The Menendez Murder Trials
Psych Legal Pop Podcast
Tess & Brooke Brigham
4.2 • 610 Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2023
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In preparation for the new documentary "Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed" coming out May 2, 2023 on Peacock, in this episode we discuss the trials of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez who were conviced of first degree murder in 1996 for the 1990 killings of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez. Their first trial in 1993 ended in a mistrial after the brothers revealed their motive, that their father sexually, physically and emotionally abused them while their mother did nothing. After threatening to expose their father, they believed he would kill them before he let that happen. Because of a change in the law after the first trial and the judge severely curtailing the abuse evidence at the second trial, the brothers were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
Listen to next week's episode when we cover Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome back to the Psych Legal Pop podcast. This is a podcast where we talk about |
| 0:08.1 | popular culture through the lens of an attorney and a therapist. I'm Brooke Brigham. I'm an attorney. |
| 0:14.3 | And I'm Tess Brigham. I'm the therapist. So today we are going to be talking about the Menendez murders. |
| 0:24.1 | And this is Lyle and Eric Menendez who were convicted for killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. |
| 0:33.8 | And you might be asking, why are you talking about this 30-year-old murder case? |
| 0:39.7 | And there's a reason because next week we're going to be covering a new documentary that's coming out in a few days. |
| 0:47.0 | And it's called Menendez to Minuto. |
| 0:51.1 | So as we're going to be talking about the defense that Lyle and Eric Menendez used to justify why they killed their parents was that their father, Jose Menendez, had been sexually abusing them since they were very young children and he was also very physically abusive, |
| 1:15.1 | aggressive, you know, demeaning, demoralizing, you know, everything. He was just... |
| 1:19.7 | And their mother was... A real monster. Then their mother took the father's side. They did tell |
| 1:25.7 | the mother, I think Lyle, the older one. |
| 1:28.5 | He did try to tell the mother. |
| 1:30.4 | She, you know, didn't do anything about it. |
| 1:32.2 | Didn't believe him. |
| 1:33.0 | She was also an alcoholic, and I mean, according to them, |
| 1:36.3 | alcoholic addicts and verbally abusive. |
| 1:39.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:40.0 | And she was no angel. |
| 1:41.4 | And maybe physically abusive too. |
| 1:43.8 | Right. |
| 1:44.2 | So now. So now what has happened is, if you don't remember this, there was a, Minuto was a boy band, probably the first boy band. |
| 1:54.9 | This is before 98 degrees or in sync. |
... |
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