Netflix show Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story revisits the infamous murder case

Nicholas Chavez, Chloe Sevigny, Javier Bardem and Cooper Koch play the Menendez family in the Netflix series, which dramatises the sensational murder trial. Photo / Netflix

• The new instalment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true crime anthology Monsters stars Javier Bardem, Chloe Sevigny, Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch. It focuses on the highly publicised Menendez murders and trials.
• Lyle and Erik Menendez were charged with the 1989 shotgun killings of their parents, Jose and Kitty, at the family’s Beverly Hills mansion. They claimed it was self-defence, alleging their father had abused them for years, and their mother knew and ignored it. The brothers were convicted in 1996.
• Broadcast on cable television, the trial captivated the public and media. As Netflix revisits the Menendez family’s story, the Washington Post outlines the facts behind the case that gripped America.

Warning: Mentions sexual abuse.

On August 20, 1989, two sobbing brothers called 911 claiming they had discovered their parents shot to death in the living room of their Beverly Hills mansion — an apparent gangland killing resulting from their father’s business dealings, the brothers later claimed.

But in a shocking reversal, Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, were charged and eventually convicted in the brutal shotgun killings of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. In 1996, they were sentenced to life in prison.

The case captivated viewers throughout the United States, as one of the first criminal trials to be broadcast in full on cable television. Now, their story is being revisited in a Netflix drama from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan that explores the brothers’ motives for murder — including their claims of abuse at the hands of their parents, and prosecutors’ suggestions that the slayings were a money grab.

Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez play Erik and Lyle Menendez, brothers who were convicted of murdering their parents. Photo / Showtime

The nine-episode show, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, premiered on September 19. It stars Nicholas Chavez as Lyle and Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez. Javier Bardem portrays family patriarch Jose Menendez, while Chloe Sevigny plays the brothers’ complacent mother, Kitty Menendez.

Here is everything you need to know about the Menendez brothers and the developments following their parents’ murders:

Who are the Menendez brothers?

Joseph Lyle Menendez and Erik Galen Menendez were born in New Jersey to parents Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez.

After spending most of their childhood in New Jersey and attending Princeton Day School, the brothers moved to Beverly Hills as teenagers when their father secured a position as a corporate executive of a film studio, according to The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation, a book by journalist Robert Rand.

Erik, a former student at Beverly Hills High School, excelled at tennis and was ranked 44th in the country for his age group. Lyle was a student at Princeton University, but he eventually withdrew.

What did the Menendez brothers do?

The Menendez brothers told police they spent the evening of August 20, 1989, at a movie theatre and later attended the Taste of LA festival at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. They returned to the family home to find their parents dead in the living room, the brothers told police.

Their father had been shot six times, with one bullet hitting the back of his head, and their mother had been shot 10 times — including in her face, according to police.

At first, the brothers told police they believed the mafia had killed their parents over one of their father’s sketchy business dealings. Beverly Hills police later said they had been suspicious of the brothers, according to a 1990 Vanity Fair profile, but said they found no evidence indicating wrongdoing at the time.

Erik and Lyle Menendez in front of their Beverly Hills home. Photo / Getty Images

Following their parents’ deaths, the brothers were given a portion of their family’s US$14 million estate. Wasting no time, they spent US$700,000 in about six months on real estate, luxury items and tennis lessons for Erik.

Their lavish spending drew suspicion from investigators, but it was the disgruntled ex-mistress of Erik’s psychologist who eventually informed authorities that Erik had admitted to killing his parents during a taped therapy session.

The police arrested Lyle on March 8, 1990, and Erik turned himself in three days later upon returning to Los Angeles from a trip to Israel. The brothers were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

What happened during their trials?

The Menendez brothers pleaded not guilty in 1990 and were held without bail and jailed separately. The case was delayed two years over legal questions about whether the prosecution could use the taped recordings of Erik’s conversations with his psychologist as evidence.

The Supreme Court of California ruled in August 1992 that most of the tapes were usable, except the tape in which Erik discussed the murders. A Los Angeles County grand jury issued indictments in December 1992, charging the brothers with the killing of their parents.

The Menendez case became a national sensation when Court TV broadcast the brothers’ trial in 1993.

The brothers admitted killing their parents during their testimonies, but claimed it was self-defence. Both said their father had physically and sexually abused them for years, and their mother knew about the abuse and ignored it.

Erik Menendez, lawyer Leslie Abramson and Lyle Menendez during their trial in Los Angeles in 1994. Photo / Getty Images

The brothers’ lawyer, Leslie Abramson, argued the brothers’ fear for their lives drove them to commit the killings. According to Erik’s testimony, his father had started abusing him when he was a child and continued until his father died. In court, Lyle said he was also abused by his father as a child, but didn’t know Erik was still being abused until days before the murder. Lyle said he had also molested Erik at one point as a response to his trauma.

A few of the family members who testified during the trials supported the brothers’ claims, offering their own recollection of the elder Menendez’s abuse towards the boys.

Prosecutors, by contrast, argued Lyle and Erik had killed their parents for financial gain, noting their spending spree in the months after Jose and Kitty’s deaths.

After the jury in the first trial deadlocked, the case was tried again. In 1996, seven years after the killings, the brothers were convicted on two charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole and sent to separate prisons.

What’s happened since they’ve been in prison?

When the brothers were first arrested in 1990, Lyle wrote a 17-page letter to his younger brother in which he said they should try to stay together.

“My greatest fear is that we would not end up in the same prison down the road,” he wrote, according to a 1996 Los Angeles Times article. “I think if Dad could give us one piece of advice that night in August, it would be never to abandon each other, no matter what the circumstance.”

Lyle and Erik, now 56 and 53 respectively, remain incarcerated in separate California prisons, but in 2017 the two brothers told People Magazine they remain close.

“We write each other regularly,” Lyle told the celebrity news weekly. “We even play chess through the mail, but it’s a little slow.”

Both brothers have also married over the years. Erik, who married Tammi Saccoman in 1999, improvised a wedding cake using a Twinkie. Tammi Menendez shared a statement attributed to Erik on her X account on Thursday, calling the Netflix show’s portrayal of the murders “dishonest”.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is the latest in many dramatisations of the famous case. Photo / Netflix

The Netflix show is not the first time the Menendez brothers have resurfaced over the decades. Along with other trending true-crime cases, videos about the brothers have received plenty of attention on TikTok. Some users of the social media platform have produced content by visiting the family’s old home and sharing opinions about the case.

The brothers were also spotted in the background of a photo of former NBA point guard Mark Jackson on a basketball card, dated between the time of their parents’ deaths and their arrests, that resurfaced in 2018.

In 2018, the brothers reunited for the first time since they were incarcerated 22 years earlier. In an interview with ABC News, their aunt said she continued to believe her nephews were not criminals because they were afraid of their father and acted in self-defence.

The brothers’ lawyers filed a petition in 2023 asking the court to revisit the case, according to the Los Angeles Times. Their lawyers suggested new evidence supports the brothers’ claim their father was abusive and a paedophile. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told CBS’ 48 Hours in March it was still investigating the claims made in the petition.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is screening on Netflix now.