The Menendez Brothers Pt. 2
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Due to the nature of this case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of sexual assault, violence, and murder. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen.

36-year-old Judelon Smith opened her front door cautiously, shotgun in hand. She left the light off as she surveyed the living room. Everything looked the same as it had before she left, but still she felt anxious. She cocked the gun and tiptoed towards the bedroom. Holding the weapon like she'd seen on police procedurals, she checked each corner of her tiny apartment.

Finally, she let out a sigh of relief. She was thankfully alone. Shaking, she put down the gun and turned on the TV, hoping for a distraction. But the news only made her feel worse. Every channel was playing footage from outside the Menendez family mansion. Unable to stop herself, Judilon watched the anchors describe the brutal murders. It made her sick.

She glanced at her phone. She could call. She could put an end to this. If she told the truth, she could pull herself out of this mess forever. At last, she took a deep breath, picked up the receiver, and dialed the LAPD. As soon as someone picked up, she told them, "'I know what happened to Jose and Kitty Menendez.'"

I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast. You can find us here every Monday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Stay with us.

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On the evening of August 20th, 1989, 45-year-old Jose Menendez lounged in the family room of his Beverly Hills mansion next to his wife, 47-year-old Kitty. They'd been watching a movie together, but Kitty had long since fallen asleep, and Jose wasn't too far behind her.

Though it was only around 10 p.m., he was exhausted. The last week was a blur of arguments and fistfights. His oldest son, 21-year-old Lyle, had recently come home from Princeton for the summer. He and his younger brother, 18-year-old Eric, had been terrorizing their parents ever since.

Every morning, Jose woke up to another disaster. One weekend, the boys littered the yard with beer cans and cigarette butts. They kept losing their house keys, so their parents had to climb out of bed to let them in at all hours of the night. Just a few days before, Lyle made Kitty so angry that she ripped the $1,500 hairpiece he wore clean off his head.

Jose didn't know what to do. He tried to teach his sons what they needed to know to be successful. When he was their age, he lived in a tiny apartment and could barely afford groceries. He had worked himself to the bone to give them the opportunities he never had. But they had no idea what it was like to struggle.

When his boys were born, Jose had such high hopes. Now, when he looked at them, he only felt disappointment. According to some claims, he'd even recently decided to remove them from his will. If they were ever going to work hard and learn respect, they would have to earn their money just like him. They didn't deserve to inherit a penny of his millions.

Jose tried once again to focus on the movie and shut out his troubling thoughts. Soon, his eyelids became heavy, and he was snoring next to his wife.

As Jose and Kitty lay dozing in the family room, the Menendez brothers sat nervously in Lyle's bedroom. On his desk were two 12-gauge Mossberg shotguns and 10 rounds of buckshot ammunition. Lyle picked up one of the guns, loaded it, and gave Eric an expectant look.

According to the brothers, five days before, on August 15th, Eric confided to Lyle that their father had been sexually abusing him since he was six years old. Lyle was enraged. He knew Eric was telling the truth. Though he didn't tell his brother, Jose had molested Lyle too, from the ages of six to eight.

The emotional, physical and sexual violence Lyle and Eric reported experiencing as children isolated them from each other and left them with feelings of unresolved anger. Their father had allegedly threatened to kill them many times throughout their lives. After Lyle confronted Jose about molesting Eric, both brothers feared Jose might follow through on his threats.

According to the Menendez brothers, it was kill or be killed.

Eric studied the shiny black shotgun resting on the desk. He'd never actually fired it before, just practiced loading and unloading it. He didn't know if he would even be able to pull the trigger when the time came. He could feel Lyle staring at him, but couldn't bring himself to meet his eyes. There was suddenly a stale, acrid taste in his mouth. All he could hear was his own heartbeat, occasionally interrupted by Lyle's loud breathing.

Transfixed by the weapon, Eric tried to think happy thoughts, but nothing that came to mind involved his own family. Every memory he had of his father or mother was soured by an all-consuming anxiety. Every moment he'd ever spent with them just felt wrong.

His father was cold, intimidating, and impossible to please. His mother was pitiful, spiteful, and in his eyes made desperate by decades of domestic abuse. Then there was his brother. Only Lyle had ever wanted to save him to make things right. Eric had to trust him. He picked up the gun, loaded it, and followed his brother downstairs.

They stopped outside the double doors that led into the family room and locked eyes. Lyle asked him if he was ready. Eric tightened his grip on the shotgun, swallowed, and nodded.

Lyle and Eric flung open the doors and burst into the family room. Before either of his parents could react, Lyle pressed the barrel of his Mossberg against the back of his father's skull and fired. Meanwhile, Eric shot erratically. The windows shattered and the room was obscured by clouds of thick, gray gun smoke.

Kitty tried to run away, but some of Eric's stray buckshot pierced her leg. She slipped in the blood that gushed from her thigh. As she floundered helplessly on the floor, her sons shot her in the arm and chest. In a matter of seconds, both guns were out of shells. Jose was dead, but Kitty still clung to life, moaning.

Eric shook violently, sick to his stomach. Lyle ran outside to his car and grabbed more ammunition from his truck. Inside, the smoke cleared, rising out of the broken windows. When Lyle came back in, he reloaded his gun and shot his mother in the face. Finally, Lyle turned to his brother, breathing heavily.

Jose and Kitty were dead. But the job wasn't finished yet. They each fired one last shot into their parents' left kneecaps in an attempt to make the murders look like a mafia hit. Then they picked up the shotgun shells from the floor and packed them into their tennis bags along with the weapons.

Still buzzing from the adrenaline, Lyle and Eric rushed out to their front porch and waited for police to arrive. They'd fired 13 rounds in a quiet neighborhood in one of the wealthiest cities in America. They expected cops to swarm the area within minutes. But no officers came. There wasn't so much as a distant siren.

When neighbors were interviewed later, they said they heard loud explosive sounds but assumed it was someone setting off fireworks. Nobody in Beverly Hills, a city insulated by wealth and privilege, could have imagined what was going on in the Menendez mansion that night.

Realizing they might actually be able to get away with murder, Lyle and Eric decided to establish an alibi. They called their tennis coach and asked him to meet them at the Cheesecake Factory, but he was busy. They drove to a movie theater instead, hoping they could buy tickets to Batman and establish an alternate timeline, but the cashier wouldn't sell them tickets for earlier showings. For a while, they drove around Beverly Hills, unsure what to do.

Finally, they decided to go home, pretend they'd stumbled upon their parents' bodies, and call 911. Police arrived at the gruesome scene around midnight. Jose's skull had been split open, pieces of brain matter stuck to the ceiling, while Kitty's face was an unrecognizable mass of muscle and bone.

Lyle and Eric feigned grief, sobbing and pounding on the ground outside. Police were so convinced by the boys' performance, or perhaps so aware of the Menendez wealth and status, that they didn't bother to test their hands for gunshot residue. There were a few things, however, that caused police to be suspicious right from the start.

When he described finding his parents' bodies, Eric repeatedly referenced how smoky the room was, which officers knew was inconsistent with the broken windows. It was also strange that Lyle and Eric had called 911 from their home after discovering the bodies. The vast majority of the time that someone finds a dead victim, they call the police from an alternate location for fear the killer might still be in the area.

Lastly, the boys were way too eager to get back inside the house and grab their tennis bags, the ones that, unbeknownst to the police, held the murder weapons and shotgun shells. Officers couldn't understand why the brothers would be thinking about tennis at a time like this. But getting rid of the evidence couldn't lessen their guilt. Eventually, it would consume them. This episode is brought to you by SimpliSafe.

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On August 20th, 1989, Lyle and Eric Menendez murdered their parents, Jose and Kitty, in the family room of their Beverly Hills mansion. Police were shocked by the horrific crime scene and were swayed by the brothers' dramatic displays of grief. Although some of the brothers' behavior struck officers as strange, they didn't test their hands for gunshot residue. If they had, they would have caught the culprits that same night.

Instead, the brothers went free. Immediately after the deaths of their parents, they each received a $250,000 life insurance payout, more than $620,000 today. To them, it was a just reward. In the five days between their parents' murders and the memorial service, Lyle and Eric spent over $15,000.

According to his extended family, Lyle wore a brand new 18-karat gold Rolex and a pair of Jose's loafers to the service. At one point, he nudged his aunt, smirked, and said, "Hey, Marzi, who said I couldn't fill my father's shoes?"

Lyle's cocky behavior at the funeral didn't sit right with Jose's brother-in-law, Carlos. The day after the service, Carlos went to the Menendez mansion and found Jose's will in a bathroom drawer. It was dated 1980 and designated Lyle and Eric, who would have been just 12 and 9 years old at the time, as the beneficiaries of the entire estate.

But in more recent conversations, Carlos remembered Jose talking about removing his sons from his will altogether and suspected there was a newer version of his last wishes. He contacted Jose's lawyers, who found nothing. However, on the computer in the master bedroom, Carlos reportedly discovered a file titled "Will."

Unfortunately, it was password protected and he was unable to access it. Carlos made an appointment for a computer expert to come and search the hard drive on September 1st to clear up the inheritance issue.

It's unclear whether or not Lyle and Eric knew what this file contained. However, Lyle did find out his uncle had been poking around and was apparently worried about what he might find. He rushed back to Beverly Hills from New York, where he'd been traveling, and hired a computer expert of his own. The specialist reportedly came to the mansion on August 30th and erased every file with the words Lyle, Eric, or Will in it.

Meanwhile, Eric had no idea what Lyle was doing to cover up their crimes. He spent the last few days of August staying with his friend, Craig Signorelli, in Calabasas. While they spent time together, Craig tried to broach the subject of the murders. Eric told Craig he believed the mafia was to blame, or maybe even Fidel Castro. Whoever it was, Eric said he would pay a million dollars to see them put behind bars.

But their deaths seemed eerily similar to those in a screenplay Eric had written, in which the protagonist murders his parents for their vast fortune. When Craig asked if he would be interested in revising the script, Eric glowered. He reportedly told Craig not to touch the screenplay, saying, "'You know I didn't kill my parents.'"

A few weeks after the murders, a memorial service was held in Miami, where much of Jose's extended family had settled. Lyle and Eric told their relatives they couldn't emotionally handle another funeral and spent their time in Florida at Daytona Beach instead.

The brothers often made dramatic shows of grief and then followed them with contradictory behavior. Shortly after returning to Beverly Hills, Lyle and Eric hired bodyguards. They told family, friends, and police that they feared the mafia would come after them next

Yet, neither of them acted particularly afraid in public. They frequently went out to shop and play tennis, seemingly without a care in the world. Lyle and Eric eventually managed to spend over $1 million. Lyle bought a $64,000 Porsche and put a $300,000 down payment on a chicken wing restaurant in Princeton, New Jersey.

Eric replaced his Ford with a Jeep Wrangler and hired a full-time tennis coach for $50,000. The boys also secured side-by-side condos in Marina del Rey and were often seen joyriding through Los Angeles in their late mother's Mercedes convertible.

Police found the brothers' spending habits highly suspicious, but chalked it up to their privileged upbringing. They'd always been wealthy. Perhaps officers thought this was just their way of grieving.

Grief was a tricky subject for Lyle and Eric. Their father had forced them to suppress their emotions since they were toddlers. They had a hard time articulating the tornado of complicated feelings that emerged after they killed their parents.

Lyle in particular didn't seem to show any remorse for his actions. He either truly believed he did the right thing, or his hatred for his parents was strong enough to overshadow any regrets he might have held.

Eric, on the other hand, was sick with guilt. He regularly met with a therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel. During their sessions, Eric reported depression and anxiety so extreme that it made him physically ill. Dr. Oziel wasn't surprised that his client's psychological health deteriorated after his parents' deaths.

But Eric's reports of suicidal ideation concerned him. The therapist pressed the boy further, trying to uncover what was causing such destructive grief. It didn't take long for Eric to crack. Less than three months after the murders, he confessed that he and Lyle had killed Jose and Kitty. According to Dr. Oziel, Eric also claimed that they had planned the murders for weeks in advance.

They felt the only way to escape their father's domineering grasp was to kill Jose and Kitty to make sure there were no witnesses.

Dr. Oziel didn't know how to handle the confession. California law provides for psychotherapist-patient privilege, which means all communication between counselors and clients must be kept confidential unless the client poses an immediate threat to themselves or someone else. Since Jose and Kitty were already dead, he was legally obligated to keep the confession a secret.

Dr. Oziel told Eric it would be best to call Lyle to the office so they could work through the issue together. When Lyle arrived, he was red-faced, furious at his little brother for spilling their secret. With his finger pointed at Dr. Oziel, who sat just a few feet away, Lyle told Eric, "I hope you realize what we're gonna have to do. We have to kill him and anyone associated with him."

Eric broke down into heaving sobs, told his brother he couldn't bear to kill anybody else, and ran out of the office. Lyle gave Dr. O'Zeal a cold glare before following Eric out.

In the parking lot outside, Eric stared at his brother, speechless. Lyle looked crazed. His hair stood on end. His face was contorted in anger. His eyes were huge. His voice began at a deep growl before it rose to a frightening, high-pitched scream. Eric hardly even recognized the raving man before him.

But no matter what Lyle said, Eric wasn't killing anybody else. Just the thought of it made him nauseous. Every night, images of what they had done kept him awake. He saw moonlight glinting off the shattered glass, his mother's blood pooling on the hardwood floor. His father's skull blasted open.

Even so, Eric was confident they would get away with it. They'd been careful. Seeing how callous Lyle had become since their parents' deaths and how quick he was to suggest killing another person made Eric feel like his therapist was more trustworthy than his own brother.

While Lyle and Eric argued in the parking lot, another of Dr. O'Zeal's clients, a woman named Judelon Smith sat in the lobby waiting for her own appointment. But she wasn't just an ordinary patient. She'd only been seeing the therapist for a few months, but their relationship had quickly become romantic.

When the brothers stormed out of the offices, Judilon went in to find her lover frantic. Dr. Ozile told her everything that happened with the Menendez brothers, repeating over and over that they were both in danger.

Judilon told Dr. Ozile to go to the police. Lyle's threat on his life clearly negated the brothers' right to confidentiality. But Ozile refused. He called his mentor, who suggested he make three copies of his notes from the meeting and put them in separate safety deposit boxes. At their next therapy session, he would inform the brothers that even if they killed him, their confessions would still be found.

Dr. Oziel took the advice. At their next session, he told Lyle and Eric about the copies of his notes, but also said he didn't want to report them. He just wanted to resolve whatever issues they had emotionally that led to the murders in the first place.

The brothers were skeptical, so Oziel changed his angle. He claimed that if they ever did get arrested, records of their therapy might actually aid in their defense. It could help them paint a picture of their abusive home life.

Later, Dr. Oziel recorded audio notes in which he said, "...it struck me that Lyle was almost a complete sociopath with no evidence of remorse whatsoever, and that he had even considered killing Eric after Eric confessed murder to me. Eric seemed to be much less capable of committing such an act without Lyle and was clearly overwrought by the scope of what he had done to his own parents."

Lyle was clearly the driving force in the murders. Eric may have ultimately participated because of pressure from his brother. Despite the years of abuse Eric had endured, it's possible that his brother's influence was the deciding factor that drove him to take part in his parents' murders.

Dr. Oziel tried to sort out the dynamic between the brothers, all too aware that his own life might depend on it. Even though he had told the Menendez brothers about the copies of his notes, he still agonized over Lyle's death threat. He worried the brothers might target his wife, his children, or his mistress, Judilon.

He bought a shotgun and hid out in a hotel with his family. He gave Judilon a shotgun as well and repeatedly reminded her that she was in mortal danger. But while Dr. Oziel and Judilon knew the truth, the Beverly Hills Police Department remained in the dark.

Jose was a man with incredible wealth, power, and plenty of enemies, so the possibility of a mafia hit wasn't entirely ruled out. Though it did seem unlikely. Mafia executions were fast and clean, nothing like the grisly scene at the Menendez mansion. Police were suspicious of Lyle and Eric's story about mafia involvement and their lavish spending in the months following the deaths.

But they couldn't find anything more than circumstantial evidence of their guilt. There was plenty, however, that the police didn't see. Eric's primary care doctor diagnosed his chronic stomach pain as stress-related. Eric didn't want to live by himself, but Lyle was always traveling, so he moved in with his cousin Henry in the San Fernando Valley. Henry would frequently wake to find Eric asleep on his bedroom floor.

When he asked if there was something wrong with the guest bed, Eric said he had terrible nightmares and couldn't sleep alone.

Meanwhile, Lyle seemed entirely unconcerned about everything. Normally, family members of the deceased are in nearly constant contact with police officers, but Lyle couldn't be bothered to return phone calls from investigators. He was too busy flying from the East Coast to the West, buying whatever he wanted on his late father's fortune.

Officers interviewed Lyle and Eric's close friends and family to find out more about the brothers. These interviews painted a disturbing picture of life in the Menendez mansion,

Family members described Jose and Kitty's marriage as one entirely devoid of affection. They never so much as held hands unless posing for a picture. Lyle and Eric's friends said that since Jose and Kitty's deaths, the brothers had been making strange comments about how nobody knew the whole story of what happened on August 20th, except for them.

As police closed in on Lyle and Eric, Judelon Smith was reaching her breaking point. She was paranoid that Lyle and Eric would discover her relationship with Dr. Ozeal or that she knew they were guilty. She carried the shotgun with her wherever she went and felt her stomach drop every time she saw an article or news report about the murders. Keeping the secret made her feel complicit in Jose and Kitty's deaths.

Dr. Oziel convinced her to stay quiet for months. They were still sleeping together and she cared for him deeply. She knew that if she contacted the police, she would be going against his wishes. But the stress and guilt eventually became too much. On March 5th, 1990, Judilon called the Beverly Hills Police Department and told them everything she knew.

Two days later, Lyle Menendez was arrested. Eric was in Israel playing a tennis tournament, so he didn't hear the news until the next day. Then he flew back to Los Angeles and turned himself in. The brothers were separated from each other and held without bail. Less than 24 hours later, the case became international news.

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After nearly seven months of lying, spending money, and bitter arguments, Lyle and Eric Menendez were arrested for murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty. Judilon Smith, who'd learned about the murders from Eric's therapist, told police that the brothers had confessed to the murders in a recorded counseling session. Within a week, both brothers were held without bail.

Three years later, on December 12th, 1992, the brothers were formally indicted on two counts of first-degree murder. The state of California sought the death penalty. In August of the next year, Lyle and Eric, now 25 and 22, arrived for their first day in court.

Eric would normally have been sweating with anxiety, but the Xanax he took kept his heartbeat calm and his breathing steady. He sat between his brother and Leslie Abramson, his lawyer.

He looked over at Lyle, whose jaw was clenched tight. Eric could practically feel his brother's anxiety through the air between them. He looked away and chewed on his thumbnail. Judge Stanley Weisberg, a stern man with round glasses and a receding hairline, glared down at the brothers. Eric dropped his hand from his face and felt his heart skip a beat. He wished he'd brought some pills inside with him.

He glanced back at Leslie on his other side. She met his gaze and gave him a small but infinitely reassuring nod. They'd been over their defense a thousand times. He had all his lines memorized. All he needed to do was stick to the script and everything would be all right.

Leslie Abramson spent months carefully orchestrating the Menendez brothers' defense. Her strategy was to characterize Lyle and Eric as good American boys driven to murder only because of the horrific abuse they endured at their father's hand.

She appeared to have curated their appearances accordingly. They wore pastel sweaters over crisp dress shirts. She frequently placed her hand on Lyle's shoulder or the back of Eric's head in gestures of infantilization. Abramson never argued that the brothers didn't murder their parents. Rather, they shouldn't be found guilty because of the abuse they experienced as children.

Many were unconvinced by this defense. According to the prosecution, the alleged mistreatment was impossible to prove. To them, Jose's $14 million fortune was ample motive for murder.

Testimony from Eric's therapist, Dr. Oziel, was key to the case. Recordings of his therapy sessions were ruled inadmissible due to doctor-patient confidentiality laws, but Oziel was allowed to testify using his handwritten notes from their meetings.

Meanwhile, Eric supplemented Ozeal's statements with details about the sexual abuse his father had subjected him to. Lyle claimed that Jose had molested him and Kitty was violent with him. After learning this behavior from his parents at such a young age, Lyle said, he even sexually assaulted Eric with a toothbrush when his brother was seven years old.

Family witnesses corroborated stories of both physical and sexual abuse and painted a picture of an exceedingly unhappy home life. Their statements were scrutinized by Dr. Kathleen M. Heide, an internationally recognized consultant on adolescent homicide. She wrote that, "Understanding the phenomenon of child maltreatment is critical in unraveling the dynamics leading to the slaying of a parent."

Heidi's research has determined that physical, psychological, and sexual abuse are all commonly present in families in which a parent is killed. However, in her book "Understanding Parasite: When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents," Heidi writes that "severely abused parasite offenders" have a number of characteristics that the Menendez brothers do not appear to share.

For example, most parasite offenders kill out of desperation because they're unable to get away from their parents. They also don't typically withhold information from their therapists. They usually attempt to get outside help to escape the abuse before resorting to violence.

Lyle and Eric, on the other hand, had cars and credit cards that could have easily facilitated their escape, but chose to kill their parents anyway. Lyle was currently enrolled at a university thousands of miles away, seemingly living a life free from Jose's control.

Many outsiders who followed the trial were dissatisfied with what was deemed the "abuse excuse." So the defense brought in expert psychologists to better explain the consequences of the brothers' prolonged maltreatment. Multiple psychologists argued that both brothers, but Eric in particular, likely suffered from battered person syndrome.

This condition is characterized by a collection of symptoms similar to those of post-traumatic stress disorder, including hypervigilance, anxiety, flashbacks, and most pertinently, violent outbursts against the abuser. Psychologists pointed out that the brothers' heightened levels of anxiety could have given them a distorted view of reality, which made them believe their father was going to kill them.

Still, it was nearly impossible to argue that the brothers killed in self-defense. The murder weapons were purchased days in advance.

Making the case even more complicated was the fact that the entire trial was televised and everybody had an opinion about the newly notorious Menendez brothers. Media outlets characterized Lyle and Eric as spoiled kids who killed for money alone. Their stories of abuse were widely considered laughable fabrications, regardless of the supporting witness testimony.

Every move the brothers made was scrutinized. At one point, Eric was caught on camera laughing as he entered the courtroom, which led to a flurry of news stories about his arrogance and lack of remorse. According to Eric, however, he was suicidal, ill with anxiety, and was taking a heavy prescription of Xanax up to three times a day. When he walked in laughing, it was because his lawyer had told him a joke to cheer him up.

The explanation did little to silence the critics. Many believed the abuse was irrelevant. If Lyle and Eric committed the murders as they openly confessed to, they should be found guilty. But others disagreed, and it didn't seem as if a compromise could win justice. The ultimate result was a hung jury and the declaration of a mistrial.

A second, much more limited trial was scheduled for August of 1995. By that point, there was no contest. Lyle was so hopeless, he chose not to testify at all. Neither brother had the strength to endure a second trial. Without this highly orchestrated defense, the question of the trial became if, rather than why, the brothers had committed the crime. And that answer was obvious.

On March 20, 1996, 28-year-old Lyle and 25-year-old Eric were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They were incarcerated separately, two counties away from one another.

Afterward, Lyle and Eric stayed in contact via mail. Due to the media attention surrounding the murders, they also both received numerous letters from people in California and beyond. On June 12, 1999, Eric married Tammy Sackaman, one of his pen pals, in the waiting room of Folsom State Prison.

In November of 2003, after a failed marriage to a woman named Anna Erickson, Lyle married Rebecca Sneed in the visiting area of Mule Creek State Prison.

Then, in February of 2018, after 22 years of separation, the Menendez brothers were reunited at R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. According to witnesses, Lyle and Eric burst into tears and just hugged each other for a few minutes without saying any words.

The Menendez brothers remain incarcerated, but now say they feel a sense of purpose. Lyle helps run meditation workshops with other inmates, and Eric works with hospice patients in the prison. In a 2017 interview with the Today Show, Lyle said, "'I love my mother, and I still cry over my mother, and I don't forgive her.'"

When asked if he regretted murdering his parents, Eric responded, "Immensely so. Not a day goes by when I don't wish I could undo this. Bring them back."

A 2023 docuseries titled Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed features new revelations from Roy Rosello, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, claiming that he was also sexually abused by Jose Menendez back in the early 80s, when Rosello was a minor and a member of the band.

This information, along with a recovered letter from Eric to his cousin describing the abuse he endured, have been cited in a petition by their lawyer to have the convictions vacated. As of this recording, no decision has been made.

Thanks for listening to Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast. We're here with a new episode every Monday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast, and we'd love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts.

For more information on this case, amongst the many sources we used, we found the book The Menendez Murders, the shocking untold story of the Menendez family and the killings that stunned the nation by Robert Rand, extremely helpful to our research. The audiobook edition is available for Spotify Premium subscribers in Spotify's audiobook catalog. Stay safe out there.

Serial Killers is a Spotify podcast. This episode was written by Karis Allen, with writing assistance by Abigail Cannon, and sound designed by Alex Button. Our head of programming is Julian Boirot. Our head of production is Nick Johnson, and Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor. I'm your host, Vanessa Richardson.