That night being a Sunday, the brothers apparently didn't hit much traffic, because they were back at the house on Elm Drive by 11:47 p.m., when Lyle made a hysterical-sounding call to 911. "They shot and killed my parents!" he sobbed to the dispatcher. When police arrived, Erik, 19, was curled up crying on the front lawn.

Lyle gave a 30-minute eulogy at the funeral, which was held in Princeton, N.J. While in town, he hired a bodyguard and told people that the mob had killed his parents. The 21-year-old was chauffeured around in a limousine, put a down payment on a restaurant in the area and bought a $64,000 Porsche, a Rolex and $40,000' worth of clothes within a few weeks. 

Erik remained in L.A., and when his big brother returned—suddenly, to erase his father's most recent will from his computer, Jose having apparently restructured his estate in a way less beneficial to his eldest son—they drove around in Kitty's Mercedes convertible, rented penthouses in Marina Del Rey and booked trips to London and the Caribbean. 

But the ruse only lasted two months. On Oct. 31, Erik confessed to his therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel, that he and Lyle had killed their parents. Lyle wasn't happy about that and, feeling threatened, Oziel confided in his girlfriend that night. She ended up telling police, and on March 8, 1990, Lyle was arrested while leaving the Elm Drive home. Erik, an accomplished high school tennis player, was playing in a tournament in Israel (with his $50,000-a-year instructor) and he surrendered upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport three days later. (First, however, he flew to Miami, where relatives advised him to go home.)

Lyle and Erik were booked into Men's Central Jail in downtown L.A., 45 minutes and a world away from Beverly Hills.

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