S3 Ep200: The Menendez Brothers: Natural Selection (Part 1)

Crime Weekly

Audioboom Studios

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.8 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2024

⏱️ 125 minutes

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Summary

Beverly Hills, located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, was and still is a place that the rich, famous and glamorous choose to make their homes. Known for its opulence and luxury, the homes in Beverly Hills are some of the most expensive in the United States, with some properties worth tens of millions of dollars. But behind the country clubs, cocktail hours and shopping trips, there was something much darker brewing in a high end Beverly Hills neighborhood. On August 20th, 1989, business executive Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty were brutally murdered while sitting in the living room of their sprawling Mediterranean style mansion, and what seemingly made this tragedy worse was the fact that their two son’s, Lyle and Erik, were the ones to make the gruesome discovery of their bodies. Suddenly orphaned, the Menendez brothers were initially looked at with sympathy, but soon they would be on trial for the murder of their parents. Lyle and Erik didn’t deny that they had taken their parents' lives, but according to them it was because they were scared and broken down after a lifetime of abuse. At the time, most people believed this was a fabricated excuse, and the prosecution gave greed and money as the true motive. A tragedy and trial played out for the world on television, ending with both Erik and Lyle confined at the Richard Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego for life, with no chance of parole. Recently, newly discovered evidence and testimony has raised questions of whether Erik and Lyle were being honest about the constant state of stress and fear their parents forced them to live under.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Beverly Hills, located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, was and still is a place that the
0:18.2	rich, famous, and glamorous choose to make their homes.
0:21.7	Known for its opulence and luxury,
0:23.6	the homes in Beverly Hills are some of the most expensive
0:25.9	in the United States, with some properties
0:27.7	worth tens of millions of dollars.
0:29.8	But behind the country clubs, cocktail hours,
0:31.8	and shopping trips, it was something much darker brewing in a high-end Beverly Hills neighborhood.
0:37.0	On August 20, 1989, business executive Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty were brutally murdered while sitting in the living room of their sprawling Mediterranean-style mansion.
0:46.4	And what seemingly made this tragedy worse was the fact that their two sons, Lyle and Eric, were the ones to make the gruesome discovery of their bodies.
0:54.0	Suddenly orphaned, the Menendez brothers were initially looked out with sympathy, but soon they would be
0:58.3	on trial for the murders of their parents.
1:00.8	While on trial, Lyle and Eric did not deny that they had taken their parents lives, but according to them it
1:06.0	was because they were scared and broken down after a lifetime of abuse.
1:10.0	At the time most people believed this was a fabricated excuse, a way to avoid responsibility,
1:16.0	and the prosecution gave greed and money as the true motive.
1:19.3	A tragedy and trial played out for the world on television, ending with both Eric and Lyle confined at the
1:24.0	Richard Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego for life with no chance of parole.
1:28.6	However, recently, newly discovered evidence and testimony has raised questions of whether Eric and Lyle were being
1:34.4	honest about the constant state of stress and fear that their parents forced them to live under,
1:39.9	and whether it is an acceptable excuse or justification for what they did to their parents. Hello everybody welcome back to Crime Weekly I'm Stephanie Harlow and I'm Derek
2:02.1	Lovasser. So today we are jumping in to a very highly requested case, the Menendez murders. And I mean, since I've been doing YouTube, people have been asking me to do this case.
	...

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