Huh.

[ad_1] Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP)I have not thought much about the Menendez brothers, Lyle and Erik, since they were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty, in their Beverly Hills mansion.At the time of the killings, Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.The prosecution contended they were greedy, spoiled brats trying to get their hands on their parents’ fortune. The defense argued that they were severely abused by their father, who was enabled by their mother, and they were in fear for their lives.The family’s awful story was one chapter of a particularly traumatic era in Los Angeles, where the criminal justice system seemed strained to its limits, where controversies about systemic racism, privilege, domestic violence and fairness raged over the airwaves, at dinner tables and around water coolers.I would go so far as to say that the 1990s in L.A. essentially began on the August night in 1989 when the Menendez brothers sneaked up on their parents and blew them away with shotguns as the couple watched TV and ate ice cream. Six months later, the brothers, who had managed to spend more than $1 million of their parents' money in the interim, were under arrest.A year later, George Holliday videotaped the savage beating of motorist Rodney King by LAPD officers, and the officers’ acquittals sparked days of fires, looting and convulsive violence.In 1994 — the same year two Menendez juries, one for each young man, deadlocked between manslaughter and murder convictions — Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were slashed to death in Brentwood. After a volatile trial, Simpson’s ex-husband, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the slayings in 1995.The second Menendez trial, this time with one jury, also began in 1995. The same judge who had earlier allowed the defense to call 50 witnesses and present evidence of abuse, restricted testimony that would have supported an "abuse excuse" in the second trial. That sealed the brothers’ fate. They were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1996 and have been in prison for 33 years.Story continuesRead more: From the Archives: Claims of Hatred, Abuse Traded in Menendez CaseI would maintain that this convulsive era came to an end the following year, when a civil jury in Santa Monica found Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend.I am telling you, it was an emotional and exhausting time in this city. Nothing any of us would want to relive.But attitudes toward domestic violence and sex abuse have changed. New evidence about the Menendez family has come to light, and now, after resigning themselves to dying in prison, the brothers are hoping the case will be reopened.A petition filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in May describes two new pieces of relevant evidence that corroborate Lyle and Erik’s claims that their father was an abusive monster and their mother did nothing to stop him.One is a letter written by 13-year-old Erik to his cousin discussing his father’s abuse. “I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy,” Erik wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano. “Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.”Read more: New evidence may back Menendez brothers' sexual abuse claims. But can it free them?The second is a claim by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, that Jose Menendez, who was chief executive of RCA Records at the time, raped him when he was 13.A judge has yet to rule on the brothers' petition, which asks for either an evidentiary hearing or that the convictions and sentences be vacated.(Rosselló has also alleged that Menudo’s founder, Edgardo Díaz, repeatedly raped him between 1983 and 1986, when he was a member of the group. The LAPD confirmed to my colleague Salvador Hernandez that Díaz is under investigation for an incident that Rosselló says took place at the Biltmore Hotel, where he says Díaz attacked him. Rosselló’s sordid story and Menudo's connection to Jose Menendez is explored in a powerful new three-part docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” by veteran journalists Robert Rand, author of “The Menendez Murders,” and Nery Ynclan. )Rand has been writing about the Menendez case since the day after the murders, and has developed close ties with the brothers' extended family, most of whom believe that Lyle and Erik have served long enough. It was Rand who discovered the letter, written by Erik, that may play a role in reopening the case.Read more: Menendez brothers cite documentary as evidence it's time they were freed; petition filed“They would have been out a long time ago if they’d had a fair trial,” said Kitty Menendez’s older sister, Joan VanderMolen, 91, who lives in Ventura. In “Menendez + Menudo,” she and her daughter Diane discuss why Erik seemed bereft as a child when there were no lemons in the house. “It was to get the taste of semen out of his mouth,” Joan says, in one of the docuseries’ more shocking moments.“I loved my sister dearly,” VanderMolen told me last week, “and it's difficult to talk about her, but somehow she managed to let this husband of hers rule the roost and beat the kids. She had to know.”She speaks to her nephews regularly by phone at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, where they were allowed to be together after 22 years apart. “They had a terrible childhood,” she said. “Money had nothing to do with it.”Who wants to dip back into the malaise of L.A. in the 1990s? Not me. But all these years later, with insights from the #MeToo movement too fresh to ignore and new evidence at hand, reopening the case against Erik and Lyle Menendez seems like the right thing to do.@robinkabcarianIf it’s in the news right now, the L.A. Times’ Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. [ad_2]

[ad_1] Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP)I have not thought much about the Menendez brothers, Lyle and Erik, since they were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty, in their Beverly Hills mansion.At the time of the killings, Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.The prosecution contended they were greedy, spoiled brats trying to get their hands on their parents’ fortune. The defense argued that they were severely abused by their father, who was enabled by their mother, and they were in fear for their lives.The family’s awful story was one chapter of a particularly traumatic era in Los Angeles, where the criminal justice system seemed strained to its limits, where controversies about systemic racism, privilege, domestic violence and fairness raged over the airwaves, at dinner tables and around water coolers.I would go so far as to say that the 1990s in L.A. essentially began on the August night in 1989 when the Menendez brothers sneaked up on their parents and blew them away with shotguns as the couple watched TV and ate ice cream. Six months later, the brothers, who had managed to spend more than $1 million of their parents' money in the interim, were under arrest.A year later, George Holliday videotaped the savage beating of motorist Rodney King by LAPD officers, and the officers’ acquittals sparked days of fires, looting and convulsive violence.In 1994 — the same year two Menendez juries, one for each young man, deadlocked between manslaughter and murder convictions — Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were slashed to death in Brentwood. After a volatile trial, Simpson’s ex-husband, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the slayings in 1995.The second Menendez trial, this time with one jury, also began in 1995. The same judge who had earlier allowed the defense to call 50 witnesses and present evidence of abuse, restricted testimony that would have supported an "abuse excuse" in the second trial. That sealed the brothers’ fate. They were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1996 and have been in prison for 33 years.Story continuesRead more: From the Archives: Claims of Hatred, Abuse Traded in Menendez CaseI would maintain that this convulsive era came to an end the following year, when a civil jury in Santa Monica found Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend.I am telling you, it was an emotional and exhausting time in this city. Nothing any of us would want to relive.But attitudes toward domestic violence and sex abuse have changed. New evidence about the Menendez family has come to light, and now, after resigning themselves to dying in prison, the brothers are hoping the case will be reopened.A petition filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in May describes two new pieces of relevant evidence that corroborate Lyle and Erik’s claims that their father was an abusive monster and their mother did nothing to stop him.One is a letter written by 13-year-old Erik to his cousin discussing his father’s abuse. “I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy,” Erik wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano. “Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.”Read more: New evidence may back Menendez brothers' sexual abuse claims. But can it free them?The second is a claim by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, that Jose Menendez, who was chief executive of RCA Records at the time, raped him when he was 13.A judge has yet to rule on the brothers' petition, which asks for either an evidentiary hearing or that the convictions and sentences be vacated.(Rosselló has also alleged that Menudo’s founder, Edgardo Díaz, repeatedly raped him between 1983 and 1986, when he was a member of the group. The LAPD confirmed to my colleague Salvador Hernandez that Díaz is under investigation for an incident that Rosselló says took place at the Biltmore Hotel, where he says Díaz attacked him. Rosselló’s sordid story and Menudo's connection to Jose Menendez is explored in a powerful new three-part docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” by veteran journalists Robert Rand, author of “The Menendez Murders,” and Nery Ynclan. )Rand has been writing about the Menendez case since the day after the murders, and has developed close ties with the brothers' extended family, most of whom believe that Lyle and Erik have served long enough. It was Rand who discovered the letter, written by Erik, that may play a role in reopening the case.Read more: Menendez brothers cite documentary as evidence it's time they were freed; petition filed“They would have been out a long time ago if they’d had a fair trial,” said Kitty Menendez’s older sister, Joan VanderMolen, 91, who lives in Ventura. In “Menendez + Menudo,” she and her daughter Diane discuss why Erik seemed bereft as a child when there were no lemons in the house. “It was to get the taste of semen out of his mouth,” Joan says, in one of the docuseries’ more shocking moments.“I loved my sister dearly,” VanderMolen told me last week, “and it's difficult to talk about her, but somehow she managed to let this husband of hers rule the roost and beat the kids. She had to know.”She speaks to her nephews regularly by phone at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, where they were allowed to be together after 22 years apart. “They had a terrible childhood,” she said. “Money had nothing to do with it.”Who wants to dip back into the malaise of L.A. in the 1990s? Not me. But all these years later, with insights from the #MeToo movement too fresh to ignore and new evidence at hand, reopening the case against Erik and Lyle Menendez seems like the right thing to do.@robinkabcarianIf it’s in the news right now, the L.A. Times’ Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. [ad_2] Source link

A Menudo Boy Bander's Disturbing Link to the Menendez Brothers

Two sensational stories collide in Menendez + : Boys Betrayed, a new three-part documentary series airing on Peacock. One helped bring the culture into the era of nonstop TV crime and jurisprudence coverage: the grisly 1989 murder of Jose and Kitty Menendez by their sons, Erik and Lyle. The other involves the former Puerto Rican boy band sensation Menudo, and longstanding accusations of sexual…

View On WordPress

Menudo member alleges the Menendez brothers' father raped them

Boy band Menudo hit the headlines last year with a documentary series in which the members alleged years of abuse by those in power around them. Now, former Menudo member Roy Rossello is pressing rape charges against Jose Menendez, whose murder by his two sons gripped the nation three decades ago. convicted by a jury Eric and Lyle Menendez murdered their parents, Mary Louise “Kitty” in 1996, and…

View On WordPress

  “’But Menendez, how do you go about existence without degloving your face and making a thong out of the skin?’ One, I can’t sew. Two, I’m held together by half-assed orgasms, fart jokes, and delusion. If there’s one thing I can at least do, it’s iron but the one thing I think is a waste of time to iron would be a newspaper. Lay that shit down for the kitty litter and pet the kitties instead.”

  “Living? Emerging yourself in what makes you miserable? Sad wet fart. Boo! Next bit! Keep the kiddies and the kitties and yourself amused. Get a hobby you’ll never get sick of. That’s how.”

Miles Gaston Villanueva & Gus Halper // Menendez Brothers // Joseph Lyle Menendez // Erik Galen Martin Menendez

watching , law and order : true crime , the menedez brothers 💜 love it already

America in 2020...

I see this and agree...parody or reality?

and really see the photos...

I can’t help but be reminded of...

THIS ‘Happy family’...😳

Courtney Love has been cast as Kitty Menendez, the Menendez Brothers' mother, in a new Lifetime movie.

Lifetime has given the green light to an original movie about the Menendez brothers murder case with Courtney Love attached to star. The movie’s focus will reveal the extreme abuse the brothers endured at their father’s hands, while their mother looked the other way, according to the network. Love will play the mother, Kitty Menendez. Casting is currently underway for brothers Lyle and Erik.

(via Courtney Love Will Play Brutally Murdered Kitty Menendez In Lifetime Movie)

The Most Important Defence Witnesses in the Menendez Case

Lyle and Erik Menendez said they’d killed their parents in fear. After a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse, their parents had threatened to kill them to keep them from going public with the sexual abuse, and they believed it. These are some of the most important witnesses that validate Erik and Lyle’s story.

Diane Vandermolen

A cousin of Lyle and Erik who lived with the family for several summers. She witnessed a lot of physical abuse that went on in the house. Most importantly though, she witnessed sexual abuse. She saw Jose showering with Lyle and Erik. She also testified that when she was 17 and Lyle was 8, he told her he was afraid to sleep in his room because his dad kept touching him.

Marta Cano

Lyle and Erik’s aunt and Jose’s sister. She witnessed her brother abusing the kids, shaking them and punching them, among other things. She witnessed Jose forcing Erik to hang from an exercise bar when he was a baby. She witnessed Kitty refusing to feed her children. She also witnessed Jose telling Erik he was going to give him a massage. Both Lyle and Erik stated the sexual abuse had started under the guise of massages after sports practice.

Edward Fenno

Lyle’s university friend who stayed with the family for a few months. He testified that when he would be hanging out with Erik in his room, Jose would kick him out. That he would spend hours in the room, that Edward was not allowed near the door, and that Erik wouldn’t be seen again all night. This is very important corroborative evidence that Erik’s sexual abuse had continued to age 18. Edward also stated that nothing could be heard through the walls in the house, which goes against the prosecutors theory that the maid would have heard the arguing the days before the shooting. He also witnessed Kitty abusing Lyle, even as a young adult.

Andy Cano

Erik and Lyle’s cousin. He testified that Erik had told him he was being sexually abused several times throughout their childhood. At the time, Andy hadn’t understood what Erik meant by “painful massages”. Andy also said that Erik had become frantic when Andy had touched a jar of vaseline in his room. Saying “it’s not for that”, when Andy had tried to put some on his skin. Erik said his dad had always kept a jar of vaseline by his bed his whole life, and used it during the abuse. A jar of vaseline can be seen next to Erik’s bed in the crime scene photos of the house.

Alan Anderson

Another cousin who had stayed with the family for a couple summers. He witnessed and experienced abuse by Jose and Kitty. He saw Kitty attempt to cut Lyle’s face with a razor blade. He saw Lyle being forced to play tennis with a shoulder injury, and also saw Jose showering with Lyle and Erik. He heard his cousins being beaten in their bedrooms, and saw the bruises on them. He testified that when Jose was alone in the room with one of the boys, nobody could go anywhere near the door. Diane Vandermolen, Kathy Simonton, Marianne Cano, Marta Cano and Edward Fenno said the same thing.

Charles Wadlington

Erik and Lyle’s tennis coach. He witnessed Kitty and Jose verbally abusing their children, and testified that both boys seemed afraid of their parents. He said when Erik got an ingrown toenail, he was hysterical at the thought of his mother finding out Charles had helped him treat the injury. He said the boys were very emotionally immature and had interests of children years younger than they were. He expressed his love for Lyle and Erik on the stand, and that he had suspected they were being abused physically.

Judalon Smyth

The ex-girlfriend of Dr. Oziel. He was the therapist Erik confessed to, and the prosecutors star witness. She disproved many of Oziel’s lies. For example, he claimed that Lyle had threatened him at the elevator door of his office on October 31st, 1989. Judalon was there and said Lyle never threatened him. Judalon recorded many phone calls with Oziel, in which he admitted he was blackmailing the boys to try and get their money. He also asked her to pretend to be Erik on tape and make threats against his wife, and admitted his notes of Lyle and Erik’s therapy sessions were not accurate. In one call, he repeatedly uses the word “thorns”. Smyth said that Oziel had hypnotized her and programmed the word “thorns” as a way to make her forget things. Oziel can be heard on tape asking Lyle and Erik to let him hypnotize them. She characterized Oziel as manipulative and abusive, just as Lyle and Erik had.