Erik Menendez has spoken out about the murder of his parents, Jose and Kitty, before, but he says his newest interview is the “first time” he’s really telling his side of the story.
Menendez and his brother Lyle were convicted of the murder of their parents, who were shot and killed on Aug. 20, 1989. Prosecutors said the brothers schemed to get their parents’ $14 million estate, but they said they endured years of abuse. The defense did not stop the jury from finding them guilty and they were sentenced to prison for life.
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The murder and their trial has remained a topic of interest, thanks to countless documentaries and dramatizations, including NBC’s Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders. Menendez’s new interview from jail will be at the center of another documentary, A&E‘s The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All.
“You may think you know my story — but you couldn’t possibly, because I’m telling my story to you now for the first time,” Menendez said in a clip released by PEOPLE.
In the interview, he describes his father’s alleged abuse.
“The most overwhelming memory of my dad was him pounding on my door, telling me to open the door of the bedroom,” Menendez said in the interviews with executive producer Nancy Saslow. “He would have me massage him, and he would have me perform oral sex on him. He would graphically describe to me how he would kill me if I ran away.”
Menendez and his brother have spoken out several times since they were convicted. Just last week, Lyle’s latest interview with NBC’s Dateline aired and he described the moments of his parents’ murders in detail.
“I certainly in the room wasn’t making decisions in a chaotic situation like that,” Lyle said of the moment he fired the last shot that killed his mother. “But reflecting afterwards it haunts me, it does haunt me.”
Erik Tells All debuts on A&E on Nov. 30 at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.
Photo: Getty
