People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik’s Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Erik Menéndez’s stepdaughter, Talia, said she had “high hopes” for his release after Kim Kardashian visited him and his brother Lyle Menéndez in prison. Taking to her Instagram page on Monday (September 23), Talia, who is the daughter of Erik’s wife Tammi Menéndez, candidly opened up via a series of stories.

After Kim’s recent visit to the Menéndez brothers in prison over the weekend, Talia, who claimed she was “raised” by Erik since she was two years old, answered a slew of questions on Instagram.

Highlights

Erik Menéndez’s stepdaughter Talia expressed high hopes for his release after Kim Kardashian's visit.
Kim Kardashian and Cooper Koch visited the Menéndez brothers in prison to discuss the Green Space project.
Tammi Menéndez plans to release a book on Amazon about Erik’s case.
The Menéndez brothers’ new evidence, including abuse allegations, may overturn their convictions.
Kim Kardashian has a history of advocating for prison reform and has helped negotiate releases for inmates.

“I am hoping she will help them, you never know what someone’s true motive is behind them wanting to speak with my dad but to my understanding, everything went good,” Talia wrote about Kim.

She added: “I have high hopes that Kim has some type of compassion for what happened to him and the injustice that was served so we can get more people to understand the true story.”

Erik Menéndez’s stepdaughter, Talia, said she had “high hopes” for his release

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Image credits: Los Angeles Times

Talia also took the opportunity to announce that her mother, Tammi, had plans to soon release a book on Amazon.

Since the Menéndez brothers aren’t eligible for conjugal visits, Erik and Tammi Menéndez do not share a biological child. Talia was born to Tammi when she was in a different marriage, Soap Central reported on Saturday (September 21).

It is unclear whether Talia has officially changed her last name to Erik’s, but she has been using it consistently on social media.

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Image credits: seterikmenendezfree

Erik and Tammi first got in contact in 1993, after Tammi wrote a letter to Erik while he was in jail, Cosmopolitan reported on Monday.

In 1998, Erik proposed to Tammi and they got married at Folsom State Prison in California, USA. Tammi has been outspoken about her husband’s case ever since.

Taking to her TikTok page on Friday (September 20), Tammi shared Erik’s reaction to the newly released Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story show on Netflix, stating: “I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show.”

Talia claimed she was “raised” by Erik since she was two years old

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Image credits: seterikmenendezfree

According to the statement shared by his wife, Erik went on to slam the series creator, Ryan Murphy, adding: “It is sad for me to know that Netflix‘s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward—back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women.”

Amid Monsters gaining traction since its release on Thursday (September 19), the murder case involving the Menéndez brothers amassed newfound support worldwide.

So much so that on Saturday, Kim Kardashian and Cooper Koch, who played Erik in Monsters, went to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in California, where the real Erik and his brother Lyle are currently incarcerated for killing their allegedly abusive parents.

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Image credits: seterikmenendezfree

The reality TV star and Cooper were there to chat with the brothers about the Green Space project, which the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation is spearheading in an effort to combat high recidivism rates by making life in prison more closely resemble the outside world, People reported on Saturday.

Kim has been advocating for prison reform since 2018 and has been studying to become a lawyer.

Taking to her Instagram page on Monday (September 23), Talia candidly opened up via a series of stories

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Image credits: seterikmenendezfree

She had notably helped Alice Johnson get released from a life sentence after reading about her story on X (formerly known as Twitter) in October 2017.

In May 2019, the 43-year-old socialite helped negotiate the release of another low-level drug offender from prison and met with then-imprisoned Slam star Momolu Stewart, who was convicted of murder and served 22 years in prison, People reported.

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Image credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Joseph “Lyle” and his younger brother Erik gained infamy in the early 1990s for brutally murdering their wealthy parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.

The brothers initially staged the crime scene to look like a random act of violence, but their lavish spending and questionable behavior raised suspicions.

The trial revealed a history of alleged sexual abuse and dysfunctional family dynamics, leading to a sensationalized case that captivated the public.

**Kim Kardashian and Cooper Koch, who played Erik in Monsters, went to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in California**

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Image credits: Netflix

In 1996, the brothers, aged 28 and 25 at the time, were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

During the brothers’ first six-month trial in 1993, prosecutors said Lyle and Erik purchased shotguns shortly before they used them to pre-meditatively kill their parents for financial gain, as they stood to inherit a substantial fortune, a $14 million inheritance, to be precise, Court TV reported.

At the time, the defense reportedly argued self-defense, saying the boys suffered from years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their father, José.

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Image credits: Ted Soqui/Sygma

According to testimony, José was an emotionally distant and demanding father with a short temper who quickly turned to physical violence to discipline his sons. The brothers also alleged their mother, Kitty, was aware of the abuse but did nothing to stop it.

In May 2023, attorneys of the Menéndez brothers reportedly filed a habeas petition citing new evidence supporting sexual abuse allegations that they hope will overturn their clients’ convictions and life sentences.

As per Court TV, the evidence includes a letter Erik sent his cousin eight months before the murders, as well as rape allegations by ex-Menudo member Roy Rosselló, who revealed details of the alleged rape and sexual assault he suffered at the hands of José in a Peacock docuseries, Menéndez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.

Talia is the daughter of Erik’s wife Tammi Menéndez, who has used social media to speak on behalf of her husband

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

Image credits: erikmenendezactually

Netflix’s Monsters is the second season of the American biographical crime drama created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan.

In the dramatized version of the case, Javier portrays José, Chloë Sevigny portrays Kitty, Cooper portrays Erik and Nicholas Alexander Chavez portrays Lyle.

Bored Panda has contacted Talia for comment.

“I can’t imagine your lives would be easy,” a reader commented

People Support Menendez Brothers After Erik's Stepdaughter Says She Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Help

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I’m a journalist who works for Bored Panda’s News Team. The team, which has been launched on the website fairly recently, produces stories focused on pop culture. Whenever I get the opportunity and the time, I investigate and produce my own exclusive stories, where I get to explore a wider range of topics. Some examples include: “Doberman Tobias the viral medical service dog” and “The lawyer who brought rare uterine cancer that affects 9/11 victims to light”.

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As a visual editor in the News team, I look for the most interesting pictures and comments to make each post interesting and informative through images, so that you aren't reading only blocks of text. I joined Bored Panda not that long ago, but in this short amount of time I have covered a wide range of topics: from true crime to Taylor Swift memes (my search history is very questionable because of that).In my freetime, I enjoy spending time at the gym, gaming, binging Great British Bake Off and adding yet another tattoo artist that I would love to get a tattoo from to my pinterest board.

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What do you think ?

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Tabitha 10 hours ago (edited)

They weren’t children when their parents died. They were 18 and 21. If they were being abused in that home, they were old enough to leave, and their parents could do nothing to make them come back. They could have just done that, lived together and pooled their paychecks from whatever jobs they could get, and been 100% free from the abuse. Hell, my parents were more along the lines of emotional abusers, and when I hit 18 I left home and went all the way across the country, as well as 100% no contact (back then, paying extra for an unlisted phone number helped a lot), to get away from them. But. They. Didn’t. Do. That. They wanted the money and the lifestyle it could give them, and they probably knew that leaving would cut them out of it. Yes, I feel for them for enduring whatever abuses their parents may have inflicted on them (if they actually did), but that does not excuse murdering them, especially because of the way they were murdered (not in a fight, not even face to face, but snuck up on from behind). No one is worth going to prison over, and definitely not your abuser. Unless it was done in self defense because they were well on the road to murdering you, and the evidence makes it obvious that was the case, you murdering them in cold blood solves exactly nothing, because you losing everything and going to prison for murdering them means your abuser still wins.

6points

Floeckchen 11 hours ago

They did murder their parents, didn't they? So the brothers are exactly where they need to be right now. SA, pretty much any kind of abuse is an explanation for the crime but never an excuse. The majority of people that happen to become murderers had inherited some kind of negligance or abuse in their childhood or adolescence.

4points

David Andrews 11 hours ago

That's my feeling on it too. The abuse helps explain why they felt no connection to their parents and could go through with killing them, but they were also 2 spoiled, entitled adults who killed their parents for the money and freedom to do what they wanted.

2points

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ॐBoyGanesh 11 hours ago (edited)

Watch “Menendez & Menudo: Boys Betrayed” on Peacock. It illustrates how justice failed these victims of SA. The original jury hung between “manslaughter as defense of abuse” and “murder for financial gain.” The LA grand jury refused to indict them on the latter, given the abundance of evidence they did what they did as a way to stop the lifelong and continuing physical, sexual & emotional abuse. DA pursued anyway. 56 witnesses testified they knew the boys were suffering SA. There were two mistrials. Then LA county DA lost the OJ trial, needed a win & convinced the judge to exclude any evidence of SA in the Menendez case cos boys can’t be SA’d; cos boys don’t murder for that. The judge agreed & they were sentenced to life in prison. Had they been sentenced to manslaughter as defense of abuse, they’d have been out of prison 13 years ago. This isn’t even considering the boys m*lested in the band Menudo. And the other witnesses to the actual SA of these guys. Gov. Newsom needs to commute their sentences.

2points