Lyle and Erik Menendez continue to serve life sentences in prison for the brutal murders of their parents on August 20, 1989, when the brothers—then 21 and 18—shot and killed them in their family’s Beverly Hills mansion.
More than three decades later, the Menendez brothers returned to the spotlight as the subjects inMonsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s acclaimed Netflix anthology series. Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch portray the brothers, with Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny starring as their parents. The Monster series debuted with a season about Jeffery Dahmer, which garnered more than 1 billion viewing hours in its first 60 days on Netflix.
The 10-episode season revisits the heart of the controversy: were the Menendez brothers cold-blooded killers driven by greed, as the prosecution argued, or victims of long-standing physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as the defense claimed—and as the brothers continue to maintain?
The brothers gained renewed attention thanks to the series and are now facing their most real opportunity for possible release. Here’s everything to know about Lyle and Erik below.
Lyle and Erik Menendez Had Promising Futures
At the time of their parents’ murders on Aug. 20, 1989, Lyle was a student at Princeton, and Erik was an incoming freshman at UCLA. The brothers had grown up in Beverly Hills, enjoying a privileged life thanks to their wealthy parents—Jose, a Hollywood executive, and Mary Louise “Kitty,” a former beauty queen.
Lyle and Erik Were Arrested Seven Months After Their Parents’ Murders
After Jose and Kitty were found brutally shot to death in their Beverly Hills mansion, Lyle and Erik spent money recklessly, burning through an estimated $700,000 of their parents’ wealth on cars, jewelry, and even purchasing restaurants and cafes. But their eventual downfall occurred when Erik confessed to his psychiatrist, Jerome Oziel, who then shared the information with his mistress, Judalon Smyth. Smyth informed the police, revealing that Erik had confessed to the murders in therapy and that there were audiotaped recordings of the confession. The brothers were subsequently arrested in March 1990, sparking a multi-year legal battle over the admissibility of Oziel’s recordings.
“I never thought I believed in evil, but when I heard those boys speak, I did,” Smyth told investigative journalist Dominic Dunne in 1990.
Lyle and Erik Were Convicted of First-Degree Murder
The brothers claimed at trial that their father—who was nearly decapitated by a point-blank blast from a 12-gauge shotgun—was a violent pedophile. These allegations were backed by testimony from two of the brothers’ cousins, Andy Cano and Diane Vander Molen, who said Lyle and Erik had confided in them about the sexual abuse when they were children. As for their mother—who was shot 14 times—the brothers said she was an alcoholic who enabled and encouraged her husband’s abuse.
Their first trial, which began in 1993, ended in a deadlocked jury. In the second trial, the judge limited testimony about the alleged abuse and barred the jury from considering manslaughter charges instead of murder. Both brothers were convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“Erik and Lyle Menendez have been incarcerated for 34 years and six months, and I believe that they are in prison for killing their lifelong abusers,” said Robert Rand, who has spent considerable time with the brothers since the crime and is the author of The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation.
“The correct verdict for the Menendez brothers’ trial should have been manslaughter, not murder.”
Lyle and Erik Both Married While in Prison
Despite their brutal crime and life behind bars, there was no shortage of women interested in the Menendez brothers. Lyle married Anna Eriksson on July 2, 1996, but they divorced on April 1, 2001, after she discovered he was “cheating” on her with another woman through a pen pal relationship (as conjugal visits are not allowed). Lyle remarried in November 2003 to Rebecca Sneed, with whom he had been corresponding for nearly a decade. The ceremony took place in the visiting area of California’s Mule Creek State Prison.
Erik also found love, marrying Tammi Ruth Saccoman on June 12, 1999, at Folsom State Prison.
Lyle and Erik Menendez Have Amassed a Huge TikTok Following
Nearly 35 years after murdering their parents, a significant number of teens are calling the brothers’ sentence unfair and unjust. The account menendezsupporterrr—which demands “Justice for the Menendez brothers”—has over 12.9M likes and 258.1K followers. Another account, ..menendezbrothers, states in its bio, “They are victims. don’t sexualize them,” and has 109.1K followers and 9.6M likes.
