Robert Rand is an Emmy and duPont Award winning journalist who began covering the Menendez brothers’ case for the Miami Herald over 36 years ago – the day after the killing of Jose and Kitty Menendez on August 20,1989. He was in court daily for both trials in 1993-94 and 1995-96 and provided analysis for Court TV, CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS News. Rand interviewed both brothers for three days two months after the murders and five months before their March 1990 arrest. The Miami Herald published the first speculation that the investigation was focused on them in December 1989. Rand’s cover story for People Magazine, “A Beverly Hills Paradise Lost,” was published March 26, 1990.
In March 1991, Playboy published Rand’s article “The Killing of Jose Menendez.” The 14,000-word story was the longest article ever published by Playboy. His second Menendez article appeared in Playboy in July 1995. Rand’s print work includes stories contributed to Playboy, People, The Guardian, Stern, Grazia, and Tropic, the Sunday magazine of the Miami Herald. He covered the William Kennedy Smith rape trial for Paris Match.
In 2016, Rand was hired by Dick Wolf for the development of NBC’s eight hour limited series “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders” which aired in the fall of 2017. Rand’s book, “The Menendez Murders,” released in September 2018, provided the primary source material for the TV program which is now streaming on several platforms including YouTube. The original book was re-released in September 2024 with 100 original pages including the new evidence.
Robert Rand is the Executive Producer and creator of a documentary series “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” that began streaming on Peacock May 2, 2023. The docuseries was the highest rated documentary on Peacock in 2023. New evidence Rand has developed provided the foundation for the Menendez brothers to get back in court for the first time in 20 years. A new habeas corpus petition asking the courts to review the Menendez Brothers’ case and vacate their 1996 convictions was filed a day after the docuseries premiered. His work led to the brothers’ resentencing to 50 years to life making them immediately eligible for parole in May 2025; originally, Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life without parole. In late August 2025, they testified for the first time in front of the California Parole Board.
Rand has appeared as a featured interview in dozens of documentaries about the Menendez case, including ABC 20/20’s “Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers,” and Dateline NBC’s ‘Unthinkable: The Menendez Murders” – both two hour specials. ABC 20/20 aired “Inside the New Menendez Brothers’ Supporters Movement” in 2021. In the fall of 2024, Rand appeared in Menendez specials on Dateline, 20/20, Nightline, 60 Minutes Australia, and was a frequent guest on various shows on CNN, TMZ Live, and News Nation.
Rand was awarded a Los Angeles Emmy Award for two years of stories at KCOP-TV in L.A. about an illegal immigrant who was wrongly convicted. The stories resulted in the overturning of a ten-year-old conviction and the release of the man from jail. Rand was nominated for several Emmy Awards for stories he produced as a member of the Special Assignment investigative reporting group at KCBS (CBS 2) in L.A. He was a member of the I-Team at KYW (CBS 3) in Philadelphia that won a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton Award for a yearlong series about wealthy property tax dodgers.
Robert Rand is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Los Angeles.
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