INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Menendez Brothers: ‘Snapped’ Special Deviates From Killer Women To Killer Brothers, Erik And Lyle, In Beverly Hills Double Murders

By Traciy Reyes
Published on: 03:50 PST, Oct 2, 2016

The Menendez Brothers: Erik and Lyle, will be the subject of another crime documentary. This time, Oxygen’s Snapped takes a stab at the case. Snapped, the hit crime show that has brought you the most diabolical cases of women who have committed the unthinkable, takes a deviation with this new special featuring men.

In tonight’s show titled Snapped: The Menendez Brothers Special, the producers take viewers behind the scenes of the crime to get an inside view of what happened that terrible night in Beverly Hills, California. Listen to courtroom testimony that you haven’t heard since the trial first aired on television and listen to crime experts and law enforcement investigators as they offer a commentary on the murders.

In August 1989, 911 operators received a frantic call from a 21-year-old Lyle Menendez, stating that his parents were dead. Police were dispatched to the North Elm Drive home, where they were met by the sobbing brothers. Lyle and Erik Menendez told police that they had returned that night to find their parents deceased.

The victims were identified as 47-year-old Kitty Menendez, a former beauty queen, and her husband, 45-year-old Jose Menendez, a Cuban-immigrant who worked his way up to a top executive position. The opulent couple had worked so hard to provide for their boys and make a good life here in America. A 1990 People article described their trajectory of success.

“Jose Menendez’s immigrant odyssey had begun in 1960, when at the age of 16 he was sent to the U.S. by his father, Jose, a onetime soccer star who stayed behind in Cuba until his last investment property was seized by Fidel Castro. After earning a degree in accounting at Queens College in Flushing, N.Y., he took a job with the Manhattan firm of Coopers & Lybrand. His next stop was Hertz, where he was put in charge of commercial leasing. After Hertz in turn was bought out by RCA, Menendez switched to the parent company’s record division and was soon involved in signing pop groups.”

At the crime scene, investigators found the condition of the bodies particularly disturbing. Kitty Menendez had nine gunshot blasts to the body, and Jose Menendez was shot five times as he sat on the couch, according to Vanity.

By the time Beverly Hills investigators had arrived, Jose Menendez was still seated on the couch. The type of gun used in the killings completely distorted the bodies in a way that made them almost unrecognizable, a police detective revealed on Snapped.

Who was so vicious and brutal that they could have committed such a heinous crime? Who hated them so much?

This was no robbery gone wrong, and it was not a home invasion. The investigation revealed that it was the work of two spoiled rich kids who wanted to kill their parents. With them gone, Erik and Lyle Menendez could do whatever they wanted, and of course, all of the money would be theirs. However, Erick and Lyle Menendez have always maintained that sexual abuse was the motive.

The crime completely shocked the residents of Beverly Hills, and it became a media sensation. The Inquisitr previously reported that the Menendez brothers inspired two made-for-TV-movies titled Menendez: A Killing In Beverly Hills(1994) and Honor Thy Father And Mother: The Menendez Murders (1994).

Authorities said the Menendez brothers had it all. They had prestige, money, power, and friends. But behind the doors of the bloody mansion, they hid long-held secrets that eventually bubbled to the surface, causing a crime so deadly that it would be talked about for decades to come.

Facts

Murders committed by children who kill their parents are some of the most bizarre and shocking crimes imaginable. Psychology Today reported that it is the fastest growing homicide type next to killings between spouses and parents who murder their children.

  • Most children who kill their parents are between 16 and 19 years of age.

Go deep inside the investigation and answer the question that is on everyone’s mind. Were the Menendez brothers (Erik and Lyle) two diabolical killers or were they really the victims of sexual abuse?

To find out, tune into this 2-episode special event, which begins tonight at 9/8 p.m. Central on the Oxygen Network. Last night, Snapped: Killer Couples, a show that profiles dangerous couples, aired the Carman Jenkins dismemberment case.

[Featured Image by Steve Graysonl/ AP Images]

Share this article: Menendez Brothers: ‘Snapped’ Special Deviates From Killer Women To Killer Brothers, Erik And Lyle, In Beverly Hills Double Murders
More from Inquisitr