Monster Season 2 is set to drop soon, turning its focus to the high-profile case of the Menendez murders, which saw brothers Lyle and Erik convicted for the murder of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez.
Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Netflix anthology series started with the sinister story of notorious US serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, which landed on the streaming service in September 2022.
Though the true crime retelling proved contentious due to its graphic violence, not to mention the decision to categorize it under the LGBTQ+ tag, it also broke all kinds of streaming records, and soon enough the show was greenlit for a second installment.
What sets Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story apart is that the subjects are still alive and are actively appealing the verdict from prison. Before we get into it, here’s a brief rundown of the case. Warning: some may find this content distressing.
The Menendez murders
On August 20, 1989, brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez – who were 21 and 18 at the time, respectively – shot and killed their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home.
The brothers initially claimed they discovered the bodies after returning from a movie. A fact in the investigation that has garnered criticism over the years is that upon arriving on the scene, Beverly Hills Police chose not to test Lyle and Erik’s hands for gunpowder residue.
The shootings were so violent, detectives initially considered whether it was a mob hit. However, eventually the investigation determined Lyle and Erik as the key suspects.
They later confessed to the murders, alleging years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by their parents. The case garnered national attention, dividing public opinion over whether the brothers were victims or calculated killers.
After two highly publicized trials, they were convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
However, efforts to appeal their convictions have gained renewed interest in the case, as has Netflix’s Monsters Season 2, which will dramatize the events as they are documented. Ahead of its release, here are five key details to know.
The defense argued long-term abuse
The defense in the case argued that the brothers killed their parents out of self-defense after a lifetime of long-term abuse.
As part of this, Erik and Lyle took to the stand with detailed testimony about the years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of their parents.
They described José as a tyrannical figure who exerted complete control over their lives, while their mother, Kitty, was portrayed as a troubled woman who both enabled the abuse and took part in it herself.
During his testimony, Erik, the younger of the two brothers, said he believed the shooting of their parents originated after he told Lyle “my dad had been molesting me,” stating that this started when he was six years old and continued through to 1989.
Erik said in court that they feared for their lives after Lyle threatened to expose the abuse they endured, saying José was “more angry than I had ever seen him.”
Lyle shared similar experiences, recounting how their father’s abuse was not only physical but also deeply psychological, breaking their spirits and instilling a constant state of fear.
He also accused his mother Kitty of similar sexual abuse, saying, “I took it to be love… She was enjoying it.”
Numerous Menendez relatives corroborated their abuse allegations, including their cousin, Diane Vander Molen, who testified that in 1976, when Lyle was eight years old, he came to her to say he and his father had been “touching each other down there.”
When she told Kitty, she allegedly didn’t believe Diane and instead dragged Lyle upstairs. “It was never discussed after that,” the cousin said. “I convinced myself I was in the wrong.”
Dr. Kerry English, the medical director of the child abuse team at Martin Luther King Hospital in south central Los Angeles, reviewed Erik’s medical records from when he was a child.
In court, he was asked about an unexplained throat injury from 1977 and whether it could be caused by child abuse, to which he replied, “Yes, oral copulation.”
New evidence has come to the fore over the years, including in the 2023 Peacock docu-series Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
A new docuseries coming to @Peacock puts the infamous case of the Menendez brothers back in the spotlight and includes explosive new allegations against their late father. @jacobsoboroff shares the details. pic.twitter.com/ofQDIfDDl0
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 18, 2023
Roy Rossello, a former member of the popular Puerto Rican boy band group Menudo, claims he too was sexually abused by then-head of RCA Records, José, in the ‘80s.
“I know what he did to me in his house,” Roy says in the documentary, alleging that José drugged and raped him when he was 14 years old.
In response to the allegations, Erik said from prison, “It’s sad to know that there was another victim of my father.
“I always hoped and believed that one day the truth about my dad would come out, but I never wished for it to come out like this – the result of trauma that another child has suffered.”
The prosecution focused on their spending spree
One of the prosecution’s arguments focused on the brothers’ spending spree following the murders, implying that they were motivated by inheriting their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.
After killing José and Kitty, Lyle and Erik spent approximately $700,000 collectively in the months before their arrest.
Lyle purchased Rolex watches, a Porsche, and invested in a restaurant, while Erik hired a premium tennis coach and bought a Jeep. Both also spent money on travel and renting condos, according to a 1990 Vanity Fair report.
During the initial trials, prosecutor Pam Bozanich argued in the closing statement for Lyle that the brothers weren’t solely motivated by financial gain, but that they “wanted to maintain their life in the way it was… without their parents controlling them, without their parents possibly disinheriting them.”
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In the closing statement for Erik’s trial, prosecutor Lester Kuriyama highlighted the brothers’ purchase of “Rolex watches and money clips,” as well as tennis coach Mark Heffernan’s testimony that “Erik’s spending was absolutely on a much larger scale.”
While the defense argued the pair bought firearms as a means of protecting themselves, the prosecution suggested this, alongside their initial attempt to cover up the murders to the police, demonstrated premeditation.
Judalon Smyth and the audio tapes
A key witness in the case was Judalon Smyth, who initially assisted prosecutors – but proceedings took an unexpected turn in the months that followed.
Smyth had been having an affair with Erik and Lyle’s therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel. After their relationship ended, Smyth approached the police with evidence of tape recordings in which the Menendez brothers confessed to killing their parents.
She also claimed at the time that they had threatened Oziel to stop him from revealing the evidence. In the recording, which was played in court, the brothers said they killed their mother to put her “out of her misery,” and that their father deserved to die due to his infidelity.
While the brothers discussed José Menendez’s controlling nature in the tapes, they did not mention the alleged abuse or self-defense, which were central to their case. However, in a surprising twist, Smyth later testified for the defense, suggesting other factors were at play.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times in 1993, Smyth claimed Oziel had manipulated the brothers, stating he needed to “control” them and “get them to say incriminating things on a tape so we would have the tape to protect us.”
She also alleged that Oziel encouraged the brothers to make the tape to “prove to a jury that, you know, they were remorseful or whatever.” Smyth explained her change in testimony by claiming she had initially been “brainwashed” by the therapist.
The nature of this incident proved contentious for numerous reasons, the first being that Smyth had been a patient of Oziel’s. In 1997, he was stripped of his license for sleeping with patients, as well as breaking confidentiality rules by taping the sessions without consent.
While the exact truth remains disputed, what is certain is that these tapes were pivotal in the trial, and their legality and ethics continue to be a point of controversy.
The Menendez’s three trials of the century
Before the guilty verdict, the Menendez brothers went through three juries. The first two took place between 1993 and 1994, and garnered national attention when Court TV broadcasted proceedings.
According to E!, by summer of 1993, more than 1.3 million Americans were tuning in from home, making it the trial of the century before the likes of OJ Simpson and the more recent Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard took place.
As has been repeated over the years, by the time the trials began, there was no doubt that Erik and Lyle had killed their parents – the question they sought to answer was why?
Following the first trials, both juries were deadlocked, unable to decide whether they were ruthless murderers or victims of abuse. This led to Judge Weissberg declaring mistrials for both Erik and Lyle.
The second trial started in 1995, but Weissberg set some new ground rules – both brothers would be tried together with one jury. And absolutely no cameras or tape recorders were allowed in court.
By this point, the OJ Simpson trial and subsequent media circus had started. Although the judge never mentioned this when specifying the rules, the topic had become widely debated in the news, with a number of other court cases following suit.
Weissberg did say, however, that the decision to bar electronic coverage of the second trial was to “protect the rights of the parties, the dignity of the court, and assure the orderly conduct of the proceedings.”
In March 1996, the jury found both brothers guilty of first-degree murder. A few months later, they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The latest in their appeals
In May 2023, the Menendez brothers’ attorney, Cliff Gardner, filed a habeas petition – a legal request to a court to determine if a person’s detention is lawful.
Speaking in CBS’ 48 Hours episode, ‘The Menendez Brothers’ Fight for Freedom’, Gardner argues that Lyle and Erik should have been convicted of manslaughter rather than first-degree murder.
This would have carried a shorter sentence and meant that they’d be released by now, with the attorney stating there’s new evidence to corroborate their claims of abuse.
Among the new evidence is a letter Gardner claims was written by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano, in December 1988 – around eight months before the murders.
It reads, “I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now… Every night I stay up thinking he might come in… I’m afraid… He’s crazy. He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.”
Andy also testified during the brothers’ trials that, at 13 years old, Erik told him his father José had been touching him inappropriately, although the prosecution accused him of lying.
This letter and an affidavit from the aforementioned Roy Rossello, which was filed in 2023, were cited in the habeas petition, with Gardner suggesting this is proof the brothers were being truthful.
The attorney says in the 2024 episode of 48 Hours, “The boys were abused as children. They were abused their whole life… And this is a manslaughter case, not a murder case. It’s just that simple.
“My hope in the case is that the judge will realize that this new evidence is indeed credible and persuasive, and he’ll vacate the convictions.”
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story lands on Netflix on September 19. Until then, you can read more about the Laci Peterson case, Peacock’s Face to Face with Scott Peterson docu-series, and what happened to the Petersons’ dog. We’ve also listed the new TV shows heading to streaming this month.