Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, is Ryan Murphy’s latest true crime effort. It is on Netflix and followers his scripted series on Jeffrey Dahmer.

The brothers were two young men who appeared to have it all— money, access, power and a glamorous life in an even more glamorous Beverly Hills mansion. But when their parents turned up murdered in their affluent family home on Aug. 20, 1989, perceptions of these two men’s realities shifted irrevocably.

Two very highly publicized murders revealed that not only did the Menendez brothers have a much more harrowing life than appearances conveyed, but also that on that night in August 1989 they went into one of the mansion’s many rooms with two shot guns and killed their parents. They were sentenced to life in prison in 1996. Since the murders, the public has been torn on whether the brothers were heinous killers, or victims of abuse desperate to escape their abusers.

Starring Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as Lyle and Erik, and Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny as their parents, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story tackles the nuances of Lyle and Erik’s childhood, the murders and the two men’s subsequent trials.

Here’s more on the real-life crime tale:

The Menendez family before the crime

According to The New York Times, Lyle and Erik’s father, José Menendez, was a Cuban immigrant and successful entertainment executive. Following his immigration, he married his college girlfriend, Mary Louise Andersen, who was known by her nickname, Kitty. They had Lyle and Erik and lived in the East Coast for a while before eventually settling in the Los Angeles area.They grew up in Beverly Hills and Erik became a tennis player at the national level and Lyle went to Princeton University, though he was later suspended. Both spoke in court about claims of their father molesting them and their mother knowing it.

When did the murder of the Menendez parents take place?

On the evening on Aug. 20, 1989, Kitty and José were watching TV in their den when Lyle and Erik came in armed with shotguns fatally shot them, Time reported. They shot their parents a total of 14 times. There are multiple reports of a supposed timeline, but it has been suggested that they bought movie tickets and attended the “Taste of LA” festival, potentially to secure an alibi.

Lyle called 911 at 11:47 p.m., crying on the phone and saying that “someone shot my parents.” The police found that José and Kitty had both been fatally shot in the head, as well as in the kneecaps, which prosecutors said during the trial was to make the attack look like a a mob hit. Initially, the brothers were not suspects. But later, people started to notice their behavior, especially how they acted at their parents’ funeral and the spending they were doing.

All about the Menendez brothers’ trial

On March 8, 1990, Lyle was arrested after police received a tip from Judalon Smyth, who was having an extramarital affair with the brothers’ psychologist, L. Jerome Oziel. Smyth told authorities she had overheard the brothers tell Oziel about the murders. She also said she had their confession on tape. The tapes were used as evidence in the trial after Judge James Albracht decided doctor-patient privilege didn’t apply because the brothers had threatened Oziel. Erik, who was in Israel for a tennis tournament, was arrested when he returned days later.

The trial, which was televised, began in 1993, during which the brothers testified that they had murdered their parents out of fear for their lives after enduring years of sexual, emotional and physical abuse. Each of the brothers had their own trial. Andy Cano and Diane Vander Molen, cousins of the brothers, both testified that they had been aware of the molestation for years. Erik and Lyle explained to the court that days before the murders, they confronted their parents about the abuse and José threatened to kill them if they didn’t keep it a secret.

Two deadlocked juries concluded both trials in January 1994, prompting a judge to order a retrial, which was not televised. It began in 1995, with both brothers being tried at the same time. Judge Stanley Weisberg did not allow the defense to revisit their abuse argument, which included testimony from the brothers’ cousins and multiple character witnesses. The brothers were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in March 1996. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Where does the Menendez brothers’ case stand now?

The discourse on the Menendez brothers’ case inspired has shifted over the years. Conversations about sexual abuse, especially when men are the ones who have experienced the abuse, were not typically explored or even acknowledged at the time of the trials. The first trial’s prosecutor, David Conn, accused Erik of fabricating the story, saying “he expects you to believe it never occurred to him to leave,” per the Times.

Now, there is more sympathy toward the brothers, which is evident in more recent documentaries and the NBC scripted series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, that acknowledges the nuanced effects abuse can have on someone.

New evidence has come out as well. Robert Rand, journalist and author of The Menendez Murders, discovered a letter Erik wrote when he was 17 to Cano, in which he detailed the sexual abuse and how afraid he was of his father. The 2023 Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, which is based on Rand and fellow journalist Nery Ynclan’s research, unpacked a new allegation against José — this time, from a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo. The band member claimed he had been sexually assaulted as a teenager by José.

In May 2023, Cliff Gardner, a lawyer for the brothers, filed a habeas corpus petition, asking that their conviction be vacated following the new allegation. A decision has yet to be made, Time reported.

Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

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