The Menendez Brothers and OJ Simpson Had an Unlikely Friendship Behind Bars

There are some weird plot twists in Netflix Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, Many of them are taken from real life: brothers shopping spree in the days after brutally murdering his parents José and Kitty; decision playing Milli Vanilli at their parents’ memorial service; the brothers’ therapist confides in his lover instead of the police about Lyle And Erikmurder confession – a choice that has caused like a TV series consequences throughout the brothers’ first murder trial. But the penultimate episode of Ryan Murphy Netflix’s “Seismic Shifts” ends with another fun twist: Erik and Lyle befriended OJ Simpson in prison.

In 1994, about five months after the first trial of the Menendez brothers ended in a split jury, Simpson was arrested for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was acquitted of the murders in October 1995, but in February 1997 he was convicted of murder in a civil trial.) Simpson was held at the LA County Men’s Central Jail, where the Menendez brothers were living, and was temporarily housed in a cell block next to Erik.

Simpson’s introduction in the episode closely follows what Erik said about his time in prison with “The Juice.” In a 2006 episode interview With Larry King, Erik recalled the hours before Simpson joined him in prison. “I watched the chase on television, that infamous chase. And they had me clear out his cell days before… They knew he was going to prison… before he even knew.” Erik told King that right after the chase ended, “he walked down the hall, handcuffed and chained up with about 15 sheriff’s deputies. And he said, ‘Hello, Erik.’ And then we had this whole interaction for weeks and months.” Erik knew Simpson as “a fun, charming guy.”

Erik said Robert Rand more details about his interactions with Simpson, including how he gave the professional athlete some advice on his first night in prison, telling him to keep quiet around other inmates and police. Per Rand’s 2018 book The Menendez Murders:

By Saturday morning, the impact of his ex-wife’s death had left Simpson in despair. “He wasn’t happy about going to jail like anybody else,” Erik said. “He was no worse off than me or Lyle. He was really delusional, thinking he was going to be out in three weeks.” […]

Erik Menendez wanted to help. It was hard to talk to the prison guards outside their cells, so Erik wrote a long letter to OJ that he left in a bathroom stall at the end of the hall. “I told him a lot of things. ‘This is your life,’ I said. ‘When you cry—remember those tears. Keep them because you’re crying for your child, you’re crying for everything you’re losing.’ I said, ‘Remember who’s doing this to you and fight—keep fighting.’ I told him, ‘You have to start worrying about your life, not your reputation.’”[…]

The only time Erik actually saw OJ was on his way to the bathroom. “It was sad to see OJ Simpson on the other side of that wall. I told him to be brave. Every time he passed my cell, he would smile and wink at me.”

Incredibly, this wasn’t the first time Erik had “met” Simpson. Dominick Dunne described The boys’ origin story with “The Juice” in a 1995 article for the magazine.

The late, unknown Jose Menendez, who was rarely heard from during his six-month murder trial for the two sons who shot and killed him and his wife, Kitty, was a senior executive at the car rental company Hertz. At the time, OJ Simpson was making his wildly popular commercials for Hertz. The story goes that Lyle and Erik Menendez, then teenagers, were big fans of the football star, so one night Jose and Kitty invited OJ to dinner with them and their sons, and the evening was a huge success. The Menendez brothers and OJ Simpson did not see each other again until they were all in the celebrity wing of the Los Angeles County Jail, all three charged with double murder.

In a 2017 interview with Everybody, “O.J. Simpson came to our house many times,” Lyle recalled. “I certainly never thought we would meet later in prison, facing murder charges. That was for sure.” Lyle also told Rand that he advised Simpson to take a plea deal: “I told him I thought the public would understand,” Lyle said, according to The Menendez Murders. “I have expressed my concerns that [lawyer] Robert Shapiro not let him tell the truth. I said I knew there was no plan and he went into a rage.” When Rand asked if Simpson gave the impression that he was guilty of murder, Lyle told him, “Absolutely. He knew Erik and me and trusted us.”

Perhaps the connection isn’t as strange as you might think. All three men were high-profile, accused double murderers in LA, held in the same prison, and were at one point represented by Robert Shapiro. (Shapiro worked with the Menendez brothers for a very short time.) Their trials were sometimes reported side by side in the newspapers. The same coroner worked on both cases, and accused of autopsy errors in both. Lyle and Simpson even had The same hairdresser—Don Kovakovich, who was responsible for Lyle’s $2,500 wig in prison and Simpson’s rehab treatments—who talked about both murder suspects’ hair on Jenny Jones show