Lyle Menendez, then 28, married model and salon receptionist Anna Eriksson on July 2, 1996, the same day he and brother Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 double murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.
Anna began writing to Lyle in 1993 during his first trial, which ended in a mistrial, and then moved to California to be near him the following year. She became a consistent presence at the months-long retrial that started in 1995 and led to convictions in March 1996, according to the Los Angeles Times.
They couldn’t exchange their vows in person; instead, Lyle took the plunge over speaker phone, with the groom in custody and the bride in the office of defense attorney Leslie Abramson.
He seemed hopeful about being able to marry Anna in person once he knew where he would be placed.
“We do have a marriage proceeding,” California Correctional Institution spokesman Lt. Jack Pitko told the LA Times in September 1996 after Lyle and Erik had been ordered to separate prisons. “There’s a waiting list…But I don’t see why he shouldn’t be able to get married if he follows all the rules.”
Anna filed for divorce in 2001 after, according to multiple reports from that time, she allegedly discovered Lyle was exchanging letters with other women.
