Joseph Lyle Menendez and Erik Galen Menendez are brothers who in 1989 killed there parents Jose Menendez and his wife Mary "Kitty" Menendez with a shotgun. On August 20, 1989 Lyle and Erick Menendez came home and shot there parents in the den of there home. Jose Menendez was shot point-blank in the back of the head with a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun. Mary woke up from the sound of the shots and got up from the couch and ran for the hallway but was shot in the leg, causing it to break. She slipped in her own blood and fell. After she fell she was shot several times in the arm, chest, and face, leaving her unrecognizable. Lyle and Erick then left and dumped their shotguns on Mulholland Drive and went to a movie theater and seen the movie Licence to Kill so that way they could use that as an alibi. At 11:47 pm, when the brothers returned home, Lyle called 911 and said, "Somebody killed my parents" The boys were then taken in for questioning, Because the brothers were not suspected of killing their parents, the police did not administer gunshot-residue tests. These tests can determine whether a person has recently fired a weapon. Dr. Golden examined the body and the first wound that he looked at was the shotgun wound to Jose's head. Soot was found in the wound indicating that when the shot was fired, the gun had literally been placed against the back of Jose's head. Mary's autopsy showed that she had been shot in the left cheek. There were wounds to Mary's skull, fractures to her lower jaw, and pellet wounds to her tongue. Dr. Golden found birdshot in Mary's wounds which confirmed the investigator's suspicions that Mary's killers had reloaded their weapons. The final wound was to her left knee. The shot was from front to back and which was odd because it came from a different angle than the other shots in her leg. Investigators believe that this might have been the last shot fired at Mary and an attempt to make the murder appear to be a mob hit. There were many suspects in this case and On November 17, investigators interviewed Erik's friend Craig Cignarelli. Cignarelli told the detectives that shortly after the murders had occurred, he visited Erik. Erik asked Craig if he wanted to know how it happened. Erik told Craig that on the night of the murders, he and Lyle had come home to get his fake ID. Lyle met Erik with their shotguns and said "Let's do it," According to Craig, the plan was that Lyle was to shoot Jose and Erik was to shoot Mary. Craig told the investigators that Erik told him he and Lyle went into the family room, Lyle pointed his gun at Jose and shot him. Lyle then went behind Jose and shot him in the head. Erik told Craig that he was unable to shoot his mother and that when she tried to get away, Lyle shot her. Craig said that Erik said, "after it looked like my mother was dead, I shot her twice with my gun." There was no physical evidence on this case so investigators started searching gun stores to see if they could find any records about guns being bought by Lyle and Erick. On March 14, the investigators found the sale of two Mossberg twelve-gauge shotguns for $199.95 each on August 18, 1989. During the trial a sheriff's weapons expert showed how to use a twelve-gauge Mossberg shotgun. The prosecution wanted to show that the murders were premeditated. To fire a Mossberg shotgun, an person must pull the trigger and go through a two step pumping process before re-firing the weapon.
This post is getting really long because there is so much information on this case so im just going to leave it at that :)
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