The Untold Connection Between the Menendez Brothers and O.J. Simpson.

Reality can be more surprising than fiction. In the final moments of the second-to-last episode of Monsters: the Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, a well-known name surfaces: O.J. Simpson. Erik (Cooper Koch) is in his prison cell, drawing, when he overhears a guard ask, "Can we call you Juice?" O.J. (not shown, but portrayed by Trae Ireland) responds, "You’re the guards. Call me whatever you like. Juice works for me."

Shortly after, the guards place O.J. in the cell next to Erik, leading to a conversation between them. "I heard, um, is it true that Robert Shapiro is your lawyer?" Erik inquires. O.J. answers, "Yeah. I mean, I’ve got a bunch. You know what I mean." Erik continues, "I just wanted to let you know... he was our lawyer too, and honestly, you should be cautious with him because he kind of messed us up.

I could have stayed in London and probably wouldn’t be facing the death penalty. But he told me to come back, so...." Later, Erik advises him, "You might want to think about a plea deal." While we can’t confirm if this exchange actually took place, it is a fact that Erik and O.J. were indeed in adjacent cells after Simpson's arrest following a car chase on June 17, 1994. "I told him not to discuss his case with the deputies or other inmates. I advised him to just relax and take it easy. After such a long chase, you can imagine how he was feeling," Erik shared with journalist Robert Rand in The Menendez Murders. "He wasn’t thrilled to be in jail, just like anyone else. He was no worse off than Lyle or me. He was quite delusional, thinking he’d be out in three weeks."

Erik and Lyle were familiar with Simpson even before they were incarcerated. In a 2017 interview with People, Lyle shared, "O.J. Simpson visited our home several times. I never imagined we would end up meeting in prison, facing murder charges." Their father, Jose Menendez, had actually signed Simpson for an advertising deal with Hertz rental cars.

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Lyle elaborated, "He was leading a company that was ramping up its advertising, and they had this innovative idea to feature a sports icon. More people recognized O.J. from those TV commercials than for anything else." Lyle also had the chance to interact with Simpson while in jail. "We had quite a few conversations," he recalled. "We shared the same attorney meeting room and were located in the same section. My brother was in the cell next to him for most of his trial, so we talked a lot."