Menendez Brothers

Murder in the United States is very common and doesn’t get much attention, but when the victims are two rich people and the murderers are their sons it is a different story. Lyle and Erik Menendez captured the United States’ attention by claiming that the abuse by their parents was the reason for the gruesome murder of their parents, and it impacted how the U.S looks at matricide and patricide cases. The two boys got into quite a bit of trouble throughout their life, but their father just paid them out of it each time. Despite their problems no one could have predicted that they would brutally murder their parents.
Erik Menendez was born on November 27, 1970. He was born in New Jersey. Lyle Menendez was born on January 10, 1968. He was born in Illinois (biography.com). The boys’ parents were Kitty and Jose Menendez. Jose was very successful as the president of LIVE Entertainment (Pergament 5). Jose was extremely hard on his children he wanted perfection, and would not believe that his sons could have flaws (Pergament 6).   Kitty saw her boys the same way their father did and was just as hard on them.
The two boys got into quite a large amount of trouble while they were young. Erik idolized his older brother. Their friends said that the brothers were very close despite their quite different personalities. One example of them getting into trouble is when they stole $100,000 worth of jewels and money from two houses. When they were caught, the boys got away with just returning the property because their father bought them out of it (Dunne 93-94). Their parents covered up their behavior time after time instead of stopping the problem.
Lyle attended high school at Princeton Day School. According to his teachers he was not a good student. Their father didn’t want anyone to know that his son could have flaws in his work, and teachers believe that his mother did most of his homework for him. Lyle’s father told him that he had to pick one sport and work until he was...