Menendez brothers’ former neighbor says public fascination is ‘chaotic.’ But it may prove effective ahead of resentencing

(CNN) — When 12-year-old Josh said he heard multiple gun shots fire one summer night in 1989, his mother didn’t believe him. After all, gunshots seemed unimaginable in their wealthy Beverly Hills neighborhood. But then they awoke to the news that just two doors down their street, neighbors Jose and Kitty Menendez had been fatally shot.

Police, reporters and curious onlookers soon flooded the neighborhood as audiences started following the highly publicized case that ended in 1996 with brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez receiving life sentences for the murder of their parents. Nearly thirty years, multiple dramatizations and documentaries about the crimes later, allegations of abuse against their parents have galvanized a movement for the brothers’ early release – which could be decided early next year – and made the Menendez family’s former $17 million mansion a major tourist destination once again.

“I think everybody was breathing a sigh of relief in the last, I’d say, ten years: the number of trucks, tour buses slowed down,” Josh told CNN in a recent interview. “Now all of a sudden everybody is following this again, and so the traffic and the tour buses and the people — it’s chaotic.”

Josh, who wishes only to be identified by his first name for privacy and safety concerns, is now in his late 40s and frequents his childhood home where his mother still lives.

Within the span of a few hours one Wednesday afternoon in late October, four tour vans and cars playing the Milli Vanilli songs “Blame It on the Rain” and “I’m Gonna Miss You” slowly drove down the street, while dozens of onlookers parked nearby to observe and film the former Menendez home. The onlookers included large families on vacation from Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala and Sweden – many of whom spoke of the overwhelming popularity of Ryan Murphy’s “Monsters: the Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” which released in September.

The craze is nothing new in the world of true crime.

“There’s a fetishization of these places, that there somehow is going to be a deeper understanding or connection that can be made if you return to the scene of the crime,” said Adam Golub, an American studies professor at California State University, Fullerton. He added that crime scenes of infamous serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy have attracted similar attention.

The fascination with crime scenes has brought disruption by some visiting the Menendez house. The Beverly Hills Police Department told CNN they responded to 16 calls to the location in October for traffic complaints regarding tour buses and vans, as well as incidents of trespassing and noise.

“There’s always a group of people in front of the home, and there are even some people that will go into the alley and try to peek over the fence and see what’s going on,” Josh said.

The year before he headed off to college, Josh and his mother testified in the brothers’ first trial as witnesses who heard the gunshots – a crucial piece of evidence for the prosecution as his mother’s recollection of hearing a lag between the gunshots indicated the brothers had reloaded their guns, setting the grounds for the prosecution’s argument of premeditated murder. Aside from faint memories of the brothers practicing tennis overnight and offering tennis lessons to kids in the neighborhood, Josh said the years have worn the brothers and trial out of his memory.

But the renewed activity in his childhood neighborhood has brought back the familiarity of the chaos that followed the crimes.

Advocates for justice mixed with fandom

With the recent Netflix shows bringing the Menendez case back into the spotlight, the brothers have reached a level of celebrity status with a new fan base, according to Golub.

Supporters range from those advocating for justice for survivors of abuse to odd devotion. Some argue the fan-like behavior across social media or on tour buses diminishes the seriousness of the brothers’ story and their crimes, Golub said the attention may also set precedent for change.

“If the Menendez brothers case leads to a resentencing, there’s encouragement to continue this type of fandom, too,” he said.

With a resentencing hearing set for January 30, Josh, who’s spent the last three decades growing up, becoming a lawyer and building a family of his own, agrees with most supporters who argue the Menendez brothers have paid for their crimes.

“I think that they’ve done a lot of time, and they’ve had time to reflect,” Josh said. “It doesn’t negate what they did, but our tax dollars are better spent incarcerating people that are a threat to society.”

The-CNN-Wire
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