Lyle and Erik Menendez

Imagine if you or one of your siblings decided to murder your parents for financial gain and went through with it. The Menendez brothers were faced with the fact that they could be tried and convicted for exactly that. With the false evidence the brothers created to plead self defense, the conviction was going to be a lot harder than expected. It took 2 trials to finally sentence them to life in different prisons without the possibility parole. Lyle and Erik Menendez were found guilty of murdering their parents for 14 million dollars of inheritance money. On the night of August 20th, 1989, Jose and Kitty Menendez were bushwhacked in the family room at 10:00 PM by their two children. Mrs. Menendez was filling out an UCLA application for her son, Erik, as she and her husband munched on berries and cream. They were interrupted by Erik and Lyle barging in through the doors with two 12 gauge shotguns. They fired a total of 15 gunshots with two contact shots. After blowing off the back of their father’s skull, Kitty was terrified as Lyle Menendez callously reloaded. Then, he pressed the shotgun up against his mom’s cheek and pulled the trigger with a fatal shot. The brothers called the police to report that they had found their parents brutally murdered in the family room when they returned to the house from the movie theater. At first, police suspected that Mafia hitmen attacked the parents. After…

If your parents just died, what is the first thing you would buy? The Menendez brothers killed their very wealthy parents, Jose and Mary Menendez. The brothers were Lyle Menendez, then 21, and his brother Erik Menendez, then 18. Authorities arrested the brothers in March 1990. They were arrested after their psychologist’s girlfriend went to police claiming Erik had confessed the murders to the psychologist during a session. Lyle had threatened the doctor’s life, thus voiding doctor-patient…

On August 20, 1989, the Menendez brothers, Lyle and Erik, brutally murdered their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their mansion on North Elm Drive, Beverly Hills. Jose Menendez, a highly successful businessman, received a single shotgun bullet, fired at point-blank, to the back of his head and died instantly. Their mother, Kitty Menendez was shot multiple times at a relatively close range, to the point where Lyle ran out of bullets and reloaded only to continue shooting her as she was…

The Menendez Brothers’ case has been controversial for many years. Lyle and Erik came from a wealthy family who lived in a mansion in Beverly Hills. Lyle, who was 21 and Erik, who was 18 in 1989, participated in an act that no man would ever contemplate if it was acceptable. The brothers murdered their parents and argued that they killed them to protect themselves from their mental, emotional, and physical abuse. Numerous people wondered whether the brothers assassinated their parents for their…

music, a brutal homicide occurred in the shadows of Beverly Hills California. Kitty and Jose Menendez were found massacred in their living room on a regular Sunday night. Originally, authorities believed the homicide to be a mafia hit; but that theory quickly dissolved after a confession from Erik. In the trial, cameras in the courtroom exposed the gruesome details of this case, allowing the people to become opinionated about their claims of self-defense against abuse. Therefore, it was…

The Menendez Murders By: Aaron Chen CCJS 498Y May 2, 2018 Introduction Seeing a typical family being broken up is saddening, but a family being broken up by one or two of their own kind is unsettling. That is what happened in the Menendez family. Was this an act of revenge? This is one of many questions the Menendez brothers left in the minds of many people who witnessed the trial happen on live television. Many people are still questioning whether the Menendez brothers were abused by their…

Joseph Lyle Menéndez and Erik Galen Menéndez were beyond privileged since birth, from having rich, powerful parents to attending prestigious schools. Their father Jose Enrique Menendez, a Cuban native, moved to the United States to get a better education. Jose had always been an overachiever and a hard worker. He was credited with being diligent and brilliant. However Jose was highly and widely disliked for his overly confident demeanor. The mindset of being a winner and being the best carried…

Jose and Kitty, to death in the den of the family’s Beverly Hills, California, home by their two sons Erik (age of 18), and Lyle (age of 21). They became a national sensation, after killing their father at point blank range. Also shooting their mother multiply times while she was trying to escape. It was a pre-meditated killing so they were accused of first degree murder in 1994. After the shooting the boys drove up to Mulholland Drive, where they dumped their shotguns before continuing to a…

utilize the evidence as their reason. The ethos appeal is used when the prosecutor is presenting facts so the jury can make a verdict. If the case is presented well and the jury have their perception of events of the case will help with their understanding. In fact, “Logos is an appeal to the powers of reason and logic, pathos is an appeal to emotions or senses, and ethos is the appeal of the actual speaker” (“Lecture 2”, para.11 2018). Lastly, persuasive arguments can be a good thing…

In the first case study the Menendez trial is presented as an example, sons Erik and Lyle were charged with the murder of their wealthy parents. While observing the news media it was noted that they would be often called “boys” and most of the headlines were “Menendez Boys” even though they were 23 and 25 years old. From 115 articles written about them more than half stated them as boys or brothers but never men. Now the media could have been giving them an extended privileged because they came…