O Caso dos Irmãos Menendez

I've known about this case for years, but recently watched the Monsters TV series based on the case, which is basically a lightly fictionalized docuseries.

This instead is a documentary, with footage of the real trial, and with the brothers' narration. I recommend watching this documentary after watching the Monsters TV series, to get a more complete picture of the dynamics.

In this documentary, they want you to be more inclined to believe the siblings' abuse, and they succeed at doing it. I can't say whether I believe in the abuse or not, there is evidence that it happened, and at the same time there is evidence that they lied and pretended about many things, one thing does not exclude the other. But one thing is certain, both in this documentary and in the Monsters series, the second trial was not done correctly, it was not carried out guaranteeing a fair and impartial trial, it was carried out starting a priori that the only possible output would be the life imprisonment.

The Menendez brothers killed two people, and for this they deserve to serve a long sentence, but they do not deserve to be deprived of the right to a fair trial.

If their trial had taken place today, they would probably have already finished serving their sentence.

Like many people I'm sure, I came to this off the back off the recent Netflix drama 'Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story' and I wanted to know more on the factual side behind the case. While the latter was well made and entertaining (if that's the right word, when the details are considered), I wish I'd just gone straight to this as there's none of the keep you guessing ambiguity of the drama which given what's at stake and having now seen both, seems quite unfair to the brothers. There's nothing fancy here, it's a meat and potatoes crime documentary of the like we've all seen many times before. But it gets the facts across and conveys the injustice of the 2nd court case well.

Judge Stanley Weisberg is corrupt and should be in prison. After having watched the actual trial he was biased from the very start of the first trial. He showed great preference to the prosecution, he would object to nearly every one of the defence's questions and block them and let the prosecution ask ridiculous questions and make atrocious statements. Not to mention he removed all of the abuse testimonies and evidence from the second trial. And there was a lot of evidence of abuse. As for the documentary itself, it was good however after having watched the actual trial it missed out so much of the abuse that these brothers especially Erik endured at both the hands of their parents. There was so much evidence, in the form of photos, medical reports and not to mention the various testimonies from doctors, coaches and family members. I felt that the documentary missed this out. It speaks volumes that not one person other than his paid secretary was a character witness for the father. They were abused in many ways by both parents and I hope that they are free soon. They have served enought time, they deserve a chance at a life.

Finally, a complete revelation of the facts. When children (or anyone) are subjected to systematic psychological and sexual abuse, they are emotionally and mentally dysregulated.

People asking, "why don't they leave, why don't they tell the police?"...do not understand how psychological control works. Their family was a cult of 4. These brothers were completely irrational, illogical...mentally unwell.

Of course they were! Anyone who had lived their torturous childhood would be the same.

This documentary includes corroborating stories to support the disgusting abusive nature of their father, and the lack of care from their mother.

Sometimes with this type of abuse there is only one way out. If you have not experienced it personally, you wouldn't understand.

Netflix allowing the brothers to do an in-depth interview about the events of not only that night but their lives prior to that was much needed. It's so refreshing to hear their voices after so many years. After watching this I am convinced that the abuse happened. Mainly because of how they killed their mother. They slaughtered her like a wild animal according to the prosecutor. You wouldn't kill your mother the way they did with so many bullets if you didn't hate her to your core. I began to think of how many men will actually do you serious bodily harm if you talk about their mothers. No matter how bad of a mother she is most men would go so far as attempted murder to protect their mother. So the fact that as she tried to flee they layered her with bullets mean that she was intensely hated. And you can only hate your mother that intensely if she failed to protect you from something or abused you. In this case it was both.

If you murder your mother for money you'd do so in a less rageful way such as poisoning. The menendez brothers were telling the truth and now that they have a hearing coming up i would love to see a follow up documentary on their lives after release. I gave this documentary 9 stars because I wish that Leslie Abramson, jill Lansing and Dr. Oziel would have at least spoken on camera.