I’ve done hundreds of interviews since I began covering the Menendez Brothers story in the Fall of 1989. You never forget your first: on March 9, 1990, I appeared via satellite from my home in Miami Beach on Hard Copy 24 hours after Lyle Menedez’s
The 1993 Menendez Brothers murder trial is finally streaming online, plus I’m interviewed on Court TV’s new podcast
Finally! Twenty-seven years after two juries were seated for the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez, the rebooted Court TV has posted the ENTIRE six-month-long court proceedings (even the heated evidence hearings) on their website.
Two juries in the first trial – one for each brother – heard 101 witnesses and examined 405 exhibits over 85 days of testimony that ran from July 20 to December 3, 1993. The case ended with two mistrials in January 1994 after neither brother’s jury could agree on a verdict.
Now, you can watch the trial and see everything the juries saw.
The Menendez Verdict : A Miscarriage of Justice 30 Years Ago
In the eighteen months since the release of The Menendez Murders, I’ve heard from hundreds of people who have read (or listened) to my book. People reach out on social media, through this website and by writing reviews on Amazon.
Here’s an example of my favorite type of message — a reader who has changed her opinion about Lyle and Erik Menendez after learning the details of their case through my reporting.
This note came from Meg in Michigan a few days ago:
Erik Menendez confessed to the killings on Halloween 1989
There are four different versions of what happened the night of October 31, 1989.
That’s when Erik Menendez confessed to Dr. Jerome Oziel that he and his brother, Lyle, had killed their parents.
Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents 30 years ago today – but it didn’t have to be that way
This is a tragedy that destroyed a family. All four of them had remarkable strengths as well as terrible weaknesses and it did not have to be. If at any time over the course of the lives of the four Menendez family members some effective person could have intervened, everyone would still be alive and well and healing. All four of them needed help. And there never was any help for this family.
— Defense Attorney Leslie Abramson, the day before sentencing
A day in the life of Lyle Menendez at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility
The 780 acres of California’s Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility are about a half hour east and slightly south of downtown San Diego.
The penitentiary tops a mesa near an industrial park, just over a mile from the Otay Mesa border crossing.
I always know when I’m close to the jail because my cell phone buzzes with a text message:
“Welcome to Mexico.”
The Menendez Brothers were sentenced 23 years ago this week
On July 2, 1996, Judge Stanley Weisberg sentenced Lyle and Erik Menendez to life without parole.
Here’s how I described the scene in my book….
Six Degrees of Incarceration: When Erik Menendez Met O.J. Simpson
Erik and Lyle Menendez were arrested in March 1990, seven months after they killed their parents.
By June of 1994, the Beverly Hills brothers had been in custody for over four years. During that time, they shared the slammer with many notorious prisoners, including their Brentwood neighbor Orenthal James Simpson, who was arrested 25 years ago today.
Now that O.J. is back in the news — planning to “set the record straight” on Twitter — let’s take a look back to 1994, when Erik met O.J.
After two decades apart, Erik and Lyle Menendez were reunited one year ago today
The Menendez brothers were reunited a year ago today, after not having seen each other for almost 22 years.
The brothers were reunited at the R. J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego.
The last time they’d been together was in 1996, two months after they were sentenced to life without parole following their first-degree murder conviction.
The day of the sentencing, the Beverly Hills Police filed a motion asked the judge to place the brothers in separate prisons because they had been co-conspirators in committing a crime.
The judge agreed.
Canadian reader Darknoir likes it, she really really likes it!
I want to express my thanks to everybody who has taken the time to read or listen to my book, The Menendez Murders, since it was released last Fall.
I was recently contacted by a reader who posted a review on Amazon Canada that can’t be easily seen on Amazon U.S. or any of the other foreign Amazon sites.
Darknoir has written an insightful, concise overview of the Menendez Brothers story. I appreciate her kind words: