How TikTok generation forced Menendez case into spotlight again

Are the Menendez brothers, who admitted to brutally murdering their wealthy parents in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion, victims or psychopaths? Julie Cross argues the jury is still out.

It’s another case for the armchair jury, but this one is tormenting me.

Are the Menendez brothers, who admitted to brutally murdering their wealthy parents in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion, victims or psychopaths?

If you haven’t seen the Netflix series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, it’s gripping viewing.

One minute you’re convinced they’ve been unjustly locked away for 30 years, the next they’re lying, evil cold-blooded killers. It’s a rollercoaster ride. You definitely need popcorn.

Lyle and Erik Menendez in court. Picture: Getty Images

Spoiler alert. This is the outline of the case.

One night in 1989, Lyle, 21, and Erik, 18, walk into their home with shotguns and murder their parents Jose, a successful businessman and Kitty, a glamorous housewife, while they’re watching TV.

The brothers, who were not suspects at first, spend their inheritance in the weeks and months after the killings on parties, luxury hotels and shopping.

It’s only later, when they have been charged with the murders, do they claim they killed their parents out of fear and self-defence after a lifetime of emotional and sexual abuse by their dad, while their mother turned a blind eye.

During the trials in the 1990s their alleged abuse was shockingly the subject of mockery in comedy skits on prime time TV, and the media helped perpetuate the idea they were making up the child abuse claims as an excuse for killing their own parents. Something that would be unthinkable today.

After their first trial resulted in a hung jury, the second, when some of the evidence around their father’s abuse was not admitted, found them guilty.

Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents and were sentenced to spend the remainder of their lives in prison. Picture: AP Photo

So, why all the fuss now?

Well, a new generation of people have discovered the case on TikTok, which has been building momentum, sparking this new series, and forcing it back into the public arena.

Adding fuel to the fire, last year, Roy Rossello, who was in a band, claimed Jose Menendez, who was a music executive, molested him as a teenager in the 1980s.

Now the Los Angeles County DA has announced it’s reviewing the case once more.

Could Generation TikTok, keen to right the wrongs of their parents’ ignorance, win the Menendez brothers a re-trial and their freedom?

Perhaps so.

For me the jury’s still out on Lyle and Erik.

In the meantime, I’ll be watching the new documentary The Menendez Brothers coming out on Netflix on October 7.

Originally published as How TikTok generation forced Menendez case into spotlight again