Before Killing His Parents, Erik Menendez Wrote a Screenplay About a Kid Who Kills His Parents

In Robert Rand's book The Menendez Murders, the veteran journalist goes into detail regarding some pretty damning information in reference to Erik Menendez. When the younger Menendez brother was arrested in March 1990 and charged with murdering his parents, the salacious tabloid television show Hard Copy wasted no time in releasing a questionable piece he had written.

The 66-page screenplay was penned with Erik's high school friend Craig Cignarelli and was simply titled Friends, which is not to be confused with the hit sitcom of the same name. The movie centers around an angry kid who kills his parents in order to inherit $157 million. Although the judge who presided over the trial never allowed this into evidence, it was circulated heavily by the press. Here's what we know about Erik Menendez's almost prophetic screenplay.

Days after the script was leaked, Cignarelli spoke with the Los Angeles Times about how it came to be. The two of them attended Calabasas High School together in the affluent city of Calabasas, Calif., and would often take long drives together out to Malibu. Eventually they would stop somewhere that overlooked the ocean where the well-to-do boys would discuss their future plans while telling each other they were better than every one else.

Oftentimes these ego trips included how to commit the perfect crime, which is when they decided to write a movie about it. It centered on the fictional character of 18-year-old Hamilton Cromwell, who, like them, was wealthy, but he also had an extremely dark side. Hamilton was obsessed with dying and, in particular, the deaths of his parents. In fact, the movie begins with a reading of his parents' will and Hamilton inheriting $157 million, which causes him to "smile sadistically."

The book jumps back to the murder of his parents, which Menendez and Cignarelli did not elaborate on. They left that part up to the imagination of the reader. In the screenplay Hamilton is writing a book about his murderous escapades, which doesn't end with his folks. He follows their deaths up with his girlfriend's, as well as two other people. By the end of the movie, five people are dead and Hamilton is shot and killed by a friend.

In July 1993, Cignarelli took the stand in Erik Menendez's trial where he told the court that his former best friend confessed to the crimes on Sept. 1, 1989, reported the Los Angeles Times. They were hanging out at the Menendez Beverly Hills mansion where the murders were committed when Menendez asked him if he wanted to know how they did it. He told Cignarelli the "plan was for Lyle Menendez to kill the father and Erik the mother, but Lyle actually fired first at both."

Cignarelli recalled that according to Menendez, Lyle instructed his younger brother to "Shoot mom." Evidently Menendez did so while Kitty Menendez was "standing up and yelling" in the TV room. Because he found this hard to believe, Cignarelli did not want to turn his friend in. That changed in November 1989 when Cignarelli wore a recording device to a two-hour dinner with Menendez. Police were looking for another confession, which never happened.