In August 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez shot their parents so many times with shotguns that police initially thought it was a Mafia murder. After months of lavishly spending their inheritance, the brothers were arrested and convicted of the murders in a high-profile trial in 1996 – despite their attempts to argue that the gruesome attack was prompted by sexual abuse by their father and fear for their lives.
There is now a new season of Ryan Murphy’s true crime anthology. Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendezhas once again drawn attention to their crimes.
The brothers have lived relatively quiet lives for the past three decades – at least compared to the media frenzy that surrounded them in the 1990s. But imprisonment is not the end of their story: Since then, the pair have fought to get back together, found love with women through the prison mail system, and uncovered new evidence that they hope will win their release.
Erik and Lyle Menendez during their trial.
Ted Soqui/Getty
After their convictions, the two were separated and sent to different prisons. In the years that followed, Lyle had repeatedly requested a transfer to be with his brother. In February 2018, he was finally granted when he was transferred from Mule Creek State Prison in Northern California to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where Erik had been incarcerated since 2013.
On April 4, 2018, the brothers were finally moved to the same cell block. Journalist Robert Rand reported an emotional reunion to ABC News. When they saw each other again, the two brothers – who had previously only communicated by mail – “immediately burst into tears,” he said.
They can now see each other at meals and in the exercise yard, Rand added.
They have also made friends in prison, such as rapper and convicted murderer Anerae “X-Raided” Brown, who New York Post that Lyle and Erik became his mentors. He said they encouraged him to take anger management classes and join Narcotics Anonymous.
However, not all inmates were enamored with the brothers’ personalities. Eugene Weems, who says he was friends with Lyle at Mule Creek State Prison, is said to have encouraged him to be more respectful to the other inmates.
“He is a coward, he is very disrespectful, he is extravagant and he thinks he is better than everyone else,” Weems told post“That’s the way he is, that’s the truth. I have dealt with him, we were friends.”
In addition to friendship, the brothers also found love in prison.
Erik Menendez’s wife Tammi.
Chris Morton/Online USA
Anna Eriksson, a Chicago-born model, first contacted Lyle during his trial and sent him a message saying, “Stay tough,” she reportedly said People in 1996.
“All I can say is that we have built a connection, even though we have never touched,” she added.
Although the two married in a not entirely legal telephone ceremony in 1996, their relationship ended in 2001 after Eriksson discovered that Lyle was having a relationship with another woman.
That woman was Rebecca Sneed, a magazine editor turned criminal defense attorney. They had corresponded for nearly a decade before marrying in a prison visiting room in November 2003.
“Our interactions tend to be very distraction-free and we probably have more intimate conversations than most married spouses,” Lyle said People in 2017. “We try to talk to each other on the phone every day, sometimes even several times a day. I have a very stable, committed marriage that gives me stability and brings me a lot of peace and joy. It is a counterbalance to the unpredictable, very stressful environment here.”
Erik Menendez met his wife Tammi Saccoman, as well as his brother, through letters. The two soon became close and married in 1999.
“You can’t imagine what it was like to never hear ‘I love you’ for the first five years in prison. It makes you a colder, harder person,” Erik said. People in 2005. “Tammi’s love made me a better person.”
None of the brothers is entitled to conjugal visits.
While Erik and Lyle have long since become accustomed to life behind bars, two new pieces of evidence have recently surfaced that breathe new life into their case.
One of them is a letter that Erik allegedly wrote to his cousin Andy Cano in 1988, which seems to allude to abuse by his father.
“I’ve tried to avoid Dad. It still happens, Andy, but it’s worse for me now… Every night I stay awake thinking he might come in,” the letter says. “I’m scared… He’s crazy. He warned me a hundred times not to tell anyone, especially Lyle.”
Cliff Gardner, one of the brothers’ attorneys, told CBS News that the new evidence bolsters the abuse allegations and weakens their guilt. He argues that the brothers should have been convicted of manslaughter rather than first-degree murder, which could have kept them out of prison long ago.
The other piece of evidence is an affidavit from Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, in which he says he was also abused by the brothers’ father, José.
Both pieces of evidence were highlighted in a petition Gardner filed in May 2023 arguing that the brothers’ convictions should be overturned. CBS News reported that the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the claims in the petition.
Lyle and Erik Menendez during their trial.
Mike Nelson/AFP via Getty
Some of the brothers’ circle are not exactly enthusiastic about their renewed quest for freedom.
Hector Bravo Ferrel, a former correctional officer at the prison where the brothers are incarcerated, told the New York Post He said he was not surprised by this step and that it corresponded to their “demanding attitude”.
For Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s brother, the concern is personal. “They don’t deserve to walk this earth after killing my sister and brother-in-law,” he told the The New York Times.
