Menendez brothers’ money: What we know about their $14.5 million inheritance from parents Jose & Kitty’s estate

LYLE and Erik Menendez were convicted of brutally murdering their wealthy parents in their Beverly Hills mansion.

At first the brothers were not suspects, but their lavish spending spree following the 1989 crime raised suspicions — here we look at what happened to their inheritance.

Gruesome crime and aftermath

On August 20, 1989, the Menendez brothers shot their parents Jose and Kitty multiple times with shotguns as they watched television in their living room.

Initially Lyle and Eric weren’t suspects, but their lavish spending in the months following the murders caught the attention of the authorities.

The 2024 Netflix documentary called The Menendez Brothers is the first time Lyle’s spoken publicly since the pair’s televised interview with Barbara Walters in June 1996 following their second trial.

Erik, now 53, has spoken out more often than his brother through his wife Tammi Saccoman.

In the new documentary he opened up about the despair he felt after the murders.

He also revealed that he was still feeling a lingering pressure from his dad Jose even after his death.

Erik said: “One of the things that kept me from killing myself is that I was, I felt like I would be a complete failure to my dad at that point.”

Lyle, now 56, said in the doc that the lavish spending covered up the mental anguish that he and his brother were suffering through.

He said: “I was not enjoying myself as a playboy, that I was actually sobbing a lot at night, sleeping poorly, very distraught at times, and kind of adrift throughout this, all those months.”

Trials

The case went to trial in 1993, with the brothers facing charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder.

The defense argued that the killings were acts of self-defense, claiming the brothers had suffered years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents.

The first trial resulted in hung juries for both brothers.

For the second trial in 1995, Judge Stanley Weisberg limited testimony related to the abuse claims.

The jury found Lyle and Erik guilty of first-degree murder and they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

I was not enjoying myself as a playboy, that I was actually sobbing a lot at night, sleeping poorly, very distraught at times, and kind of adrift throughout this, all those months

Lyle MenendezThe Menendez Brothers, Netflix

During the trials prosecutors said the brothers were motivated by greed because they spent around $700,000 of their family’s fortune in the months after the crime.

However, Lyle and Erik, who were respectively 21 and 18 at the time of the murders, have always denied there was a financial motive to the killings.

What happened to their inheritance?

Following their conviction, the Menendez brothers were stripped of their inheritance.

Initially, they were set to inherit a substantial fortune in the region of $14.5million from their parents’ estate.

However, California law prevents convicted murderers from benefiting financially from their crimes.

As a result, any assets that would have been passed down to them were redirected to a trust for their parents’ surviving family members.

This legal ruling means that while Lyle and Erik Menendez lost their inheritance due to their actions, other family members could potentially benefit from what would have been the brothers’ share.

Recent developments

In May 2023, the brothers’ appellate attorney, Cliff Gardner, filed a habeas petition seeking to vacate their convictions based on new evidence.

This includes a letter allegedly written by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano in 1988, describing ongoing abuse.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced in October 2024 that his office is reviewing the new evidence.

While acknowledging that there’s no question the brothers killed their parents, Gascón stated his office has a “moral and ethical obligation” to examine the new evidence.