The story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, explained

Before the OJ Simpson case captivated America and changed the media forever, there was the case of the Menendez brothers. This high-profile trial is the focus of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s latest Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”

A sequel to Dahmer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Monsters promises to delve deeper into this deeply harrowing case and ask the question, who were the real monsters: the brothers, their murdered parents, or the media and the general public? Here’s your quick guide to this twisted case, largely taken from Robert Rand’s book The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation.

The murder of José and Kitty Menendez

On August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez entered the Beverly Hills mansion they shared with their parents, shotguns in hand. They then repeatedly shot their mother and father while the couple sat in the living room. At the end of the attack, José was shot six times and Mary Louise Andersen, aka Kitty, was shot ten times.

Thus began the case that would shape parts of the 1990s and change the modern perception of true crime forever.

At first, the brothers denied any involvement in the murders, claiming they had come home and found their parents murdered. Both brothers were so distraught that police did not bother to wipe their hands for gunshot residue.

Lyle and Erik tried to convince authorities that the Mafia was responsible for these murders, but the more the police investigated—and the more money the brothers spent—the more they suspected Lyle and Erik. Both spent heavily: Lyle bought a restaurant, a Rolex, and a Porsche. Erik, in turn, hired a full-time tennis coach. After a failed attempt with a wiretap, the police finally managed to get a confession, thanks in part to Jerome Oziel, a psychologist who worked with the brothers. Oziel told his lover Judalon Smyth that they had confessed to the murders during a session, and asked her to wait in his waiting room as a witness while he spoke with the brothers. When Smyth presented this confession to the police, they were able to arrest the brothers.

Lyle was arrested on March 8, 1990, and Erik turned himself in three days later. Instead of pleading not guilty, the defense argued that the brothers killed their parents out of fear and self-preservation. These claims completely shattered the Menendez family’s storybook illusion.

Allegations of sexual and physical abuse

As the brothers tell it, the abuse began early. At first, it was linked to their performance on the tennis court. José Menendez was a demanding father with high standards and pushed his sons to be the best in sports. A coach who worked with the family later confirmed this, describing José as “the toughest person I’ve ever met.” Then came the sexual abuse.

For both brothers, it began when they were about six years old. They claimed their father massaged them after games. Soon, these massages became more intrusive and disturbing, eventually leading to rape. Although Lyle said he was only a victim of violence during his childhood, Erik suffered at the hands of his father well into adulthood. Lyle Menendez also claimed that their mother, Kitty, sexually abused the brothers for a time and that she knew about their father’s abuse.

In 1989, Lyle assumed that his father’s abuse of Erik had stopped. When he learned that this was not the case – and that Erik was expected to stay home and not move away to study – Lyle confronted his father. The family had several arguments about the issue, the last one occurring before José and Kitty were killed. The brothers have claimed that they shot their parents because they were afraid José and Kitty would murder them first.

The first Menendez trial

Although the Menendez case was not the first trial to be broadcast by Court TV, it was the trial that put the network on the map and changed the way true crime is consumed. The brothers were tried separately, with Lyle represented by Jill Lansing and Erik by Leslie Abramson.

While the defense argued that the brothers acted out of fear for their lives, the prosecution painted a very different picture, arguing that the brothers killed their parents to get their inheritance faster. The defense countered that the brothers were already wealthy, so this extreme reaction was hardly necessary. As if it wasn’t daunting enough for the jury to understand the emotional reactions of the super-rich and incest in the 1990s, the prosecution and defense also had to deal with Oziel and Smyth.

Smyth did not tell police about the brothers’ confession to Oziel until after the couple had split up. But in a shocking twist, Smyth actually testified for the defense, later retracting her previous testimony and claiming Oziel had “brainwashed” her. She also accused Oziel of abuse and moved in with his wife and children for a time. The “he said, she said” chaos between Oziel and Smyth took up much of the first trial and somewhat took the focus away from the Menendez brothers.

In total, the first trial, including jury deliberations, lasted more than six months. It officially ended in January 1994 when the jury could not reach a consensus. Shortly thereafter, Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti ordered a retrial.

The second Menendez trial

At the second trial, Judge Stanley Weisberg did not allow cameras in the courtroom. That was one reason the case received less attention. Another? Five months after the verdict, OJ Simpson was arrested for the arrest of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, a case that received all the media attention.

In this second trial, testimony on the sexual abuse allegations was limited, the brothers were tried together, the jury was not allowed to vote on manslaughter instead of murder, and Oziel and Smyth’s participation was drastically limited. This time, the jury was able to reach an agreement and find Lyle and Erik Menendez guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Where are the Menendez brothers today?

The brothers spent most of their time apart: Lyle in Mule Creek State Prison and Erik in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility. That changed in 2018, when Lyle was transferred to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.

Both married in prison. Lyle was married to Anna Eriksson for a while before divorcing her and marrying Rebecca Sneed in 2003. Erik married Tammi Saccoman in 1999.

Lyle and Erik both filed habeas corpus petitions with the California Supreme Court, which were denied in 1999. They later appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which also denied their petitions in 2005. In May 2023, the brothers requested a new hearing based on newly discovered evidence after former boy band member Roy Rosselló claimed that José Menendez drugged and raped him.