Erik Menendez's Life Behind Bars

ByABC News via logo
October 27, 2005, 8:32 AM

Oct. 27, 2005 — -- Erik and Lyle Menendez were 18 and 21 when they murdered their parents in 1989. They had enjoyed a life of privilege, but now they live the life of prisoners. Erik works as a night janitor in his maximum security jail, where he shares a 6-by-9-foot cell with a roommate.

Yet the brothers have both found love, marrying their prison pen pals.

Tammi Menendez said her relationship with Erik, her husband of six years, is "something that I've dreamed about for a long time."

"And it's just something very special that I never thought that I would ever have," she told Barbara Walters on "20/20."

The couple doesn't have much of a physical relationship. They are allowed to kiss hello and goodbye during their visits, said Champ Clark, a correspondent from People magazine who spent six hours last weekend with Erik at California's Pleasant Valley State Prison.

The Erik Menendez people remember from the trial 15 years ago is very different today, said Clark.

"He's a grown man," he said, "quite handsome, intelligent, very articulate."

Champ said that Tammi is "intelligent and a very sweet person."

She and her 10-year-old daughter seem to love Erik very much, he added.

The Menendez brothers have grown distant, according to Champ.They reside in different jails and have not seen each other for nine years.