were ready for the cameras. it was the first televiseda courtroom drama that captivated the united states. it was a huge deal. spoke erik and lyle menendez convicted of murdering their own parents. i shut my mom. it wasn t real. it just wasn t real. they are sociopaths. and big ones. chilling details. a letter ending in secrets, too dark to imagine. this is so out of the norm. did they kill in cold blood? or in crippling fear? it was gut wrenching. they spoke the truth about what happened. here from the brothers themselves. let s go through this bit by bit. there was no way he was going to let this secret get out. silence destroyed our s whole family. . symbol of their success. here ait was, the shining symbol of their success. here finally an address for the of their long struggle, their amazing rise, beverly hills, california. careful what you wish for. all these years later, it s still the case that has the power to shock. it s beverly hills, th
jose wanted his kids to be the best, and especially in sports, i noticed immediately. reporter: swimming, soccer, tennis. jose pushed his sons to excel at everything. as his own career skyrocketed. in the 70s, jose was the general manager at hertz, and impressed his sons by bringing the company s famous spokesman home to dinner. jose was, of course, living the american dream and he wanted his boys to continue that american dream that he had set forth for not only himself, for his family. reporter: in 1986, jose took a job with carolco pictures in los angeles. the company that produced megahits like basic instinct and the rambo series. carolco had just bought a video distribution company from a man named noel bloom. and they gave jose the job of running it. so we think 1989 will be a tremendous year, we think we will be very happy with the growth of the company. reporter: that was the year,
had fled communist cuba at 16 with bold dreams of striking it big in business. just the kind of man kitty was searching for. and so they married in 1963. they were stars, in in our family, kitty and jose. reporter: diane hernandez was kitty s niece and lived with kitty and jose for a few years. reporter: i bet you idolized kitty. oh i did from the very beginning. and i was known as the k daughter kitty never had. reporter: of course, as the world would come to know, kitty and jose had sons. lyle and erik. reporter: did they seem to get along? did they like each other oh yeah. absolutely. reporter: very close? yeah. i think erik dependent on lyle a lot. erik was quite introverted. reporter: alan andersen was kitty s nephew. he spent a couple summers with the menendez family and bonded with lyle. he was a mischievous boy, to say the least. he liked to smile and laugh and giggle. oh, he loved to laugh and giggle. reporter: but what the menendez brothers did m
abramson had a reputation for doing whatever it took. you guys haven t been fair to these boys and you re not fair to them now. and she had an unusual strategy for defending the brothers. a law known as imperfect self-defense. that is to say under all the circumstances, it was reasonable to the person to think that they were acting in self-defense. but the reality is that that wasn t the case at all. in other words, an honest, but unreasonable belief that one s life is in danger. the defense argued that the brothers weren t spoiled. they were damaged. subject to years of abuse that made the decision to kill their parents seem to them like an act of self-defense against imminent danger. if the jury agreed, the menendez brothers would get manslaughter instead of murder. our witnesses will paint a portrait of jose and mary louise menendez as parents that will make understandable to you how they could have died at the hands of their children, what
oh, yeah. a lot. and i think a lot of it was about the kids. what was your impression of them? they were kinda quiet. they weren t that friendly, but it seemed like they were a bit troubled. and you know, i know they were afraid of him. reporter: afraid of their father, jose. i saw him just stare them down a couple of times reporter: but after jose was murdered, lyle and erik seemed to be afraid of noel bloom. they told police they thought bloom may have killed their parents and might want to kill them, too. bloom had been arrested before on obscenity charges, but never convicted. still, with the brothers public accusations. he was nervous. were you sorta day-by-day waiting for somebody to call you oh, yes be taken and put in handcuffs and yes. reporter: oh, the cops would be calling and the investigation would take a turn one that no one expected. coming up. new questions about the case.