The Menendez brothers will leave prison in the next weeks as millionaires – even they will not inherit one dollar out of the $ 14,5 million estate their murdered parents left them.
As soon as they come out of prison the two brothers will make millions anyway from media: Netflix is reportedly offering them up to 10 million dollars for a new series on their life in which they now can participate in person. – a huge deal after the last Netflix-series „Monsters“ about the life of the Menendez brothers had record viewership.
For their first interview after prison nearly all networks – especially CBS and ABC – are offering more than one million dollar.
Several Hollywood companies – ranging from Apple and Netflix up to Disney and Paramount – will offer them a film-contract worth also more than 10 million in advance money.
And a whole lot of publishing companies will give them a book contract also – worth more than 5 million dollars for their biography.
„They can make more than 20 million, maybe up to 40 million dollar if they have a clever media management, without even thinking about merchandising and new companies they can found with their new media stardom“, one Hollywood insider reports. And: „Most of the money can be advance payments if they make the right contracts, so they will be millionaires on day 1 when they are out of prison.“
Both brothers will therefore have no financial problems – even they inherited absolutely nothing from the $ 14,5 million fortune their parents left them when they were murdered.
The more – also the more of the sold real estates – is nearly untouched til now.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, whose brazen murder of their parents Kitty and Jose Menendez in 1989 and subsequent trials brought them to jail for life, are currently serving these life sentences in Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.
The prosecution accused the brothers of committing the murders at their Beverly Hills home and argued they were motivated by a desire for control of their parents’ reported $14.5 million estate. After two deadlocked jury trials, a third jury found the brothers guilty on April 17, 1996.
According to the California Slayer Statute “when someone is feloniously murdered, the perpetrator cannot profit from the victim’s estate, whether there is a family relationship or not.” If the killing were committed in self-defense, however, or deemed a justifiable homicide, the statute would not apply. So the brothers have still the chance to fight for the money.
Not that there would be much of the estate left. Jose and Kitty’s $14.5 million fortune, which Jose built as CEO of Live Entertainment, had “almost entirely been run through” by April 1994, according to the Los Angeles Times. By that point, $10.8 million had spent, about half going to the brothers’ lawyers, including Leslie Abramson, who argued that Jose and Kitty Menendez subjected their sons to years of emotional and sexual abuse
In the six months following the murder, Lyle and Erik reportedly blew through $1 million on parties, travel, and shopping. Lyle spent more than $15,000 on three Rolex watches the day before his parents’ funeral, witnesses and he would later testify, and in addition to thousands of dollars in gambling losses, Erik had also hired a tennis coach for $60,000 a year in the hopes of going pro.
The Menendez’s home sold in 1991 for $3.6 million, a loss of nearly $1.2 million, all of which went to paying off the mortgage, closing costs, and the Internal Revenue Service. A Calabasas house that their parents owned and were renovating, which had been appraised at $2.65 million, sold in 1994 for much less: $1.94 million.
That property also had an $864,000 mortgage that needed to be paid, and the year of the sale the estate still owed taxes estimated at $600,000 along with attorneys’ fees and court costs from the trials.
So how much is left? It’s hard to know for sure, but out of their parent’s fortune nearly zero is probably pretty close.
But the millionaires life of the Menendez brothers now starts with the media hype – and this hype will be enormous….
“I came to a place where I believe, under the law, resentencing is appropriate,” Gascón said. Prosecutors will go to court Friday to make the request, but Gascón said some members of his office oppose the decision and may be in court as the case proceeds.
The Menendez brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez. The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to stop people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years.
The brothers’ extended family has pleaded for their release, saying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.
Multiple members of their extended family, including their aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the first few rows of Thursday’s news conference. VanderMolen was Kitty Menendez’s sister and has publicly supported their release. Mark Geragos, an attorney for the brothers, was also there.
The Menendez brothers were tried twice for their parents’ murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.
