The Details Behind the Menendez Brothers and Their Ties to O.J. Simpson Before His 1995 Trial
O.J. Simpson was arrested while the Menendez Brothers were in jail.
Published Sept. 24 2024, 12:25 p.m. ET
There's not much about the Menendez brothers and their case that people don't know at this point. Whether it's because of documentaries, TikTok videos, or the limited Monsters series on Netflix, even the most casual true crime fan knows the ins and outs of the case. But what about the claims from the brothers that they were in prison with the O.J. Simpson around the time of his arrest for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson?
That might not be the whole truth. And after his trial, O.J. was acquitted of the murder, whole the brothers were found guilty at their second trial after individual mistrials of murdering their parents. However, there is a link between the brothers and O.J. that Erik and Lyle Menendez have spoken about publicly.
Were the Menendez brothers in prison with OJ Simpson?
While Erik was held in the Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail, he was in a cell next to O.J. According to The Menendez Murders by Robert Rand, Erik offered advice to O.J. during that time. And Lyle, for his part, said in the book through an interview with Rand that he gave O.J. advice as well while he and O.J. waited in the same room to see their attorneys.
"I expressed my concern that Robert Shapiro wouldn't let him tell the truth," Lyle told Rand in the book. "I said I knew it obviously wasn't planned and that he had snapped in the heat of passion."
After O.J. was found not guilty, however, there was reportedly pressure on the L.A. County District Attorney's office. At least, according to Erik in The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All.
"Because this verdict was so shocking, there was this sense that an extreme injustice had happened and now we're gonna have to right it with every defendant that comes up. We were the next defendant," he said in the documentary.
O.J. and the Menendez brothers met long before their trials.
Lyle and Erik's dad, Jose Menendez, was one of the Hertz executives who brought on O.J. Simpson as a spokesperson for the car rental company when Lyle and Erik were kids. At the time, O.J. reportedly visited the family home, where he met the brothers when they were kids.
The reunion with the former running back was likely not what the Menendez brothers had expected. However, it is part of the Monsters series on Netflix, and to many, O.J.'s link to the Menendez brothers is one of the few aspects of the show that producers and writers got correct about the brothers' lives.