👨🏻‍⚖️ There's A New Menendez Brothers Documentary With Intriguing Updates!

Em Gillespie joins Jonesy & Amanda with the latest in entertainment!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
And Amanda jam Nation.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
But the news is fit to print in the entertainment
world from The Daily Oz. M Gillespie, Hello, Hello, talking
about one of my favorite cases today, the Menendez brothers.
They're back in the news cycle. Last year, US authorities announced,
which we discussed, these plans to review new evidence in
this case of the convicted murderers. There was that drama

(00:24):
series last year that shot to the top of Netflix's
most watch charts all around the world that told their story,
the story of Lyle and Eric Menndez, who were handled
life sentences in nineteen ninety six. They were found guilty
of killing their parents brutally with a shotgun in their
La mansion. Captured global attention at the time and has

(00:45):
been really kind of reinvigorated by this Netflix series.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
The new evidence, which was that they say they were
molested by their father.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yes, So the argument is that the child abuse argument,
that this was a kind of murdering self defense, that
that argument was not considered adequately at the time of
the original trials, and that you know, there is there
are new letters that have come to like detailing the
abuse and now that you're given the way that we
talk about and treat abuse and victim survivors of child

(01:14):
abuse nowadays, that they kind of deserve a retrial or
that things deserve to be reconsidered. But there's this new
documentary that's come to stand this week where we actually
hear from Eric and Lyle from prison, so that these
interviews recorded over the phones. We don't see them, but
it's the kind of first comprehensive interview that we've heard

(01:35):
from them since this Netflix show came out. They're now
aged in their fifties. Of course they're fifties. Yeah, they're
both in their fifties. Well, they were eighteen and twenty
one at the times of the murders, so they've spent
more than half their life in prison. The Netflix show
really kind of paints this picture of two very spoiled
brats who had this incredibly privileged upbringing in Beverly Hills,

(01:57):
you know, wanted nothing, had all of the luxuries and
decadence of life given to them. But now, you know,
after thirty six years in jail, it really seems that
they have transformed as people. I'm not sure how legitimate
that is, obviously. The Netflix show kind of paints these
very I guess these comprehensive liars, these compulsive kind of liars.

(02:21):
But they've reflected, they've grown up, they've got new perspectives.
Eric in particular seems to be really zen and he's
come to this place of being really humble. He describes
growing up in that affluent home. He called himself a
spoiled brat. He's a little bit of what he had
to say.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
I had to keep in security issues and tried to
hide those issues, and I was taught that you do
it through the best clothes or the best car or whatever.
Of those things that we now know is completely dysfunctional
and frankly just a sign of the internal pain. I
look back and I'm so ashamed it embarrassed about even

(03:00):
the little things that I did in life. But beginning
to like myself, proud of myself, and find it okay
to like myself.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I thought it was really interesting. In prison, they've been
really involved in these kind of community rehabilitation style programs.
They work with other prisoners who are victims of abuse
that they work on a suicide prevention program, They work
in hospice care. So they've been certainly keeping very busy.
But detectives who were on the case kind of argue
that all of that is just about part of the action,

(03:32):
part of the act. It's an image kind of rehab,
sort of reputational transformation to convince a judge basically that
they should get out. I was really curious about whether
or not they had seen the Netflix show, because of course,
it's the reason we're now talking about them, It's the
reason this new evidence has come to light. Here is
what Lyle had to say on the Netflix show in

(03:52):
this standoco.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
It really did actually move a lot of people to
understand the child trauma that that Eric and I suffer
it and particular the horrific stuff that Eric sep I feel.
In the end, a lot of people were educated about
what can happen, even enriched in affluent homes, behind walls

(04:17):
and behind hedges, and so I think they get opened
a lot of people's eyes, and that's always a good thing.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
What's he's sharing the cell with a beat boxer, that
would be that would be the worst.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
That would be, that'd be hard time you share a
cell with a beat boxer and he sounds middle age.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
It's amazing, but it is amazing.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
This is streaming on stan It's.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Streaming on Stan But it's all kind of culminating in
We've got a few key dates coming up in terms
of what happens with this case. There is a hearing
in mid April, and there is a parole Board decision
to be handed down in June. So there are a
couple of things that could happen. The Parole Board could
decide that they have, you know, been rehabilitated, that they're

(04:59):
no longer a danger to society and they should be released.
That hearing in April could re sentence them from downgrading
their charges from murder to manslaughter. That could see them
immediately immediately released or their sentences reduced. Or there is
also the chance that that hearing in April will recommend
a new trial, in which case they would have to

(05:20):
go through the whole process again, and so would we.
They could be found not guilty all of the above.
So there's a lot that lies ahead and the decision
is really murky. Everyone seems pretty split fifty to fifty
on what could happen, but we won't really know anything
until June ish. But plenty to come in this story.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
No spoiler alerts, M No spoiler alert. I want to
know what happens to her as.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
The parents have died.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Amanda, come on, you can catch the documentary on Stan
Good on you.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
M Gillespie chekaat at the Daily Os