Kitty Menendez, the glamorous housewife of Jose Menendez, lost her life inside her California home on August 20, 1989. Her two sons, Lyle and Erik, were responsible for her tragic demise.
In a documentary, Monsters: The Lye and Erik Menendez, Netflix reflected Kitty’s story and her children’s heinous acts.
Highlights
- Kitty Menendez won the Miss Oak Lawn beauty pageant in 1962 and aspired to be an actress.
- She had amassed an estimated net worth of $2 million, and together with her husband, they had an estimated estate of $14.5 million.
- Their two children were found guilty of taking their parent’s lives on April 17, 1996.
Kitty Menendez, the daughter of Charles and Mae Andersen, was born in 1941 in Oak Lawn, Illinois. She was the youngest of four children, and her parents named her Mary Louise Andersen.
Her father was abusive, and she carried resentment toward her father for years, even after her parent’s divorce.
Kitty dreamed of becoming an actress and won the Miss Oak Lawn beauty pageant in 1962. Her brother, Brian Anderson, told ABC’s 20/20,
She was stunningly beautiful, and I mean beautiful on the outside and even more so on the inside.
Kitty Menendez Had An Estimated Net Worth Of $2 Million
Kitty married a Cuban nobility, Jose Menendez, who immigrated to the United States at 16. His soccer player father encouraged him to move to the US.
They struggled in the initial stage of their marriage in 1963 but amassed an estimated estate of $14.5 million.
These two chose to beat, mock, humiliate, hurt and make these children afraid to be touched, afraid to go to the bathroom at night because of possible abuse and afraid to do anything other than what José Menendez and “Kitty” M. allowed them to do.
Dark and terrible Monsters. pic.twitter.com/ekSUmjm2Lf
— beatrÃz • (@BEATRIZBE_STAR) September 21, 2024
After marriage, they relocated to the Big Apple, where Kitty worked as a teacher and Jose as a dishwasher while studying at Queens College.
Later, Jose asked her to stay home and raise their children, Lyle and Erik, full-time.
He graduated from Queens College and worked as an accountant for Coopers & Lybrand. He then became the manager of commercial leasing for Hertz rental cars.
Moreover, Jose was an aggressive businessman and transitioned his role to RCA Records, working on record deals for artists like Eurythmics, Menudo, Jose Feliciano, and Duran Duran.
He moved to Carolco Pictures, which International Video Entertainment (IVF) acquired. IVF was $20 million in debt, but under his leadership, it earned $8 million in 1987 and $16 million in 1988.
Lyle told the Los Angeles Times in 1990,
My father suffered from being a perfectionist. It carried over into his home life, and it was sometimes difficult for Erik and me. So much so that he really couldn’t do something well enough. It wore on him tremendously mentally. And it wore on us.
The prosecution accused their two children of taking the lives of their parents for their net worth and was found guilty on April 17, 1996.
Some sources claimed that Jose planned to disinherit their sons. After the tragic demise of their parents, Lyle and Erik nearly spent $10.8 million.
It was such a huge amount that they would inherit nothing after taxes and unpaid debts.
Nonetheless, they expected that their father had hidden $75 million in a Swiss bank account, but that was never discovered.
Additional Information
- Kitty Menendez studied communications at Southern Illinois University.
- She was a warm and dependent person, but her husband was accused of cheating on her.
- Lyle and Erik expected to inherit $90 million after the tragic demise of their parents in 1989.
- Their Beverly Hills home, where Kitty and Jose took their last breath, was sold for $17 million in March 2024.
