Renewed interest in the case involving Lyle and Erik Menendez has reportedly turned the family’s former mansion into an unintended tourist trap, with the Beverly Hills Police receiving 18 calls in the last month concerning loud noise and trespassing.
Residents around the Elm Drive home told the Los Angeles Times that their once quiet neighborhood has become a magnet for rubberneckers who want to catch a glimpse of the place where the brothers murdered their parents in 1989.
“There’s people all hours of the night,” one resident told the newspaper. “People are getting out of their cars, blocking our driveway. I didn’t register that [the mansion] was across the street from me. It’s been pretty quiet until the Netflix show came out.”
To exacerbate the situation, numerous videos of the house have surfaced on TikTok, acting as a valuable resource for tourists seeking unique attractions in Los Angeles. Naturally, tour buses also pass by the Mediterranean-style mansion, which sold for $17 million in March. The seven-bedroom, 9,063-square-foot home is under renovation, so no one is living there.
The newspaper reported that tourists from as far away as France and South Africa have been stopping by the home to take pictures, especially of the famous street address. “In Italy, the show is very popular,” tourist Fabrizio Serra told the LAT. “It’s fascinating to visit this place… You have the opportunity to see something that you usually only see on screens in real life.
The Menendez Brothers Have Long Claimed To Have Experienced Abuse. So What’s Changed Now?
The Menedez brothers’ headline-making case has seen a resurgence in recent months thanks to a Netflix fictional series and subsequent documentary. And in a moment that felt like a pivotal plot twist on Thursday, the Los Angeles DA filed a petition to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez, citing new evidence that shed light on sexual abuse the brothers said they suffered at the hands of their father.
In the 1990s, prosecutors dismissed the abuse claims as untrue. But we’ve come a long way since then. That’s because sexual violence “is not just about individual behavior but fundamentally about societal and institutional behavior as well,” explains Jennifer Freyd, an expert on interpersonal and institutional betrayal trauma and sexual violence. The court reexamining the Menendez case indicates an institution reckoning with change.
And it’s not just one case that brings attention to the sexual abuse of male victims. Diddy is facing an onslaught of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges. Additionally, Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, faced charges for running an international sex trafficking scheme.
Freyd is hopeful this continued awareness will make the world a safer place. “We still have a long way to go, especially in terms of understanding the severity and harm caused by family abuse of children, which is a severe form of betrayal trauma,” she asserts. But this is a start. “Also, as with any liberation movement and consciousness-raising efforts, progress is not linear.”
The Scheduling Of The Menendez Parole Hearing Would Take Six Months
It could take six months for the California Parole Board to schedule a hearing for the Menendez brothers, assuming a judge first approves their resentencing. We expect the Los Angeles court to schedule the resentencing hearing in 30 to 45 days. Donovan State Prison has housed Erik Menendez since 2013. In 2018, Lyle Menendez’s transfer to Donovan Prison reunited Erik Menendez with his older brother.
Last week, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón recommended resentencing for the brothers convicted of the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. It will be up to a judge to decide whether resentencing will take place, reducing the original sentence of life without parole to 50 years to-life with the possibility of parole.
Then, and only then, would the brothers be eligible for a parole hearing. “The Board of Parole Hearings schedules the hearings and no earlier than six months out as required by notice provisions and other mandates,” according to CDCR.
That means seven to eight months at the earliest for a release date and probably longer. The Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa houses the brothers in cell block “E,” a special housing unit for well-behaved inmates.
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