Warning: contains discussion of physical and sexual abuse
Netflix’s documentaryThe Menendez Brotherscenters around the grisly murder ofJose and Kitty Menendez in Beverly Hillsin 1989, a shocking event in which their two sons, 18-year-old Erik, and 21-year-old Lyle,took a shotgun to their parents apparently to secure the $20 million inheritance Jose had threatened to deny them. The brothers then went to the movies and a music festival, before returning home to alert the police and tearfully claim that Jose, 45, and Kitty, 47, had been the victims of a mafia hit.
Their confession brought about a trial in whichthe Menendez brothers introduced an alternative motive:the years-long sexual, physical, and mental abuse they claimed to have suffered at the hands of Jose Menendez. They insisted that when Lyle confronted his father about the abuse and warned him that he’d go public with it, Jose threatened both boys' lives to the extent that they felt their only recourse was to take his.Menendez, Sr. was a wealthy, highly regardedbusinessperson and entrepreneur, which is allegedly the status he was trying to protect.
Jose Menendez’s Upbringing In Havana, Cuba Explained
Menendez’s Mother Was An Important Influence
Menendez was born in Havana, Cuba in 1944. He had two sisters, Terry and Marta. His father was a well-known soccer player who had retired and bought an accounting firm and his mother was a swimming star. It seems that Jose’s mother, according toBiography.com, fostered his superiority complex: “His mother adored him and emphasized his machismo and his male image, so much so that he became a little bit of a bully,” a neighbor once remarked.
After Castro’s Cuban Revolution in 1959, Jose, who had inherited his mother’s swimming genes, obtained an athletic scholarship to Southern Illinois University and moved to the US. It was there he met Kitty and, despite his family’s objections, they married in 1963.Ambitious and driven, Jose then relocated to New York City, where he enrolled in Queens Collegewhere he achieved an accounting degree.
Jose Menendez Moved To America & Married Kitty In 1963
Menendez Was A Driven Perfectionist
Once the couple had settled they started their family - Lyle arrived in 1968 and Erik two years later. Now with a family to support, Jose set to work building his career - his first job was at Coopers & Lybrand,before being head-hunted by their client Lyon’s Container Service in Illinois,where he went on to become company president. His demeanor was deemed superior and overbearing to staff; “I get that from my father," he supposedly once said, “They’re here to serve me.”
He was similarly strict with his two sons.Erik showed promise as a young tennis player and would be pushed mercilessly by his father.One of his coaches said: “Erik had so much less self-confidence because everything he did was never good enough.” Later, Lyle would complain, perToday: “My father suffered from being a perfectionist. It was sometimes difficult for Erik and me. It wore heavily on us.”
Jose Menendez Worked At Hertz & RCA Before His Death In 1989
His Successful Career Might Have Hidden A Dark Secret
By the age of 35, Jose Menendez had advanced to the role of executive vice president of U.S. operations for car rental company Hertz, a subsidiary of consumer electronics corporation RCA.Just one year later, RCA moved him to its records division, where he became COO. It was at RCA that he made his name, expanding their Latin catalog and signing world-known bands like Duran Duran and The Eurythmics. It also facilitated his family’s move to California, first to Los Angeles, but then to the ill-fated mansion in Beverly Hills where he and Kitty were killed.
When he was alive, Jose was seen as a driven and successful man. Erik and Lyle’s revelations of his alleged abuse at their trials were originally dismissed as fiction devised by their lawyers to have their charges reduced to manslaughter.In the 25 years since his death, more disturbing claims have come to light about Jose Menendez, including an accusation by Ray Rosello of the boy band Menudo, who said in 2023 that he was drugged and raped by Jose as a 14-year-old. InThe Menendez Brothers,the two boys' tearful testimony about their father are viewed through a different lense.
The Menendez Brothers
Cast
Lyle and Erik Menendez, imprisoned for killing their parents, recount the crime and the dramatic trials in this documentary.
