How Did the Menendez Brothers Get Caught? Why Erik’s Private Therapy Confession Led to Their Arrest and Conviction

After killing his parents alongside his brother, Lyle, Erik Menendez confessed to his therapist, L. Jerome Oziel. Five months later, he and Lyle were arrested.

The Menendez brothers, who were 21 and 18 at the time, murdered their parents, Kitty and José Menendez, on Aug. 20, 1989. Lyle was arrested first, on March 8, 1990, followed by his brother, who turned himself in after flying back from Israel three days later.

Authorities were already suspicious of the brothers after they spent a total of approximately $700,000 following their parents’ death, including on purchases like a $60,000 Porsche, a $50,000-a-year tennis coach for Erik and a $550,000 café in Princeton, N.J. for Lyle, per Vanity Fair.

However, it wasn’t until Erik’s confession to Oziel in October 1989 that authorities were on the path to his and Lyle’s arrest. Oziel told his mistress, Judalon Smyth, of the confession and she ultimately went to the police in March 1990 after the two had broken up.

Within a week, Lyle and Erik were arrested. Smyth testified in the 1993 trial that Oziel said he “needed to get them to say incriminating things on a tape so we would have the tape to protect us,” per the Los Angeles Times.

Now, 30 years later, their story is back on the silver screen in Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

From what happened in the aftermath of the crime to where Oziel is now, here’s everything to know about Erik and Lyle Menendez’s confession and arrest.

What did Erik and Lyle Menendez do in the months after killing their parents?

After murdering their parents in August 1989, Erik and Lyle told police they had nothing to do with the crime and had discovered their parents murdered after coming home from seeing Batman, per Vanity Fair.

In the following months, Erik and Lyle embarked on a spending spree. Lyle bought Chuck’s Spring Street Café, an eatery in Princeton, as well as a Rolex, a Porsche and $40,000 worth of clothes, according to the outlet. Meanwhile, Erik committed to his dream of becoming a tennis player, paying $50,000 for a coach, and splurged on other purchases like a Jeep Wrangler and a $40,000 rock concert that turned out to be a con, Vanity Fair reported at the time.

Police initially suspected the murders had to do with the mob, so Erik and Lyle moved from hotel to hotel in an effort to evade them, they said. However, the police were soon suspicious of the brothers and relied on one of Erik’s best friends, Craig Cignarelli, to help.

Erik had confessed to Cignarelli that he killed his parents 12 days after the murder, per Vanity Fair, so the police asked him to wear a wire in the November following the August murders to get a recorded confession. However, when Cignarelli met with Erik next, he retracted his story and said that he lied and hadn’t killed his parents.

Who was the Menendez brothers’ therapist?

Dr. L. Jerome Oziel was a Beverly Hills psychologist at the time of the Menendez brothers’ murders. According to Vanity Fair, he was first hired by Kitty and José after the brothers were caught burglarizing two homes. At the time, his license was on probation after he was caught having an inappropriate “dual relationship” in which he exchanged his services for construction work done at his house.

Oziel was married to his wife, Laurel Oziel, at the time, and was engaging in an extramarital affair with Smyth, who sued him in 1990, alleging that he assaulted, raped, kidnapped and medicated her.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Smyth testified at the Menendez brothers’ trial that a week after Oziel taped their confession in December 1989, she moved into his home with his wife and two kids, where she was allegedly “victimized” and “beaten,” she told jurors.

“I wouldn’t call it romantic. But there was sex,” Smyth said. Oziel testified that Smyth had indeed moved into his house and they continued their affair there, but denied any wrongdoing that she alleged.

The case was ultimately settled between the two.

What did Erik say in his confession to his therapist?

Erik confessed for the first time in October 1989, two months after he and Lyle killed their parents. Oziel taped his multiple confessions on Oct. 31, Nov. 2 and Dec. 11.

On Oct. 31, Erik allegedly requested that he and Oziel go for a walk rather than meet in his office because he was feeling extremely agitated and depressed. During their walk, Erik told Oziel that his father was a great man and he wanted to write a book about him. They walked back to the office, and before they entered, Erik told Oziel, “We did it.”

He went on to describe that the plan to kill their parents started after they saw a BBC program in which someone kills their father and they felt it was necessary because of how “tyrannical, dominating and controlling,” José was, per Vanity Fair. Kitty also had to die, he allegedly said, because she wouldn’t be able to live without her husband.

Lyle soon joined the sessions, with the two confessing on the December tape that they killed their mother to put her “out of her misery,” and that their father deserved to die for participating in infidelity that led to the misery, per the Los Angeles Times.

During their trial, the brothers used the defense that they were sexually abused as the reason why they murdered the parents. However, in the confession, there were no mentions of abuse.

How did Erik and Lyle Menendez get caught and arrested?

Oziel wasn’t the only person who heard Erik and Lyle’s confessions. Smyth alleged that she was in his office on Oct. 31, when Erik first confessed, and was standing outside the door, listening in, as they were speaking to the therapist.

However, Oziel denied that Smyth was there that day, stating that she was around the office, not in it, but did testify that Smyth was present two days later when the brothers spoke of the murders again.

After those two sessions, Smyth testified that it was then that Oziel felt he had to get their confessions on tape “for our protection,” she said, and because he was allegedly scared they could kill him since he now knew their secret.

Oziel accomplished his goal on Dec. 11 when he got the brothers’ confession fully on tape. “He said he got what he needed,” Smyth testified.

After Oziel and Smyth broke up in March 1990, Smyth went to the police on March 4 and told them everything she knew. Four days later, Lyle was arrested, followed by Erik.

Why did it take so long for Erik and Lyle Menendez to be tried?

Though the arrests happened in March 1990, the trial didn’t occur until 1993 as the prosecution struggled to get the tapes admitted as evidence.

In August 1990, a judge ruled that the tapes were admissible evidence because Oziel stated that Lyle had threatened him and broke doctor-patient confidentiality privileges by doing so. The ruling was appealed and the trial was delayed by two years.

Two years later, in August 1992, the Supreme Court of California ruled that most of the tapes were admissible, with the exception of the one in which Erik discussed the killings. Erik and Lyle were indicted soon after.

Where is the therapist, Oziel, now?

The Menendez brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996, but Oziel’s troubles didn’t end there. While prior to the ordeal the therapist lived a very comfortable lifestyle — including a 6,000-square-foot home and a waitlist for $150-an-hour sessions, per the Los Angeles Times — he lost much of his career and reputation after the trial.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Oziel lost his California license in 1997 and stopped practicing therapy, moving to another state.

“It just made no sense to come back to California and spend many thousands of dollars defending a license he doesn’t use in a state he doesn’t reside in,” his lawyer told the outlet at the time.

In 2017, Oziel combatted the notion that he “gave up” his license because of any ongoing proceedings, telling Bustle that he didn’t “‘defend’ the complaint” because he had already moved out of California a year prior.

“I did not surrender my license due to the accusation, which implies I gave up my practice because I did things alleged in the original accusation,” he told the outlet. “That is flatly and completely false.”

At the time, Oziel was working in Portland, Ore., where he hosted marriage, relationship and sex seminars targeted toward women. As of 2024, he is living in Albuquerque, N.M. at the Marital Mediation Center, which focuses on “improving marriages through mediation as an alternative to divorce,” according to its website.