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
perfect crime. he killed, he ran, he was caught by tenacious law. yazeed essa we will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years. that is all for this edition of dateline, i m natalie morales, thank you for watching. this was a gruesome murder, a high profile executive and his wife shot to death in beverly hills. we don t really think that children can murder their parents. you have to have a lot of evil in you to shoot your mom and dad. young. rich. handsome. in a case made for hollywood, they were ready for the cameras it was the first televised courtroom drama that captivated the united states, it was a huge deal. erik and lyle menendez convicted of murdering their own parents. i ran around and shot my mom! it wasn t real.
it seemed like overwhelming evidence that lyle and erik killed their parents. two rich kids from beverly hills. greedy. murder murdered their own parents in cold blood. actually hit it. made it look like a mob hit. tried to get away with it. and went on a lavish spending spree. state. t over state the public disgust with the young men. on the other side of the country in a new jersey town a few miles from princeton, people began comparing memories. their home at the time was a
three of them would take showers together. lyle was 15 and erik was 12. the prosecutor was, to say the least, skeptical. if my daughter needed me to lie for her, i d lie for her if it was a life-and-death thing, of course, you would. if it s your cousin that you grew up with, of course, you would. you re pretty sure that they were doing that? i m positive. one reason why? a relative came do me and said that she felt that the defense was made up. that she d confronted lyle about it. and he said to her that s the way it s going to be. so, we had to ask. did the brothers ask you to lie for them? no. did they ask you to, sort of, like shade things or tell certain stories and not other stories or anything like that? huh-uh. huh-uh. huh-uh. the defense contended the abuse was real. went on for years. and finally. they came to believe that something terrible was about to break loose. specifically, that their parents were going to kill them if they didn t kill their
shotguns for protection, they said. two days later, said lyle, he and his father had another argument about the abuse. after which, lyle said his parents went into the den and shut the door. and? i thought they were going ahead with their plan to kill us. remember, jose and kitty kept two rifles in the house. so, what did you do? i ran upstairs to tell my brother that it was happening now. they ran out to the car, loaded their guns, and burst through the den door. i was just firing as i went into the room. i just started firing. in what direction? in front of me. what was in front of you? my parents. at some point, was your gun empty? yes. i could see somebody moving.