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Post by natalie on Jun 12, 2017 16:51:07 GMT -5
Should the Menendez Brothers Still Be in Jail? Lifetime Movie Star Would 'Love to See Them Walk Free'Tierney Bricker, June 11, 2017 “I would love to see them both walk free.” Do you feel the same way about Lyle and Erik Menendez after watching Menendez: Blood Brothers? The Lifetime movie about the Menendez brothers and the 1989 murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty, aired on Lifetime tonight and offered an empathetic take on the trial that enraptured the nation in the ‘90s, focusing on the alleged sexual abuse they suffered.
And after playing Lyle, the older brother, star Nico Tortorella told E! News he’d love to see the brothers, who are both currently serving life sentences, get another chance in court after their three trials 25 years ago. “The judge ruled the sexual abuse case impossible between two men, sexual abuse had to be between a man and a woman and that is absolutely disgusting and that is the only saving grace for them to go back to retrial,” Tortorella said. “I really do hope that this shines a light on this case in a way that hasn't been seen before, and gives people a space to really empathize.”
While Tortorella did say he believes the brothers should walk, he acknowledged that “a lot” of that is because he was playing Lyle. “But I think the ultimate ruling is so fucked up ... that something needs to be done about it. It’s not OK. The actual ruling itself, to say that a gay man can’t be raped, it’s disgusting and it needs to be fixed.”
But does his costar Myko Olivier, who played Erik in the TV movie, also believe the brothers should be granted a retrial in 2020? “I do think there was something going on,” Olivier said of Lyle and Erik’s allegations of sexual abuse, which was used as their primary defense. “I don’t necessarily believe abuse is an excuse for murder. They killed their parents and they should serve time for that. But is abuse an excuse, I guess?”
And after watching footage from the trial and the brothers’ emotional testimony about their abuse, Olivier said he doesn’t believe Erik and Lyle lied on the stand, telling us, “I don’t think they would be good enough liars to pull that off.”
Do you think the Menendez brothers should get another trial? What did you think of Menendez: Blood Brothers’ take on the case?
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Post by aprillynn93 on Jun 12, 2017 18:06:51 GMT -5
Murder is never ok IMO. While I do not agree with what the judge said about the sexual abuse, the brothers should definitely not be set free. Many people have been sexually abused, but still did not commit murder. There is always a choice.
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Post by Joanna on Jun 13, 2017 8:11:37 GMT -5
These two fiends weren't sexually abused. Just because they were young doesn't mean they weren't good liars. Read the following article about how Erik rammed his head into a tree and fell to the ground, screaming hysterically, after they shot their parents. They had everyone fooled, including the police.
“Two Infamous Murder Houses” whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/4163/infamous-murder-houses
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Post by jason on Jun 13, 2017 10:40:54 GMT -5
Murder is never ok IMO. While I do not agree with what the judge said about the sexual abuse, the brothers should definitely not be set free. Many people have been sexually abused, but still did not commit murder. There is always a choice. Come on! You can't possibly believe that those liars were sexually abused. They were two greedy screw-ups who didn't want to wait for their inheritance.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Jun 13, 2017 12:49:08 GMT -5
Murder is never ok IMO. While I do not agree with what the judge said about the sexual abuse, the brothers should definitely not be set free. Many people have been sexually abused, but still did not commit murder. There is always a choice. Come on! You can't possibly believe that those liars were sexually abused. They were two greedy screw-ups who didn't want to wait for their inheritance.
I don't know if they were really abused or not. Regardless, they should stay in jail.
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Post by natalie on Jun 13, 2017 15:59:15 GMT -5
I admit I don't know much about the case but I read on a forum that one of the brothers (or maybe it was both of them) had written a letter to their cousin when they were younger (I believe aged 12?) to tell him about the abuse. Is this true? I did not think there was any evidence, because what I have seen on TV and have read in prior articles showed that they just wanted to go on lavish shopping sprees on their parents' dime, but I keep seeing mention of these letters. Also, I have seen mention of evidence that Kitty knew her husband sexually abused the kids but did nothing to stop it. Just curious to know if any of these things are true or not, I am not saying I support their decision to kill their parents.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Jun 13, 2017 20:00:17 GMT -5
It's not that I believed they were abused. What I didn't agree with was what the judge had said - that sexual abuse was impossible between two men, that it had to be between a man and a woman.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Jun 13, 2017 20:13:52 GMT -5
Natalie it's been so long now, I don't remember alot about the case anymore. I remember thinking that their behavior did not match their story. I don't remember them ever finding any credible evidence that there was any abuse going on.
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Post by Joanna on Jun 14, 2017 17:38:26 GMT -5
I admit I don't know much about the case but I read on a forum that one of the brothers (or maybe it was both of them) had written a letter to their cousin when they were younger (I believe aged 12?) to tell him about the abuse. Is this true? I did not think there was any evidence, because what I have seen on TV and have read in prior articles showed that they just wanted to go on lavish shopping sprees on their parents' dime, but I keep seeing mention of these letters. Also, I have seen mention of evidence that Kitty knew her husband sexually abused the kids but did nothing to stop it. Just curious to know if any of these things are true or not, I am not saying I support their decision to kill their parents. I've read 3 of the several books about this case and kept up with it in the news. One of their cousins said that if the brothers said they were sexually abused, that it was true, but I don't remember a letter either of them wrote about the abuse before the murders. Other family members said they were lying.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 9, 2017 1:58:47 GMT -5
Menendez Brothers Inspired by The Billionaire Boys Club
Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers – American Sons, American Murderers aired in January and even those who were familiar with the case were likely shocked by some of the more grisly details. One of the strangest things about the case, in which Erik and Lyle Menendez brutally murdered their parents, is that the crime was inspired by a TV miniseries based on an actual murder case. The film called The Billionaire Boys Club stars Judd Nelson as a rich Los Angeles playboy who operates a Ponzi scheme. It begins as a “get rich quick” plan, but eventually the crimes become more serious and the need for cash leads to murder.
It seems a ridiculous story, but there was such an organization. The Billionaire Boys Club was founded in the 1980s by Joseph Henry Gamsky, aka Joe Hunt. He would recruit the sons of millionaires to fund his “investment group,” which was nothing more than a scam. In 1984, Hunt and his bodyguard, Jim Pittman, murdered Ron Levin, a freelance journalist who had played a prank that resulted in Hunt’s failure to obtain a large sum of money to which he thought he was entitled. “Hunt had said the two handcuffed Levin and laid him face down on his bed,” detailed a Los Angeles Times article from 1986. “Pittman then shot him in the back of the head with a silenced handgun. The body was allegedly disposed of in a deserted canyon.”
Shortly after the first murder, Hunt and Pittman traveled to Northern California with club members Ben Dosti and Reza Eslaminia and killed Hedayat Eslaminia, Reza’s father. The man was a wealthy government official from Iran and had resources Reza wanted to inherit and that Hunt wanted to use for his club. The gang originally planned to torture Eslaminia until he turned over all his money, but instead, they accidentally smothered him to death in the trunk of a car.
The highly publicized case was adapted into the 1987 miniseries. The Menendez brothers watched a rerun of the series July 30 and 31, 1989, less than three weeks before they murdered their parents on August 20. A witness even testified in court that the brothers “hatched their plot to kill” because they were so inspired by the story.
Coincidentally, a big-screen remake of the miniseries is scheduled for a 2017 release. Ansel Elgort is playing Joe Hunt, Kevin Spacey has the role of murdered journalist Ron Levin, and Taron Egerton, Emma Roberts and Billie Lourd are all co-starring.
Sources: Maggie Pehanick, PopSugar, January 12, 2017, and Alan Abrahamson, The Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1993.
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Post by madeline on Jul 9, 2017 9:50:00 GMT -5
It has been known for a long time that they got the idea to kill their parents from watching "The Billionaire Boys Club." From what I've read about their father, he was a first class jerk and his sons obviously took after him. Still, that didn't excuse what they did or the lies that they told about him sexually abusing them. Neither of them had any values at all. They were a couple of selfish, self-centered, cold-blooded killers who acted more like rabid dogs than human beings. They should have been sentenced to death, but since they weren't, they should never be set free.
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Post by jason on Jul 10, 2017 17:24:56 GMT -5
Those two freaks are pure evil and they got a lot better than what they deserved -- which was death.
Nico Tortorella and Myko Olivier are just two more delusional liberal progressive Hollywood Democrats, who need to stick to acting and keep their crazy-assed opinions to themselves.
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Post by kitty on Oct 27, 2017 15:11:07 GMT -5
Has anyone been watching the new "Law and Order" show on Tuesdays about the Menendez case? So far, it looks like they're trying to say that they really were sexually abused by their parents, but I remember that everyone seemed to dismiss their claims at the time of the trial.
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Post by natalie on Oct 30, 2017 15:38:36 GMT -5
I saw portions of a show on Investigation Discovery, and they did reference the cousin's claims of being told the brothers were sexually abused, prior to the murders. The cousin also claimed the mother knew and she was an alcoholic, part of the reason being she knew her husband was abusing the siblings but was in denial, or felt like there was nothing she could do. The brothers were interviewed for the show, while wearing their prison garb, and they also showed parts of the trial in which they break down while confessing to the father's abuse. I don't know how much truth there is to all this though, lawyers know what to tell their clients so that the juries go easier on them. I remember them mentioning that the shrink felt threatened, or the shrink's girlfriend felt threatened, and that is when they went to authorities about their confession. If I remember correctly, the shrink taped the sessions, and in none of the sessions was there mention of sexual abuse from the father. I wonder why?
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Post by Graveyardbride on Nov 2, 2017 2:27:14 GMT -5
Has anyone been watching the new "Law and Order" show on Tuesdays about the Menendez case? So far, it looks like they're trying to say that they really were sexually abused by their parents, but I remember that everyone seemed to dismiss their claims at the time of the trial. Dick Wolf, who produces Law and Order, said of the show: “I don’t care what attitude you go in with, your mind is going to receive information that I think will change a lot of peoples’ attitudes. This is one of the crimes of the century. It’s absolutely horrible, but when you see the information, I think people are going to realize, well, they did it, but it wasn’t first-degree murder with no possibility of parole. They probably should have been out eight or 10 years ago because they should have been convicted of first-degree manslaughter, which is a different punishment than first-degree murder. So yes, this is a show that has an agenda too.” He’s obviously one of those Hollywood liberal progressives who fell for those monsters’ lies and wants to see them released.
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