In 1994, the Menendez brothers were featured in the television film Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills on CBS. Lyle was portrayed by Damian Chapa, and Erik was portrayed by Travis Fine.
Erik Menendez and his older brother, Lyle, were sentenced to double life terms in prison for the 1989 murder of their parents. Who Is Erik Menendez? On August 20, 1989, Erik Menendez and his older brother, Lyle, shot and killed their parents, Jose and Kitty, at their home in Beverly Hills.
In October 2017, A&E interviewed Dr. Stuart Hart, an expert defense witness for the Menendez brothers during their trials, for its Real Crime Blog. On November 30, the network aired the first extensive interview with Erik Menedez in years, as part of its limited series The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All .
Leslie moved out of the Hancock Park home she lived in during the Menendez trial in 2001, trading it in for a large Craftsman-style home in the San Gabriel Valley. “We had been hankering on putting our arts-and-crafts furniture, which we’ve been collecting for 25 years, into an authentic Craftsman,” she told the L.A. Times.
In “The Menendez Murders,” Falco wears '90s power suits and a tangled mop of blond curls for her role as Leslie Abramson, the fiery attorney who defended Erik Menendez on the charge that he and his older brother Lyle killed their parents with shotgun blasts in August 1989.
The two have now maintained this "very fulfilling" relationship for more than 20 years. She said she still gets calls from him two or three times a week, and that they'll discuss everything — except the events in his life leading up to the murders.
Leslie AbramsonOne of the most memorable figures to come out of the situation, besides Erik and Lyle, was their committed defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, played by Edie Falco in the new anthology series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders.
Leslie is still living in the San Gabriel Valley with her journalist husband Tim.
Later Kitty would have a conversation with a friend where she said the same thing, only this time, the boys could hear them. With their parents dead, the Menendez brothers inherit their entire estate, plus $500,000 in life insurance.
78Â years (October 6, 1943)Leslie Abramson / Age
Tammi MenendezErik Menendez / Wife (m. 1999)
The former criminal defense attorney is enjoying a quiet life just outside Los Angeles. The prosecution in the Menendez case alleged that the boys spent around $1 million in the first six months after their parents died, which was enough to spark a media frenzy surrounding the trial.
Spector was charged with the February 3, 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in the foyer of his hilltop home. Abramson replaced one of O.J. Simpson's defense attorneys, Robert Shapiro, and was replaced later in 2004 by John Gotti's lawyer, Bruce Cutler.
Tim RuttenLeslie Abramson / SpouseTim Rutten is an American journalist with the Los Angeles Daily News. He worked for the Los Angeles Times for nearly 40 years between 1971 and 2011. Wikipedia
Leslie Abramson, 73, defended Erik Menendez (then 21) in his murder trial starting in 1993. She was a fierce and fiery lawyer who managed to convince jury members to find Erik not guilty of first-degree murder despite confessing to killing both of his parents with brother Lyle Menendez in 1989. That caused a mistrial, and the case went back to court in 1996. Though she fought tirelessly to defend Erik and intimidate the prosecution, Erik and Lyle were sentenced to life in prison without parole. She managed to save her client from the death penalty. She’s being portrayed in the new show Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders by Edie Falco.
Leslie isn’t happy that she’ll be depicted on Law & Order True Crime. The award-winning lawyer has stated that she refuses to watch the series. In fact, she ignored calls from the show’s researchers for insight into the trial. She reportedly hung up on reporters from The Wrap when they tried to talk to her about the show! “Oh boy.I have nothing to say. Absolutely nothing. Goodbye.” Damn! Before hanging up, she confirmed that she’s not watching the show.
Leslie is still living in the San Gabriel Valley with her journalist husband Tim. Tim was laid off by the Los Angeles Times in 2011, but he quickly found a new job at the Los Angeles Daily News, according to The Wrap.
Leslie is now retired from law, though she is a published author and still does speaking engagements from time to time, inspiring young lawyers. Law & Order show-runner René Balcer told EW that Leslie did not participate in the show in any way, but that “she’s having a nice life, a nice retirement.”.
After a mistrial, a second trial resulted in life sentences without parole for both brothers. Miles Gaston Villanueva as Lyle Menendez, Gus Halper as Eric Menendez. (Justin Lubin/NBC)
Briefly, the eight-part true-crime series tells the story of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, who killed their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on August 20, 1989, in their Beverly Hills mansion. ...
Edie Falco plays attorney Leslie Abramson, who doesn't hold in back in conversations with her husband, Tim Rutten, played by Chris Bauer. (Justin Lubin/NBC) Among her many famous roles, Falco is best known for her portrayal of Diane Whittlesey in HBO’s Oz, Carmela Soprano in HBO’s The Sopranos and as Nurse Jackie in the series ...
26 premiere on NBC. The show comes from Law & Order vet Rene Balcer with Wolf as an executive producer. While we wait for the show to premiere, see ...
It will focus on the day-to-day battles of the trial and look into the truth of what happened behind the scenes. Charles, who is best known for his role on The Good Wife, will play Dr. Jerome Oziel, the brothers' psychiatrist whose controversial testimony plays an important role in the case.
In 1994, the Menendez brothers were featured in the television film Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills on CBS. Lyle was portrayed by Damian Chapa, and Erik was portrayed by Travis Fine.
The episode is titled "The Menéndez Brothers: Murder in Beverly Hills", and it ends with a telephone interview of Lyle from jail with Chris Cuomo. In 2020, BuzzFeed Unsolved features the Menendez brothers in a one-episode special titled "How They Were Caught: The Menendez Brothers".
José was shot in the back of the head with a Mossberg 12-gauge shot gun. Kitty was awakened by the shots and got up from the couch.
She later broke up with Oziel and told the police about the brothers' involvement. Lyle was arrested on March 8, 1990, and Erik turned himself in three days later after returning to Los Angeles from Israel. Both were held without bail and separated from each other.
Physical evidences were also provided by the defense, which are nude and sexual photographs showing Lyle and Erik's genitalia as kids taken by their father. Despite all the testimonies and evidences that support the brothers, the prosecution continued to push the theory that the murders were done for financial gain.
Lyle and Erik's father, José Enrique Menéndez, was born on May 6, 1944, in Havana, Cuba. At age 16, he moved to the United States, shortly after the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. José attended Southern Illinois University, where he met Mary Louise "Kitty" Andersen (1941–1989).
On April 4, 2018 , Lyle was moved into the same housing unit as Erik, reuniting them for the first time since they began serving their sentences nearly 22 years earlier. The brothers burst into tears and hugged each other at their first meeting in the housing unit.
When Court TV started airing the Menendez brothers' trial on July 20, 1993 , audiences in the United States eagerly tuned in to the historical moment, as per Entertainment Weekly. Due in large part to the tragic details of the case, people at the time couldn't stop talking about it.
Lyle Menendez testified that on Aug. 15, 1989, his mother pulled off his toupee during a heated fight.
They're still in prison - and likely never getting out. YouTube. It took a grand total of seven years before José and Kitty Menendez obtained justice for their brutal murders. By the time they received their life sentences, Lyle Menendez was already 28 years old, while Erik Menendez was 25.
On Aug. 20, 1989, 21-year-old Lyle Menendez and his 18-year-old brother Erik stormed into their Beverly Hills mansion. With a flurry of shotgun rounds, the brothers violently killed their parents, José and Kitty, doing enough damage to their bodies to render them nearly unrecognizable. From the events leading to that night to ...
Lyle also set up a company, Menendez Investment Enterprises, with which he intended to penetrate the hospitality, entertainment, and real estate industries. He even invested $40,000 in a Los Angeles rock concert, an endeavor that ultimately failed when his associate bailed on him.
By all appearances, Lyle and Erik Menendez seemed to live an idyllic life. Their father, 45-year-old José Menendez was a self-made Cuban immigrant, reports Rolling Stone , who went from Manhattan dishwasher to West Coast film executive. At age 19, he tied the knot with Kitty, who was two years his senior.
However, Lyle's rage-fueled murder threat voided the doctor-client privilege of the parties involved. Still, it took two years before the Supreme Court of California permitted two of the three tapes to serve as evidence in the brothers' subsequent trial.
Lyle Menendez. Lyle Menendez and his younger brother, Erik, were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for murdering their parents in 1989. (1968–)
That June, their twisted family story was the subject of the Lifetime movie Menendez: Blood Brothers, starring Courtney Love as Kitty, and a few months later, acclaimed actress Edie Falco headlined the new series Law & Order: True Crime: The Menendez Murders.
In July 1993 , the trial for Erik and Lyle began, with separate juries designated for each defendant. With the proceedings televised, a curious public witnessed the brothers testify that they had been subjected to years of verbal, physical and sexual abuse. Erik added that he believed his father would have killed them to prevent their secret from being revealed.
Trials and Conviction. In July 1993 , the trial for Erik and Lyle began, with separate juries designated for each defendant. With the proceedings televised, a curious public witnessed the brothers testify that they had been subjected to years of verbal, physical and sexual abuse.
Ted Bundy. American serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy was one of the most notorious criminals of the late 20th century, known to have killed at least 20 women in the 1970s.
During their highly publicized trial, which began in 1993, the brothers claimed they acted in self-defense after years of physical and sexual abuse. They were both convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996.
However, the therapist confided in his girlfriend, who in turn tipped off the police. The brothers were arrested within days of each other in March 1990, and in late December 1992 they were indicted for first-degree murder. Dr.
Lyle and Erik Menendez grew up in Southern California as sons of a wealthy couple, Kitty and Jose Menendez. In 1996, a jury found the brothers - who were in their early 20s - guilty of first-degree murder of their parents. Watch the full story on "20/20," streaming now on Hulu. EMBED <> More Videos.
The brothers have now served 31 years in prison, most of that time spent apart from each other - only being reunited recently at a prison in San Diego. They've exhausted most appeals processes and their prospects of a new trial have dwindled. For them, life inside prison walls hasn't changed all too much.
As New York Times reporter Ezra Marcus told me -- these young adults weren't around to experience the sensationalism that takes place when a crime initially happened. They didn't live through the shock of the crime itself, or even the news reports in the days and weeks to follow.
There are a few basic rules of working in news. First - tell the truth and tell it well. Second - always keep your eyes and ears peeled for new stories. Lastly, but certainly not least - keep a pulse on old stories for new developments. I think my team at ABC does ...