The Menendez Brothers Interview with Barbara Walters (1996)

Eric and Lyle Menendez the infamous Brothers the savagery of their crime the murders of both their mother and father seem Beyond Comprehension tonight for the very first time out of court you will hear their story tonight watching our interview you can reach your own verdict about them we begin with the crime itself a Hot August Night in 1989 the Beverly Hills mansion of entertainment executive Jose Menendez he and his wife Kitty are watching television in the family room suddenly a brutal volley of shotgun fire Jose Menendez is killed by a close end shot to the

head he has five other shotgun wounds Kitty Menendez body is riddled with shotgun pellets she had 10 wounds on her she was getting blasted all over that room they were shocked the voice of Lyle Menendez then 21 years old who tells police that he and his brother Eric then 18 discovered the bodies as they returned home from a movie Lyle and Eric Menendez lied successfully for months well if their crime was a horror movie their undoing was the stuff of soap opera Eric in torment confessed his crime to his therapist Dr Jerome ozile Lyle then

also admitted to the murders their confession was overheard by ozil's mistress judalon Smith and she went to the police Lyle was arrested in California Eric who had been traveling overseas voluntarily flew home to surrender three years later the Menendez brothers went on trial for their lives 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 and I remember firing directly at him you Reloaded said yes yes and what did you do after you Reloaded I ran around

and shot my mom this is the woman who gave birth to them this is what they did to their mother the jury heard tapes of the brother's confession to Dr Ozil foreign came Eric and Lyle Menendez told a wrapped courtroom that the murder of their parents was an act of self-defense they said they were in fear of their lives from a controlling father who had been sexually abusing them hey write me cry yes did you bleed yes were you scared Barry Lyle said his abuse stopped when he was eight but that he didn't know until

just before the murders that Eric was being molested too 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 you telling Lyle what is it you telling Lyle about something that was happening my dad foreign the brother's testimony was compelling and relatives testified on their behalf about incidents in which their father treated the sons harshly though none of them could actually confirm the allegations of sexual abuse the jurors could not decide between verdicts of murder and

manslaughter I find that the jury is hopelessly deadlocked and the court declares a mistrial in August of 1995 now six years after their parents murders the Menendez brothers went on trial again this time there were no video cameras Eric testified but Lyle chose not to judge Stanley Weisberg again presided but in a major blow for them limited the brothers claims to self-defense there were far fewer grounds this time from a possible verdict of manslaughter the jury deliberated for less than four days the verdict Lyle and Eric Menendez both guilty of first-degree murder the jury spent

three more days deciding between life and death the verdict here was life in prison with no parole the Menendez brothers have spent more than six years in this building the Los Angeles County Jail Eric lives in The Identical cell next to this one it measures seven and a half by nine feet while sale in another wing of the jail is slightly smaller both brothers are segregated from the general population each of the brothers separately is allowed up to three hours of exercise a week on the Jail's roof Eric and Lyle Menendez will be moved to

State Prison perhaps even to separate prisons this summer our interview took place in the Jail's administrative Wing some distance from their cells you may find Eric and Lyle Menendez to be cunning and manipulative as their second jury seems to have pronouncing them guilty of first-degree murder or like many of the jurors at their first trial you may decide that they are credible and that their story strikes a sympathetic chord that is perhaps for you to determine my job was to ask the questions beginning with this one what went through your minds when you heard that

verdict first degree murder guilty that I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison without any possibility of ever getting released and you're just you're devastated I was devastated could have been death did you think that I was terrified that that they would give either one of us death and that's that's scary it's important to you to stay together when you get moved to the state prison very important that is what's gotten us through these six years and through our life [Music] the family that Eric and I grew up in we had

to be there for each other throughout and it really created a bond that that gets us through very rough periods some people might say why should we put them together I mean look what they did they should be punished as much as possible let's separate them what do you say to that you know people will say that some there isn't there's nothing to say to that what we did it was awful and I wish I could go back we will spend the rest of our life in prison but if I'm not if I'm not we're

not put in the same prison there's good probability I will never see him again and and that that I some things that you cannot take and there's some things that you can endure uh with everything taken away would be the last you know it's the last thing you can take do you think the media has portrayed you fairly can you tell I don't know if anyone can be betrayed fairly in the media who they are well let me say it there are people great number of people who think that you two are spoiled brats that

you are evil that you are monsters what do you say to them that's not who I am but I can't defend that because I came from a family of wealth it doesn't make me spoiled I would be surprised if anybody that was present at the trial and uh and saw the whole thing rather than snippets on the news would feel that a jury found you both guilty right but I don't think you aren't guilty because they found you spoiled um what evil or evil just a normal I mean I'm just a normal kid oh Eric

you're a normal kid who killed your parents I know and you still say you're a normal kid well I didn't have normal experiences but I I am I I did that and there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened and wish that I could I could take that moment back or change what happened but it it's it's hard to live with that do you feel remorse tremendous remorse um and I think there's tremendous pain I mean from the second that I got back to the house after the shootings I

saw what happened and I said this is wrong this is awful how could this have happened I couldn't accept it you couldn't accept it but you called the police you pretended that you hadn't done it you you cried you went off in a spending spree I mean we all read about it you bought Rolexes you bought cars you bought you didn't say oh my god what have I done and turned yourself in well that's not that's not really what I've sort of stuck it all together but yeah you did a good job at it uh

we got back to the house the police were there and and it was a matter of of of telling him you did it or or just saying I don't know who did it and that's what we did and if I could go back perhaps I'd say I did it I mean part of that started from the fact that we waited afterwards and the police did not come and in the in that time that we waited and waited you know we did make a bad decision to not have to we expected the police to be there

I mean you expected the police to come there and arrest you 12 shots in the middle of Beverly Hills on a Sunday night and no one calls the police we're waiting at the house no one shows up and I I still can't believe it so you call the police but at that point you had already decided we had decided you weren't going to say anything we were very uh stunned and we felt that um we would go to jail obviously and we it was a selfish reason to just not want to have to to go

through that what about spending the money you know God's watches invested in businesses The Good Life well it was it was the same life before or afterwards with more money with with more money but I didn't know what to do with the money I went to it got to a point where I have I have all this money and so much pain I don't know what to do with it and eventually I don't know you're losing me I would think that you would be in such grief that you wouldn't be able to buy Rolexes and

invest in businesses I don't need to meet let me understand I'm you know I'm the public I don't think that it's understandable I mean I people react to some traumatic event like that in different ways you went to your psychologist Dr Ozil and told him that you had committed this crime it got to a point where I could no longer live I felt that I was the worst person on Earth and I I it got to a point where I couldn't live with myself anymore and I needed help and so I went to him and

that is what the Catalyst was for me getting arrested in Lyle you've had a lot of therapy six years of intense therapy how are you different than the man who came in here I'm six years older I'm a lot more mature I came in here as an 18 year old kid who didn't know anything about it what'd you learn about yourself I learned that I learned what love was about I learned what love was about because of my grandmother because of all my relatives who who didn't say I can't believe you did this instead they

said Eric I know who you are you're not this type of person you're not the type of person who could do this for no reason have you had therapy Lyle the same the same therapy and as it really works to just have someone you can communicate with that's willing to listen all our lives uh it was just sort of fending off things it almost sounds like prison was a good thing for you it was I mean at first you know I I killed my parents and I spent six months out there in the horrible Agony

because I had done this I mean a year before I told my mother how much I loved her I could not have imagined doing this even a week before to her I I adored her and then suddenly you're arrested and everyone can know you did it and you can finally tell people and it's a relief well you're looking at your brother like you almost never heard this before tell me how you felt you know for me uh emotionally being in in conditions was was really not emotionally was not a shocking difference from life we had

lived because we we lived really a very it's stressful fearful life and to me the the it was kind of like I felt this I should be punished and um it didn't feel good but there was a part of you that feels like that's right it's better you get a lot of mail we we still get a tremendous amount of mail hundreds got hundreds thousands over the years we asked um your lawyers to give us a sample of some of your letters a great many of them seem to deal with some people who have been

abused themselves and relate to you Lyle what do you say to people who write to you A lot of people that have written were very uh they drew a lot of strength from watching the trial and from from seeing Eric and I and I I've gotten mail after the verdict people discouraged and I wanted to say to them to not lose hope because of this one case and this one a very unique situation here and that this is not does not mean that if they go get help people won't believe them or people will treat

them harshly or they'll be ridiculed I don't feel they will be that's not to say do what we did don't do what we did but don't be afraid about people that want to reach out to social workers for helping but are ashamed or afraid do you also get love letters find that strange it's a strange phenomenon that a lot of love letters come in people that don't know you at all do either one of you have girlfriends do either one of you have someone who cares particularly about you now at this point in your life

I do I have someone who I love very much and is a saint to put up with everything that comes with this can you tell us who she is uh yeah her name is Anna Erickson and um I hope that we can uh we can get married even though it's a very limited relationship because of where we are the exchange of love and sharing it keeps you in touch with yourself and softer and you know otherwise you can become very uh hard and cold in here is this someone you knew before prison no this is

someone who began to write to you and meet you I wrote she wrote me many years ago but uh and I've come to know her well but just someone that I met through the mail and she wants to marry you she does Eric no not at the moment you're not going to meet a lot in prison ever no I probably won't it's hard Lyle Lyle's more able to have that type of relationship Eric you know that the prosecutor brought up the fact that you might have been a homosexual and that this might have caused some

of the fury on your father's part yes he did I didn't I didn't hear about girlfriends they were there I guess what I just have to say to you is are you gay no no the the prosecutor brought that up because I was sexually molested and he felt in his own thinking that if I was sodomized by my father that I must have enjoyed it and therefore I must be gay and the people that are gay out there must be sexually molested or they wouldn't be Felton it's a it was upsetting to hear but I'm

not there but a lot of gay people write and feel connected to me a problem at the trial was the gender bias that because um there we were dealing with males and in an incest family that that this sort of perceptions that will maybe it was uh something that he wanted something that he allowed to happen um that he shouldn't be allowed to feel afraid because he's a male I really felt that people might have seen this case very differently if it were a sister that I was protecting or that was involved in this and

not a brother you know this whole business of abuse excuse that you're abused by your parents sexually abused emotionally abused by this tough unyielding father but there are lots of people who are abused sexually in other ways and they don't kill their parents and you've been ridiculed for this abuse excuse what do you say about it obvious excuse is a word that Alan dershowitz made up not knowing anything about the case if I mean to simplify it to its simplest degree if a person is raped man or woman and she kills the man who raped

her is it an excuse that the reason she killed him is because she was right course not I certainly never felt that what I did was justified or right it was just a question of how wrong was it that was a big misperception about this case that it was about justification or excuse and my brother and I essentially pled guilty that was very hard for me to hear the ridicule about that because we I really felt that Eric and I and we could have gone to trial like most people and just sort of we weren't

there it wasn't miles had that trial what do you mean we could have gone to trial we would well you could go to trial and just say that I was uh you know chipping golf balls at the time and I wasn't there and Eric and I went to trial and said we did this ah you had there were tapes there were tapes tapes became admissible because we said we did it Lyle and I fought because he wanted he felt that telling the world that Dad it was a sexual torture was killing dad twice and he

did not want to kill dad twice and he fought and he said I don't want to go up there I'm not going to take the stand I'm not going to do it and then when he did there was a great outpouring but there was also people laughing at him and it was strange Eric you were able to tell you're a psychologist that you had killed your parents but you were not able to tell your psychologist that your father had abused you unless you've been molested can't realize how hard it is to tell because of shame

because of Shame the story continues now the scene being set for murder describe your relationship with your father what words come into your mind brutal painful torturous and yet I thought that he was the most powerful and Brilliant person I had ever met I was his first born son that was very important to him and my bond with him was I thought strong because we had been through so much together but I was difficult to see the things that were going on and things that were going on that is when you learned that he was

sexually molesting your brother he had sexually molested me before I was a teenager and it was a different much different experience than Eric's because you were little because I was little I guess there's some questions that everybody asks like why didn't you run away I wish that I could have I tried to run away when I was 12. and my father found me he called me and said if you ever run away I will kill you I will find you and I will kill you suppose you left and you I don't know what became a

waiter and moved away you still thought he'd find you he would find me and probably kill me I thought for certain he would kill me you still think that oh absolutely did you love your mother or like your mother I love my mother and I try to help her my mother was a person in a lot of pain and she was alcoholic and she was suicidal did she know about the abuse the sexual abuse she knew and didn't do anything she knew and it doesn't seem that she did anything do you still think about the

night of the murder every day you both do tell me as clearly as you can why you murdered your parents that night Christian comes to mind is Terror so afraid a few days before I had said to myself I'm never going to let my father touch me again after I told Lyle that it had been continuing on I I said to myself I'm never going to let him touch me again and just before the shootings my dad told me to get to my room and that he would be there in a minute and I he

was going to come up and there was going to be sex and it was like an explosion in my mind but you'd bought the guns it wasn't something that just happened that moment you'd thought about it no you bought the guns in advance they just went in the house yes we bought the guns so it just didn't just happen that moment we bought the guns there was a there was many a series of confrontations and blow-ups in the house my dad when it first was revealed that I had told Lyle yeah about the secret my

dad said to Lyle you're going to tell everyone and I'm not going to let that happen take me through your mind love I cannot separate and say this is why this happened I I my father was threatening us and so there was fear but there was great you know there was anger on my part and um my mother uh was aware of and had a lighter stuff with my father and it was it was a great deal of confusion this happened all in just three days and I just um I wish I'd give anything to

just turn back that one page of my life the other big question you killed your father who was molesting you why did you kill your mother on Thursday night before when one of the explosions I was running downstairs and I was crying and my mother was on the couch and she had been drinking and she said what's wrong with you and I said nothing nothing you wouldn't understand and she said oh I understand what do you think I'm stupid and and she told me that she knew that she had known all my life but my

father was doing and it was like I didn't even know who she was anymore I just saw dad and mom as the same person at that point I I saw them as a single person really the first time that this secret about what was happening with Dad and Eric was discussed openly in the family in a very angry way I don't know about Eric but I completely lost control of myself and um I in that time I I didn't separate I knew my mother and my father I just I was just it was just adrenaline

and fear and anger I lost it no there is no explanation you had thought about this earlier because you had bought the garden several days before we knew that this could end this could a violent confrontation could occur because my father had threatened my life you still think your father would have killed you for revealing the secret you both still feel that is a question really I still believe that I don't believe that he was in the process of killing us that moment I said evening yeah but uh I you know and I don't think

that this it might seem because there are so few cases that come to the Public's attention like this that this has never occurred ever before in the country and in fact there are over 200 parasites a year that involve incest families and so you know I felt it completely then and now I believe that but I would not shoot my parents now no matter what how now would you have resolved it now what almost seven years later what do you think I would have never told I got Lyle into this I'm I went to him

and I said Lyle I can't live anymore with what's going on and got him involved he was a way to go they had bought him a condominium he was going to Princeton he had all the money so it's your fault for telling your brother it's my fault and I got him involved and said I need your help and five days later my parents were dead so it's your fault completely my fault he he was suicidal at the time and it was just a last thing to reach out and obviously who was going to reach out

to and we I decided to confront my father rather than just sort of not say anything and just have Eric and I leave which if I could go back that's what I would do I would just say Eric's old enough now he wants to leave have you forgiven yourself I don't think it's possible why are you with any kind of peace more so than uh than maybe Eric because at this point for some reason it well before the verdict I was resigned to bad things and um I have I think um found a place where

I can look forward and try to um have hope and share myself more with people and I I hope of what hope of living a life that I can be more proud of now in prison there are you're confined but they're you know there must be even just in writing people that need help if you can help them and and and convince a single person that has been through our situation that the last thing in the world they should do is is act out violently and you find meaning in your life if you could say

something to your mother and your father I'm sure you have in your own minds what would you say I am so sorry I forgive them completely for anything they have done to us if I had one wish it would be able to have one conversation with them or to change places with them I I I hope someday that uh I can be with them and have some sort of conversation about what happened is one of the awful things is that I I can't we couldn't communicate that weekend and I still I can't and um just

that I I love them and um you know that I believe despite all everything that happened that they really loved us and the things just went awry our interview is over deputies now arrived to take Eric and Lyle Menendez back to the cell blocks they were handcuffed and chained for the long walk back their legs had been Shackled throughout the interview this had been one of their infrequent opportunities to see one another in jail the gods would now take each of them to their separate cells and to the certainty of the rest of their lives

in prison