Lyle and Erik Menendez are currently serving life sentences for killing their own parents, but their many supporters claim they were victims too.
The brothers will soon be the subject of season 2 of Netflix’s Monster, which will dramatise the horrifying crimes of Lyle and Erik Menendez – a decision which has already caused uproar.
Lyle and Erik murdered their parents in 1989, and were convicted of the crimes seven years later, in 1996. However, many people believe the brothers were victims themselves. They claimed they acted in self-defence after years of abuse from their ‘paedophile’ father.
Here’s everything you need to know about the true crime case, which will soon be dramatised in Netflix’s anthology series Monster.
Who are Lyle and Erik Menendez?
Joseph Lyle, who goes by his middle name, was born on January 10, 1968. His younger brother Erik Galen was born on November 27, 1970, in Gloucester Township, New Jersey.
Their parents were José Enrique Menéndez and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menéndez. Jose was born in Havana, Cuba, but moved to the US when he was 16, shortly after the start of the Cuban Revolution. He met his future wife Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Andersen at Southern Illinois University, where they were both attending.
They married in 1963 and moved to New York City, where José earned an accounting degree from Queens College.
After Lyle was born, Kitty quit her teaching job, and the family moved to New Jersey, where Erik was born. The family lived in Hopewell Township and both brothers attended Princeton Day School.
Later, José’s career as a corporate executive took off, and the family – now considerably wealthy – moved to Beverly Hills, California. Erik attended Beverly Hills High School, and ranking 44th in the US as a junior tennis player.
Two weeks before Erik helped murder his parents, Erik entered the 1989 Boys’ Junior National Tennis Championship. He reached the 2nd round of qualifying in the Boys’ 18 singles.
Meanwhile, Lyle attended Princeton University, but was on academic probation for poor grades. He was eventually suspended for plagiarism.
What did they do?
Brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered their parent in 1989, and were convicted in 1996.
On the evening of August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik entered the den of their parents’ Beverly Hills mansion carrying shotguns. In a premeditated attack, the brothers opened fire. Lyle and Erik shot José six times, including a fatal shot to the back of the head. They then shot mum Kitty 10 times in total.
After the killings, the siblings stayed in the house, expecting the police to respond due to the noise of the gunshots – which they did. When the police arrived, the brothers lied to the officers. They claimed they had returned home from the cinema, and found their parents dead.
At the time, the police did not seek gunshot residue tests from the brothers, which would have been proof of whether they’d recently discharged a firearm.
How were Lyle and Erik caught?
In the months after the killings, the brothers were seen spending extravagantly on luxury items including Rolex watches and cars, business ventures, and travel. Lyle subsequently bought a cafe, a restaurant. Meanwhile, Erik hired a full-time tennis coach and competed in a series of tournaments in Israel.
The brothers went on overseas trips to the Caribbean and London. In total, they spent around $700,000 during that five-month period. And it was their spending which ultimately made authorities suspicious.
During the early stages of the investigation, the police looked for suspects who had motives to kill José and Kitty. They soon began to suspect that the brothers had financial motive. Erik eventually confessed his guilt to his psychologist Jerome Oziel, who then told his mistress, Judalon Smyth.
When Judalon Smyth broke up with Jerome Oziel, she told the police about the brothers’ involvement. Police arrested Lyle on March 8, 1990. Erik turned himself in three days later after returning to Los Angeles from Israel. Both were held without bail and kept separate from each other.
In December 1992, police charged the brothers with the murders of their parents.
Why was the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez so controversial?
The murders took the media by storm in the late ’80s and early ’90s due to a number of reasons. Firstly, Lyle and Erik Menendez were only 21 and 18 when they killed their parents.
Of course, few crimes are as sickening as killing one’s own parents. However, many believed began to have sympathy for the boys during the high profile trial, believing they were victims themselves…
Although the young men eventually confessed to fatally shooting their parents, the brothers claimed to have killed their parents in self-defence after “a lifetime of abuse”.
They stated that they committed the murders out of fear that their father would kill them after they threatened to expose him for years of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse. However, the prosecution argued that they did it to inherit their father’s multimillion-dollar estate.
Lyle and Erik basketball card
During Lyle and Erik’s months of freedom between killing their parents and getting arrested, they attended a New York Knicks basketball game.
They famously became immortalised when they appeared courtside in the background of a Mark Jackson trading card. It’s now considered ‘murderer memorabilia’.
It was also used as proof that the brothers had been living lavish lifestyles after the death of their parents.
Were Erik and Lyle Menendez abused?
During their court trial, Erik and Menendez claimed their father abused them, and their mother knew but did nothing. The brothers claimed their mother and father abused them physically and sexually for years.
Lyle and Erik’s cousin Diane Vander Molen supported their claims. she said that she stayed with the family in the summer of 1976. At that time, Lyle and Erik confessed to her that they were being sexually abused by their father.
Diane Vander Molen told his mother Kitty, but she took her husband’s side and accused the brothers of lying. Diane said: “Lyle was scared to sleep in his own bed because he was afraid that his father was going to come in and molest him that night.”
After Lyle and Erik were convicted Diane said she had “no doubt” her cousins were sexually abused.
During their two trials, Lyle and Erik listed the ways in which their parents were abusive – both emotionally and sexually – towards them. They claimed José frequently used physical abuse as a way to control and punish them. This included dragging them by the hair, holding them underwater, beating them, punching them, choking them, and ticking sewing needles into their fingers.
Erik accused his dad of throwing him through a glass door until it shattered, and forcing him to hang from an exercise bar at 18 months. He also allegedly cut Erik’s thighs with a knife, and stuck thumb tacks and other sharp implements into his thighs and genitals.
Mum Kitty also allegedly physically abused both her sons, but especially Lyle who she “did not like”.
From the creators of Monster comes the next chilling installment of the anthology series:
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. pic.twitter.com/metyCMecmQ
— Netflix (@netflix) May 1, 2023
Was José Enrique Menendez a paedophile?
The boys accused their parents of countless incidents of sexual abuse. They claim José groomed Lyle and Erik for sexual contact, fondled him, performed oral sex on him and vice versa, and raped him. Horrifying, they also claim José forced Erik to penetrate his dad anally.
Mum Kitty allegedly taught her son Lyle how to touch her breasts and genitals, and kissed him in a sexual manner.
After the conviction of the brothers, more claims came out about José Menendez. A former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo claims that Lyle and Erik’s dad raped him as a teen.
Roy Rosselló makes the allegation in a Peacock documentary series called Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
Where are Erik and Lyle Menendez now?
In 1990, Erik and Lyle Menendez were tried together and found guilty and sentenced to life without parole.
During the first trial, jurors could not reach a verdict. However a second trial saw them eventually convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
The judge sentenced them to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury believed that the abuse defence was not a factor in its deliberations, but decided not to impose the death penalty because both brothers had no criminal record or history of violence prior to the murders.
The jury rejected the defence’s theory that the brothers killed their parents out of fear and believed that they committed the killings in order to inherit their father’s wealth.
They are currently in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Southern California. Lyle is now 55, and his little brother Erik is 52.
Will Erik and Lyle Menendez ever be released?
Brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, Cuban-born José, and his wife Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez.
On July 2, 1996, Judge Stanley Weisberg sentenced the brothers to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and also sentenced them to consecutive sentences for the killings and the charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
They will never be released.
What happened to the Menendez money?
According to the California Salyer Statute, the Menendez brothers cannot receive their inheritance money due to their criminal act.
Their $14.5 million fortune was used in estate taxes, to settle their legal fees, in mortgage payments, and on other expenses.
According to reports, the brothers are actually “broke”. Their Beverly Hills mansion was sold in 1991 at $3.6 million.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Following the success of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story in 2022, Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series will return for another season.
Like other anthology series, Monster will follow a new true crime story each season. And the upcoming second series will focus on Lyle and Erik Menendez. The brothers were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents.
Netflix announced the new series via social media. The announcement featured the now infamous 911 call from 1989, where a sobbing Lyle tells the operator that his parents had been fatally shot.
A seemingly distraught voice is heard crying: “Somebody killed my parents.”
Netflix greenlit two more instalments of the Monster franchise in November 2022. Deadline revealed that each instalment of the series will “tell the stories of other monstrous figures who have impacted society”.
The streaming channel has not yet revealed who will be cast in the upcoming series.
When will Monsters series 2 start?
Season 2 of Ryan Murphy’s Monster series will stream sometime on Netflix in 2024.
Like Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, each episode is expected to be one hour long in a 10 episode series.
Public reaction to the news of Monster season 2
Many Netflix fans have already blasted the channel for making Lyle and Erik Menendez the subject of Monster season 2.
When the streaming service announced the new series, they said: “From the creators of Monster comes the next chilling instalment of the anthology series. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
But the announcement was not well-received… One simply responded by saying: “They were victims.”
Another added: “They were brutally abused by the person who was supposed to protect them from people like he was.”
A third typed: “Why would you choose that case to recreate when Peacock just released the documentary exposing their father as a paedophile? Erik and Lyle were victims who felt they had no other choice… Dahmer was a monster for sure, and there are so many other serial killers they could’ve chosen for season two.”
“Monster parents, free the brothers!” said another, while one more wrote: “This is such a rotten move Netflix… For real? These boys’ lives were simply tragic and that they reached a breaking point after all this abuse doesn’t make them monsters. It makes them human.”
However, some agreed that the brothers acted as “monsters”. One wrote: “They still murdered two people.”
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will stream on Netflix in 2024.
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