Lyle and Erik Menendez are the subjects of the second season of Ryan Murphy‘s Netflix anthology series Monsters, which dramatises the case that gripped the United States in the 1990s.
The series recounts the events that led to the Menendez brothers killing their parents José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez on 20 August 1989. Javier Bardem stars in the show as José, while Chloë Sevigny plays Kitty, and Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch play Lyle and Erik, respectively.
Netflix’s new drama is likely to become a big hit for true crime enthusiasts, and while the case was once widely-known there are certain to be some who don’t know everything about the Menendez brothers. Here is all you need to know about what happened to Lyle and Erik, and where they are now
What did Lyle and Erik Menendez do?
On 20 August 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez entered their Beverly Hills home and murdered their parents. Their Hollywood executive father had been shot six times, while their mother died after being shot ten times with a shotgun that the brothers had purchased days earlier.
Read more: Everything we know about Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
After the killings the Menendez brother claimed to police that they had discovered their parents already slain when they returned home that night, Lyle was 21 and Eric 18. At the time the Los Angeles Times reported police believed José and Kitty’s deaths were a mob hit because of the brutal manner in which they were killed.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were arrested in 1990 after they confessed to their psychologist, whose mistress later went to police with the taped confessions. Lyle was arrested and Erik turned himself three days later, he had been travelling at the time for a tennis tournament when his brother was taken into custody.
What happened to Lyle and Erik Menendez?
The Menendez brothers trial became the subject of huge public scrutiny when it began in 1993, as the family’s wealth and power made the case that much more intriguing.
The pair’s trial was broadcast on new cable network channel Court TV, each brother being tried with their own jury, and their taped confession with psychologist Dr. Oziel was ultimately ruled admissible in court. The hours of coverage of their respective trials helped to sensationalise the case and make it a subject of obsession for members of the public.
In 2017, Steve Brill, the founder of Court TV, told Rolling Stone: “[The Menendez trials] probably had the effect, maybe good, maybe bad, of demonstrating that, even if you didn’t have a celebrity, if the circumstances were dramatic enough, people will be captivated. We’ve had lots of trials like that since, but that was really the one that proved that people would be interested in watching big trials.”
Lyle and Erik Menendez argued that they had killed their parents as a result of their father’s systemic sexual, emotional and physical abuse of them. The prosecution argued that the pair had committed the murders in order to access their sizeable inheritance.
The first trials for the Menendez brothers resulted in hung juries, and the pair were retried together in 1995. During this second trial cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, and it was ruled that there was insufficient evidence that José had abused his sons.
At the end of the retrial, the brothers were found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder by a jury in 1995, and in 1996 a judge sentenced them to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Where are Lyle and Erik Menendez now?
Lyle and Erik Menendez are still in prison, they both appealed their murder convictions in 1998 but the sentences were upheld.
They also filed habeas corpus petitions to the Supreme Court of California which was denied in 1999, and they attempted to do the same with the United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals that were also denied.
Though they remain in prison, the Menendez brothers have spoken on multiple occasions with the press including People. In 2005, Erik told the publication: “Oh, people say that I had everything, that I was rich and lived in Beverly Hills. But if you had photos of the events of my childhood, they would be crime photos. I was dying long before the night I killed my parents.”
The brothers were deliberately kept apart from each other after they were convicted, because it was believed they would conspire to escape together. But they were reunited in prison in 2018, where it was said that the siblings “burst into tears” when they saw each other again, per the BBC.
At the time, state corrections department spokeswoman Terry Thornton told the Associated Press: “They can and do interact with each other, all the inmates in that facility.”
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez story premieres on Netflix on Thursday, 19 September.
