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Inside Lyle and Erik Menéndez's Life Behind Bars 30 Years After Their Parents' Murders
Many believe the Menéndez brothers, who at ages 18 and 21 murdered their parents in their Beverly Hills home, should be free.
It was a case and trial that shocked the nation.
Two brothers, 21-year-old Lyle Menéndez and 18-year-old Erik Menéndez, returned to their family’s Beverly Hills mansion on the night of August 20, 1989, only to find their parents murdered. Cuban immigrant and entertainment exec José Menéndez and his wife, Kitty, suffered 16 shotgun wounds between them in a gruesome double homicide that rocked the otherwise quiet neighborhood.
The case has garnered much media attention ever since and received even more coverage through the Oxygen original series Blood & Money and in the 2023 Peacock special Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
In the wake of the murders, suspicions soon fell on the affluent young men, who were raised in New Jersey and had big aspirations. Lyle, the promising tennis athlete, and Erik, who had his sights set on a career in politics, were eventually arrested for gunning down their parents, but not before using their multi-million-dollar inheritance on fancy cars and jewelry, and even a chicken wing restaurant on the East Coast.
The Menéndez Brothers were convicted in 1996, and years later, their guilt is still called into question on the grounds of gender bias and evidence pointing to José Menéndez’s alleged abuse.
Read on to learn more about where the Menéndez brothers are now.
Where are Lyle and Erik Menéndez now?
Currently, both men are serving life sentences at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. They aren’t the only infamous prisoners to reside at the state prison: former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, R.F.K. assassin Sirhan Sirhan, and Manson Family killer Charles “Tex” Watson are just a few who also live within the prison’s walls.
Between the Menéndez brothers’ conviction and 2018, the brothers remained in separate prisons to serve their sentences in what Erik Menéndez’s attorney called a “heartless” decision by the judge.
Lyle Menéndez was previously housed in Northern California’s Mule Creek State Prison — home to wife-killer Scott Peterson and highway serial killer Patrick Kearney — until he placed a request to be with his brother, according to CNN. The prison board approved the request, and Lyle Menéndez was transferred to the San Diego center in February 2018.
However, the brothers were housed in separate units until April of that year, when they were finally reunited.
Sources told journalist Robert Rand that the brothers “burst into tears” when seeing each other for the first time in 21 years, according to ABC News. Before then, the siblings weren’t allowed to speak on the phone, and they used snail mail to play chess with one another.
What is prison life like for the Menéndez brothers?
Erik Menéndez married his long-time pen pal, Tammi Ruth Saccoman, in 1999 and has discovered a passion for art since being behind bars, according to People.
“Being arrested was such a relief,” he said in a 2005 interview with the outlet. “Once I was arrested and put into prison, that person who I was began to emerge again. I had to find it for myself.”
One of the younger brother’s impressive portraits of Kathy Griffin gained the actress and comedienne’s adoration, so much so that she recorded herself showing it to Kim Kardashian, as previously reported by People.
As for Lyle Menéndez, he previously worked in a support group with fellow inmates who’d endured sexual abuse, as reported by People. He was married to his first wife, Anna Eriksson, from 1996 to 2001 before marrying Rebecca Sneed in 2003. Years later, Lyle Menéndez told the outlet his relationship with Sneed was “very steady” and “a counter to the unpredictable, very stressful environment” at Mule Creek.
RELATED: Everything To Know About Erik And Lyle Menendez's Father Jose, Accused Of Sexual Abuse
When will the Menéndez brothers be released?
Lyle and Erik Menéndez were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Although both admitted to murdering their parents, there was the question of whether they should be charged with murder or manslaughter, as previously reported by Oxygen.com.
When the first murder trial ended with a hung jury, a second trial greatly limited which evidence could be introduced in court, mostly concerning abuse allegations against the defendants’ father.
Defense attorney Cliff Gardner said earlier this year that a recently unearthed letter between Erik Menéndez and his cousin dated December 1988 — months before the murders — allegedly proved the murdered father was abusive and, therefore, the killings didn’t call for first-degree murder charges, according to CBS News.
During courtroom proceedings, the brothers claimed José Menéndez allegedly threatened their lives if they ever divulged claims of sexual abuse.
“I’ve been trying to avoid dad,” the younger brother wrote in the 1988 letter. “It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now… Every night, I stay up thinking he might come in… I’m afraid… he’s crazy. He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.”
Gardner also claims that allegations that José Menéndez sexually abused Menudo teen singer Roy Rossello, as featured in Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, suggests the imprisoned brothers should not have faced such severe charges.
"I always hoped and believed that one day the truth about my dad and what he did — rape and molestation — would come out and that I'd be believed," Erik Menéndez said in the Peacock documentary. "For so long, people just refused to believe it. But I never wished for it to come out like this, as the result of trauma that another child has suffered. It makes me very sad."
Amidst shifting attitudes over how society views sexual abuse, a decision as to whether the brothers’ convictions will be vacated in favor of a new trial has yet to be determined.
