Jose Enrique Menendez grew up in Cuba,Havana and was born into a wealthy family. Jose met Mary “Kitty” Menendez at Southern Illinois university. Jose married “Kitty” in 1963 and they moved to a nice house in Beverly Hills,California. They had two sons named Lyle and Erik Menendez. Jose Menendez was a very dominant, aggressive man and had incredibly high standards for his kids. Other people that have come in contact with Jose Menendez have said that he is an awful person and is very intimidating. Kitty Menendez was quieter and let Jose control her. She was suicidal at times in her life and threatened to poison her family. Lyle and Erik Menendez were very wealthy growing up. They both excelled in tennis. Lyle and Erik were not super close when they were young. Lyle was favored by his father and Erik did not get very much attention. They both did everything they could to be loved by their father.
Jose and Kitty were murdered on August 20, 1989 by their 18 and 21 year old sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez. The police originally believed the murders were a mob hit and did not view the sons as suspects. When police arrived at the house the night of the murders the sons were hysterical and Erik Menendez was laying on the lawn, crying. Lyle used the money from their parents’ deaths to buy expensive clothes and a Porsche. Erik decided to hire a tennis instructor and go professional in tennis, instead of going to college. This led some people to believe the motive for the brothers murdering their parents is because of the large amount of money they received immediately after their parents death. A few days after the murder Erik was having suicidal thoughts and was depressed. Erik confessed to Dr. Oziel, a therapist that was hired by Jose Menendez, that he and his brother killed their parents. Lyle was arrested on March 8, 1990 and was removed from the Beverly Hills home. Erik surrendered to police immediately after returning from a tennis tournament in Israel.
On July 20, 1993 the Menendez brothers faced their first trial. This trial also included the brothers’ testimonies which claimed they were abused by their father sexually,physically, and emotionally. Lyle claimed he was raped by his father between the ages of 6-9. Family members claim that Jose would teach Lyle “lessons” by telling him to jump off the counter and saying that he would catch him, then he wouldn’t catch him and he would tell Lyle to never trust anyone. Marta Cano, sister of Jose Menendez said that when Erik was 2 years old Jose would have him hold on to a bar and see how long he could stand without crying and yell at him for crying. Lyle stopped being raped by his father at 8 years old. At this time Erik started to be molested by his father. Erik claims he was molested by his father until he was 18. The only reason this stopped was because they killed their father. Erik claims that his father held a knife to his neck and threatened to kill him if he ever told anyone about his father sexually abusing him. This trial resulted in a deadlocked jury, which called for a mistrial. The second trial was either first degree murder or not guilty of anything. In the second trial none of the family members testified. Lyle and Erik didn’t testify. Erik Menendez stated, “They hadn’t heard any of my family testify. None of the relatives, none of the evidence had been admitted. So it was just me cold up on the stand.” The brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and were sentenced to life in prison. Erik and Lyle Menendez have been in prison for more than half of their lives since their arrest in 1990.