CONVICTED killer Lyle Menedez married top model Anna Eriksson in a secret “proxy wedding” from behind bars before getting divorced over his extramarital affair.
Lyle, along with brother Erik, is serving life sentences for shooting their parents to death in a sprawling Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.
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Both the brothers opened gunfire on their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, at point-blank range, killing them on the spot.
During their trials for the killings, the brothers claimed the shootings were in self-defense following years of abuse.
However, prosecutors argued the siblings were motivated by greed and wanted to get their hands on their parents’ fortune.
The brothers’ trials were televised on CourtTV, bringing national attention to the murders and sparking admirers of the good-looking duo to write letters of encouragement to the pair during the case.
more on the shocking case
After the highly publicized trials, both brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
But staying behind bars for the rest of their lives did not stop either of the brothers from having relationships with women.
Lyle was the first of the pair to have a relationship among the two brothers.
He began dating Anna Eriksson – a former model and salon receptionist from Chicago.
She began modelling at age 14 after posing for a Lord & Taylor ad and landed gigs all over Europe including London, Sweden, and Paris.
The couple got together after Eriksson wrote him a letter during his first trial, which ended in a mistrial.
In the pity letter, she said: “Hang tough.”
Eriksson saw Lyle on TV during his first trial where she decided to write him the letter after noticing the lack of attention Lyle was getting as opposed to his brother, Erik.
And thus began their series of exchanges through letter which eventually blossomed into a relationship.
Eriksson even moved to Los Angeles in 1994 taking on a job as a contract administrator for a record company.
During an interview with People magazine, she said: “All I can say is that we’ve connected, even though we’ve never touched.”
The pair married over the phone on July 2, 1996 – the day that the brothers were sentenced to life in prison.
The remote wedding was witnessed by Erik’s attorney, Leslie Abramson, and the brothers’ aunt.
They dubbed it a “proxy wedding”.
The wedding was later disputed as Lyle’s jailers said the marriage wasn’t valid because it happened over the phone.
“We did not recognize the wedding,” California Department of Corrections spokesperson Christine May said in 1997, according to the Los Angeles Times.
MARRIAGE FALLING APART
Eriksson and Lyle remained married for five years until a cheating scandal separated the two.
In 2001, Eriksson filed for divorce, claiming that Lyle was unfaithful to her because he exchanged letters with other women. She’s stayed out of the public eye since the divorce.
Lyle went on to start another relationship with another pen pal named Rebecca Sneed, a former magazine editor.
The Associated Press reported the pair knew each other for about 10 years before they tied the knot – meaning their relationship coincided with Lyle’s marriage to Eriksson.
Lyle and Sneed married at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, in November 2003 and have stayed together since.
After the Menendez brothers lived in separate prisons for 20 years, the two were reunited when Lyle moved to the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where Erik lives, in 2018.
It’s unclear if Sneed still lives in Sacramento, which is about a nine-hour drive from where Lyle is now held.
While Lyle has been married twice in prison, Erik has been committed to the same woman who became his pen pal at the beginning of the trials in 1993.
While both of the brothers are married, neither of them has consummated their marriage due to a California law prohibiting inmates serving life sentences from having conjugal visits.
Saccoman previously said that the marriage doesn’t need sex to thrive.
“Not having sex in my life is difficult, but it’s not a problem for me,” Erik’s wife said.
“I have to be physically detached, and I’m emotionally attached to Erik.”
NETFLIX DRAMA
The Menendez brothers’ case is explored in Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Saccoman, who often relays messages from her husband to the public on her social media accounts, shared that Erik disapproved of the new series.
She posted Erik’s response to the show on X on September 19.
“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show,” the statement began.
“I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.”
Murphy responded to Erik’s criticism at a red carpet-event on September 23.
“I know he hasn’t watched the show. So I find that curious,” Murphy told E! News at the series premiere of his new show Grotesquerie.
“I hope he does watch it. I think if he did watch it he would be incredibly proud of Cooper Koch who plays him,” he said.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available for streaming on Netflix now.
Timeline of the Menendez brothers case
ERIK and Lyle Menendez are serving life sentences in prison after being found guilty of shooting their parents to death over 30 years ago.
August 20, 1989 – José and Kitty Menendez are shot to death
March 8, 1990 – Lyle is arrested for the murders
March 11, 1990 – Erik turns himself in
July 20, 1993 – Highly publicized trial begins and ends weeks later in a mistrial
October 11, 1995 – Second trial begins
March 20, 1996 – Menendez brothers are convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder
July 2, 1996 – Menendez brothers are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to separate prisons
February 2018 – Lyle is transferred to the San Diego prison where Erik is held
April 4, 2018 – Erik and Lyle are reunited
May 2023 – Attorney representing the Menendez brothers files a habeas petition
September 19, 2024 – Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story comes out on Netflix
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