CA - Court upholds Menendez brothers' convictions

[Noirdame79]

The gunshot was not to Jose's knee, it was above the knee. He was sitting down, so his legs were bent. If the wound had been to his knee, it would be where his leg was bent. It was not.

 

[Noirdame79]

I wasn't sure about the sexual abuse but now I believe it did happen. I've never doubted the physical and mental abuse at the hands of Jose plus the lack of support and love from their alcholic Mother. But there is no excuse to premeditatedly gun down your parents! That came from a place of revenge and fear of being financially cut off in the present and future.

Their parents owned guns. They knew that their father would not let them reveal the abuse secret. It's not hard to believe that they feared their parents would kill them. That is why they bought the shot guns, for protection. They stated that they believed they had already been cut out of the will. Learn about how PTSD affects the brain, especially when abuse happens before the age of 18. The victim tends to become hyper-aware and watchful like something bad will happen, and may even over-react to something that seems small or insignificant, because it is significant to them.

Anyone, of any age or gender, can be abused and fear for their lives. At age 18, you don't magically have all the answers nor is the brain even fully developed at that age. Some studies suggest that the brain is not fully developed until the age of 25. Abuse victims are asked why they didn't leave but it just isn't simple. And if you leave, that doesn't mean that it necessarily stops or that you will be safe.

 

[Noirdame79]

Erik Menendez Explains Why He Smirked During His Murder Trial: 'It Was a Defense Mechanism'

http://people.com/crime/erik-menendez-explains-smile-during-murder-trial/

Also, if you watch videos of the arraignment, you'll notice that as the charges are being read and his mother's name is mentioned, Erik looks down at the floor with a saddened expression before looking up again. Again, it's important to remember that these were young men who were raised to win at any cost, not to show weakness or emotion, and that facade was the most important word.

The Law & Order series revealed that both Jose and Kitty were abused as children; Jose's mother, Maria, sexually abused him (something I have long suspected, given how she dominated his life, wouldn't let his father play much of a part in raising him), which explains a lot. However, the judge refused to allow family members to testify about this during the first trial, claiming that it "wasn't relevant". Uh, in what universe? Also, you can't tell me that David Conn and his prosecution team in the second trial really believed that the abuse was all a lie and that no one would believe it. If that were true, why did he go to such lengths to block witnesses who could corroborate the abuse?

As for Pamela Bozanich, she admitted she has a crime scene photo of Kitty as a keepsake. WTF? Something's wrong with her.

 

[Noirdame79]

Just to give everyone a heads up, a new book on the case will be published next year - The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Inside Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation by Robert Rand. It's available for pre-order at Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle.

Robert Rand has been investigating the case since 1989 and covered both trials. Most documentaries about the Menendez brothers have featured him. His book will explore the case, how the media has often distorted it and investigates allegations not only of abuse within the family, but also the allegations that Jose Menendez victimized others.

https://www.amazon.com/Menendez-Mur...F8&qid=1513121861&sr=1-1&keywords=robert+rand

 

[Swirlz]

Is Killing an Abuser Ever Justifiable? What Happens When Parents are the Abusers?

Both Gypsy Blanchard’s and the Menendez brothers’ cases were recently televised. Both involve young adults killing a parent or parents after years of alleged abuse – both physical and emotional – committed by a loved parent or parents. According to Barbara Walters’ report, Could the menendez Brothers get a Retrial?, in the second trial:

“ . . . the brothers were not allowed to use a “battered women’s syndrome” defense in their second trial because they’re men.”

 

[Noirdame79]

Erik Menendez Details Alleged Family Fight and Molestation in First Interview in Over 10 Years (Exclusive)

Erik Menendez describes the events leading up to the brutal murders of his parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, in his first interview since 2005, revealing what was going through his and his brother Lyle's heads before the killings.

While Lyle has been on a mini-media frenzy all year, Erik has remained silent for over 10 years. He'll share his side of the story in A&E's new documentary series "The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All," premiering Thursday night. In an exclusive preview at the first two hours, Erik details an alleged fight he witnessed between his mother and Lyle, as well as a conversation the two brothers had about the alleged molestation Erik says he suffered at the hands of their father.

"I remember it was Tuesday and I was coming in the front door of the house and mom and Lyle were coming out of the study and mom was screaming," Erik explains, speaking from a phone inside the walls of Donovan Correctional Facility. "They were in an argument and Lyle was saying that he needed it and it was important and mom in a rage said, 'You don't need your effing hair piece!' and she reached up and she ripped his hair off his head. I remember just being stunned by what happened."

In old court testimony, Lyle explained that the alleged incident left him "completely embarrassed." "[Erik] didn't know I had a hair piece," he said. "My brother and I, there are things we don't talk about and that was one of them."

"I told him not to worry about it, that he was my brother, that I loved him, basically saying I don't judge you," Erik continues, before detailing how the conversation then changed to another, darker topic.

"I asked him, 'Do you remember when I was a kid, you asked me if anything was happening between me and dad?' I said, 'Lyle, it's still happening,'" says Erik. "He was like, 'What do you mean?' 'Still happening, just sexual things.' He got suddenly really upset. Saying how could I let that happen, did I enjoy it, why didn't I tell anyone, why didn't I stop it. I was crying and I started having a small panic attack."

Erik says his brother then asked if their mother knew about the abuse. "I said 'no,' [but] he said, 'No, I think she does. I think mom knows."

The Menendez Brothers brutally murdered their parents in 1989 with two 12-gauge shotguns and later testified that their father sexually abused them. Both are currently serving life sentences, but reportedly play chess through the mail and have "almost never talked" to each other about the murders in the years since.


"My only hope in speaking out is that people may have a more complete understanding. A more complete understanding of the events that led up to my actions on the night of August 20th, and really a fuller picture of what really happened in my life," Erik added in the A&E press release. "All I can hope for is that people will come to realize that the truth is not a simple, one-line explanation that many people have tried to make it out to be. That really, that my life was this unfolding of a complicated life that I lived had all of these things that came into being and that led up to my involvement and responsibility for what is an ongoing and enduring family tragedy."


http://toofab.com/2017/11/30/erik-m...k-tells-all-ae-lyle-molestation-sexual-abuse/

 

[Noirdame79]

Erik Menendez Speaks Out: 'I'm Telling My Story to You Now for the First Time'


<modsnip - posting more than 10% is a copyright violation - see link>

Erik Menendez Speaks out About Abuse Claims, Murder

 

[Noirdame79]

Lyle Menendez Has Not Spoken To His Brother Erik In 17 Years

<modsnip - posting more than 10% is a copyright violation - see link>


Lyle Menendez reveals he has not spoken to Erik in 17 years


Let me just point out that Jose's sister NEVER stated that the molestation was not true. Only Kitty's brothers, Milton and Brian (the latter is now deceased) didn't believe the abuse. Family members wanted to testify about Jose and Kitty's background (both of them were victims of abuse themselves) but the judge did not allow it, ruling that it was "too remote" to have any bearing on the case. I beg to differ. Abuse can be a cycle. It also doesn't mention how Oziel's girlfriend (technically, she was his mistress, as he was married at the time) testified for the defense as a rebuttal witness in the first trial, and she recanted her statement to police, testifying that Lyle never threatened Oziel and that the psychologist kept the tapes for extortion purposes.

 

[Noirdame79]

A recent article about the late Dominick Dunne's "obsession" with this case, his obvious bias against the defendants and his conflicted sexual identity, which he projected onto Erik Menendez. Using a person's sexual history against them is wrong regarding sexual assault, because it was an assault, not a "relationship" and not "consensual" and to say that victim must be lying because they've allegedly or not had other sexual experiences is wrong on so many levels; it's likely that neither Dunne nor the prosecution in both trials would get away with this today - re-victimizing and sexually harassing a person, defendant or not, in open court and in the media. No matter if Dunne was "fascinated" by Erik, or believed the brothers, even for second, it doesn't change how he judged them for not leaving an abusive situation and called them liars; it doesn't change that he paid at least one person to lie in his articles to damage the credibility of Lyle Menendez; it doesn't change the truth of the matter that there was zero evidence to corroborate that the killings took place for financial gain; it doesn't change the fact that Dunne was a gossip monger rather than a reporter. Yes, he went through terrible times himself and having to be in the closet for all those years must have been difficult, to say the least. But he didn't care about the truth, only getting the story and perpetuating what the prosecution wanted him to.

Inside Dominick Dunne’s Ties to Menendez Brothers: Shared Parental Abuse, Gay Identity (Exclusive Book Excerpt)

In an excerpt from his biography “Money, Murder, and Dominick Dunne,” Robert Hofler reveals how Vanity Fair’s star reporter became obsessed with one of the young killers

In 1993 Dominick Dunne was already famous for saying “he did it” whenever it came to a high-profile murder case he reported on for Vanity Fair. He almost always sided with the prosecution against the defendant, and he did so with the same unbridled partiality he honed a decade earlier when, making his debut in Vanity Fair, he covered the trial of John Sweeney, the Ma Maison chef who strangled to death Dunne’s 22-year-old actress-daughter, Dominique.

Erik and Lyle Menendez were on trial for double murder in 1993. The two young men and their two middle-aged victims were not celebrities, but they were wealthy, lived in Beverly Hills, and had ties to the movie business. Even more newsworthy: The victims were Erik and Lyle’s parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, a top executive at Live Entertainment. The brothers loaded and reloaded their 12-gauge Mossberg shotguns 14 times in the TV room of the family mansion at 722 North Elm Drive.

There was no doubt that Erik and Lyle had murdered their parents on August 20, 1989, as the couple sat watching “The Spy Who Loved Me” on the VCR. The big question of the sensational Menendez trial was whether the father had sexually abused his sons. Dunne said he believed without a doubt that Jose never molested them. He said it before the trial began, and he said it 12 years later when interviewed for a documentary based on his life. “I never ever believed for a second that he sexually abused them,” he told the camera.

Actually, Dunne did believe the two son’s accusations against Jose Menendez, and he believed it for more than a second. He believed it for the better part of a day. September 11, 1993, was Lyle Menendez’s first day on the stand in his own defense. Defense attorney Jill Lansing questioned him on the stand, “Why did you kill your parents?”

“Because we were afraid,” Lyle whispered, the tears already beginning to form. “He raped me.”


“Did you cry?” asked his lawyer.

“Yes.”

“Did you bleed?”

“Yes.”

“Were you scared?”

“Very.”

“Did you ask him not to?”

“Yes.”

“How did you ask him not to?”

“I just told him, I don’t…I don’t…”

According to Lyle, Jose Menendez thought of their sex together as a male bonding ritual. Lyle was only six years old when first raped, and said being anally penetrated made him feel he was “the most important thing” in his father’s life.

The most heartbreaking moment in his testimony, however, came later when Lyle talked about his younger brother. He revealed his father also raped Erik, and that he, in turn, replicated that sexual abuse by taking his kid brother into the woods to molest him there in a similar matter. In the courtroom, Lyle looked away from his lawyer, and leaning forward on the stand, he faced Erik to apologize, “I don’t understand why, and I’m sorry!”

Erik and Lyle were not the only ones crying. Several jurors and reporters also wept. Ashen, Dominick Dunne shook his head. “I wonder if I’m wrong. Could I be wrong?” he asked Shoreen Maghame, a young reporter from the City News Service.

Out in the courthouse hallway, Dunne repeated his “I wonder if I’m wrong” statement to another reporter, and added, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I believe this. I think he’s telling the truth.”

Unlike Shoreen Maghame, Playboy reporter Robert Rand agreed with the man from Vanity Fair about almost nothing that happened during the Menendez trial. In fact, Court TV had hired Dunne and Rand to disagree, and late every Friday afternoon throughout the trial the two journalists gave opposing weekly rebuttals on camera. Crime watchers had never seen anything like it. The Menendez trial was only the second one for which the cable network presented gavel-to-gavel coverage, the first being the ten-day Williams Kennedy Smith rape trial in 1991. On Court TV during the months-long Menendez trial, it was Robert Rand for the defense and Dominick Dunne for the prosecution.

In the hallway, Dunne repeated himself a third time, “I may be wrong.”

The Menendez trial represented everything Dunne loathed about the criminal justice system. It was all about a couple of wealthy brats using their money to buy themselves justice and, in the process, ruin the good reputations of their victims. Dominick saw the same thing happen to his own daughter, Dominique. The defense raised unsubstantiated charges of abortion and drug use against her, and then, in Dunne’s opinion, the killer got his rich boss to pay for his defense.

The Menendez trial also proved personally complicated for Dunne. Like Jose Menendez, he, too, had raised two sons in the rarefied hot-house environment of money, privilege, and celebrity that is Beverly Hills. Even more disturbing, Dunne found he strongly identified with one of the young killers and confessed, years later, of being “fascinated” by Erik Menendez.

Erik was the handsome son, the likable one. He overcame a severe childhood stammer, as did Dunne; and much more significant, Dunne believed Erik to be “homosexual.” In the private journals he kept as an adult, Dunne wrote of not understanding the “equation between” the young heiresses he dated in his hometown of West Hartford, Connecticut, and the adult men he met in the town’s public restrooms, but that he pursued them with “the same fervor.” He claimed to have been only “nine or ten” when he first began performing acts of oral sex on men in the local park.

Then there were the beatings he received from his father, Dr. Richard Dunne.

The Menendez trial compelled Dunne, for the first time in his life, to write and publicly talk about the physical abuse he experienced as a child at the hands of his own father. He linked that abuse to what happened to the younger Menendez son. Dunne never publicly revealed the other thing that drew him to Erik: their sexual orientation. While he believed that Jose Menendez called Erik a “******,” Dunne would only say that his own father had called him a “sissy.”

The word “sissy” in the guarded 1930s of Dunne’s boyhood had been replaced by “******” in the less circumspect times of Erik’s youth. “He mimicked me,” Dominick said of his own father. “He called me a sissy. ‘Sissy’ is a tough word. It may not sound tough, but it’s words that hurt. It lingers.”

The word “sissy” fastened itself to Dunne’s consciousness because it labeled his greatest fear about himself. He was not a real boy. He was a girl trapped in a boy’s body.


Dr. Dunne was not the only one who said it. An uncle told Richard that the 6-year-old Nicky Dunne “ought to have been a girl.” A friendly Italian barber told his mother, Dorothy Dunne, the same thing: “He ought to have been a girl.” What remained burned in Dominick Dunne’s memory is that neither parent disagreed with that opinion; no one came to his “rescue” to claim the real little boy within. “I never felt I belonged anywhere, even in my own family. I was the outsider of the six kids,” he said.

Dunne’s deeply instilled homophobia regarding his own sexual orientation influenced and played into his coverage of the Menendez trial.

“There was a strain of homosexuality running through the trial,” said the prosecutor, Pamela Bozanich, whom Dunne quickly befriended. “We knew Erik was gay and having oral sex with the inmates.” They also knew of homoerotic photographs taken of Erik. In addition, Dunne liked to gossip about Erik’s possible physical attraction to his high school friend Craig Cignarelli, a witness for the prosecution. Dunne and Bozanich even speculated on why Judge Weisberg often disallowed the word “homosexual” in the courtroom.

According to Bozanich, defense attorney Leslie Abramson was “panicked that people would find out or think Erik was homosexual. We had this strain all through the trail and Dominick would whisper things people told him.”

And it didn’t stop there. Early one morning, Bozanich awoke to a frantic phone call. It was Dominick Dunne. He heard he was going to be outed if he did not stop writing about the Menendez trial. Bozanich had to wonder, “Why is he telling me this at six o’clock in the morning?”

ABC News’s Dan Abrams recalled the hubbub. “It was really a very, very gossipy case,” said the legal analyst. “There’s no question when it came to the trial gossip Dominick was the leader among the reporters there. He was hearing everything. Some of it wasn’t true.”

One tidbit that turned out to be true, and which Dunne uncovered through his reporting, was a homoerotic photograph taken of Erik Menendez. A detective gave him the tip to contact the photographer Philip Kearney.

“Dominick was very apologetic when he first phoned me,” Kearney recalled. “He was very respectful.” Which did not stop Dunne from asking if the photographer had an intimate relationship with Erik. In Vanity Fair, Dominick recorded Kearney’s response as being “Spiritually, yes. Physically, almost.”

Nearly a decade and a half after that interview, Kearney said the relationship was actually “more physical than it was spiritual. I’d give Erik a massage and it would lead to other things.”

Erik always claimed not to be homosexual but told the photographer, “If I was gay, Craig [Cignarelli] would be my boyfriend.”

“The statement is nonsensical, but I didn’t challenge it,” said Kearney.

One day, Erik gave Kearney a screenplay he had written, about a teenager who kills his parents to collect the insurance money. Kearney did not read it but knew the general outline from what Erik told him. “It’s horrible enough reading your own stuff,” Kearney surmised. “And I shelved it.”

In Dunne’s conversations with Kearney, he focused not on the script that presaged the double murders but rather the photographs. In his testimony Erik claimed that his father forced him to pose naked over an oval mirror to obtain a more dramatic view of his naked torso. Dunne rejected that story. He believed Erik got the idea of the mirror from one of Kearney’s photo sessions, and it was this photo that Dominick insisted illustrate his Vanity Fair article.

Dunne and Kearney also discussed at length the fateful day that Erik showed up not in the usual sports car but an old clunker. Kearney never knew for sure if Jose Menendez had molested his sons. “What I do know is the father cut them off. He cut them off where it hurt the most in Beverly Hills,” Kearney said of money, cars, and clothes. “And that’s where it was all trailing from. The car wasn’t in a shop. The father had taken it away from him.”

According to Kearney, Dominick always believed that Lyle masterminded the murders, and “Erik wasn’t strong enough to defy that hook Lyle had in him.”

The first Menendez trial ended in two hung juries. Dominick Dunne, however, did not cover the second trial, which resulted in two murder convictions. By then, the Vanity Fair writer was engulfed in the O. J. Simpson murder trial. Not that he ever forgot Erik Menendez.

In 2001, Dunne wrote a letter to Erik to request a face-to-face interview in prison. He had read Erik’s many unproduced screenplays, written before the two sons committed murder, and in the letter he went on to lavish praise on the young man’s talent as a writer. “How often you come to my mind,” Dunne wrote.

His fascination didn’t stop there. He also made copies of Kearney’s shirtless photograph of Erik, and on special occasions, Dunne would show the photo to guests at his country house in Hadlyme, Connecticut.

“He could be a Calvin Klein model,” said the man from Vanity Fair.


https://www.thewrap.com/dominick-dunne-erik-lyle-menendez-brothers-gay/

 

[Noirdame79]

Jurors Say Menendez Brothers Served Long Enough




Jurors Say Menendez Brothers Served Long Enough

 

[Noirdame79]

Menendez Reunited

Brothers and victims of parental abuse Erik and Lyle Menendez to be rightly reunited in prison after 22 years apart



Last autumn&#8217;s Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders brought renewed interest in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers jailed for life without parole in 1996 for the murder of their parents despite compelling evidence of their having been subject to appalling abuse by the very people meant to protect them.



Yesterday, after 22 years of incarceration without sight of one another, it was announced that the brothers would finally be placed in the same jail &#8220;shortly.&#8221;



Of this positive news for a duo who undoubtedly received far too harsh a sentence, Hazel Thornton, a juror at the first trial of Erik Menendez and the author of Hung Jury: The Diary of a Menendez Juror, exclusively told The Steeple Times:



&#8220;Erik and Lyle were never a danger to anyone besides the parents who terrorised them all their lives. Sending them to separate prisons without even the privilege of speaking to one another for 22 years was just plain cruelty. There are lots of brothers in prison together. I am delighted that they will be reunited. For anyone who&#8217;s counting, they&#8217;ve now been incarcerated for 28 years. But miracles do happen!&#8221;



Elsewhere on Facebook on Wednesday, Lyle Menendez himself commented:



&#8220;I would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentines&#8217; Day. I adore my wife today more than I ever have after so many years together. She has been with me throughout this long journey and will be as we embark on a new one.&#8221;



&#8220;As most of you know, my brother and I have been separated for almost 22 years &#8211; captured so tragically on Law & Order. We have been working for the past 6 years to get the Corrections Department to place us together. I have requested to be transferred to San Diego to be with Erik. It has been a long torturous ordeal but never did I feel hopeless.&#8221;



&#8220;I am very grateful to announce that on Monday the request was finally granted. Erik and I will be reunited in the very near future. We will keep you posted!&#8221;



&#8220;I would like to thank the huge number of people across the country who felt strongly that my brother and I should be together and took the time to pray for that result and wish us well.&#8221;


http://thesteepletimes.com/the-fog/menendez-reunited/

 

[Noirdame79]

Excerpt from ESCAPING A LIFE OF ABUSE: CHILDREN WHO KILL THEIR BATTERERS AND
THE PROPER ROLE OF “BATTERED CHILD SYNDROME” IN THEIR DEFENSE by Julie Rowe

Although it is usually highly publicized, parricide is “the rarest form of intra-family homicide,” accounting for only two percent of all homicides annually.12 Sons killing one or both parents account for approximately 90% of all parricides,
and the least frequent form of parricide involves daughters killing their mothers.13

When a child commits parricide, he or she usually commits the murder in a seemingly cold and calculating manner.14 The child frequently kills in a nonconfrontational situation when the parent is sleeping, watching TV, or looking
away.15 Parricide is rarely committed when the child is in the midst of a violent confrontation with the parent.16 Absent a crime scene involving a violent struggle or confrontation, prosecutors seek first-degree murder for these offenders.
Society may initially judge parricide offenders as wayward youths, depraved and devoid of morals or conscience. On
the contrary, children who commit parricide usually do so in response to years of extreme physical or psychological abuse.17

In recent estimations, 90% of all parricides are committed by children who have suffered abuse at the hands of their parents
over a long period of time.18 In some cases, a child feels he or she must act because of fear that his or her own death is imminent.19

Many children believe that killing one or both parents is the only way to stop the abuse and free themselves from a life
lived in constant fear.

Characteristics of the Victims (a.k.a. the Abusers)

Parents who severely abuse their children and are consequently murdered by their children may not be distinguishable
from other parents.21 They are generally hard-working without any criminal history, yet they may tend to have intimidating
or controlling personalities.22 The type of parent who is killed by his or her child “doesn’t care about reforming the
child’s behavior – instead he is addicted to his power over the child and the pleasure derived from exercising it.”23 Many
times, a parent such as this will couple physical abuse with severe psychological abuse. The parent may accomplish this by
rejecting, isolating, exploiting, or berating the child.24 This type of verbal abuse is usually accompanied by severe domination,
and the child may be “controlled so strictly that the parental restraint amounts to virtual imprisonment.”25

In reality, parents kill their children by abuse or neglect ten times as often as children kill their parents.26 In
California, 133 children died from child abuse or neglect in 2001.27 Nationally, in 2003, 1,500 children were killed by their
parents, and 78.7% of those children were under three years old.28 Clearly, child abuse is a serious problem in the United
States, causing a large number of deaths annually. Yet when children fight back against the abuse, after failed attempts to
receive help from relatives or social services, they are ushered into the court system as the worst kind of criminals.

Most children who commit parricide have been physically harmed for extended amounts of time and are frequently
psychologically damaged as well. Dr. C. Henry Kempe introduced the term “Battered Child Syndrome” in a 1962 study to
describe “a clinical condition in young children who have received serious physical abuse, generally from a parent or foster
parent.” Battered Child Syndrome was primarily used to prosecute child abusers, and courts began to allow expert medical
testimony regarding Battered Child Syndrome to prove that a child had been physically
abused over long periods of time. Yet there are many psychological and emotional elements of Battered Child Syndrome that have not yet gained proper recognition in the social work arena or the court system. Unless social workers, attorneys, and courts take notice of the severe psychological trauma resulting from a lifetime of abuse, the true root of parricide will
remain unexposed and these children’s acts of desperation will be seen as nothing more than random, heartless violence.

Helplessness and Self-Blame

The average parricide offender does not have a reputation of violence or aggression.34 On the contrary, he or she is
usually intelligent, compliant, respectful of adults, and polite.35 While some prefer to be alone and isolate themselves, many
appear to pose no threat to society.36 Underneath the docile and somewhat fragile façade, however, are the emotional scars of
abuse.37 “Prolonged exposure to severe and unpredictable abuse results in feelings of powerlessness, embarrassment, constant
fear, self-blame, depression, isolation, low self-esteem, and fear of reprisal by the abuser on themselves or other family members.”38 Instead of responding aggressively, battered children learn to adapt to their environment and cope with the parent’s
actions by avoiding situations that trigger abuse or devising techniques to endure the abuse.39 Often, battered children do not trust others with information about the abuse.40 Many times, the child’s parent will threaten him or her with death or serious injury if he or she reports the abuse to anyone.41 Sometimes, when a child does seek help, he or she fails to receive adequate support from relatives, schools, or social agencies.42 Social agencies are often reluctant to investigate allegations of child abuse if the child
cannot show immediate signs of physical harm, such as bruises or welts.43 Also, many hold to the belief that what occurs inside
a family’s home is private and should not be questioned or interfered with by those on the outside.44 Whatever the reason for
their inaction, adults and social agencies should be aware that one of the main factors that lead a child to commit parricide is
the feeling of helplessness that results from a lack of outside support or help.45 In fact, when adults know about the abuse
and do nothing, the child may naturally infer that all adults condone the abusive behavior.46 This only adds to the child’s sense
of helplessness.47

An abused child also harbors feelings of self-blame.48 Because of the nature of the parent-child relationship, children
naturally bond with and connect to their parents regardless of how they are treated.49 Even if the parent is abusive, he or she
is still the primary caretaker of the child, and the child depends on the parent for his or her emotional, physical, and financial
needs.50 Extended periods of abuse can disfigure a child’s sense of self, causing him or her to blame himself for the abuse and
seek to please the parent even more.51 Feelings of helplessness and self-blame can build, leading the child to believe that there
is no alternative but to murder the parent.52

Psychological Effects

Two important psychological conditions or disorders characterize a child suffering from Battered Child Syndrome: hypervigilance and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).53 Both are important to consider if the child seeks to claim self-defense at his or her trial for murder. A hyper-vigilant child is one who is “acutely aware of his or her environment and who remains on the alert for any signs of danger.”54 They look for clues in their parent’s behavior and mannerisms and learn to
judge when the parent is in a pre-aggressing state or when the threat of violence is imminent.55 Therefore, they are constantly
monitoring the situation in order to predict violence and impending abuse.56 After this type of monitoring becomes routine,
the child will learn to react to certain stimuli that might accompany certain threats, actions, or looks from the parent.57
An understanding of hyper-vigilance aids a trier of fact in a murder trial because it illustrates why a child may feel that
abuse is imminent when, in fact, the parent is not yet inflicting violence.58 In an abusive relationship, threats of imminent danger
manifest in subtle cues and are not easily perceived by others.59 Therefore, an abused child might sense impending violence
and react by killing the parent in a non-confrontational situation, when the child knows he or she will be successful and
not suffer immediate harm.60

PTSD is similar to hyper-vigilance but is defined as “an anxiety-related disorder which occurs in response to traumatic
events outside the normal range of human experience.”61 A child with PTSD will likely suffer from severe anxiety, hyperactivity,
episodes of terror, nightmares, and fatigue.62 The highest level of PTSD “involves heightened symptoms of hyperactivity,vigilance, scanning, and motor tension, fixation on somatic symptoms believed to have resulted from the traumatic event, and a secondary manifestation of depression.”63 A court faced with a child accused of murdering their parent should evaluate the reasonableness of the child’s actions in light of the debilitating effects of these disorders. The court should take into account
any psychological conditions from which the child suffers to lessen or mitigate the charge or sentence.



http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=clb

 

[Noirdame79]

Excerpt from The Shocking True Crime Case That Derailed FRIGHT NIGHT 3!

In 1989, the VHS market was still huge and it wasn&#8217;t uncommon for horror sequels to be produced as direct-to-video titles, so although Holland&#8217;s memory is fuzzy on what the release plan would&#8217;ve been for FRIGHT NIGHT 3, it most likely would&#8217;ve been catered to the home video market. And Holland&#8217;s involvement would all hinge on a meeting with the new producer and rights holder Jose Menendez. Roddy (McDowall) had already met with the movie mogul several times, and based on those interactions was trying to prepare Tom for would inevitably be an interaction with a very, very difficult man.

&#8220;What stuck in my head was that Roddy said Menendez was the worst human being he had ever met. Just a terrible man. He was very insulting in their meetings and Roddy was very concerned that I be prepared for that and not walk out of our meeting. There was something beyond just being a tough business man in him. He was personally offensive, but I don&#8217;t know, I never met him. Two weeks before our meeting which was scheduled, Menendez was killed by his two kids.&#8221;

That&#8217;s right. If you remember the highly televised case of the Menendez Brothers, this was the murder that put a halt to Roddy&#8217;s producing endeavors, and that included FRIGHT NIGHT 3.

&#8220;I asked Roddy about it, and Roddy never wanted to talk about it. I&#8217;ve never experienced that before, but there was a darkness around that man that even affected Roddy. And Roddy was a very lovely, effusive man. There was something really, really wrong with Menendez. That whole story is a horror movie. And Roddy would never speak of it after that.&#8221;


http://www.the13thfloor.tv/2015/12/10/the-shocking-true-crime-case-that-derailed-fright-night-3/

 

[Noirdame79]

Menendez: Blood Brothers (2017) TV Movie

Nico Tortorellla as Lyle Menendez; Myko Oliver as Erik Menendez; Benito Martinez as Jose Menendez; and Courtney Love as Kitty Menendez






Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (2017), TV Miniseries

Miles Gaston Villanueva as Lyle Menendez; Gus Halper as Erik Menendez; Carlos Gomez as Jose Menendez; and Lolita Davidovich as Kitty Menendez

 

[Noirdame79]

[video=youtube;AxUhLn_npPg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxUhLn_npPg[/video]

 

[Noirdame79]

Erik, age 6



Beverly Hills High School diploma request form, filled out by Erik and signed by Kitty



Erik and his parents at his high school graduation



A recent photo of Erik with his aunt, Joan Vander Molen and his cousin, Diane (Vander Molen) Hernandez

 

[Noirdame79]

'They deserve to be set free': Aunt of Menendez brothers says of their emotional reunion

The aunt of the Menendez brothers reacted to the news of their emotional reunion after spending more than 20 years apart, saying that her nephews are not criminals and they should be set free.

Marta Cano -- sister of Jose Menendez and godmother to Erik Menendez -- testified for the defense for both brothers. In her first interview in more than 20 years, she described her nephews as "sweet" and "beautiful" boys who were deeply troubled by the abuse they endured by their parents.

Cano, 76, then described her brother as "sick guy" who had "tremendous traumas from his childhood."

"He was not a bad person," she told ABC News. "He was a sick person. He had his traumas."

In 1996, the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder in their parents' deaths and were sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.

They came face to face on Wednesday, after Lyle was transferred to the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility, where Erik had been housed since July 2013. The two hadn't seen each other since Sept. 10, 1996, said Robert Rand, a journalist who has covered the case since 1989 and a consultant for NBC's 2017 TV series on the brothers.

They both "burst into tears immediately" after the guard opened the door, Rand said.

Cano said that although "it is a great joy to know they are together," she still prays for them to be set free.

"They deserve to be free," she said. "They're not criminals. They were in so much shock and fear of their own lives that that's what happened."

Cano said that she believes when the brothers killed their parents, it was a "defense mechanism," not a crime that was planned.

"It was not [an] in-cold-blood kind of thing," she said. "It was fear -- total fear."

She added, "How would I feel if someone had abused me all my life, and all of a sudden he's angry in front of me and he's coming to me? It's a defense mechanism we all have. You never knew what you would do."

The killings and the subsequent trials "traumatized" the brothers' extended family, Cano said, adding that she's convinced that her son, Andy, died because he couldn't cope with the incarceration of his cousins, with whom he was close.

"I have no doubt in my mind that Andy is dead because of them," she said.

Cano said she has kept in touch with her nephews throughout the years, but "not as much" as she would like. She's also met both of their wive several times, she said.

"They've always been in my heart," she said.

Cano believes that through their "suffering" in prison, Lyle and Erik have matured and grown.

"The other good thing is they have been able to mature separately," she said. "Sometimes we cling on to somebody else, and we never mature."

Erik asked his aunt to send him some books after telling her that he had been teaching religion to a group of inmates, Cano said.

"So, he was really making sure that the prisoners knew that there is a God that loves us," she said. "That was marvelous to me because he never got that at home."

Cano said she will continue to lean on her faith.

"You have to leave some things in God's hands, and God takes care of them," she said.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/deserve-set-free-aunt-menendez-brothers-emotional-reunion/story?id=54295229

 

[JerseyGirl]

Celebrating KTTV's 70 Years: New evidence in Menendez murders could mean new trial

 

[JerseyGirl]

Psychiatrist who admitted altering notes in Menendez brothers’ murder trial in the ’90s surrenders license

 

[Deleted member 287549]

Though I was aware of the MB criminal case after I heard about it on the news in '89 & into the '90's, I never paid much attention to the case. Like a lot of people, I believed that they probably killed their parents & lied about it to inherit a lot of $. Yes, I did hear about the claims of abuse - but, ATT I wasn't sure I believed them.

However, I recently have done thorough research on the case & seen some of the documentaries, etc. And, here is my perspective on the horrible case:

-I now 100% believe that these two kids were being abused by their father from the time that they were children to the time leading up to the killings of the parents. I also believe the mother was complicit; I don't know whether she participated in the abuse, but she definitely was aware of it & covered it up/ignored what was going on. I don't think the motive for the killings was financial (though I see why it looked that way due to the brothers trying to cover up the crime & going on spending sprees after the deaths, etc.)

I do definitely believe that the killings were in retaliation for the many years of abuse. And, also because the brothers felt that their lives were in danger due to the threats the father had made to them if they said anything about what had been happening to them for years.

What I found extremely significant was that Erik stated that he was looking forward to leaving home to go away to college right before the murders, and at the last minute his father said he had to live at home (despite the fact that the family had plenty of money so he could live on campus). So, he felt trapped - given that he knew the abuse was going to continue.

-I addition & going along with the above, I completely believe that horrible abuse occurred not just because the brothers claimed it did, but also because of the testimony of other family members who were staying at the house (in many cases for extended periods of time) when the two boys were growing up. In addition, the defense did provide physical evidence which proved this.

- Also, I was very impressed that a lot of the extended family members (aunts, cousins, etc.) were standing by the brothers both right after the killings occurred & continue to stand by them until the present day. I.e., I don't believe these family members would stand by & support these two brothers if they thought the killings were purely for financial reasons.