Did the Menendez brothers kill their parents?

On August 20, 1989, entertainment executive José Menendez and his wife, Kitty, were found dead in their home. Months later, their sons, Lyle and Erik, were charged with murder, leading to a lengthy and complex investigation and trial that made the Menendez brothers tabloid stars.

Today, Ryan Murphy retells the crime saga in Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. The series is now available to stream on Netflix. Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch play Lyle and Erik, respectively, while Javier Bardem plays their father, José. Chloë Sevigny plays the Menendez matriarch, Kitty, and Nathan Lane appears as investigative journalist Dominick Dunne.

The premiere comes just two years after the first season of the anthology, which focused on the Jeffrey Dahmer murders. Like its predecessor, Monsters offers a fresh look at another prolific case that shocked the nation.

In case you need a refresher, Lyle and Erik were tried twice for the murder of their parents, a murder that gained national attention after the boys claimed José had sexually assaulted them. The initial court proceedings resulted in a mistrial, but in the second trial, the brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

If you want to know more about their story, continue reading below. We’ll detail the poignant events that inspired Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez.

What happened to Jose and Kitty Menendez?

Lyle and Erik shot the couple in their Beverly Hills home while they were watching television. The exact timeline is unknown, but Lyle called police at 11:47 p.m. to report the incident. Earlier, he and his brother had purchased tickets to the Taste of LA festival, presumably to provide an alibi, and when Lyle spoke to police, he acted as if he had stumbled upon the crime scene. On the phone with police, he yelled, “Someone shot my parents.” In reality, he and Erik were the ones who orchestrated the attack.

When police arrived, José and Kitty were unconscious, with gunshot wounds to the head and kneecaps. At first, the boys were not suspects, but over time, their behavior raised some red flags.

Jose and Kitty were buried on August 25, 1989, at the Princeton Cemetery in New Jersey. Kitty’s brother, Milton Andersen, was present at the ceremony and thought his nephew’s behavior was unusual. Years later, he told CBS 48 hours Lyle made an offbeat remark during the ceremony. He said his father often told him, “You could never be in my shoes,” then joked, “Guess what? I’m wearing my dad’s shoes today.”

Andersen didn’t like it, but he acted like it was okay. Later, others noticed the boys’ excessive spending. According to CBS News, the brothers bought Rolex watches and real estate with their parents’ money. They didn’t seem to be grieving at all.

How did Erik and Lyle get caught?

Months after the murder, police received an unexpected tip from Judalon Smyth. Smyth was romantically involved with the brother’s psychologist, L. Jerome Oziel, and she had overheard Lyle and Erik confessing to the murder during a therapy session. Smyth told police she had recorded the confession. The prosecution later included the recording in its trial. The New York Times It appears that the brothers were denied doctor-patient privilege because they threatened Oziel to keep silent.

Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch as Lyle and Erik Menendez.

On March 8, 1990, Lyle Mendez was arrested in front of his parents’ house. Two days later, Erik was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport. He had just returned from a tennis tournament in Israel.

Why did Erik and Lyle kill their parents?

Lyle and Erik said they killed their parents out of fear. The boys testified that they were sexually abused. Lyle claimed the abuse began when he was six and ended when he was eight. However, Erik said the abuse never stopped for him. He was 18 when he finally confided in Lyle.

In joint testimony, the boys said they had confronted their parents about the abuse days before the murder. Jose allegedly threatened to kill them if they told anyone, and shortly afterward the boys orchestrated their attack.

The Menedez house, in Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez.

In 2017, Lyle said PEOPLE about his father’s abuse. “I was my father’s beloved son,” he said. “At the same time, I had been very brutalized by him, and keeping his secret was part of who I was. What I regret is that I didn’t allow our family to reveal that secret sooner, and maybe it could have been resolved without this tragedy and destruction.” That year, A&E produced a docuseries called The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All, Erik describes the abuse he suffered. “He would ask me to give him massages and perform oral sex on him,” he said. “He would describe in great detail how he would kill me if I ran away.”

He and Lyle’s life seemed luxurious to outsiders – his family was wealthy and they lived in a big house – but Erik insists that things were far less glamorous than people thought. PEOPLE“If you had pictures of events from my childhood, they would be crime pictures. I was dying long before the night I killed my parents.”

What happened during Erik and Lyle’s trial?

After Kitty and Jose were murdered, two trials were held. The first began in 1993. Erik and Lyle were tried together, but with separate juries. After the boys testified about the abuse, their cousins, Andy Cano and Diane Vander, verified the allegations. The New York TimesCano and Vander told the court they knew the boys were being sexually assaulted.

The prosecution, however, rejected any claim of self-defense. Instead, it said the boys killed their parents so they could get their money back and that the killing was premeditated because Lyle and Erik had purchased the guns days before the shooting. In his closing arguments, prosecutor David Conn also suggested that the alleged abuse was a flimsy excuse for the attack. “(Erik) wants you to believe that his father is abusing him on a regular basis, forcing him to perform sexual acts against his will; he expects you to believe that it never occurred to him to leave.”

Ultimately, the judge declared a mistrial because the juries could not decide between manslaughter and murder.

Lyle and Erik at their trial in Monsters.

In October 1995, the brothers were tried again. This time, there was only one jury, and the prosecution claimed the boys had lied about the sexual abuse. They even called it an “abuse excuse.” The NYT reports that Judge Stanley Weisberg barred the defense from including the cousin’s testimony of abuse, as well as statements from some of the brother’s character witnesses.

After three days of deliberation, Erik and Lyle were charged with first-degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Where are the Menendez brothers now?

The Menendez brothers have been in prison for more than 30 years. They were initially separated: Lyle was incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, and Erik was incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. In 2005, Erik said PEOPLE “My life was over and I was happy,” he said. “Once I was arrested and put in jail, the person I was resurfaced. I had to find it for myself.”

He and Lyle stayed in touch through letters. They reconnected in 2018 when Lyle transferred to Richard J. Donovan. “It was just a remarkable moment,” Lyle told DailyMailTV of his brother’s reunion. “It was something I wasn’t sure would ever happen.”

The two are in a relationship. In 1999, Erik married his pen pal, Tammi Ruth Saccoman, who wrote a book about their relationship. Lyle has been married twice, first to Anna Eriksson in 1996 and then to Rebecca Sneed in 2003. In 2017, he said, “I have a very stable and committed marriage, and it helps sustain me and brings me a lot of peace and joy.”

Lyle and Erik enter their trial.

Since being in prison, the brothers have worked to better themselves. Erik has reportedly taken up painting and gifted a portrait to Kathy Griffin. Before being transferred to his brother’s facility, Lyle worked with a support group for sexual assault victims.

The men are still serving their life sentences, but one of their lawyers, Cliff Gardner, is trying to get their sentences overturned. He said CBS 48 hours There is new evidence proving that the Menendez brothers did not lie about being sexually assaulted. They found a letter Erik had written to his cousin Andy, which included details about Jose’s abuse. In May 2023, Gardner filed a writ of habeas corpus in hopes that it would get the Menendez brothers out of prison.

“The boys were abused as children,” Gardner said. “They’ve been abused their entire lives … and this is a manslaughter case, not a murder case. It’s that simple.”