_
- sync and corrections by Zac - - www.addic7ed.com -
[dramatic music]
♪
Defendants Erik and Lyle Menendez,
how do you plead?
- Not guilty. - Not guilty.
Jerry told me everything.
You violated the doctor-patient privilege.
She was at risk. We both were.
As I told you, Lyle had threatened me.
There were a series of sessions
between Dr. Oziel and the defendants.
I have ruled that none of these communications are privileged.
Erik, what if I could make the nightmares stop?
When I was five or six,
Dad would massage my penis with his mouth.
Yesterday, he told me when he turned 11,
his father started raping him.
As a mother, and a human being,
I believe it.
As a lawyer, I will believe it when I can prove it.
♪
I never told anyone.
Dad said if anyone ever found out, that something bad would happen to me.
How about Dr. Oziel? Did you tell him?
No. He reported everything back to my parents.
That was the arrangement.
How about after the murders?
[sighs]
Lyle and I made a deal not to talk about it.
We didn't... we didn't want anyone
to have a bad impression of our parents.
I thought Dad stopped after I confronted him.
That couldn't have been easy to do.
No. If I had known he was still doing that to Erik,
I never would've gone to Princeton.
Never would've left him alone in that house.
Lyle knew about your abuse.
He figured it out when I was 12.
That Dad was doing stuff to me.
Like rough stuff.
[somber music]
And he went up to Dad and told him to stop, but...
Just made things worse.
What will happen if you ever tell anyone again?
You'll hurt me.
Wrong!
What will I do?
You'll kill me.
That's right.
[dramatic music]
♪
[melancholy music]
I believed him.
I was nothing to him.
What about you, Lyle?
What about me, what?
[suspenseful music]
♪
[reporters clamoring]
Listen, we have kids killing their parents
all the time in South Central Los Angeles,
and nobody writes about that.
This is just another domestic murder with a bit of glitz.
The signatures don't match. Even I can see that.
Goodreau did not sign the gun permit application.
Well, Les, go to forensics school
get yourself a degree,
then you can tell the experts to go screw themselves.
Ugh.
Feel like the police gods are laughing at us, Tommy.
12 months and all we've got is the word of a complete nutjob.
[phone rings]
Zoeller. Go, go, go.
Hey, how's it going?
Yeah? Where is it?
Okay, thanks.
Erik's Ford Escort has been located.
It's in New Jersey.
Great. It'll take months to get an out-of-state warrant.
[ominous music]
Not my way.
_ ♪
[dramatic music]
[sirens wailing]
♪
License and registration, please.
Yes, sir, officer.
Did I do something wrong?
Registration's expired.
I have to take this vehicle down to the station house.
Step out, please.
♪
[sighs]
Nothing, huh? He checked.
Tore the car apart,
right, okay, well,
send me the report.
I appreciate the help.
No gunpowder residue, no blood traces.
- Ticket stubs for "Batman"? - No.
Police gods are really kicking our ass, Tommy.
_ ♪
Erik has a natural acting talent.
I don't know if he could make a living at it,
but as far as commitment and enthusiasm go,
he was a star.
He told me his parents made him withdraw from your class.
His father didn't think acting was good enough
for his son.
I felt terrible for Erik.
It was like he had the life knocked out of him.
Did he ever talk about his life at home? His dad?
I never got the sense he found much joy there.
He had ways of communicating his unhappiness.
One time, he surprised the class with a soliloquy from "Richard II."
I have been studying
how I may compare this prison
where I live unto the world.
And for, because the world is populous,
and here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it.
Yet I'll hammer it out.
Thoughts tending to ambition,
they do plot unlikely wonders:
How these vain, weak nails
may tear a passage through the flinty ribs
of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
and, for they cannot,
die in their own pride.
[applause]
[melancholy music]
♪
The class was mesmerized.
It's about King Richard's loneliness in prison.
When I asked him why he chose that piece,
he said it was because I'd said how difficult it was.
Especially for him.
Why especially?
He has dyslexia.
Really?
He never mentioned it.
The school didn't know, either.
When I asked his mother,
she said he'd been diagnosed years earlier.
His mother never told the school?
She acted like his dyslexia was an embarrassment.
It's too bad.
There was so much we could've done for Erik.
_
Sounds like it would've been Jose's idea
not to inform the school.
Kitty deferred to him on all things that concerned their sons.
I'm really trying to get a fix on what kind of a mother she was.
So why did she come to see you?
Depression.
She found out her husband had multiple affairs.
She blamed her sons for getting in between her and Jose.
Her whole world revolved around Jose.
I didn't get any sleep last night.
You know I've had insomnia for weeks now.
[sighs]
Just when I was dozing off,
I hear Erik screaming in his bedroom.
What happened?
[sighs] I thought, "Jesus Christ",
he's gonna wake up Jose."
So much racket.
So I went in his room.
Was Erik okay?
[haunting music]
He was fine.
♪
It was just a nightmare.
But from the way he was shaking...
What'd you do?
♪
I didn't do anything to him.
It was just a nightmare.
I meant, "What did you do to comfort him?"
♪
I took him to his bathroom and made him take a cold shower.
Like my father used to do
with my brothers when they had nightmares.
♪
How comforting.
Did she ever hint, or imply,
that Erik was sexually abused by Mr. Menendez?
No.
But she once told me there were "sick secrets" in the house.
She never would explain what she meant.
Just talked to Erik's doctor and his tennis coaches.
They didn't see any evidence of sex abuse.
And he never said anything to them.
It's hard to imagine, if it went on as long
as Erik says, his mother wouldn't have noticed
and done something.
I can't figure Kitty out.
She told her shrink their family had "sick secrets,"
but didn't say what.
Maybe Kitty didn't understand.
Maybe she was afraid.
I don't think she had a maternal bone in her body,
but we need this to make sense to us, never mind the jury.
[beeping]
Oh, fantastic.
Diane Sawyer has an interview with our favorite whack-a-doo.
Judalon?
Yeah. Just aired on the east coast.
It's explosive. [sighs]
Are Lyle and Erik Menendez guilty?
Did they murder their parents?
Yes, they did.
You know this?
Yes, I heard it from their own mouths
that they killed their parents.
What did she say? What did she say?
Mentiras, Mama. It's just mentiras.
She says that at Dr. Oziel's request,
she was right up there in his fourth-floor office,
listening in the next room
when Erik and Lyle met with Oziel
on that Halloween night last year.
I can't believe Grandma's watching this.
Aunt Terry, Aunt Marta,
our whole family's watching this, Lyle.
Erik said that Lyle made him take the first shot.
One of the things that Lyle said
that was really disturbing to me was
"Well, for once, my father would have to
congratulate me on planning the perfect murder."
- Dios mio. - Carlos.
We don't know it's the truth.
For what would they kill their parents?
$14 million.
Erik and Lyle had no idea about money.
They thought it grew on trees.
Shame on you for believing a stranger over your own nephews.
Family is everything.
That's what Jose would say.
Why didn't Dr. Oziel go to the police?
There was the issue of doctor-patient privilege
and Jerry made audio notes.
He has tapes of Lyle and Erik confessing
And indeed, that tip from Judalon Smyth
led police to Dr. Oziel's home
and bank vault,
where they confiscated 17 tape recordings.
That's it.
There's no question they did it.
Now, Lyle, this is a diabolical creature.
Jerry compared him to Ted Bundy.
What are they gonna think of us?
It's gonna be okay, Erik.
We just need to...
To...
[breathes raggedly]
Just keep it together, Erik.
[somber music]
♪
She gave an interview to Diane Sawyer.
Today she's in "Vanity Fair,"
spewing her lies to Dominick Dunne,
all with the DA's blessing.
The jury pool is being poisoned, Your Honor.
These interviews are as much a shock to us
as they are to the defense.
Come on, Pam. The DA himself appeared
on Diane Sawyer's show.
Your Honor, Judalon Smyth has half the county believing
there is a taped confession by my clients.
Dr. Oziel's tapes are compromised.
The only fair thing is for you to reverse your decision
and keep the tapes out.
Nice try, Ms. Abramson.
Maybe what needs to happen
is for you and Ms. Ferrero
to work out a plea bargain.
This crime so offends the district attorney,
I can't imagine anything
Miss Abramson has to offer would satisfy us.
Ms. Ferrero has no qualms
making deals with contract killers and serial rapists.
Her cynicism is what's offensive.
She said I was the worst sex of her life.
That's defamation, Ross, not to mention
physically impossible.
It's not worth it, Jerry.
I'm sorry. I have to go.
[sighs]
[grunting]
My father had this creed he made us learn.
"Today, I will be master of my emotions.
"If I feel depressed, I will sing.
"If I feel sad, I will laugh.
"If I feel fear, I will plunge ahead.
I will be master of my emotions."
And why was mastering your emotions important?
Dad thought it was a sign of weakness
to show emotion.
We had to be strong.
That's why Erik and I never told anyone
what was happening to us.
To him.
You said "us."
What was happening to you?
I'm only here to listen, Lyle.
I know you're in pain.
Vicary thinks that I can help you,
and I think I can.
But that first step has to be yours.
It wasn't right.
Parents aren't supposed to...
She'd make me touch her.
♪
Your mother.
Yes.
When I was 11,
she'd make me come into her bed
and do things to her
I knew I shouldn't be doing.
♪
I knew there was something off about her,
but I never would've guessed that.
So Erik was abused by his father
from the age of six, and Lyle was abused at...
11 by his mother.
Even in its perversity, it doesn't make sense.
Like there's a piece missing.
There is.
Jon and I feel that Lyle was abused by Jose as well.
Then why tell us about his mother?
Probably testing the waters.
A boy being abused by his mother
is in some ways more acceptable to him.
Devil's advocate: Maybe the reason
Erik and Lyle's stories don't line up
is the same reason we can't find any evidence
to back them up, because they are not true.
Inconsistencies don't mean the boys are lying.
Just means that maybe
they haven't told us the whole story yet.
Well, how long till they do that?
♪
Did you think about it?
Yeah.
You okay with it?
That's it. Let's go.
[somber music]
♪
We want to tell our family the truth.
We don't want them to hear it from anyone else.
Is that okay?
I think it's the right thing to do.
You boys made the right decision.
We'll help any way we can.
Thank you.
♪
This is good.
I needed to know they would come clean.
How have you boys been?
Are you getting enough food?
It's fine, Aunt Marta.
Uh, there's something Erik and I feel
the family needs to know,
and, uh, we're counting on you to tell the others.
Erik and I killed our parents.
[dramatic music]
It wasn't for the money.
Dad was molesting my brother.
- He molested Erik... - Why would you say that?
The only thing your father has left is his name.
Now you want to take that away, too?
Mom, too. She molested me, too.
[cries] Did things to me t...
No, no, no.
Dios mio.
I don't want to hear it.
Carlos. Let them speak.
It is the truth, Uncle Carlos.
We want to take responsibility for what we did.
But we want the family to know.
Mom and Dad did things to us
they needed to take responsibility for, too.
So that's why you killed them?
[shouts]
Carlos...
That's no excuse to take a life.
No, it's not.
But we thought we were fighting for our lives.
Enough!
I've heard enough.
[speaking Spanish]
Please. [Sobs] We love our parents.
We love you guys,
and please, please forgive us.
[dramatic music]
♪
[sobs]
♪
The police have nothing,
your best witnesses, Oziel and Judalon,
are pieces of crap on the sea of life,
and once the tapes are out, Pam, you're...
There's no plea offer forthcoming.
Kids killing their parents is a crime against society.
You said so yourself,
kids kill their parents all the time.
And in California, those kids don't end up on death row.
What if I told you there was sexual abuse
in the family?
Nothing you pull out of your hat surprises me, Leslie.
Sorry, Jill, there'll be no deals on this one.
[elevator bell dings]
Ira...
You are using these boys as a pawn to get reelected.
It is desperate and it's unfair.
These are not violent people.
Erik and Lyle are not career criminals.
Okay, look me in the eye right now
and tell me you believe these boys deserve to die.
You know they don't.
Leslie, I speak on behalf
of every attorney in this office
when I say I've had it with you.
Call the deputies. I need Ms. Abramson
escorted out of here.
You can't bully me, Ira.
- Let's go. - Out.
It's wrong and you know it.
- Well, that went well. - No, it didn't, Leslie.
It didn't go well at all.
We just blew our only chance for a plea bargain
and now the boys will go to trial for their lives.
[melancholy music]
Dad told me
if I screamed...
He would hit me so hard
that I would never be able to cry or scream again.
Imagine that I had a gun to my head.
[sniffs] That was the fear that I had.
I live with that fear every day.
[breathing raggedly]
How could you?
You lied to me.
Jamie, please.
You killed your parents!
And you're still lying.
You're sick.
[ominous music]
♪
[rips paper]
Jamie, I understand.
You have to do what's right for you.
You've been a part of this family for so...
Jamie's moving out of the guest house.
She doesn't want to see Lyle anymore.
I know this all must have been very confusing.
Mom...
What Erik said about Uncle Jose...
It's true.
[somber music]
Erik made me promise
not to tell my mom about the massages
that his dad was giving him.
It was a pinky promise,
but I was ten, so I thought...
We know about pinky promises.
So, when you would visit
your Uncle Jose and your Aunt Kitty,
did your Uncle Jose do anything to you?
No.
Did you notice anything else?
Thing that might have made you uncomfortable?
♪
Uh... [clears throat]
Well, this one time, before bed,
Uncle Jose took Erik and Lyle into the bathroom
to take a shower together.
- The three of them? - Yes.
They had this shower with three heads.
And after they came out,
Uncle Jose took them into a room
to "play a game."
- What kind of game? - I don't know.
He'd lock the door and wouldn't let me play.
They were in there for almost an hour.
♪
- [crying] - What'd you play?
♪
What do you play?
[sniffs]
♪
[cries]
♪
He went right to bed.
He didn't talk.
Well, thank you, Andy. You've been very brave.
And we'll talk more later.
Until then, don't discuss this with anyone, okay?
Marta, you too.
Okay.
[somber music]
♪
_
Here you go.
- Ma'am. - Thank you.
Are you kidding me?
They upheld Albracht's decision.
The tapes are in. All of 'em.
It gets worse. They're releasing
Oziel and Judalon's sealed testimony.
Well...
I can think of one person who will be more pissed
about this than we are.
It is outrageous
that the court released testimony
given under seal,
so I feel compelled to address the lies
Judalon Smyth told in court.
First of all...
I never asked her to eavesdrop on my patients.
I never disclosed to her the contents of any session.
I never hypnotized her or gave her drugs.
None of her accusations are true.
She wasn't even my patient.
That's all we have to say.
Before I leave,
I'd like to send a message
to Erik and Lyle,
tell them I'm thinking of them, I care for them a great deal,
and I wish Leslie Abramson the best of luck in defending them.
If Dr. Oziel wants to be helpful to the boys,
tell him to go kill himself.
You have messages from
Soble at the "Times,"
Brand from the "Miami Herald"...
- Has Tim called? - No, but your brother did.
717? That's not his area code.
He said that's the number you asked him for.
[dramatic music]
♪
[phone rings]
Hello?
Uh, hi. This is Leslie Abramson.
Is this Sol?
Because Jose died first,
the estate passed to Kitty,
before she was killed.
Now, those boys can't profit from their crime,
so the estate
goes to Kitty's immediate family.
To us.
Those boys get nothing.
But they haven't been convicted.
They confessed. See, that's why
we have to file the lawsuit as soon as possible.
So they don't waste it all.
They need to pay for their sins.
They are our nephews, Milton!
Kids who I believe were terribly abused.
That's all a bunch of crap.
We're done with these brats.
So you can be that cold-blooded?
Who you calling cold-blooded?
I want you out of my house.
Both of you.
[dramatic music]
♪
It's unbelievable, what money can do.
♪
Uncle Brian doesn't know what he's talking about.
What do you mean?
♪
I spent the summer at Uncle Jose
and Aunt Kitty's house
when I was 15. Lyle was eight.
He told me what Uncle Jose was doing to him.
I told Aunt Kitty. She called me a little liar
and dragged him upstairs and shut the door.
We never talked about it again.
Did you tell anyone else?
No. I didn't know what to do.
I was only 15. I was confused.
Okay, Diane. Thank you. This has been very helpful.
We'll be in touch.
[somber music]
It's hearsay evidence
about what an eight-year-old may have said
15 years ago.
It's not gonna convince a jury.
Not if Lyle won't admit that Jose abused him.
Not even then.
Our show-and-tell for the jury's going to be all tell and no show.
All that abuse.
There's gotta be something tangible that Jose or Kitty left behind.
♪
- So who bought the house? - A sheik, from Saudi Arabia.
You have the directions to Calabasas?
- Yeah, got 'em. - The house looks
under construction, but it's okay.
You can put everything inside.
That's it.
Everything is gone.
[speaking Spanish]
It's gonna be okay, Nana.
[speaking Spanish]
He worked his whole... his whole life for this.
I know.
All right, I got it.
_
I'm just a reporter, Donovan.
I don't have a dog in this fight.
The cops say I'll have to testify at the trial.
[upbeat music over speakers]
I'm not looking forward to it.
Me and Lyle really shared a lot.
Like what, for example?
[sighs] Like, um...
Four months before the murders,
we were talking, and...
I told Lyle I was sexually abused when I was a kid.
♪
And he told me he was molested, too.
By his dad.
Erik was, too.
I don't know. Maybe he was just saying that
to make me feel better. I don't know.
I'm sorry. Uh...
You know if he told anyone else?
No.
But I told Glenn Stevens what Lyle said.
[haunting music]
♪
But I told Glenn Stevens what Lyle said.
I spoke to Stevens. He wouldn't let me tape him,
but I took notes,
and he confirmed that Goodreau told him
about Lyle and his father.
Do you think Stevens would testify?
He was pretty clear he wouldn't unless he was forced to.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Rand.
Mmhmm.
I'll fly to New York and talk to Goodreau and Stevens.
I'll go with you.
Well, it's Lyle's business. I can handle it.
There's someone I need to see.
♪
_
[quietly snoring]
♪
[quiet piano music]
Is that you?
I'm me. Are you you?
Damn it, you still have my nose.
I thought you'd outgrow it by now.
♪
Nice to see you, Daddy.
The chicken pot pie is good here.
♪
Come on, honey.
And what if Lyle goes free?
Hmm?
Gotta think about that.
Are you afraid of him? Is that why you wanted to meet in a public place?
He knows I know things.
I already spoke to Goodreau, and he's willing to testify.
I just need you to go on the record
about what he told you about Lyle being molested.
Don't you want to help Lyle? You were friends.
I thought he was my friend.
And then I realized he was using me.
He gave you a job, Glenn.
Running a chicken wing shack.
Look, I've got a good job now, on Wall Street.
I'm not about to give that up for him.
I mean, besides,
how can I help someone who did that to his parents?
_
♪ Happy birthday dear Erik ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you
Thank you, Leslie.
It's just another birthday.
Oh, there's no such thing.
I saw my dad last week.
Hadn't seen him since I was 14.
You know how many birthdays he missed?
But that didn't stop me.
I got you a present.
We just found out today.
California Supreme Court
agreed to review the ruling on Oziel's tapes.
Wow.
- Do you think we have a chance? - I do.
They know the issues at stake here are bigger than just your case.
[exhales heavily]
So, Erik...
I need to understand why
what happened happened.
Maybe if you tell me
the last time your father abused you...
[dramatic music]
♪
It was two weeks before everything.
I got accepted to UCLA.
♪
I told my parents I wanted to live on-campus.
And Dad said no.
And that he wouldn't pay for it
unless I spent four nights a week at home.
♪
And that's when I knew it was never gonna end.
And that's when things started to get out of control.
How do you mean?
[sighs]
♪
We thought our parents were gonna kill us.
♪
[mysterious music]
_ ♪
Lyle looks to be about eight.
Erik's six.
How do we know it's them?
We can't see their faces, just their bodies.
I compared them with photos of them from the swimming pool.
Birthmarks match. The floor matches
other pictures from the Princeton house,
and the handwriting on the outside of the envelope
matches Kitty's.
Well, I've taken pictures of my daughter
in the bathtub, but these are...
It's kiddie porn.
Pictures of their genitals?
Like, what kind of parent takes photos like these?
Someone could argue these were taken by accident.
These photos were carefully saved and catalogued.
This is no accident.
Leslie, I doubted their story, but not anymore.
So, this is it? You've searched the rest of the boxes?
I turned the house upside down.
Same as the house on Elm Drive.
Erik told me
that he and Lyle thought their parents would kill them.
They were afraid for their lives.
That fits with what I've been reading.
Kids who are sexually abused have no sense of safety.
The two people who are supposed to protect them
are the ones hurting them.
It would be better if the murders
were a direct response to an act of abuse.
Erik said his father last abused him
two weeks before the murders.
It's too much time elapsed.
So how are we gonna fit this
into a narrative the jury is gonna understand?
We have to find a way through this,
'cause we owe it to these boys.
[ominous music]
The verdict was announced just hours ago:
Four officers acquitted in the beating of Rodney King.
Many blame the verdicts on Judge Weisberg's decision
to move the trial to Simi Valley,
where many police officers reside.
And right now, we're getting images
of the reaction in South Central Los Angeles.
Let's go immediately live to the scene.
The situation here is getting more
and more dangerous by the minute, as reports come in
of buildings being set on fire and looting.
Merchants in Koreatown just north of here
are reportedly forming armed patrols.
♪
Oh, my God, Tim.
What kind of world is this for our kid?
All this hate and cruelty.
This baby we're adopting, what if we can't protect him?
[sirens wailing]
[ominous music]
♪
People of Los Angeles have sent a message.
No more disasters like McMartin and Rodney King.
No mistakes on my watch. Is that clear?
Mr. Garcetti, I have no intention of losing Menendez.
Winning is a given, Ms. Ferrero.
Bozanich.
I got married recently.
Bozanich.
You grew up in Palos Verdes, didn't you?
Went to Wellesley, all that fancy upbringing?
I need to know if you can go for the jugular.
I was born to be a prosecutor, Mr. Garcetti.
Tomorrow, we'll hear from the Supreme Court
on the Oziel tapes... I need you to get the trial
moved downtown.
A majority black jury
will see the Menendez brothers
for the entitled, rich punks that they are.
They won't cut them any slack.
Leslie Abramson's office...
[exhales sharply]
They ruled out the December tape of Erik and Lyle.
Am I nuts, or did we just win something?
Don't count your chickens.
They're allowing Oziel's audio notes
of Erik's confession.
Well, it's half a victory. I'll take it.
That was the last chance Texaco.
There's no court left to appeal to.
So now we know what the prosecution's
gonna do at trial. We gotta build our case.
Sexual abuse led to the murders.
That will explain Erik killing his father,
but until Lyle says Jose molested him too,
the jury won't see the connection.
Well, he acted to protect his brother from abuse,
just as he tried to do when Erik was 12.
There are other ways of protecting your brother
short of killing your parents.
The jury needs to see the whole picture.
Both parents abused both brothers.
If the jury senses that there's a piece missing,
that Jose molested Lyle too,
they're gonna think we're trying to hide something.
So we can build our defense,
but it's not gonna hold up until Lyle comes clean.
[sighs]
_
The grand jury has returned two counts each
of first-degree murder,
and a charge of conspiracy,
against Lyle and Erik Menendez.
The district attorney will seek the death penalty.
Judge Ito,
this is extreme and unwarranted.
The DA is overreaching.
Noted, Ms. Abramson.
Let's talk venue.
Your Honor, this case needs to come downtown,
so that justice can be serve...
I know what you want, Ms. Bozanich,
but the downtown calendar is full
and this portends to be a long
and complicated trial.
I am therefore calendaring it for Judge Weisberg's court
in Van Nuys. Have a nice drive.
[bangs gavel]
[dramatic music]
[whispering] That's good for us, honey.
♪
I know it's a burden on you to come here.
If you can only manage once a week,
I won't mind.
I'm sorry, Erik.
[sniffs]
[crying]
I tried.
I really tried. I just can't stop picturing you
holding that shotgun.
Please don't do that.
It wasn't me.
I mean, I did it, but it's not who I am.
Part of me knows that. I just...
I can't forget.
[melancholy music]
♪
It's okay, Noelle. I understand.
I hope everything turns out well for you, Erik.
♪
It was so stupid of me
to say that to Oziel.
I wasn't threatening him,
but sometimes I say things like my dad.
I just couldn't believe Erik told him.
I love my brother, and this all started
because I was trying to protect him.
From your father.
Yes. He told me Dad was still doing that stuff to him.
I d... I didn't know. I...
And he was such an intelligent man.
He was... he was a great man.
Why couldn't he just stop it?
♪
When Erik told you, what did you do?
I confronted Dad,
and then things just went crazy.
We knew they were gonna kill us.
Dad always threatened that...
that he could kill us and get a new family.
He had guns upstairs. He was capable of that.
[music intensifies]
But I thought for sure
after I confronted him when Erik was 12,
he stopped hurting him,
because that's about how old I was
when he stopped molesting me.
♪
And it all came out after that.
The abuse started when Lyle was six
and ended when he was 10,
and then Jose turned all of his attention to Erik.
And 11 years later, he kills his father.
Eleven years of scar tissue building up over his anger.
It's like a volcano dome
building up over boiling lava.
One day, that volcano blows its top.
And yet he keeps saying what a great man his father was.
Right, he's idealizing his abuser.
It's a coping mechanism when the victim
is in an ongoing relationship with his abuser.
I mean, in many ways, he's...
he's patterned himself after his dad.
Lyle said
he thought his parents would kill them,
and Erik said the same thing.
Do you believe them?
I believe they genuinely thought their lives were in danger.
Long-term abuse victims are often hypervigilant
to the smallest threat.
They exaggerate them in their own minds.
Thanks, Jon.
So now we have our last piece.
What are you thinking?
Imperfect self-defense.
These boys were abused from the age of six.
They grew up with no sense
of feeling protected by their parents.
This is what a little faggot does.
Beaten into submission...
Fear me.
Terrified into keeping secrets,
sick secrets.
Wrong! What will I do?
- You'll kill me. - That's right.
When they finally stood up to their parents
and threatened to spill those secrets,
they were made to believe
that their parents would kill them.
A genuine
but unreasonable belief
that their lives were in imminent danger.
[ominous music]
♪
So they shot their parents in self-defense?
Imperfect self-defense?
I believe that.
Do you?
Yes.
And do you believe them? The abuse?
[sighs]
[somber music]
Yes, I believe them.
♪
I believe in our case.
♪
- sync and corrections by Zac - - www.addic7ed.com -