Menendez brothers’ uncle says they shouldn’t be launched from jail

An uncle of the Menendez brothers says his nephews do not deserve to be released, claiming they were never abused at the hands of their father. 

Milton Andersen, the now-90-year-old brother of their slaughtered mother Kitty Menendez, ‘firmly believes that his nephews were not molested’, according to his lawyer Kathy Cady. 

‘He believes that is a fabrication and he believes that the motive was pure greed’, she told Eyewitness News. 

Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1996 after their first trial was declared a mistrial. The brothers never denied killing their parents by shooting them 14 times with 12-gauge shotguns in their million-dollar Beverly Hills home in August 1989 when they were just 18 and 21.    

But Lyle and Erik, now aged 53 and 56, claimed they acted in self-defense. They said they were lifelong victims of sexual abuse at their hands of their father, a high-flying businessman who worked across several industries, and that they were terrified that their parents were about to kill them to prevent the allegations from coming out. 

Prosecutors at the time said that there was no evidence that the brothers were abused, instead saying that they wanted their parents’ multimillion dollar estate. 

Cady said Andersen wants his nephews to serve their life sentences in full, even if it was just for killing his sister. 

‘At the time of the trial, at least according to the court of appeal opinion, one of the brothers said that killing her was – quote – a mercy killing’, she said. 

It comes as the DA for LA County, George Gascón, said he was considering pushing for a resentencing in light of a new letter that could bolster the brothers’ claim that they were abused. 

The letter, which Erik to his cousin, Andy Cano, eight months before he killed Jose, alludes to serious abuse at his father’s hands. 

The letter, first revealed by DailyMail.com, reads: ‘I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening Andy but it’s worse for me now. I can’t explain it. He’s so overweight that I just can’t stand to see him. I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy.

‘Every night I stay up thinking he might come in. I need to put it out of my mind. I know what you said before but I’m afraid. You just don’t know dad like I do. He’s crazy! 

‘He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone. Especially Lyle. Am I a serious whimpus? I don’t know I’ll make it through this. I can handle it, Andy. I need to stop thinking about it.’

But Cady claimed that Gascón is using the case to raise political capital as he nears an open race for the DA role in LA County. 

“Mr. Andersen just wants to make sure that whatever decision is made, that it’s not politically driven, that it really is done because of the right reasons,” Cady said.

She also claimed that Andersen has been locked out of discussions with the DA’s office and that he has been denied input on the fate of his sister’s killer, which she says is against California law. 

‘Mr. Andersen understands that he’s not going to be the one who’s going to be able to make the final decision, but he wants to make sure that the person who does make that final decision doesn’t forget about him’, she added. 

But the vast majority of the Menendez family have been supportive of the brothers. 

Yesterday, they held a press conference where they spoke out in hopes that new evidence will exculpate them. 

Defense lawyer Mark Geragos, representing the family at a press conference in LA, said: ‘If they were the Menendez sisters they would not be in custody.’ 

Kitty’s sister Joan Andersen VanderMolen also spoke at the press conference, describing the pain the family has felt for over 30 years.

‘Their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father,’ Vandermolen said.

She added: ‘The truth is, Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who should have protected them—their parents, the system, and society at large.’

The family introduced a coalition called ‘Justice for Eric and Lyle’ and spoke of how the brothers have lived a life of purpose in their 35 years in prison – even though they did not expect to ever be freed.

They also said they have started a petition for people to support the brothers’ resentencing and release.

‘Lyle and Erik deserve a chance to heal, and our family deserves a chance to heal with them,’ said one of the brothers’ cousins, Anamaria Baralt.

Baralt also read a statement from her mother, Jose’s sister, saying, ‘My prayer is that I live long enough to see my nephews again and to hug them once more.’

One of Kitty’s nephews, Brian Andersen Jr., said: ‘I’ve known Erik and Lyle my whole life. I can tell you without a doubt that they are not the villains they’ve been portrayed as.

‘They were boys, young, scared and abused by their father in ways no child should ever experience.’

Kitty’s niece Karen VanderMolen said her sister had evidence of the abuse the brothers suffered but it wasn’t allowed in their trial.

‘My sister Diane had evidence of their abuse that was not even allowed to be presented at the trial,’ she said.

‘I cannot help but think of how things would be different if the world had known the truth back then, or if they had been the Menendez sisters.’

She added: ‘The feeling in their house and the father and son interactions were just off.’ 

In addition to the press conference, the relatives placed a full page ad in Wednesday’s LA Times, showing photos of the brothers and calling for ‘JUSTICE FOR ERIK AND LYLE’

The brothers, then just 18 and 21, killed their parents Jose and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez with shotguns inside their million-dollar Beverly Hills home in August 1989.

Their subsequent trial prompted worldwide headlines. Prosecutors said they were motivated by greed, as they stood to inherit $14 million from their parents – while the brothers insisted they acted against a father who sexually abused them for years and a mother who turned a blind eye to the abuse.

That first trial ended with a hung jury. But at their second trial in 1996 – where the judge refused to allow any evidence about the brothers being molested by their father – they were convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

If a jury at any potential re-trial finds them guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder, it would trigger their immediate release as they have already served more than the maximum sentence. 

Gascon launched a new look at the case last month, saying his office was investigating fresh evidence of abuse that was not permitted in their trial,

Specifically, Gascon said he was reviewing shocking allegations made last year by Roy Rossello, a former member of the band Menudo, who claimed Jose Menendez – then a top executive with RCA Records – drugged and raped him in the 1980s when he was a teenager.

The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos- who is asking LA Superior Court to vacate the convictions – also provided Gascon with new evidence of a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin in which he said he was still being raped by his father eight months before the murders.

Gascon remains non-committal at present about whether he’ll push for the case to go back to court, his office telling DailyMail.com, ‘A decision regarding the Menendez case has not been made. Once DA Gascón has made a decision, the family members of the victims and the public will be notified.’

New interest in the case was sparked over the past few weeks with the premiere of the Netflix drama, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and the true crime documentary The Menendez Brothers – also on Netflix – which tell how the brothers claimed to police that they returned home from the theater to find their parents had been slaughtered.

At first it was feared that a vicious killer was on the loose in Beverly Hills, one of America’s wealthiest communities.

But cops switched their suspicions to Lyle and Erik after they set about spending their $14 million inheritance soon after their parents’ deaths.

Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to begin competing in tournaments.

In all, they spent $700,000 between the time of their parents’ deaths and their arrests in March 1990, seven months after the murders.

Erik – who said his father abused him from the age of six to 12 – insisted in the new Netflix documentary that it’s ‘absurd’ to suggest he was having a good time in the immediate aftermath of the murders.

‘Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive,’ he said.

‘One of the things that stopped me from killing myself was that I would be a complete failure to my dad.’