The Crime That Inspired Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

On August 20, 1989, entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty, were found dead in their home. Months later, their sons, Lyle and Erik, were accused of murder, leading to a winding investigation and complex trial that made the Menendez brothers tabloid sensations.

Ryan Murphy is retelling the crime saga in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, streaming now on Netflix. Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch play Lyle and Erik, respectively, while Javier Bardem stars as their father, Jose. Chloë Sevigny portrays the Menendez matriarch, Kitty, and Nathan Lane appears as investigative journalist Dominick Dunne.

The premiere arrives two years after the anthology’s first season, which focused on the Jeffery Dahmer murders. Like its predecessor, Monsters provides a fresh look at a fascinating case that shocked the nation.

In case you need a refresher, Lyle and Erik were tried twice in the murder of their parents, which garnered national attention after the boys claimed that Jose molested them. The initial court proceedings resulted in a mistrial, but in the second trial, the brothers received a life sentence without parole.

If you’d like to learn more about their story, keep reading below. We’ll break down the harrowing events that inspired Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

What Happened to Jose and Kitty Menendez?

Lyle and Erik shot the couple in their Beverly Hills home while they watched television. The exact timeline is unknown, but Lyle called the police at 11:47 p.m. to report the incident. Earlier, he and his brother bought tickets for the Taste of L.A. festival—presumably as an alibi—and when Lyle spoke to the cops, he acted as if he’d stumbled upon the crime scene. While on the phone with the police, he cried, “Someone shot my parents!” Really, it was he and Erik who orchestrated the attack.

When law enforcement arrived, they found Jose and Kitty unresponsive, with gunshot wounds in their heads and kneecaps. Initially, the boys were not suspects, but as time went on, their behavior raised a few red flags.

Jose and Kitty were buried on August 25, 1989, at the Princeton Cemetery in New Jersey. Kitty’s brother, Milton Andersen, was at the service and thought his nephews were acting unusual. Years later, he told CBS’s 48 Hours that Lyle made an offbeat comment during the ceremony. Lyle said his father often told him, “You can never fill my shoes,” then he jokingly said, “Guess what? I’m wearing my father’s shoes today.”

It didn’t sit well with Andersen, but he brushed it off. Afterward, others noticed the boys’ excessive spending. According to CBS News, the brothers bought Rolex watches and real estate with their parents’ money. They seemingly weren’t grieving at all.

How Were Erik and Lyle Caught?

Months after the murder, the police received an unexpected tip from Judalon Smyth, who was romantically involved with the brothers’ psychologist, L. Jerome Oziel. She overheard Lyle and Erik confess to the murder during a therapy session and told the cops that she had the confession on tape. Later on, the prosecution included the recording in their trial. The New York Times reported that the brothers were denied doctor-patient privilege because they threatened Oziel to keep quiet.

On March 8, 1990, Lyle was arrested outside his parents’ home. Two days later, Erik was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport. He’d just returned home from a tennis tournament in Israel.

Why Did Erik and Lyle Kill Their Parents?

Lyle and Erik said they committed the crime out of fear. The boys testified that they’d been sexually abused. Lyle claimed that the abuse began when he was six years old but ended when he was eight. However, Erik said the abuse never ended for him. He was eighteen when he finally confided in Lyle.

In a joint testimony, the boys said they’d confronted their parents about the abuse a few days before the murder. Jose allegedly threatened to kill them if they ever told anyone, and soon after, the boys orchestrated their attack.

In 2017, Lyle told People about his father’s abuse. “I was my father’s prized 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 not having our family somehow get this secret out earlier, 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, in which Erik described the abuse. “He would have me massage him, and he would have me perform oral sex on him,” he said. “He would graphically describe to me how he would kill me if I ran away.”

His and Lyle’s life seemed luxurious to outsiders—his family was wealthy, and they lived in a big house—but Erik insisted that things were far less glamorous than people assumed. He told People, “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.”

What Happened During Erik and Lyle’s Trial?

After Kitty and Jose were killed, there were two trials. The first one began in 1993. Erik and Lyle were tried together, but they had separate juries. After the boys testified about the abuse, their cousins Andy Cano and Diane Vander verified the claims. According to The New York Times, Cano and Vander told the court that they knew the two were being molested.

Still, the prosecution pushed back against any claims of self-defense. Instead, they said the boys killed their parents so they could have their money and that the murder was premeditated because Lyle and Erik bought the guns days beforehand. In the closing arguments, prosecutor David Conn also implied that the alleged abuse was a weak excuse for the attack. “[Erik] wants you to believe his father is abusing him on a routine basis, forcing him to engage in sexual acts against his will; he expects you to believe it never occurred to him to leave.”

Ultimately, the judge declared a mistrial because the juries couldn’t decide between manslaughter or murder.

In October 1995, the brothers were tried again. This time, there was only one jury, and the prosecution claimed the boys lied about being molested. They even called it the “abuse excuse.” NYT reported that Judge Stanley Weisberg forbade the defense from including the cousins’ abuse testimony, along with statements from some of the brothers’ character witnesses.

After a three-day deliberation, Erik and Lyle were charged with first-degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Where Are the Menendez Brothers Now?

The brothers have been in prison for more than thirty years. They were initially separated—Lyle went to Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, and Erik went to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. In 2005, Erik told People that his arrest was a relief. “My life was over, and I was glad,” he said. “Once I was arrested and put into prison, the person who I was began to emerge again. I had to find it for myself.”

He and Lyle kept in contact through letters. They were reunited in 2018 when Lyle was transferred to Richard J. Donovan. “It was a just a remarkable moment,” Lyle told DailyMailTV of seeing his brother again. “It was something I wasn’t sure was ever going to happen.”

Both men are in relationships. In 1999, Erik married his pen pal, Tammi Ruth Saccoman, who wrote a book about their relationship. Lyle was married twice—first to Anna Eriksson in 1996 and then to Rebecca Sneed in 2003. In 2017, he said, “I have a very steady, involved marriage, and that helps sustain me and brings me a lot of peace and joy.”

Since going to prison, the brothers have worked on bettering themselves. Erik reportedly took up painting and gifted a portrait to Kathy Griffin. Before he was transferred to his brother’s facility, Lyle worked with a support group for victims of sexual assault.

The men are still serving their life sentences, but one of their defense attorneys, Cliff Gardner, is trying to get their sentence overturned. He told 48 Hours that there’s new evidence proving the brothers didn’t lie about being molested. They found a letter that Erik had written to his cousin Andy that included details about Jose’s abuse. In May 2023, Gardner filed a habeas corpus petition in hopes that it would get the Menendez brothers out of prison.

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