Who was Norma Novelli? Book author who sold and leaked tape recordings of Lyle Menendez in prison
NORMA Novelli recorded her conversations with Lyle Menendez before leaking them ahead of his second trial.
The leak caused chaos in the Menendez brothers’ court battle, which was dramatized in Ryan Murphy’s Monsters. Here’s everything you need to know about Norma.
In-depth conversations with Lyle
Although not much is known about Norma’s life before the trial, we do know that Lyle Menendez believed that she would collaborate with him on a book about his life.
According to the blurb of that book, Norma published a newsletter called Mind’s Eye and lived in Toluca, California.
She recorded several tapes with Lyle for the book and he trusted her enough to open up about his innermost thoughts and feelings.
However, the tapes leaked before the trial, causing chaos in the legal proceedings.
In Ryan Murphy’s Monsters, this prevents Lyle from testifying in the second trial and forces his lawyer, Jill Lansing, to quit.
Norma is played by Natalie Taylor Gray in the Netflix series.
However, real-life events differed from the version shown in Monsters as the leak didn’t actually prevent Lyle from testifying.
In reality, Lyle chose not to testify after Norma sold the tapes.
After Jill stepped back from the case, death penalty litigation expert Charles Gessler stepped up to save the brothers from execution.
Ultimately, he was successful, though they were both sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The tapes were eventually used to write a book called The Private Diary of Lyle Menendez in His Own Voice.
The book was a collaborative effort between Norma and Mike Walker.
The blurb claims to give readers an “intimate, sensational peek” into Lyle’s mind as he confides in a “middle-aged single mother”.
It even suggests that Norma was “ensnared by Lyle”, who it claims said “everybody who meets me, loves me”.
The Menendez brothers’ crime
On August 20, 1989, the Menendez brothers murdered their parents Kitty and José in their family home.
The brothers phoned the police and pretended that they had just come home to find their parents dead, before going on to live a lavish lifestyle with their inheritance.
They were later arrested for their crime after Erik confessed to Dr Jerome Oziel, his therapist, whose mistress, Judalon Smyth, informed the police of what had happened.
Their first trial quickly became a media circus, while also being broadcast on Court TV to homes across America.
The brothers alleged during the trial that they had been victims of sexual abuse at the hands of their father.
A hung jury forced the case to go to a retrial, with the tapes recorded by Norma adding to the chaos.
Despite the efforts of the brothers’ lawyer Leslie Abramson, they were jailed for their crime.
Netflix and the Menendez brothers
Interest in the Menendez brothers surged when Ryan Murphy’s Netflix drama Monsters landed on the platform.
A documentary named The Menendez Brothers followed, which featured interviews with the brothers themselves.
Since then, there have been calls for the brothers’ release which are even being echoed by celebrities including Kim Kardashian.