If you were a ’90s Millennial or just didn’t follow the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez, then August 20, 1989 won’t be very memorable for you. Gen Xers and ’80s babies may have a foggy memory of what happened with the Menendez brothers and their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, that night. And the Netflix series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story certainly will brush off those memory banks.
The Netflix series looks at two trials that eventually resulted in a unanimous jury verdict. Both brothers were found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1996. And while opinions may be mixed about whether they were justified in the crime (Jose was an alleged serial predator and child abuser of Erik), rumors have continued to circulate about whether the murders were actually all about the money.
What Was Jose Menendez’s Net Worth Anyway?
According to a Los Angeles Times report in 1994, Jose was pretty well-off. The Menendez family estate was valued at $14.5 million, including Beverly Hill real estate, entertainment industry stocks in a Calabasas home, a New Jersey condominium, $651,948 in cash, $28,044 in furniture and $30,470 in jewelry.
With a defense lawyer (Leslie Abramson) who reportedly charged $100 per hour for Erik’s trial, what was once massive wealth dwindled to nothing. In fact, Abramson requested up to $250K in taxpayer money because Erik’s funds ran out for a retrial.
“People say that I had everything, that I was rich and lived in Beverly Hills,” Erik told People magazine in 2005. “But if you had photos of the events of my childhood, they would be crime photos. I was dying long before the night I killed my parents.”
Lyle echoed similar sentiments before the film released.
“Everyone asks why we killed our parents,” Lyle said in a trailer for the Netflix film, debuted on Sept. 23. “Maybe now people can understand the truth.”
Still, prosecutors argued that the brothers killed out of hatred for their parents and greed.
The Menendez Brothers and the Big Spender Debate
In an A&E special entitled “Siblings Conspire to Kill Their Parents (S1, E1) | The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All,” Beverly Hills Detective Les Zoeller found the brothers’ behavior peculiar, mainly that a day after their parents’ death, Lyle insisted on law enforcement removing the tennis equipment from the den in which Jose and Kitty were shot. Why? Lyle wanted something to do to take his mind off of the murders.
Charles Wadlington, their tennis coach, told A&E he never suspected anything, describing them as “nice, loving, gentle boys.”
Still, Zoeller found another peculiar pattern. Both sons had credit cards under Jose’s business, and Lyle had taken on the same habit as his shopaholic mother Kitty.
“That was just the way they handled depression,” Erik explained to A&E about the shopping bond that Kitty and Lyle had.
Some of those purchases from Jose’s net worth included Lyle’s new Porsche, Erik’s new Jeep, three Rolex watches, even with bills for mansion upkeep as high as $91K for repairs, $124K for pre-death liabilities and $81K for utilities. While Erik’s miscellaneous expenses totaled $9.392.71, Lyle’s ballooned up to $314,384.53.
And while this would’ve sounded exorbitant to most, their father was a highly paid chief executive officer of Live Entertainment, a Van Nuys-based video distribution firm and a subsidiary of the movie production company Carolco Pictures. In 1989 alone, and had he not been shot to death, he would’ve earned a bonus of $850K. Although all property was split equally with Kitty, their wills designated Lyle and Erik as the heirs to these earnings.
For more information on the nine-episode documentary, click here.
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