The Menedez Brothers, Erik and Lyle, are two of the most notorious criminals in American history. They were convicted of the 1989 murder of their wealthy parents, Jose and Kitty Menedez. The trial was a sensationalized media event that revealed a story of abuse and neglect at the hands of their parents. It also highlighted questions about the justice system's ability to deal with such heinous crimes. This case has been studied for decades by legal scholars and has become an important part of criminal law history.
Erik and Lyle lived in a country and time with laws which perceive domestic abuse victims as mentally ill or cold-blooded killers for killing their parents after years of prolonged abuse. A country which provides more protection to
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So Erik and Lyle, as parent-murderers, were cultural defendants even before they were legal ones.
But was the motive for the killings just desperation to escape from this insufferable abuse or was it simply just greed?
Well, the brothers, claimed life for them wasn't as it seemed. The abuse they suffered from both of their parents is a incredibly long list and is so brutal that i can’t mention half of it as it would be too inappropriate but to give you an idea; they had
Beat Erik with a belt or fists
SlappedErik across the face
Thrown Erik into walls, doors, furniture, fences etc.
Thrown Erik through a glass door until it
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The abuse they had face started when Lyle was 6 until he turned 23. A whole 17 years of never ending trauma induced by the people who are supposed to love and care for you the most. Erik and Lyle, as well as their defendants, believe Jose was a domineering, ruthless father and Kitty Menendez as a kind of passive pill-popping alcoholic.
The brothers expressed how they felt they were under imminent danger from their parents, mixed with the complicated entanglement of love and fear, of paranoia and projection involved with living with sexual abuse. Adding to that situation, Jose had allegedly threatened to kill the brothers after they told him they were going to share about all the abuse they had faced from him to the public. So after years of abuse had made them so paranoid, how were they going to react with anything else but violence in order to protect themselves?
Even with these statements the brothers were convicted with two accounts of first degree murder and no chance of parol. Possibly due to an unjust trial as their lawyer claims that they were using the boys to get re-elected. Even their own family picked side depending which would benefit them the