Pamela Bozanich Doesn’t Care What You Think About the Menendez Brothers Verdict
The public might be torn on the idea of the Menendez brothers walking free someday, but Pamela Bozanich isn’t. Bozanich was a prosecutor in Lyle and Erik Menendez’s first trial after the boys killed their parents, Kitty and Jose, in their Calabasas home. The crime took place in 1989 and quickly became a tabloid sensation.
The story has regained traction thanks to two Netflix projects: Ryan Murphy’s latest show, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and, separately, the new documentary The Menendez Brothers. Both explore the same crime; Monsters is a narrative TV series that is told through Lyle’s and Erik’s perspectives, but in The Menendez Brothers, we hear from the people who worked on their case.
Bozanich, who is now retired, handled the brothers’ opposing counsel. In the documentary, she explains how their trial differed from the cases she’d worked on before. “The day that we did opening statements, I was coming into the courthouse, and people were filming me, and I just thought, What the hell have I gotten myself into?” The pressure caused Bozanich to feel ill. “I went in the bathroom and threw up,” she says. “The only time I’ve ever thrown up during a trial or before a trial or anything. Having the media, there was a nightmare. You don’t have to do that in a normal murder trial.”
The trial was widely publicised—which is, in part, why we’re still talking about it today. The brothers’ story includes allegations of sexual, physical, and verbal abuse at the hands of their parents. Due to the ongoing trauma, Lyle and Erik claimed they killed Kitty and Jose in self-defense. The first trial resulted in a hung jury, but after their second trial, the two were sentenced to life in prison.
Now people are questioning whether their punishment was fair. In the documentary, Lyle says, “Young people have taken the time to figure out what happened, and they understand it in ways that older people don’t. I feel more hope when society seems to be understanding sex abuse better.”
Even so, Bozanich isn’t convinced the brothers deserve much sympathy. In The Menendez Brothers, she scoffs at the notion. “The only reason we’re doing this special is because of the TikTok movement to free the Menendi,” she said. “If that’s how we’re going to try cases now, why don’t we just, like, have a poll?”
Lyle and Erik shot Kitty and Jose at close range, then called the police and made it seem as though they’d come home and found them dead. While recalling the incident, Bozanich claims the brothers were “hysterical.” “They were overacting,” she says. “But the police were very nice to them. They were not treated as suspects by the investigators at the beginning.” Soon after, the boys were caught, thanks to a tip from their therapist’s mistress, Judalon Smyth.
Their defence included attorney Leslie Abramson, whom Bozanich has no affinity for. “If I told you what I really thought of Leslie Abramson, I would be sued,” she says. As for the brothers? She wasn’t fazed by them in court. “I had no reaction to the Menendez brothers. There was no visceral reaction. They were like poisonous potted plants, but there was nothing about them that I found fascinating. They were just these dumb jock killers.”
As more information about the Menendez brothers comes to light, people have taken to the Internet to discuss the trial. In The Menendez Brothers, Bozanich offers a clear message to those rushing to their defence. “Your beliefs are not facts,” she says. “They’re just beliefs. And by the way, all you TikTok people, I’m armed. We’ve got guns all over the house, so don’t mess with me.”
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