Ex-inmate with the Menendez brothers reveals Lyle’s ‘chilling’ trait

A former mafia boss has described how he was once locked up alongside Lyle and Erik Menendez who murdered their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. Michael Franzese (pictured right), who is originally from New York and served as a caporegime in the Colombo crime family, is now a motivational speaker, TV personality and content creator. He has a YouTube channel where he regularly speaks candidly about the crime organisation and life afterwards.

In a recent video, he talked about how he got to know the two brothers, whose story has gripped audiences around the world in a Netflix adaptation, and revealed his thoughts about their crime and how he assessed their characters. The father-of-seven spent 11 months locked up in solitary confinement – which was actually on death row even though he was not facing the death penalty – at the LA County Jail after being transferred from Lompac Federal Prison in the early 90s. At that time, the Menendez brothers were awaiting trial over the 1989 murders of their parents.

Speaking in a new clip, Michael has shared an insight into the minds of the killer brothers – and a chilling characteristic he believes Lyle possesses which allowed the older sibling to control his brother. Speaking in the clip, Michael revealed he ended up spending more time with Lyle than with Erik and, over time, he came to determine that the older Menendez brother was ‘a manipulator’.

The Menendez brothers were convicted of murdering their parents in 1996, after an initial trial resulted in a hung jury. During the first trial, the pair described being violently sexually (abused) by their father, saying they had killed their parents in self-defence, fearing their parents were going to kill them. The prosecution, however, alleged they had killed their parents because of their enormous wealth, wanting their multi-million dollar fortune for themselves.

During the trial, the prosecution noted that the brothers had gone on a lavish spending spree after the deaths of their parents, purchasing Rolex watches, luxury properties, and cars before they were arrested. But Franzese said in his video that he did not believe that the brothers were motivated by money, and that he was certain that they were being honest about the severe abuse. Speaking about how he connected with Erik and Lyle, Franzese said he connected with Lyle and Erik in LA County jail. He added that at one point during his time there, Erik was moved because the brothers were believed to have tried to escape.

Hoewever, Franzese suggested he didn’t believe these allegations because it would have been ‘impossible’ – and instead suggested prison guards wanted to separate the pair. According to the 73-year-old, he and the brothers got ‘pretty friendly’ during their time in prison. He continued: ‘They shared a lot of information with me.’ Franzese said that he ‘had a lot of personal talks’ with the brothers, noting that they were young – Lyle would have been around 24-years-old and Erik 22-years-old – at the time – and he was in his late thirties. ‘I don’t want to say I took them under my wing,’ he continued. ‘It wasn’t that serious, but we talked every day for a long time.’

Franzese then went onto share some anecdotes from that time, describing how violent the jail was, and how the other inmates spoke to the Menendez siblings when they were walked through the building to their visits. He noted that the prison was a ‘brutal’ place and likened it to ‘an absolute zoo’. ‘When we would walk through the jail, (other inmates) would say to the Menendez brothers “we’re going to kill you. We’re going to get you. You killed your parents”,’ he recalled.

After Erik was moved out, Franzese would be walked to visits with Lyle, which led to some people thinking he was one of the brothers, prompting them to threaten his life. Franzese also discussed an occasion on which his wife and then four-year-old son came to visit, but ended up speaking to Lyle through the glass. While Lyle was waiting for his visitor to arrive, Franzese’s son walked to his booth, picked up the phone and started speaking to him. ‘Lyle is engaging him, and Michael Jr’s asking him questions. He was very inquisitive. My wife got nervous… because she knew the story there. And I said to just let it go. And they were talking until Lyle’s visit came,’ he recalled.

According to Franzese, his son spoke to Lyle on a number of occasions – to the point where he recognised the murderer’s face in news reports. On one occasion, he claims his son saw Lyle and Erik’s faces on the front of a magazine in the grocery store. He said: ‘Michael picks up the magazine and starts running loudly through the store, shouting, “hey, mom, here is my friend, Lyle, right?”. And people start to look at him. My wife panicked, because she’s thinking… “what are (the people in the store) going to think of me?” And he said, “this is daddy’s friend”.’

As he and Lyle became closer, Franzese said the eldest Menendez brother ‘confided’ in him – which ultimately influenced his own personal verdict on the brothers’ crimes. ‘I heard a lot from Lyle about his mother, and he said she just watched – when I say watched, she didn’t physically watch, but just watched as the father would lock the door and have the brothers in (a room) with him, and maybe wanted it one at a time,’ Franzese said. ‘She let it go. That in itself, was horrible. What kind of mom are you? You know that your husband is doing something to your boys?’

As for the abuse as a defence for killing their parents, he recalled asking himself a series of questions: ‘Are they being honest about it? Was there really abuse? Is this guy a manipulator? And I thought Lyle was a bit manipulative, I really do. And I think he manipulated his brother a little bit.’ After the deaths of their parents, the brothers were put under the media spotlight – but not as suspects. They were not considered as suspects for some time after the killings. Describing both of the young men further, he added: ‘And by the way, they these two brothers were not very bright. They were young, and I don’t want to demean them for not being very bright, but they weren’t.’

‘After the murders, they went on a spending spree. They bought cars, they bought clothes. They were media stars. They did everything that you shouldn’t be doing after you lose your parents.’ The former criminal mastermind went onto say that the brothers ‘were not seasoned killers’. They were charged with the crime after Erik, who was struggling with what they had done, admitted the murders to his therapist. At the time, he incorrectly thought the confession would be covered as privileged information. However, his therapist then contacted the authorities. He believes that both brothers grappled emotionally with the slayings, with Erik in particular being ‘troubled’ by what they had done.