years, I don't think that we would be doing comedy that was making fun of abuse victims. In the three decades between their conviction and today, hundreds of books and documentaries have been published on the story of the Menendez family conspiracies as well. But things had gone relatively quiet.

That is until a documentary that you made, right? And then also a new Netflix series called Monsters and an accompanying series of documentaries on the Menendez brothers' story. And this also led to the entry of new evidence in the story, which I know you've had quite a part in. And so can you talk to me about how television and entertainment have been such a powerful force in helping to bring the story back into the limelight and what this new evidence is and what the implications of that could be? Sure. The new evidence all started with our documentary that came out on Peacock in May of 23. And 24 hours after that docu-series premiered, the appellate attorneys for Eric Alamarendez filed what's called a hapeas

corpus petition. And they said, we have new evidence that was not available at the time the brothers were on trial. And so we would like to vacate their 1996 convictions. And so the two major pieces of new evidence are there's a letter that Eric Menendez wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, with whom he had a very close relationship when Eric was 17, Andy was 15. And in the letter, it's about, it's a five page letter, you know, written between a couple teenage boys. And so most of the letter just kind of routine stuff like, Oh, I hear you have a new girlfriend or, you know,

how's your soccer or your tennis going? But there's a paragraph that jumped off the page to me, which was Eric Menendez is writing, I'm still afraid of dad. I'm afraid every night that I'm going to hear him come down the hallway and that he's going to come into my room. He's so gross and overweight. I can't stand to look at him. And it's clear that he is talking about that the sexual abuse by his father was still going on. And so the obvious question is, well, if this letter existed, you know, why didn't Eric or why didn't his cousin, Andy Cano, who testified for the defense in the first trial, why didn't they bring this letter up then? And the answer is

the two cousins were very close, but a couple of years earlier, Andy Cano and his family, Jose's sister, Marcia Cano, had moved to Puerto Rico, but Eric Lyle still continued their close relationship. And so I believe that neither Eric or Andy, that they just didn't remember this one letter. It was one of hundreds of letters. And then the second piece of major evidence is the connection between the boy band Menudo and Jose Menendez. And the primary character in our documentary, his name is Roy Rossello. He was a member of Menudo. And Roy revealed for the first time that he was raped by Jose Menendez when he was 13 or 14. Menudo had just signed with RCA Records, where Menendez was a top executive. Obviously, that new information changed the dynamics of the cases, as you said. And I know earlier this week, you found yourself in a California courtroom, right? And what people hoped may be the day or close to the day that the brothers were released. And just tell me where that case

stands today. Well, a few days ago was the first hearing. It was the first time that Erica Lamanendez had been in court, had their case in court since their last federal appeal hearing in front of the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena in 2005. And the Menendez brothers had exhausted all of their state and federal appeals. And so the only way that you can try to reopen your case is if you have new evidence. And now there is new evidence. And so what the appellate lawyers are saying, there's new evidence that could have made a difference of the outcome from the original trials. And so we want to reopen the case. Now, normally the goal of a habeas petition is to try to get a new trial.

I don't believe that a new trial will ever take place. It's 30 years later. Half of the witnesses are dead or they have dementia. You know, the cost would be astronomical for the L.A. County prosecutors to try to reconstruct a 30-year-old case. And so now we have a recommendation that was made a few weeks ago by George Gascon, the DA of LA, recommending that Eric and Lyle Menendez be resentenced and possibly be let out of prison immediately

based on the amount of time that they've served. Whether or not they are released, I believe they will. I believe they should be released. They will probably have to jump through a number of hoops, including testifying in front of the California Parole Board about their rehabilitation. But I think they will be successful, but it's probably going to take six months, eight months, maybe even a year until they get out. Because I believe they will get out and they should get out. Robert, are you currently in contact with the brothers? And if you are, do you mind if I ask you what those conversations are like and

how they're reacting to all this recent media attention? I am in contact with the brothers. I have visited Lyle in person a few weeks ago in prison. I've talked to both brothers on the phone. The term the lawyers use is that they're cautiously optimistic. I know they are hopeful that something will happen. But again, they've been locked up for 35 years. And they've seen so many other inmates, some of their friends, that have gotten their hopes up and had their hopes dashed. So they are hopeful that they will get out. But nothing's a sure thing. Robert, before we go today, when I think about the legacy of the Menendez brothers' story,

of course, we think about their family who had to grieve in many different directions here. But I'm also just made to think of how courtroom journalism became this huge cottage industry, about how today true crime is one of the most kind of dominant forms of storytelling in pop culture. And in some ways, all roads lead back to Lyle and Eric Menendez, right? Like the home where the murders were committed has even become something of a tourist destination. And what do you think it is about these stories, stories of murder, of brute violence, of, you know, unconscionable brutality that people find resonant? Like, why do you think people feel so taken by these stories? Why is there such an audience for this across society? I think that people are living vicariously through these

stories. They are also comparing their own life experience to, you know, what they're reading about, what they're watching, you know, and wondering how they would react in that situation. You mentioned the true crime tourists that are swarming the Menendez Mansion in Beverly Hills, much to the dismay of neighbors in the immediate neighborhood. I think that people are watching these stories and are just drawn in by the curtains being pulled back. You're seeing inside what's happening inside a mansion in Beverly Hills. And we all want to live the American dream. We all want to live in that mansion. We all want to make millions of dollars a year. But the reality is that not every story, not every family has the picture perfect

existence that we believe they do. And so I think that's part of the appeal. Robert, I really want to thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. This is great. I learned a lot, actually. So thank you so much. Of course. No, thank you for having me. All right. That is all for this week. Front Burner was produced this week by Joythashen Gupta, Matthew Amha, Matt Muse, Allie Janes, Mackenzie Cameron, and Kieran Outshorn.

Music is by Joseph Chabison. Our senior producer is Elaine Chao. Our executive producer is Nick McCabe-Locos. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great weekend. Talk to you next week. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.