Erik Menendez Takes Responsibility for Lyle Menendez’s Arrest
Erik Menendez’s Attorney Makes Rare Comments About Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monsters’ Series
Erik Menendez is sharing insight into the guilt he’s carried for the last 30 years.
In Netflix’s The Menendez Brothers, Erik—who along with his brother Lyle Menendez, killed his parents José Menendez and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez in 1989—shared why he feels responsible for the murders and his brother’s subsequent arrest.
“I went to the only person who had ever helped me, that ever protected me,” Erik, 53, explained in the documentary, released on Netflix Oct. 7. “Ultimately, this happened because of me, because I went to him.”
The Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility inmate—who was 18 when he and Lyle, then-21, killed their parents—also feels partially to blame for their being caught.
“And then afterward, let’s be honest, he was arrested because of me,” Erik—who confessed the murders to his therapist L. Jerome Oziel—added. “Because I told Dr. Oziel because I couldn’t live with what I did. I couldn’t live with it, I wanted to die. In a way I did not protect Lyle, I got him into every aspect of this tragedy, every aspect of this tragedy is my fault.”