Jose Menendez was the father of Erik and Lyle Menendez. Jose, along his wife Kitty, was gunned down in his Beverly Hills home by his sons, in 1989.
History[]
According to his sister Marta, when Jose was five years old, their father would go on long trips leaving their mother very lonely. Maria would take Jose into her bed and make him do sexual things to her, which would later lead Marta to believe Lyle and Erik‘s abuse claims when they accused their father of sexually abusing them decades later (True Crime: Episode 8).
As a young adult, Jose had gotten married to Kitty and they had two sons Lyle and Erik. At home, Jose was very harsh with his sons, often quizzing them during dinner time. At one point during these dinners, Jose was questioning his elder son Lyle on why the Soviets didn’t want Pershing missiles in Europe. As he’s doing this, Jose notices his younger son Erik playing with his food and calls him out on it, calling him a sissy. He asks if those at the table think that Erik should grow up and eat all of his food. As he continues to berate Erik, Jose uses homophobic slurs as he ridicules his son for playing with his food. Carlos Baralt, in a vain attempt to defend Erik, tells his brother-in-law that all kids are picky eaters. Jose continues to refer to Erik using homophobic slurs as he tells him to eat his food (True Crime: Episode 2).
Jose was sexually abusive towards both of his sons, often threatening to kill them if they told anyone what was going on. On one occasion, Lyle, who was around 12 years old, confronted Jose about what he was doing to Erik, and asks him to stop. Jose simply tells Lyle that Erik makes things up sometimes, but tells him that he will stop. Sometime later that day while Erik was asleep, Jose went to Erik’s bedroom and threatened to beat him to death if he said anything to Lyle again.
Jose would also routinely shower with both of his sons. One of these incidents occurred while his young nephew, Andy Cano, was visiting. After having showered with both of his sons, he leads them into a bedroom. Andy tells Jose that he’s bored and Jose just tells Andy to stay in Erik’s room and they’re going to go play a game. Andy insists that he join in, but Jose leads the boys into the bedroom and closes the door in Andy’s face before locking it (True Crime: Episode 3). About an hour later, Jose let his sons out of the bedroom. Erik, who left the bedroom crying, quickly went to sleep afterwards (True Crime: Episode 4).
As his sons started getting older, Jose started to express his disappointment in them. During a lunch with his brother-in-law Carlos, he complains to him about how his son Lyle was flunking out of Princeton due to the school accusing him of plagiarism. He also goes on to criticize Lyle’s girlfriends calling them sluts, even going so far as to sponsor Lyle’s girlfriend, Jamie Pisarcik, to go on a professional tennis tour in Europe just to get rid of her. Jose tells Carlos that he wants to change his will and disinherit his sons, commenting that Lyle and Erik are going to have to get by on their own initiative. (True Crime: Episode 1)
As Erik got older, and was getting closer to high school graduation, he started applying for colleges. He was planning on going to UCLA and he asked his father if he could stay in the dorm room. Jose told him that he can have a dorm room but he wants Erik at home four nights a week so he can supervise his school work and he can’t sleep in the dorm, much to Erik’s dismay.
At some point, Erik told Lyle that Jose was still abusing him. Lyle confronted Jose about it again, and Jose told Lyle that whatever he does with his son is none of his business, telling him not to throw his life away and to go back to Princeton and forget the conversation ever happened. Lyle tells Jose that he’s a sick person and that he won’t touch Erik again, threatening to tell everyone about what Jose was doing if Jose didn’t stop. Jose comments that people make choices in life, stating that Erik made his and now Lyle also made his before walking away. Immediately after, Jose goes to Erik‘s room and physically attacks him, angry at his son for telling Lyle what he was doing, but Erik manages to get away.
On Saturday, August 19, 1989, Jose and Kitty had planned for the family to go on a fishing trip. His sons were away from the house all day, planning to return late enough that Jose and Kitty would’ve left on the fishing trip without them. When Lyle and Erik did return to the house, Jose and Kitty were packing up the car to leave, so Lyle and Erik had no choice but to go with them. The entire time Lyle and Erik avoided their parents. Later that night, Erik had gone into his room and locked the door. Jose was pounding on the door demanding to be let in until eventually giving up, commenting that Erik was going to have to come out of his room by the next morning.
The following morning, Sunday, August 20, Jose and Kitty are in the family room watching TV when Lyle walks in. Lyle asks Jose for the number to a tennis camp in Marina Del Rey, and Jose, without looking away from the TV, asks him what the point of that was, before turning up the volume.
Later that day in the early evening, Lyle and Erik tell their mother they want to go to a movie, and Kitty refuses to let them leave. As mother and sons argue, Jose tells Kitty to “shut up” and reiterates that they’re not going out that night. Jose tells Erik to go up to his room and he’ll be there in a few minutes. Lyle gets in between his brother and father and tells Jose that he won’t ever touch Erik again. Jose tells Lyle that he’ll do what he wants in the family and Kitty tells Lyle that he ruined the family. Jose pulls Kitty back into the family room telling her not to waste her time before closing the doors.
Later in the evening, around 10 PM, Lyle and Erik returned to the family room, each armed with their own Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun, and started shooting at both of their parents. After the brothers were done shooting, both of their parents were dead. Following the deaths, Jose and Kitty were buried in Princeton cemetery.
After the murders, it was wildly speculated that Jose and Kitty’s deaths were related to organized crime. However after Erik‘s confession, the brothers were subsequently arrested in March 1990, almost 7 months after the shootings. After two highly publicized trials in 1993 and 1995, Lyle and Erik were ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Appearances[]
- Law & Order True Crime (1 season, 6 episodes):
- Season 1: "True Crime: Episode 1" • "True Crime: Episode 2" • "True Crime: Episode 3" • "True Crime: Episode 4" • "True Crime: Episode 5" • "True Crime: Episode 6"