Exactly who was Jose Menendez?

The Hollywood community and police investigators have been furiously pressing that question since Menendez--a relatively little known entertainment executive whose career nonetheless connected with some of the biggest names in show business--was shot dead with his wife, Mary Louise, in their Beverly Hills home last Sunday night.

Extensive interviews with associates reveal the Cuban-born Menendez to have been an extremely aggressive boss and deal maker, in whom friends saw a charismatic leader--and in whom adversaries sometimes saw an over-reacher who cut jobs, cut corners and occasionally broke his word on the way to the top.

"If you took a poll, a lot of people whose oxes were gored by Jose would have to tell you they didn't like him," offers Robbin Ahrold, an officer of Broadcast Music Inc. who worked with Menendez several years ago at RCA Records in New York.

That characterization is disputed by Peter Hoffman, president of Carolco Pictures Inc., an independent movie company of which Menendez was executive vice president at the time of his death. After the murders, Hoffman became acting chairman of Live Entertainment, a video firm, 49% owned by Carolco, of which Menendez had been chairman and chief executive.

"He can often be insensitive," Hoffman admitted, still speaking of Menendez in the present tense during a Thursday afternoon interview at Carolco's West Hollywood headquarters. "He's a guy who reaches for every advantage in a transaction. He's very self-conscious, self-confident and charismatic in the way he deals with things. . . . In my judgment, these are assets, not liabilities."

The Beverly Hills police have publicly identified no suspect in the murders and have put a tight clamp on details of the crime, refusing to disclose even the caliber of bullets used or the number of times the Menendezes were shot. The police also haven't said whether they believe the crime to have been a robbery.

Official silence has led to widespread speculation that the Menendezes died in an execution-style slaying that could somehow have been related to the executive's business activities. ("Please, please, tell me he was a drug lord!" one of the Menendezes' shocked neighbors, herself an entertainment executive, said one day after the murders.)

Carolco executives adamantly refuse to discuss any aspects of the slaying. "We don't care to discuss anything (about it). It's a dangerous, vicious world we live in, and we're all subject to bizarre events," Hoffman said.