Why Did the Menendez Brothers Kill Their Parents? People Believe It Was for One of Two Reasons

Lyle Menedez was arrested in March 1990 and his brother, Erik, was taken into custody soon after. The brothers would then spend three years in Los Angeles County Jail awaiting their trials. They were tried separately for the August 1989 murders of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez. In January 1994, juries for both trials ended up deadlocked which resulted in mistrials.

For both juries, it didn't come down to whether or not the brothers did it, as they confessed to killing their parents. What they ultimately had to decide was if Erik and Lyle Menendez were "coldblooded killers or long-suffering victims of abuse within their family’s gated Beverly Hills estate," per the Los Angeles Times. So, why did the Menendez brothers do it? We'll let you decide.

The Menendez brothers never wanted for anything. By the time they moved to Beverly Hills from New Jersey in 1986, José was already doing well financially. They bought a sizable mansion in Beverly Hills where Erik and Lyle took expensive tennis lessons and would eventually drive expensive cars. Due to the money the brothers stood to inherit, the prosecution believes they murdered their parents for financial reasons.

The state's case was helped by the incredible spending spree the Menendez brothers went on in the weeks following the murders. Dominick Dunne wrote for Vanity Fair that "estimates of their spending have gone as high as $700,000." Lyle bought a $60,000 Porsche 911 Carrera, $40,000 worth of clothes, a $15,000 Rolex, and "paid a reported $550,000 for a cafeteria-style eatery in Princeton which he renamed Mr. Buffalo’s."

Erik was slightly more thrifty than his older brother. He hired a tennis coach who charged him $50,000 and got suckered out of $40,000 after planning failed concert at the Palladium. Claiming they needed to get out of the house, the brothers leased condos in the swanky Marina City Club Towers. At the time of his death, José's net worth was estimated to be between $14 and $15 million. Despite this, the Menendez brothers claim they killed their parents for a far more upsetting reason.

When Erik took the stand during his second trial, he went into great detail regarding the alleged abuse he experienced at the hands of his father, per CNN. He said it lasted from the age of 6 until he was 18, and started with massages then moved up to oral copulation. He said there was rampant sexual and physical abuse, as well as rape. Outside of the bedroom, Erik described his father as a "domineering brute."

He went on to say that both parents were abusive, with his mother degrading and humiliating him. The testimony lasted a week and ended with Erik claiming that when he was 17, José threatened to kill him with a large hunting knife. When he initially took the stand, Erik was asked by his attorney Leslie Abramson why he and Lyle decided to kill their parents. Stuttering, Erik said it was because he finally told his brother what had been happening to him for the past 12 years.

Erik said he confessed to Lyle after seeing his brother in a particularly vulnerable state. On Aug. 15, 1989, five days before the murders, an argument between Lyle and his parents led to Kitty ripping off Lyle's toupee. Until that moment, Erik had no idea his brother wore a hairpiece. In an effort to comfort him, Erik shared his darkest secret. It was then that they decided to murder their parents.