IN THE 1990s, the nation was gripped by a trial involving unspeakable violence within a family residing in a posh Los Angeles neighborhood. No, we’re actually not talking about O.J. Simpson, but rather the Menendez brothers, whose infamous murders are fictionalized in Netflix’s new Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
The run of nine episodes is the second season in the Monster true crime anthology series from creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. You may remember that the hit first season from 2022, centered on Jeffrey Dahmer, was everywhere online, and oh just wait for the media fervor around the announced third season, which will see Charlie Hunnam as none other than Ed Gein. In Monsters, Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch play Lyle and Erik, a pair of brothers who were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez, who are here played by Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny in some truly choice stunt casting. The sons of a cooperative executive who moved his family to Beverly Hills for work, they had all the trappings of ‘80s and ‘90s excess and ambition mixed with a penchant for cold brutality. They were, in other words, cable news catnip back when cable news was still a relatively novel phenomenon.
But where to start with the Menendez brothers and their sordid tale if you’re just finding out about the case, or (understandably) have gotten fuzzy on the details over the past three decades? We’ve got a breakdown of everything you need to know about the actual Menendez murders ahead of tuning into Netflix’s latest blood-curdling show below.
Stream Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Here
Who are the Menendez brothers?
Lyle and Erik Menendez are the sons of José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez. Their father, José, was born in 1944, and immigrated to the United States from Havana, Cuba, at age 16. He attended Southern Illinois University, where he met his future wife and the Menendez brothers’ mother Mary Louise “Kitty” Andersen (born 1941). The parents married in 1963 and moved to New York City, where José got his accounting degree. He eventually leveled up to entertainment executive, and with a position at International Video Entertainment, took the clan to Los Angeles.
The brothers showed promise: Erik established himself as a nationally ranked tennis player. Lyle studied at Princeton University, though he was eventually suspended. And the kids were coming of age on a covetable block of an exclusive LA enclave in Beverly Hills.
What did Lyle and Erik Menendez do?
There’s not really a question of what the Menendez brothers did, but there is some debate about why (more on that later): On the evening of August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez (then 21 and 18, respectively) shot their parents multiple times at close range with a shotgun while in the family room of their mansion, killing them. Police arrived at the scene after Lyle called 911, screaming, “Someone killed my parents.” The brothers would later tell authorities that they had gotten home only to find their parents murdered. And for a time, investigators thought the shootings may have been connected to José’s career.
Until, that is, the Menendez brothers came into view. The two brought attention to themselves when, after the deaths, they seemed to spend a significant amount of their parents’s money. They dropped cash on Rolex watches, real estate, and they made business investments.
About six months after the crime took place, police got a tip from Judalon Smyth, the girlfriend of a psychologist who had seen Lyle and Erik. She alleged that the brothers had confessed to the killings in therapy. And it was recorded on audio.
In March 1990, Beverly Hills police arrested Lyle Menendez outside the Menendez home. Two days later, Erik (remember, he was the tennis phenomenon) surrendered to authorities after returning from a trip to play tennis in Israel.
Two intensely publicized trials later, and the duo was sentenced to life in prison in 1996. (The first trial aired on Court TV, then a fledgling cable network.) But questions about their motive still lingered.
Whoa. But why did the Menendez brothers kill their own parents?
Usually, when kids have it made, in one of L.A.’s ritziest neighborhoods no less, you don’t expect them to just murder their parents. Indeed, there is more to the case than it may seem on first glance. Both brothers testified that their father had started molesting them from a young age. And worse, their mother knew all about it.
The accusations of molestations seemed credible to many. Reporting on the trial, The New York Times wrote this of Lyle’s testimony: “The defendant was in tears almost from the start as he told a story of a frightened child suffering terrifying pressures from a demanding and cruel father, and expressions of hatred from his mother.”
Numerous relatives, friends, and acquaintances of the Menendez family testified for the defense, affirming incidents of alleged physical and emotional abuse. Alan Andersen, a cousin of the brothers, recalled what he thought was odd behavior, according to CBS News: Growing up, José “would take showers with Lyle and Erik,” and “Kitty Menendez wouldn’t let him go near the room,” he said.
Another cousin, Diane Vander Molen, suggested the allegations of abuse were true. “I know that they would never, ever have done what they did unless they felt that they had no choice—that it was either them or their parents,” she told ABC News. “I believe that very strongly.”
Where are The Menendez Brothers now?
After a mistrial, a second trial brought a conclusion to the strange, unsettling case: A jury deliberated for days, eventually finding Lyle and Erik Menendez guilty of first-degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and sit behind bars today.
But that’s not necessarily the end of the matter. More recent portrayals of the crime (including in, yes, Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders) have been somewhat sympathetic to the brothers, at least in terms of addressing their vicious attack in the context of alleged sexual and emotional abuse from early childhood. Which is not to say that any reasonable person thinks what they did was right.
And still, new evidence has come to light. The book The Menendez Murders uncovered a letter Erik wrote when he was 17 to his cousin Cano, which details the abuse by his father was his deep-seated fear. And the 2023 docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed highlighted new accusations by a former member of Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who said he had been sexually assaulted as a teenager by José.
In May 2023, the brothers’s lawyer filed a new habeas corpus petition pushing for the conviction to be vacated (essentially, making it void) as a result of the new evidence. Until that gets settled, Monsters will without a doubt bring yet another surge of interest to a twisted and deeply ‘90s case.
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