Beverly Hills mansion where Menendez brothers murdered their parents sells for whopping $17M
The Beverly Hills mansion where the Menendez brothers murdered their parents in cold blood has been sold for a whopping $17 million — 28 years to the day after they were convicted of the heinous crime.
The sprawling seven-bedroom Mediterranean-style villa hit the market on Dec. 1 and was originally listed for $19,999,500, but it was reduced by nearly $3 million before it sold Wednesday, according to Realtor.com.
President of Strategic Property Analytics and Forensic Appraiser Orell Anderson estimated that the mansion was sold roughly 25% below its market value.
“It really is the bad voodoo that comes in when buying a house to live in with your family, that can creep out people,” Anderson told Realtor.com.
“There tends to almost always be a discount, but sometimes it’s purchased by people who are not bothered by these things.”
Telecommunications executive Sam Delug, who listed the 9,063-square-foot mansion for sale, had owned the home since 2001 and purchased it for $3.7 million, according to the outlet.
Delug’s had been asking for nearly $20 million for the mansion — $2,207 per square foot — but would sell the home under his original price for $1,876 per square foot.
The home includes a pool, a private tennis court, and a two-story guesthouse, according to the outlet.
The new buyer is currently unknown.
The notorious 90210 mansion was built in 1927 but redesigned by a friend of the Menendez family, Mark Slotkin, in 1984, according to the outlet.
Slotkin sold the home to José Menendez, the brothers’ father, for $4 million in 1988.
The real estate mogul played a key role in the trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez, testifying for the defense about the soundproofing he had installed in the mansion.
The detail challenged a maid’s claims during the trial that she had overheard screaming family arguments, Realtor.com reported.
Jose and Kitty Menendez were shot dead in the den of the family’s mansion on Aug. 20, 1989, kicking off the chain of events leading to the infamous trial that captivated the world.
Speculation initially pegged the murders on a potential mob hit, but the brothers were eventually implicated in the cold-hearted slayings of their parents.
The brothers have never denied killing their parents and claimed that they were regularly sexually assaulted by their father while living in a state of constant fear.
Their claim led the defense to argue that they could “not harbor the mental state needed for first-degree murder and were therefore guilty of manslaughter,” according to the outlet.
Despite the defense’s claims, a Los Angeles jury found the brothers guilty of first-degree murder, and they are both serving life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. They have both remained in prison following their sentences on March 20, 1996.
The Elm Drive mansion would stay on the market for years following the murders.
It was finally sold to television writer and co-creator of “Murder, She Wrote” William Link in 1993 for an undisclosed amount.
Link lived there for eight years until he finally sold the home to Delug in 2001.
The mansion hit the market less than a year after the Peacock docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” was released in May 2023.
In 2023, attorneys for the brothers filed court papers contending that new evidence warrants overturning their convictions.
