Erik and Lyle Menendez: Brothers in Crime Quiz

Answer: Kitty and Jose

Kitty was born Kitty Anderson in Oak Lawn, a suburb south of Chicago. Kitty's family was middle class and she had two older brothers, Milt and Brian, and an older sister, Joan. Jose was born Jose Menendez in Havana, Cuba. He was from an upper-middle class family and he had two older sisters, Teresita, known as "Terry", and Marta. Jose's parents sent him to the United States in 1960 after Castro came to power. Kitty and Jose met while at Southern Illinois University, she was in her senior year and he was in his freshman year, the year was 1962.

They eloped in 1963 and were secretly wed. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com and www.rotten.com.

Answer: 722 Elm Drive, Beverly Hills

The Menendez Family lived at 722 Elm Drive, Beverly Hills. Their home was a $4 million, Mediterranean-style mansion with 23 rooms. The mansion was set back from the street, surrounded by a high iron fence with an iron gate, and was protected by a fancy security system. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: False

Actually Kitty was shot 10 times and Jose was shot 6 times. These were very brutal murders. Kitty was shot in her right leg, 2 times in the right arm, once in the left thigh and left breast, 4 times in the head, and the final shot was near her left knee. Jose was shot in the left elbow, the right arm at least 2 times, one shot to the back of the head, and the final shot to the left knee area just like Kitty.

There was another shot that struck Jose but it was unclear where it struck him. The last act the sons performed was to pick up the shell casings that were scattered around the room.

Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: Mossberg 12-gauge

After many months of investigating the police finally located a store in San Diego that sold two Mossberg 12-gauge shotguns for $199.95 each, on August 18, 1989. The form was signed by Donovan Jay Goodreau. Detective Zoeller followed this finding up by calling Donovan to verify that it was his signature on the form. Detective Zoeller discovered that Donovan had an air tight alibi and was in New York City at the time of this purchase and could not have possibly been in San Diego. Now Detective Zoeller had found the physical link between the shootings and the two brothers. Donovan Goodreau had been Lyle's friend while at Princeton. Donovan was accused of stealing from students in Lyle's dorm and was forced to leave the college.

When he left he forgot to take his wallet that contained his driver's license, Social Security card and other identification.

He left these items in Lyle's dorm room. This was how Lyle was able to use the false identification when purchasing the two shotguns.

Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: August 20, 1989

The complaints included how domineering and controlling their father was, and how hard it was to please him with anything that they did. They complained that he treated their mother poorly and he had planned to disinherit them. As the two brothers discussed this they also realized that they would have to kill their mother also.

The reason that they came to this conclusion was that they felt their mother would not survive emotionally without their father. The plan was hatched. Lyle wanted to plan the murders so that they would be perfect, but Erik insisted that the murders happen soon.

Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: Lyle Menendez

On August 20, 1989 at 11:47 p.m. a 911 call was received at the Beverly Hills Police Department. Lyle Menendez was the caller.

The neighbor girl saw the brothers at around 10:00 p.m. arrive at the home. She did not however know who was in the small car that stopped in front of the home. She was waiting for her boyfriend and lost interest in the happenings in front of the Menendez home.

Michael Butkus was the police officer that responded to the call and went to th home with his partner John Czarnocki. They did not immediately go into the home. They spent some minutes walking around the outside of the home and listening. They heard screaming and then they saw two men run out of the home almost side by side. The two men running out were the Menendez brothers. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: March 8, 1990

On March 8, 1990, Detective Zoeller obtained a search warrant for Dr. Oziel's tapes based on information from Judalon Smyth who also was Dr. Oziel's lover. Judalon had overheard some of these conversations and reported it to the police. Dr. Oziel was Erik's psychotherapist and Erik during sessions with him had told the doctor everything.
With this evidence now in hand Detective Zoeller was able to make an arrest. The police arrested Lyle in front of his home on March 8, 1990, in the afternoon. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com and www.rotten.com.

Answer: March 11, 1990

Erik was arrested on March 11, 1990, at the Los Angeles International Airport. Erik was just returning from a tennis tournament in Israel with his Aunt Marta. Now the police had both brothers in custody at the Los Angeles County Men's jail. Both arrests were made based on the evidence retrieved from Dr. Oziel's tapes and reports.

The police still had to find some physical evidence against the brothers. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com and www.rotten.com.

Answer: 3 years

The Menendez brothers spent 3 years in the Los Angeles County Men's Jail waiting for their trials to begin. They had the privilege to be housed in a special section of the jail for high-profile inmates. Two other famous criminals spent their time in this section known as the jail's 7000 section; they were O.J. Simpson and Richard Ramirez, known as the Nightstalker.

They were segregated from the other prisoners and remained in their cells except for an exercise period of one hour three days a week.

They were indicted on December 8, 1992, for the murder of their parents. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: True

Judge Weissberg ruled that the cases would be tried together in the interests of convenience, time and money. The judge ruled that each brother would have a separate jury. When evidence pertained to Erik, then Lyle's jury would be dismissed from the courtroom and vice versa. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: July 20, 1993

The trial started on July 20, 1993, with the prosecutor laying out the case against Lyle. Ms. Bozanich described the brutality of the murders, told about the lies and the spending sprees the brothers went on after the murders. The defendant's lawyers relied on the stories about child abuse and molestation that happened early in the boy's lives.

The stories that the brothers made up were a big part of their defense which led to the ultimate hung juries at the end. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: 16 days

Erik's jury took 16 days to deliberate and ended up deadlocked. The reason for the inability to reach an agreement was that the jury had a tough time trying to decide if the brothers were killers or long suffering victims of abuse. Judge Weissberg declared a mistrial. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: 24 days

In Lyle's case his jury took 24 days to deliberate and they also ended up as a hung jury. Their reasons were basically the same as Erik's jury. The jury was unable to decide between whether they were killers or victims. Judge Weissburg declared a mistrial in this case also. Now it was up to the justice system to retry the two men. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: October

Although this trial date was postponed several times jury selection began in August 1995. One significant difference in this trial was that although the brothers were tried together again, they had only one jury this time. The trial's opening statements actually began on October 11, 1995.

The judge also refused to allow this trial to be televised. During the two and a half years between the trials, it allowed the both the defense team and the prosecuting team time to study the mistakes made in the first trial. On March 1, 1996 the jury began to deliberate. On March 14, Judge Weissberg removed two female jurors, for medical reasons. Jury deliberations had to start all over with the placement of the two alternate jurors.

Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.

Answer: two counts first degree murder each with special circumstances attached, also two counts of conspiracy to commit murder

The verdict was two counts of first degree murder each with special circumstances attached plus two counts of conspiracy to commit murder each. The special circumstances were: lying in wait and multiple murders. Because of the special circumstances involved there were only two sentencing options: life in prison without the possibility of parole or death by execution.

The jury decided after deliberating for three days that life in prison was the appropriate punishment for the Menendez brothers.

The jury chose to spare the lives of Lyle and Erik because neither brother had a felony record or a history of violence. There have been some appeal attempts but on May 28, 1998, the California Supreme Court voted to uphold the murder convictions and the life-without-parole sentences of both Lyle and Erik.

In July 1999, Lyle worked as a janitor at the California Corrections Institution near Tehachapi and Erik worked as a groundskeeper at the California State Prison outside of Sacramento. Information found at www.crimelibrary.com.