The Menendez Brothers have both been violently attacked in prison as they serve life sentences for the gruesome slayings of their parents, the siblings have revealed.
Erik Menendez, now 53, and Lyle, 56, have spent more than three decades behind bars over the bloody 1989 slaying of their wealthy parents Jose and Kitty Menendez.
But early on in their incarceration, both brothers were viciously attacked, Erik shared on Wednesday’s episode of TMZ’s Two Angry Men podcast, alleging that 25 years ago prisons were ‘dangerous’ and ‘very dark’.
‘Prison was hard for me. I faced a lot of bullying and trauma. It was a dangerous environment,’ Erik told the podcast. ‘I was picked on, bullied violently, and it was traumatic and it was continual.’
The brothers were housed in separate prisons during their first 21 years behind bars, only being able to communicate with each other by writing letters.
Erik says he distinctly remembers the day he learned that Lyle had viciously attacked and how ‘difficult’ it was not being able to support him.
‘I was told ‘Lyle just got assaulted and got his jaw broken’,’ he recalled. ‘I’m thinking ‘He’s over there, I’m going through this over here, and at least we could protect each other maybe if we were together,’ but we were not even allowed to be together.’
Erik and Lyle were jailed for life after a blockbuster trial in the 1990s detailing the bloody shotgun killings of their parents at the family’s luxury Beverly Hills mansion.
They asked that their sentence be reconsidered after new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse emerged in their case. A recent Netflix hit docuseries also gave new life to the growing campaign to free the brothers.
Erik Menendez, (pictured) who has spent more than three decades behind bars, says he ‘faced a lot of bullying and trauma’ when he was first incarcerated
Lyle Menendez (pictured) was also viciously attacked while in prison, with Erik claiming his brother once ‘got assaulted and got his jaw broken’
Erik explained that is common prisoners to be met with violence behind bars.
‘Those are things that a lot of inmates in prison go through when they’re not part of a gang structure and they come in and they’re basically lone wolves, they just have to be by themselves,’ he explained.
‘Prison can be hard, and there’s a lot of suffering in prison.’
Erik said the violence he faced was continual, but claims he vowed ‘I’m not gonna fight back, I’m not going to engage’.
‘I had no one really to turn to for help, and I was separated from Lyle,’ he added.
‘It took years to work out of it, because you have to find yourself in prison.’
He said he believes that prisons are ‘doing their best’ to make conditions safer for inmates and working to ‘change that culture today’.
Erik said that Lyle was working with the Corrections Department to improve conditions, which is something he too would like to help with.
‘They’re really trying,’ he said of Corrections. ‘But 25 years ago, it was a an even darker, more dangerous place.’
The brothers, who spent 20 years apart, were reunited in 2018 when Lyle was transferred to Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where Erik had been held since 2013. They are both currently in custody at the facility.
The brothers (pictured together in 1990) were housed in separate prisons during their first 21 years behind bars, only being able to communicate with each other by writing letters. Erik says he distinctly remembers the day he learned that Lyle had viciously attacked and how ‘difficult’ it was not being able to support him
The pair are serving their sentences in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, (pictured) a prison complex sits on 780 acres in unincorporated southern San Diego County
Erik and Lyle, aged 18 and 21 at the time of the killings, were convicted guilty of murdering Jose and Kitty after notorious trials in the 1990s and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
At the time of the conviction, prosecutors argued the the brothers had plotted to murder their wealthy parents in a bid to hasten a $14million inheritance.
The defense never disputed the pair killed their parents, but argued that they acted out of self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse by their father.
In the years that followed, they repeatedly appealed their convictions without success.
Now, Erik and Lyle are making a new bid for freedom, with their lawyers asking a judge to consider new evidence of their father’s abuse.
A January re-sentencing hearing for Lyle and Erik was postponed until March as Los Angeles grappled with devastating wildfires.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said an agreement had been reached between prosecutors and defense because of the impact the fires would have on the ‘extensive preparations’ required.
Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez, right, are pictured with their parents Kitty and Jose. Prosecutors argued the the brothers had plotted to murder their wealthy parents in a bid to hasten a $14million inheritance. The defense never disputed the pair killed their parents, but argued that they acted out of self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse by their father
Supporters insist the killings were an act of desperate self-defense by young men subjected to years of sexual abuse and psychological violence at the hands of an abusive father and a complicit mother.
The growing campaign to free the brothers has opened the door to a reduced sentence, with Los Angeles officials seemingly receptive to their lawyer’s overtures.
A previous court hearing – at which the men were due to appear by videolink from prison – was a blockbuster event in its own right, with a lottery system in place for spots in the public gallery.
