Menendez brothers feeling hope for first time in decades ahead of parole hearing: A new thing for us
The Menendez brothers are feeling “hope” for the first time in decades as the possibility of parole looms — more than three decades after the killer siblings were convicted of viciously gunning their parents down in their posh Beverly Hills home.“Hope for the future is really kind of a new thing for us,” Lyle Menendez, 57, told TMZ in a recent interview from jail that’s due to air Monday night on Fox.“I think Erik would probably agree with that.It’s not something we’ve spent a lot of time on,” he added.The brothers — who were sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting their parents, Jose and Kitty, in their palatial home in 1989 — will be going before a California state parole board in June after 35 years behind bars.Both voiced optimism that things would go their way — claiming that they’d been fundamentally rehabilitated during their incarceration.“I’m striving to be a better person every day, and I want to be a person that my family can be proud of,” 54-year-old Erik told TMZ.
“Who I’ve evolved into, who I’ve seen Lyle evolve into, I’m beginning to like myself, be proud of myself, and find it’s OK to like myself.”The sensational murders and ensuing trials commanded headlines throughout the 1990s, with their first trial ending in a hung jury after the brothers’ detailed heinous abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of their record executive father, Jose.But their second trial exposed a web of lies the brothers spun to keep out of trouble, casting their stories and claims of self-defense into doubt and landing them convicted of first-degree murder with life sentences without the possibility of parole.More than three decades later, however, their case was cast into new light after rape allegations against Jose surfaced from a singer in the boy band Menudo, who said he was assaulted by their dad when he was just 14.Those allegations, coupled with a dramatic Netflix television show based on the murders, brou...