Rosie O’Donnell Scores Lyle Menendez Podcast Interview As Brothers Seek Re-Sentencing in 34 Year Old Double Murder of Parents

They were just defending themselves!

Lyle has not done an interview since 2017, and that wasn’t widely circulated. But there’s new interest in the Menendezes now that a former member of the boy band Menudo has said that Jose Menendez, who was the head of RCA Records in the 80s, raped him. Also a letter has surfaced between one of the brothers and a cousin, written six months before the murders, in which he describes the monstrous abuse they suffered at the parents’ hands.

Progressives artistic types love to take murderers under their wing.

I love Rosie but they butchered them

This seems a bit tabloidy for Rosie.

I feel like the dad was probably molesting them.

I mean if you raise a couple of murders and they end up murdering you who's really to blame so should they be punished I don't know.

Nah. They should never get out in my opinion. Because even if molested their motive was money. And they killed their own mom. All of it premeditated, alibis, lied to the police. It would be different if this happen during a family dinner table argument. When you murder you pay.

R7 I hope you are being cheeky because if not you are an idiot.

Rosie is a good choice for this interview. I think she will do a great job.

Is he the one that wore a hairpiece at the tender age of 18? Or was that the other brother/murderer?

"They've never been involved in any act of violence " says Rosie. "34 years is enough."

LOL! I'm a fan of hers but this is too much even for me.

With all of the countries that can still give LGBT folks the death penalty/life imprisonment this is the issue she wants to devote 6 months of her fame/fortune to?

Where the HELL are her priorities? Does she wish she could've done the same to her dad?

Rosie can't get her facts correct in the interview.

She says this was before The Burning Bed film but it came out in October1984.

The brothers killed their parents almost 5 years AFTER in August1989.

[quote]"They've never been involved in any act of violence " says Rosie.

Which was why they were given life sentences instead of the death penalty.

[quote]"34 years is enough."

No, it isn't. The judges and jury in the state of California already determined just sentencing in the case:

"Both brothers were eventually convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder; in the penalty phase of the trial, they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury said that the abuse defense was not a factor in its deliberations, but decided not to impose the death penalty because both brothers had no criminal record or history of violence prior to the murders. However, unlike the juries in the previous trials, the jury in the penalty phase rejected the defense's theory that the brothers killed their parents out of fear and believed that they committed the killings in order to inherit their father's wealth."

I just discovered her podcast and I really like it. The episodes are short and she's very low key.

Random fun fact: Tim Allen bought shady Dr. Jerome Oziel's house in Sherman Oaks. The former Mrs. Allen owns it now.

For two traumatized young men who committed the most heinous of crimes due to abuse they went on quite a spending spree and had a great time with their parents money after the butchering. And didn't the guy Mailer got freed go on to commit another murder? Rosie sounds like quite the idiot.

I am pleased Leslie van Houten was paroled. I am not against the Menendez brothers sentence being revisited, but I don't feel these two should be paroled.

Podcast: Lyle Menendez | Onward with Rosie O'Donnell

Listen...

[quote] I am not against the Menendez brothers sentence being revisited, but I don't feel these two should be paroled.

The purpose of revisiting their sentence (life, no parole) would be to get them paroled or get their sentence shortened, which would be like getting paroled / released.

What would be the purpose of revisiting their sentence if not to get them paroled?

The good looking Menendez brother was popular with the teen girls until they found out he was wearing a wig. Then not so popular.

[quote]What would be the purpose of revisiting their sentence if not to get them paroled?

R20. If they have a life sentence, then revisiting their sentence could be a reduction of time, for example being resentenced for 30 or 40 years. So conceivably, they could be released after 40 years. That is not parole. That is simply serving your given sentence and then being released once you've completed the sentence.

Parole is granted when at a specific period of time you qualify to be released by possibly being let out if you qualify.

Lyle and Erik Menéndez

To me they should never get out because people who commit heinous violent premeditated acts should never get out of prison unless they are a minor. They really should be put down but I am Catholic and don’t believe in the death penalty. People this sociopathic cannot be redeemed. This is different from some an armed robber and things gone wrong, they end up murdering someone. Or killing someone when a verbal confrontation escalates. They premeditated this shit. They had time to decide wait maybe we should not murder our defenseless parents. Let me rot.

R18 That ho should not have been paroled either.

Rosie's podcast is fascinating. It's not at all about "poor me." The discussion is of course a recap of the the crime, but it's also about the incest committed by the father on his sons. The trauma they went through was horrific. Lyle also discussed his extended family. He discusses what he's doing in prison, rehabilitation programs, a mural project with his brother, studying and getting his college degree and other mentoring groups that he started in prison. He's very busy in prison working on mental health and is quite intelligent.

You don't have to like him. But it is a fascinating discussion. He is very well spoken about a range of topics, and Rosie did a great job interviewing him.

R19 = Rosie herself.

R26 = Rosie's publicist.

"You don't have to like him". Gee thanks for that option LOL.

R27. A know-nothing.

R28 Yeah Rosie is a know-nothing about crime victims & has never been an advocate for folks who knew murder victims or even kids who were left behind from the tragedy.

I should've added that to my post.

Bull dyke lez has been such a stunning success with her OWN children.....

Was the father cute?

The prison system moved the brothers next door to each other. I've never heard of something like that before.

R29. You misunderstood. I meant that you are a know-nothing, not Rosie.

Erik I could kind of see getting a chance. He was the passive one of the two and was easily led. He just wanted to lay low and play tennis. Lyle was the mastermind and wasn't he sexually dominant with Erik? Lyle is by FAR the creepier of the two. With or without that ratty rug.

Erik was the hotter brother.

Lyle sounds like he has the gift of an evil super manipulator and charmer.

They went out to their car during the murders and reloaded. Lyle put the shotgun to his mothers head and fired. These two should never see freedom again.

If you're parents are abusive then move out and far away from them when you turn 18. So much nicer than slaughtering them.

Between Rosie’s teeth and the brother’s wig, you’d have a great Giuliani costume for Halloween!

I bet if their dad had been a produce manager at Von's they would have simply run away and not killed him. And way to blast mom in the kneecaps while she's eating ice cream. Fuck these money hungry little pricks.

These two psychopaths should have life without parole. After what they did they had no feelings whatsoever except how to have a good time. It doesn't matter how nice they are in prison. Why does this even matter with psycho killers?

Sorry I created another thread. I searched and searched and could not find this one.

As mentioned above, the interview is interested and Lyle is articulate. However, he could never bring himself to say the words "When I killed them" or "when we killed them." My gut feeling was that there were resources available to them - even though it couldn't be their mother or father. Apparently the mother knew of the abuse and kept silent. But they were rich kids and Lyle was already at Princeton and the rather than finding a non lethal solution for Erik to escape that hell hole of a house, they went with a lethal solution. And planned it. It seemed like a revenge killing, out of anger, and the parents deserved it, in my opinion. But it's not a legal revenge, is it? Expect maybe in fundamentalist cultures with different laws, perhaps.

r43 Lyle was going to UCLA at the time. The school would have helped him get housing had he really wanted to get away.

I say let them out. They're not going to re-offend, plus they saved who knows how many future victims of their pedo padre.

I like Rosie but she’s not too bright and her memory is very bad in general even for things in her own past. I would think she would want to spend more time working on her relationship with her own kids than on this mess, but whatever gets her up in the morning. All show biz folks seem mentally ill to me.

[quote] Sorry I created another thread. I searched and searched and could not find this one.

It's OK. It happens.

LOL! I didn't misunderstand R29 / R33 You did.

I took your lame name & threw it back at both you & Rosie.

I agree with R46 about liking her but the 6 months Rosie's used for this dumb creep, she should've spent on fixing her own family relationships including some friends/co-workers that she has attacked in the past.

I can remember at the time that one or both of them were involved in robberies prior to the murders.

R49, So was Robert Chambers.

I appreciate that Rosie did this.

Have a friend in prison for life and I think we need more opportunities to discuss the efficacy of life sentences and how the dehumanization of prisoners harms society by making them more prone to go back to crime after getting out.

She doesn’t try to pretend she’s a journalist. She’s someone who has been following their case and just wanted to talk about it.

R32 Complexion for protection.

Well in this case privilege.

R51 Well in your friend is in prison for life he won’t ever get out to face that dilemma. He won’t ever kill or do whatever crime that that got him life in prison because he won’t ever get out.

R51 "the efficacy of life sentences and how the dehumanization of prisoners harms society by making them more prone to go back to crime after getting out." It's simple, they're not getting back out. That seems effective.

R43 Man they were grown and he certainly wasn’t fucking them as adults. If it’s even true. I actually do believe papa was a predator. It still doesn’t excuse their foul behavior. They could have simply gone to the authorities. Who the fuck shoots their fucking parents to help death in such a predicated fashion. They killed their mama because they wanted that money to spend frivolously.

Apparently the dad was still fucking Erik through high school. And Erik was looking forward to going to college and moving away from home and his father forbid him to move into a dorm. I get the impression that while it was rape and pedophilia, Erik was so deeply broken into the submissive role it may have been perversely two-way, or whatever, by that point. Still Lyle had his wits about him and he could have just driven away with Erik and filed charges.

We need to do a poll. I used to think they were completely full of shit but I’ve met so many people who think they were abused including an ex of mine.

Were these boys really sexually assaulted all while growing up?

Great interview. Wish Rosie was on tv again.

They were so traumatized by life long abuse that after slaughtering their parents they decided to kick up their heels and paint the town red.

R57 all signs point to YES.

Rosie O'Donnell joins #CourtTV for an exclusive interview

Do they still have great asses?

Did both boys wear wigs?

Let's form a committee to free those innocent boys immediately!

Right there with ya, Susie.

Leslie Van H.

I cut Rosie loose after the "Isn't she a gorgeous woman, so brave!" luncheon for that Bud Light wrecking eyesore.

I dumped Kathy Griffin too and that was very sad for me. Their disrespect for actual women was appalling.

Loved them both at one time but they jumped the shark for me with that one.

As for the brothers, it seems they've done their time well. At least review the sentencing.

The murders (and these were beyond brutal) were likely triggered by years of abuse. I don't believe they are any danger to society.

I want to see Kathy Bates portray Rosie in a biopic.

I thought I read there is no proof they were molested. They went on a big spending spree right after. Even if they were molested what are we saying? Justifiable homicide? Seems more likely they were getting at the money. Saying they are no danger to society now well, their parents probably thought they were in no danger but they were murdered.

R67 Let them show hole and we’ll be able to tell.