The Menendez Brothers

I came to this Netflix documentary about the Menendez brothers case, probably like a lot of other people, after viewing the same channel's recently broadcast controversial 9-part drama, released under the "Monsters" title. I personally couldn't remember anything about the case before I watched the series, however, what I think is pretty inarguable is that it was slanted in favour of the prosecution case, which eventually prevailed at a retrial, finding the brothers guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

This two-hour film however was very different. Using extensive recent audio-interviews with them, I believe there's equally little doubt that the film-makers believe that the two were indeed provoked by the alleged incestuous sexually abusive behaviour of their father, to shockingly shoot both him and his wife, their mother, while they watched TV in their palatial family home.

With access to many of the original participants in the case, including jurors from both trials, also witnesses and representatives for both the defence and the prosecution, including the original female prosecutor, this was highly provocative in the claims it seemed to make. The point is made that in the intervening thirty years, with society's acceptance of parental sexual abuse in particular by fathers on their own children, including their sons, coupled with the emergence of the "#MeToo" movement, that the siblings were incorrectly charged and subsequently sentenced to jail. The claim here is that they should have received the lesser sentence of manslaughter, which would have resulted in much shorter custodial sentences them both, meaning of course they would have long since been freed by now.

The point is also made that the pair likely caught the backlash of the DA Office's perception that the near-contemporary acquittal of OJ Simpson and before that also of the four policemen who beat up Rodney King, meant that they were determined to this time obtain a high-profile conviction with the notorious brothers fitting the bill. One other interesting fact is that on the original hung-jury, the 50/50 split amongst them was on a gender basis, with the six males voting guilty and the six females accepting the self-defence claim.

I thought from the TV series that I knew how I'd have voted if I'd been on either jury but this alternative counter-argument, did make me revisit my thoughts on the case.

That said, I do believe that being kept in jail for over 30 years is certainly long enough, even for the terrible crime they committed and tried to cover up and that I wouldn't argue if their soon-upcoming appeal is upheld and they are freed, as I believe is now probable.

Time has told and time will tell...

Netflix allowing the brothers to do an in-depth interview about the events of not only that night but their lives prior to that was much needed. It's so refreshing to hear their voices after so many years. After watching this I am convinced that the abuse happened. Mainly because of how they killed their mother. They slaughtered her like a wild animal according to the prosecutor. You wouldn't kill your mother the way they did with so many bullets if you didn't hate her to your core. I began to think of how many men will actually do you serious bodily harm if you talk about their mothers. No matter how bad of a mother she is most men would go so far as attempted murder to protect their mother. So the fact that as she tried to flee they layered her with bullets mean that she was intensely hated. And you can only hate your mother that intensely if she failed to protect you from something or abused you. In this case it was both.

If you murder your mother for money you'd do so in a less rageful way such as poisoning. The menendez brothers were telling the truth and now that they have a hearing coming up i would love to see a follow up documentary on their lives after release. I gave this documentary 9 stars because I wish that Leslie Abramson, jill Lansing and Dr. Oziel would have at least spoken on camera.

It is bewildering that complex PTSD is still not recognised as a disorder in the DSM-V in 2024, let alone be taken into consideration in the Menendez trials when the concept was in its infancy. This documentary presents a comprehensive overview of the salient details of the Menendez brothers' case from the origins of the killings to the current TikTok movement to emancipate the brothers after 34 years of incarceration and counting, including advances in public awareness of sexual abuse of boys committed overwhelmingly by the men to whom the powerless boys were entrusted.

Supported by the testimonies of family members and forensic criminal experts in the first trial, it was established that both Lyle and Erik endured years of grooming and violence (physical, emotional and sexual) by their father, while the mother, herself lacking a moral compass, abetted the father through her passivity and silence. She was more distraught over his affairs with other women than his grotesque tampering with her own flesh-and-blood. Also fact was that the prosecution could not obtain character witnesses for either parent because they were such deplorable human beings.

In the 1990s, trial by media was the new sensation, Judge Weisberg had presided over the acquittal of four police officers of a hate crime (arising in the 1992 LA riots), the six male jurors in the first trial insisted on murder (to exculpate the father and themselves) while the women pressed for manslaughter, and OJ Simpson got off scot-free for murder due to his celebrity status. So Weisberg prevented crucial information from being fairly presented in the second trial to engineer a much-needed win for the DA's office, leading to a 12-0 ruling for first-degree murder within just a week.

As an outsider in Australia, I find the justice system in America bizarre. There is no neutrality when prosecutors like Bozanich and judges like Weisberg have a huge incentive to pursue certain convictions in order to further their public careers. Bozanich is so blind to her own self-righteousness that she doesn't recognise the hypocrisy when she says of the TikTokers, "their beliefs are not facts". She herself remains convinced of the brothers' intent to murder their parents out of greed despite all evidence presented by the defence. "They were just these dumb jock killers", she says of her first impression of them. She claims that she only agreed to participate in this documentary to show up for the slain mother, but it's a feeble disguise for her self-serving motivations. People like her don't care about justice, only themselves.

Judge Stanley Weisberg is corrupt and should be in prison. After having watched the actual trial he was biased from the very start of the first trial. He showed great preference to the prosecution, he would object to nearly every one of the defence's questions and block them and let the prosecution ask ridiculous questions and make atrocious statements. Not to mention he removed all of the abuse testimonies and evidence from the second trial. And there was a lot of evidence of abuse. As for the documentary itself, it was good however after having watched the actual trial it missed out so much of the abuse that these brothers especially Erik endured at both the hands of their parents. There was so much evidence, in the form of photos, medical reports and not to mention the various testimonies from doctors, coaches and family members. I felt that the documentary missed this out. It speaks volumes that not one person other than his paid secretary was a character witness for the father. They were abused in many ways by both parents and I hope that they are free soon. They have served enought time, they deserve a chance at a life.

Solid documentary. It could have been a little less one sided. I understand from another documentary that there's some incriminating evidence than if it were purely self-defense (such as a recorded telephone conversation between Lyle and a friend).

We can't know for sure what happened behind closed doors in the Menendez family, I'm inclined to believe them.

In any case, what the documentary certainly achieves is that you will find the brothers more sympathetic than the first prosecutor (Pamela Bozanich), even if they were cold blooded killers.

Her behavior and attitude will infuriate you. She comes across as a typical narcissist. But perhaps because of her defensive behavior and certain things she says, you get the impression that somewhere she knows that she might have been wrong.

Her latest comments are ridiculous ("The only reason we're doing this special is because of the TikTok movement to free the Menendi" and "If that's how we're gonna try cases now, why don't we just, like, have a poll? You present the faces, everyone gets to vote on TikTok, and then we decide who gets to go home"). What is wrong with her to make such statements??

Finally, she threatens Tik Tok people who have a different opinion than herself by saying that she is heavily armed. Sounds like an aggressive toddler.

I just had to get this off my chest. Thank you.