ANAMARIA Baralt couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
The devoted first cousin of Lyle and Erik Menendez was aghast after watching the first episode of the Netflix smash hit Monsters, which depicted the nightmare scenario that has haunted her family for over 30 years.
The Menendez brothers’ case made global headlines and threw the family into utter turmoil[/caption]
Interest in the case has been revived once again following the recent release of a Netflix drama (Family pictured)[/caption]
The recently released Netflix drama has been “way off the mark,” according a U.S. Sun world exclusive with their cousin Anamaria Baralt[/caption]
DEVOTED SIBLING
Anamaria’s father, Carlos, was the brother of Jose Menendez, the multi-millionaire TV executive who, along with his wife Kitty, was murdered by their sons in their Beverly Hills mansion.
She remains very close to Lyle and will forever be heartbroken about the events of August 20, 1989.
The yoga instructor, based outside of Seattle, has visited him countless times in prison.
The 53-year-old knows him better than most, and in a world exclusive for The U.S. Sun, she has spoken publicly for the first time about the killings that ripped her world apart.
First, however, Anamaria wanted to set the record straight.
“The portrayal of Lyle as this rage-fueled, fly-off-the-handle, aggressive personality is so far off the mark of his personality,” she said.
“When I spoke to Lyle the other night, I said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard you raise your voice.’ And he agreed.”
Cooper Koch, who plays Erik in the Netflix mini-series directed by Ryan Murphy, visited both brothers in San Diego prison last weekend.
Kim Kardashian was also present.
Yet bizarrely, it was the first time the actor had met the person he was portraying.
POETIC LICENSE
Anamaria appreciates that some dramatic effect was added to boost ratings — she said the decision to make out music played at Jose and Kitty’s funeral was “insane”— but she struggled to understand why moves weren’t made to connect with the real-life characters before filming began.
“Shouldn’t it have been the other way round?” she asked.
“If they had met him for five minutes, they would have seen how contrary to his personality. I think it’s weird.”
Viewers have also flooded social media about the homo-erotic storyline, which appears to suggest there was an incestuous element to the brothers’ relationship.
“That’s a weird one,” Anamaria conceded. “I can appreciate poetic license and creating entertaining shows. But these are real people. I would hope that there would be a little bit more effort.”
The U.S. Sun contacted Netflix for comment but has yet to hear back.
But the actors have addressed the controversy.
“It’s a really interesting question, and it was something that we discussed quite a bit as part of this project, but ultimately this is a question that’s honestly best reserved for Ryan and the creators of the show,” said Lyle actor Nicholas Chavez.
Show creator Murphy has also defended the portrayal claiming that it was a “point of view” that emerged during the brothers trial.
“Dominick Dunne [the Vanity Fair journalist played by Nathan Lane] wrote several articles talking about that theory,” Murphy said, according to Variety.
“We are presenting his point of view. And we had an obligation to show all of that and we did.”
HAIR RAISING DRAMA
Another talked about moment in the show – Lyle’s toupee – did take her by surprise.
“I had no idea about that until the trial,” Anamaria admitted.
She was just 18 when the sickening incident became a global news story.
As part of a large, immigrant Cuban family, they all grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, before the boys and their parents moved to California.
Timeline of the Menendez Brothers murder case
August 20, 1989 – Erik and Lyle Menendez claim they returned home from the movies to find their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez shot to death in their Beverly Hills mansion.
March 8, 1990 – Lyle is arrested on suspicion of killing his parents, having confessed to his therapist; authorities wait for Erik to return from a tennis tournament in Israel.
March 11, 1990 – Erik returns from Israel and surrenders at Los Angeles International Airport.
March 12, 1990 – Murder charges are filed against Menendez brothers. District Attorney Ira Reiner says the two killed their parents in hopes of inheriting their multi-million pound fortune.
March 26, 1990 – The brothers plead not guilty to murder.
December 8, 1992 – The brothers are indicted for murder.
July 20, 1993 – Opening statements begin in the trial. The brothers are accused of premeditated murder, while they argue it was self-defence, claiming they were sexually abused by their father.
August 10, 1993 – Psychologist Dr. L. Jerome Oziel says the brothers confessed to killing their parents in therapy with him in 1989.
December 3, 1993 – Testimony in the brothers’ trial ends after 101 witnesses across five months.
January 28, 1994 – After a record 25 days of deliberations, the jury remained deadlocked over whether it was murder or manslaughter, and Superior Court Judge Stanley declared a mistrial.
October 11, 1995 – The brothers are tried in front of a new jury. Erik’s lawyer says the brothers killed in self-defence after years of horrific abuse from their father.
February 16, 1996 – Judge Weisberg effectively bars the jury from returning manslaughter verdicts for the slaying of Kitty, but allows the jury to return a manslaughter verdict for Jose’s death. He also rules that jurors won’t be able to consider the brothers’ claim that they killed because they believed their parents were about to kill them.
March 20, 1996 – The jury convicts both brothers of first degree murder with special circumstances.
April 17, 1996 – Brothers sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole
For a while, Jose lived with Anamaria’s parents.
It was a very tight-knit relationship, which explains why she refuses to discuss any theories about the reasons why her uncle and aunt were shot at point-blank range by their children.
Did they slaughter their parents for their gain? Or were they emotionally and sexually abused by their father, with their mother complicit in the nightmare that was unfolding as they claimed?
FAMILY AGONY
Anamaria emphatically states there are “boundaries” that won’t be crossed.
However, she recalls the pain of being at the center of such a torrid tragedy.
The emotional turmoil was intense. Yet to have her pain beamed across the globe with millions of people dissecting every twist and turn was excruciating in the extreme.
Anamaria remembers “blanket coverage” and late-night talk shows cracking warped jokes about the killings.
“I don’t know that anybody who has not been through that particular horror can understand what that’s like,” she said.
In the months after the murders, Erik and Lyle went on wild shopping sprees, flashing their father’s cash, buying fast cars, and living a life of luxury.
The decisions made with Lyle’s character were surprising.
Anamaria Baralt, cousing of Lyle and Erik Menendez
As the cops thought it was a mob hit, the rest of the family followed suit.
“We believed they had nothing to do with it,” Anamaria recalled. “None of us could imagine they had done it.”
QUESTION MARKS
She says both Erik and Lyle weren’t violent people and that getting into trouble “just wasn’t their thing.”
Yet once Erik finally cracked under the increasing pain and guilt and told therapist Jerome Oziel about the killings, Anamaria and her relatives were left floored.
“It was just bonkers,” she said. “A real shock.”
The brothers were arrested on March 8 and 11, 1993, respectively, with the trial starting that summer.
Anamaria was back on the East Coast but remained close to the brothers.
“We talked about anything else,” she admitted.
Jose and Kitty Menendez were gunned down by their sons at their home in Beverly Hills[/caption]
When the first trial ended in a hung jury, forcing a retrial, the realization of having to endure the nightmare of seeing their loved ones in the dock again hit hard.
She recalls the “circus” that hunted down other members of the Menendez clan and the pain of watching her beloved father, who passed away in 2020, struggle with the agony of his brother and best friend being killed by his nephews, whom he loved in equal measure.
“It was horrifying,” Anamaria said. “My father was the nicest man in the world, so it was tough for him.”
FAMILY PAIN
When the double murder charge arrived on April 17, 1996, in the second trial – which started just days after the end of the controversial OJ Simpson murder case, which rocked the United States legal system to the core – the agony for Anamaria’s family continued.
“When they went to jail, we had lost four people,” she said.
She remembers both men putting on “brave faces” and showing incredible empathy in the face of such a devastating turn of events.
“I would visit Lyle and feel guilty about telling him all about my life, my travels, and what I was doing,” Anamaria continued. “But he wanted to hear about those kind of things.”
The brothers remain hopeful of being released this year, with their attorneys pushing harder than ever.
Anamaria says almost everyone in her family – apart from one person on Kitty’s side – would like to see them set free after 35 long years behind bars.
Another documentary, directed by legendary producer Dick Wolf, is out next month and promises to be more factual than Monsters.
The research team contacted a host of Menendez family members, which she believes was the “responsible” thing to do.
WORRYING PORTRAYAL
Despite admitting Koch’s performance could have been better, she’s still deciding whether to watch the remainder of Monsters.
“He told me he had been studying Erik for seven years and watched every moment of the trials and the testimonies; I thought his portrayal was not bad at all,” said Erik and Lyle’s cousin.
“The decisions made with Lyle’s character were surprising.”
So, did all the perceived falsehoods in the latest dramatization bring up old wounds?
“I’m pretty used to it,” Anamaria sighed. “After all, it’s been over 30 years.”
Anamaria remains close to the brothers and is hopeful of their release after spending 30 years in prison[/caption]
