FREE the Menendez Brothers!

Let these poor, sexy men out! Haven’t they suffered enough?

They're happier on the inside, making love in private. Leave them alone!

Jose and Kitty must have been the shittiest parents ever.

Did anyone ever have anything nice to say about Jose Menendez?

They are old and the cute one is bald. Slam that cell door shut and lose that key!

What happened to all the family money if a killer cannot benefit from their crime?

If they were poor and morbidly obese, you would not give a shit. Think about the ethics of the criminal justice system itself rather than the fuckability of jailbirds.

Supposedly Jose had a number of mistresses . I'm surprised none tried to cash in afterwards. I wonder if Kitty ever had anyone on the side.

Where are the recent pics?

[quote] Think about the ethics of the criminal justice system itself rather than the fuckability of jailbirds.

There’s a difference?

If they are fat and bald now they can rot.

Lyle looks like a psycho and, according to this article, there is no money left. What the brothers didn't blow through, they used for their legal defense and the IRS got their cut, of course.

The money went to them blowing it before they were caught and lawyers after they were caught.

Jose Menendez was a shitty father and a shitty husband who never sexually assaulted those boys.

They are exactly where they belong.

R12 sounds like a fat, man-hating frau.

I want them to be released and come live with me. They would have their own room with a king size bed.

Free them? They should’ve been executed.

Are they related to that Shawn dude?

R13 sounds like an eating disorder with feet.

How do you shoot your mother in cold blood?

Why are these parricides wasting our precious oxygen?

They had two trials. IIRC, at the 2nd trial, the judge would not allow them to testify regarding Jose / Dad abusing them. If this type of trial were to happen today, I think they would be allowed to testify. Do I believe Jose sexually abused them? Not sure. I don't think you can look at someone and conclude that they would never take advantage of a child.

Since this is a gay forum, I will add that Erik Menendez is purportedly gay. (He married a woman, though, while imprisoned.)

If they hadn’t gone on a shopping spree after the murders (regardless of whether they did it or not) I might have a little more sympathy. But you don’t go shopping for rolexes after your folks get their brains blown out.

[quote] How do you shoot your mother in cold blood?

Wish I’d thought of that.

^JonBenet Ramsey, FORMERLY of Boulder, Colorado

That's the show Ryan Murphy should be putting on. It was mesmerizing. Oh, he already did? I forgot. But whatshername was great as Leslie Abramson. Leslie did a fucking fantastic job defending the gay one. She never once showed her ASS or his. But the daddy hurt him. Who wouldn't want to?

I named my most terrorist cat Kitty Menendez - because she was dumb, unloving AND completely ruined my couch.

I enjoy that they appeared on this basketball card, in the background.

That was the Law&Order: True Crime limited series from a few years back. Ryan Murphy wasn't involved. Edie Falco as Leslie was the best part of the show.

They actually would have gotten away with it, if the crybaby wussy Lyle hadn't blabbed everything to the shrink, who then ratted them out.

I remember reading an article in the LA Times after the murder, but before the arrest, detailing how the brothers were doing after losing their parents. It talked about all the cars and expensive shit they were buying, and I thought "oh shit. They did it."

I think Leslie Abramson really fell for her client, Erik Menendez. I think she really believed in him, not just as an attorney, but as a person. I won't say she fell in love with him, but I think it was personal, for her.

Oops, I meant "crybaby wussy Erik", not Lyle.

Lyle is the stone cold killer with ice water running through his veins.

Well, ice water and wig glue.

Either way, he never would have blabbed like his baby bro did.

Leslie Abramson was pretty heroic. A difficult and unlikable character, but so very smart and capable and dedicated. She worked her ass off to save him. Yes, she loved that boy Erik. Like something cyclonic. And he really was just past being a boy. A murderous, greedy, spoiled and psychopathic boy.

The Menendez boys are men in their fifties by now. Leslie is retired. They are where they belong.

Yes, Edie Falco was great as Leslie. But not as great as Leslie Abramson was at being Leslie. That woman reverberates still. What a great big obnoxious presence she was! No one would characterize her as too tough or intelligent today. (of course they would:) She was an AMAZING defense and trial lawyer.

Wow, R31, I want to see that movie now. I want to see how Edie Falco (Carmela Soprano) portrayed Leslie Abramson.

I don't love recreations of living and vivid people much - but Edie Falco did a pretty fine job. And it was a juicy trial - quite aside from the murders.

Here is the real Leslie R32. She fought at every turn, was a world class cross examiner and a combatant attorney who was unfairly treated by the judge. She had every detail in her memory and every ability to spar and reframe people's words. Leslie was so fucking confrontational that she made the conflict and the pain of the brother's lives real. And it had to be real. Her frequent and casual use of every damn swear word in context, normalized the language attributed to the "boys." Abramson won defense attorney awards - who knew? But the real thing is that she fought hard to stop clients to meet a death penalty. With Erik, she fought for his freedom.

The character is this woman. She IS more colorful than TV. I was only a teen when this trial happened, but Leslie was like something no one had seen. How could they villainize her when she was so clearly a brilliant and ballsy advocate? The press found its ways. Dominick Dunne tsk tsked and threw her some nobility points. What an intellect and facile mind she had. Didn't care if she was viewed as "that bitch." Her job got DONE.

Let it be remembered that she won a deadlocked jury for Erik, after 3 weeks of deliberations.

The miniseries with Edie Falco was campy fun for the most part. Heather Graham played the shrink's nutcase mistress.

I think they should go free!

No TV show could ever script Leslie's cross examinations and advocacy as well. She was fucking relentless and brilliant.

I watched some of the YouTube video at R33. Leslie is relentless and the judge was not liking her style. Not sure if she was even licensed in CA.

She definitely knew her case. I think she was asking a lot of compound questions and could have broken up her questions better. The Menendez bros. looked in awe of her. She was really fighting.

Dr. Oziel did seem like a scumbag. When he claimed privilege in the middle of cross-examinatio, I was thinking wtf, you’re up there blabbing about your patients.

Fuckin' TROLL.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go fuck yourself!

R38 is always posting such disturbed things on Datalounge. Can they not ban him? F&F. If you trolldar his posts you will see that he is always attacking men and accusing them with delusion. Many of his posts are overtly racist and some are violent. He is mentally ill. He stocks people.

Please get rid of this man. He is not safe for the rest of us or for the integrity of this site. Many of his posts are actionable.

If you know your clients murdered their parents in cold blood, I don't give a shit how "brilliant" you think she is . She is evil.

You're a moron R40. Put the bottle down.

I wouldn't have believed the molestation accusation if I didn't watch most of the first trial. There were photos found of a birthday party I think when they were young. On the same roll of film were close-up pictures of the naked crotch of one of the sons. An innocent pic of a kid in a bathtub, pool, beach, or Nirvana album is fine. A close-up of the naked crotch, not so much.

They were excluded from evidence in the second trial.

I remember that Edie Falco show made me feel that they actually had been molested by their father. I guess you still can't shoot him but as I remember other relatives said the father had been molested too and was repeating the pattern.

(I think. I don't know much about the case. Just vague memories of the TV show.)

There's a weird photo in this article of Jose, Erik, and Lyle (as young children). Jose has his hand squarely on Lyle's crotch. Awkward at the very least.

Barbara Walters blew Erik Menendez. I knew it.

The boys looked nice in their sweater sets for trial. I think if Erik would have turned on Lyle, he would be a free man today. It's obvious who the mastermind of this messy, heartless crime was.

Prison changes a man. Not sure I'd want Erik in my bed tonight. His eyes have grown cold, but he otherwise is the more handsome and taut for his suffering.

Look at those courtroom photos. Who didn't know that Lyle wore a wig? He looks like a young Phil Spector. Naming a child Lyle is just asking to be massacred on the couch one day.

I think Jose did abuse the boys. For real. But they did a pure job of acting it on on the stand.

*acting it out on the witness stand.

The saga of Lyle's wig was the least credible part of their story.

Supposedly Erik didn't know his own brother, who he lived with his whole life, wore a hairpiece. A hairpiece that Jose insisted he wear, because he refused to have a bald loser for a son. Then, when Jose and Lyle (or was it Kitty and Lyle? I forget, it's been so long) got into a physical altercation, and Lyle's wig was ripped off his head, shocking Erik, and humiliating Lyle.

How absurd is that story? Erik didn't notice as his older brother was going bald over the years, and then suddenly showed up with a thick head of hair again?

I find it easier to believe that Jose was cornholing both his boys while Kitty drank herself into a stupor in the next room, than that crock of horse shit.

And yet...families are weird, and this one was weirder than most. So who really knows?

Are they still sexy after 32 years?

I read Todd Bridges' autobiography. He was in jail at the same time the Menendez brothers first went into jail. IIRC, Todd had been in jail with both of them, separately. He said that one of them was okay, but that the other was cold and scary. Sorry, I forgot what words Todd used. I wish I could remember which brother he was talking about for the 2 descriptions. Now, I'm guessing Lyle was the cold and scary one.

R45, I never thought about Erik turning on Lyle, but I guess he just couldn't do it. I do think the prosecutor would have offered him a deal to testify, but I'm saying he couldn't turn on his brother. I wonder if Leslie Abramson tried to get him to do that. She did an excellent job, either way.

I don't know why I wasn't following this case. I think I was paying more attention to the OJ Simpson trial.

The bald one looks really scary!

[quote] Supposedly Erik didn't know his own brother, who he lived with his whole life, wore a hairpiece. A hairpiece that Jose insisted he wear, because he refused to have a bald loser for a son. Then, when Jose and Lyle (or was it Kitty and Lyle? I forget, it's been so long) got into a physical altercation, and Lyle's wig was ripped off his head, shocking Erik, and humiliating Lyle.

It was Kitty who ripped off the hairpiece. I cracked up laughing at the scene in the TV movie where Jill Clayburgh played Kitty and Billy Warlock played Lyle. It was so campy.

They deserve the death penalty. What they did goes against nature.

I remember all this from the time. Dominick Dunne was right about the brothers Menendez and about Leslie Abramson. He was set to write a book about Menendez when OJ came along and took over the world.

I don't believe Jose ever molested those boys. He was cruel to them in other ways.

Dominick Dunne was a prissy old queen with a lot of skeletons in his closet. He demonized the wrong people and mooned over some very basic and sketchy characters himself. Denise Simpson? Please.

I don't buy Dominique as a moral authority at all. A good gossip and lonely old fag, for sure. The crimes he covered gave him entry back into the world that had no use for him anymore. He was a lip smacking throat clearer. Closet case. Terrible snob who pretended to be the voice of the proletariat. Loved the worst players if they were on the "right" side. He hated Leslie Abramson because she saw him for exactly who he was. An impotent old fag, out to make a name for himself off her hard work. Abramson is THE wonder of the Menendez murders. She almost got those boys off. She believed in Erik.

I think the brothers were abused. But no amount of abuse justifies such a plotted, callous and greedy crime. Those boys were sociopaths and sexually deviant too. Some think Erik may have been a conflicted GAY! No wonder Dominick Dunne had it out for him, ha. Dunne jerked off to all his most famous criminals. He had the most lust for Lyle M and O.J. Dominick loved to be dominated by straight men. He had all the nobility of a closeted queer who produced The Boys in The Band. Dunne knew where a lot more bodies were buried than he let on. Long life in Hollywood. He knew crimes than the ones he later reported on. He was the original SJW. A dilettante panderer. Only the best table for Mr. Dunne. YUK.

Lyle Menendez had his own attorney, Jill Lansing. Supposedly, she was a very good attorney as well (as Leslie Abramson). At some point, she withdrew from the case. (I think it was after one of the mistrials.) She had a young child (toddler) and wanted to spend more time with her child. Supposedly (and believably) Lyle was the tougher client because he seemed more culpable.

At some point, the brothers said they were indigent. Leslie Abramson asked the judge to appoint her as indigent counsel (with court-appointed fee rate, which is less than her normal rate). Judge said no, this was part of your contract with your client. I thought that was unfair because who can really predict that they'd have to do more than one trial.

Here's an AP article about Lyle's attorney withdrawing and Leslie Abramson (and Lyle) asking the judge to have the pay her via public funds.

[quote] A judge today refused to pay Erik Menendez’s private attorney to represent him in his second murder trial despite a plea from the defendant to allow him a lawyer he trusts. ″I am begging this court to compensate my attorney to represent me,″ Erik, 23, said as he stood before Superior Court Judge Cecil Mills. ″There is no way I’d want to go to trial without her representation.″ Mills ruled, however, that attorney Leslie Abramson had a contract to defend Erik and was bound by it even if it was ″a bad business deal.″

I think Leslie was a very good attorney, but I think she turned off the judge. She was always on 10 and maybe could have dialed it back sometimes.

Erik always was, and still is the more attractive of the two. I like the sly smile, and twinkle in his eye. Except that it is that of a psychotic murderer. And fuck me, what they did was horrifying. Though not quite as horrifying as Lyle's current physical appearance.

Marriage and divorces have taken their toll on Lyle. Women! Used to love her, had to kill her.

R55, Nick Dunne was a decent, if closeted, guy. Your raging hatred for him when he's been dead all these years is bizarre and unconvincing. Did he turn you down for a role? Never mind, I don't really care.

Leslie Abramson was an attention-seeking cunt who pretended Jose molested Lyle and Erik when she knew damn well he hadn't. It was just the only defense she could come up with at the time. She smeared and dragged him so thoroughly that stupid people still believe it to this day. She threw in Kitty just for good measure. The lowest of low-life scum.

^ Weirdo. fuck. Isolate R60's posts. Not a warrior for justice at all. Just THAT insane poster we all know.....

Full of racial hate and misogyny. CRAZY AF.

There is a group of menendez groupies on TikTok that I stumbled across and made one silly troll comment and they became unhinged! It was a little unnerving.

R60 whatever you think of the Menedez brothers Kitty and Jose seemed to be absolutely garbage people. It's not like the lawyer went after innocent and kind hearted individuals. How on earth does someone manage to produce 2 sons like that?

Well said R63. No one seeks to exonerate the brothers. But Jose and Kitty were terrible people and parents. They didn't love those boys at all. And it's weird here that some poster has such a strange reactions to the anger a young man might feel toward a mother who does not support him against his father's daily physical and verbal abuse. Degrading him and questioning his manliness. Jose sexual abuse of Erik is not out of the question either. Kitty was not afraid of Jose because he wasn't a wife beater or a TV monster - but she discounts his abuse of their boys because he keeps them all rich and takes care of extended family! She was a tacky dumb woman and terrible parent. Didn't deserve to destroy the couch. The ones who witness and allow things to happen are often more hated than the more clearly evil perpetrator. To her own children? OUCH. Reload.

Matricide and Patricide are very ordinary fantasies. Extremely rare acts. Jose and Kitty didn't deserve to be murdered. But let's not pretend they were anything but "garbage people." There is not a warm story or loving memory for either of them. Their families defended the "boys."

If Domick Dunne wasn't such a glory hole cocksucker he would have been a better reporter.