The Menéndez brothers: from murderers to TikTok stars, where teenagers ask to review their sentences

It was 1989, the Internet had not yet broken into everyone’s life. It was unthinkable that a movement in social networks could question political and judicial decisions and even have the power to generate change. However, that past with the present come together for a questionable cause on the part of adolescents who were moved by the case of the Menéndez brothers, who are serving a life sentence in the United States, for the crime of their parents, José and Kitty.

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Erik and Lyle Menendez They managed to question the decision of the American Justice with only the use of social networks. 33 years after the crime they committed, users have a common request: that the case and convictions be reviewed. The short videos supporting the request get a bit sentimental. images of teenagers captivate by their youth and beauty and TikTok users claim that voices of young people aged 18 and 20 at that time they were not listened to. Among the trials that were brought against them, they revealed that they suffered abuse from their parents and this would have been the reason why they they would have devised the macabre plan of the crimes.

It was the night of August 20, 1989 the day the brothers saw their parents for the last time. According to their first account, they returned from seeing a movie at the cinema and, in their luxurious home in Beverly Hills, Calif.they found the lifeless bodies of José and Kitty, in front of the television in the living room of the mansion where they used to enjoy leisure time. Faced with this creepy scene, they did not hesitate to notify the police. They followed the staff’s instructions and left the property, in case he or the killers were still there. They never suspected them.

The Menendez family. (ABC/)

With the beginning of the investigation, the brothers performed numerous religious ceremonies to say goodbye to their parents, in the company of your loved ones. Nobody could believe that the couple had been targeted by the assassins. Outrage at their deaths grew as their death was recalled. great social work and good relationship with those around them. They were described as respectful people, loving with their children and with the incentive to help them, despite the bad image that troubled adolescents had. Is that both Erik and Lyle were involved in street fights, juvenile delinquency and accused of breaking rules. The couple sought to take their children along another path linked to the plan they had devised for them, related to study and a “good” job present.

Teenagers didn’t want the life their parents had planned. Rather, they were looking enjoy family money without making any effort to do so. José Menéndez, through labor after fleeing Cuba, became in the ’90s in one of the most important businessmen in the music industry of the moment. The fortune he reaped was very well managed by him and his wife. And while they spared no expense, they did not want young people to get used to having everything and required them to complete their studies. Under pressure, both tried to obey them.

The plan of the crimes

Erik and Lyle were 18 and 20 years old respectively when they decided to start living the life they wanted. In order for this to take place, they needed her father’s inheritance, who had decided to separate them from her, leaving her in the name of her wife. Thus, they took the extreme decision to assassinate them so that their problems would dissipate.

While Kitty and José Menéndez watched the movie on television The spy who loved me her two children entered the home. They fired four shots at her father and nine at her mother. Minutes later, Lyle made the call that could jeopardize the whole plan. Called 911 and, apparently devastated, denounced having found the bodies of his parents. By police order, the brothers left the property and waited for the police officers.

The brothers wanted to enjoy their parents’ fortune.

Once they finished their work on the site, the brothers believed that their plan had been successful: suspicions did not point to them, so were not tested scientific as involved. The days continued between fake tears, farewells and police statements. Neighbors and family agreed on the main theory of an attempted robbery, which freed the real killers.

However, few are “perfect crimes” and although the actions went as planned, something did fail. Since the death of his parents, the brothers did therapy to go through the hard moment, which in the eyes of others was the worst thing that could happen to them. Jerome Oziel cared for the two brothers and, after two months, Erik couldn’t continue the lie and confessed to his therapist about the murders. Given this, the eldest of the brothers threatened the psychologist.

Fear and his professional questioning led Oziel to tell his secretary about the parricide, who was her lover. Later, they ended their love relationship and she appeared before the Justice to declare the information that she kept. There she started which for the brothers was the end of their secret.

The trials and the arrival on social networks

The commotion was the main ingredient of this story that went deep in the high society of the United States. The case became even more of general interest, therefore, the two trials that the Menéndez faced during 1993 and 1996 were televised. The first time in court, the defendants, in the midst of a harrowing testimony, recounted the sexual, physical and mental abuse they would have suffered from their father since they were little. While They pointed to his mother as an accomplice in this.

The brothers broke down in tears during the trial. (Capture trial/)

Before this story, were submitted to a psychological and psychiatric expert to determine the truth of his words, which were dismissed after the conclusions of the professionals. His strategy was collapsed and, after discovering that Erik had made a theatrical script about a parricide, two years before the fact, the trial was declared null to carry out new investigations.

On April 18, 1996 ended the second trial in which the brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the right to parole, determining that the crimes were with the intention of inheriting the sum of 14 million dollars.

Since then, they have been incarcerated in different prisons to avoid possible new plans that would put their lives and that of third parties at risk. On a few occasions they gave interviews to the press, however, their image still alive in the mediaespecially in social networks, where a generation questions issues of all kinds related with individual rights, gender issues and types of discrimination. In these reflections, the figures of Erik and Lyne did not escape.

Melendez brothers. (California Department of Corrections/)

Today’s men 54 and 52 years old They do not use TikTok, but their faces are the most viewed on this social network. The crying of both at the time of recounting the abuses they would have suffered led adolescents to request a review of their sentence. Videos with sad music while Erik declared while crying or exciting constructions with Lyne’s face in the foreground were enough to question a ruling by the Justice 26 years ago.

173 million views is the minimum that these videos have, created by a generation of Americans who grew up in the midst of social movements such as the me too and the massive marches demanding the enforcement of rights. Today it leads them to conclude that the murdering brothers were not listened to when denouncing sexual abuse, for which the rights of the child were not appealed, which is why they request a review of the case. The condemned do not know about this while they live a reality that has changed little behind bars, but the digital revolution placed them in the center, as questionable protagonists.

By Mara Piré Peña

Source: Elcomercio