Lyle and Erik Menendez’s life now 35 years after murder of their parents José and Kitty-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

The brutal murders carried out by brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez are the subject of a new Netflix series (Picture: Mike Nelson/ AFP via Getty Images)

It’s now been more than three decades since brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez gunned down their parents in cold blood.

On a summer evening in August 1989, Jose and Kitty Menendez were brutally murdered in their Beverly Hills home, being rendered nearly unidentifiable after being shot by 15 rounds from two shotguns.

Their murders were so shocking police initially believed they’d been the victims of a mob hit however the truth was much more sinister.

At the time of his death entertainment executive Jose was worth around $14 million.

After chasing their original leads in the mob and business rivals, police then discovered the couple’s two sons Lyle, 21, and Erik, 18, were responsible.

In the months after the killings the brothers began to spend extravagantly on luxury items, businesses, and travel, with the elder brother purchasing a Rolex watch and a Porsche Carrera.

They spent an estimated $700,000 before police arrested them after becoming suspicious of their exorbitant spending following the murders.

They eventually both confessed to murder and were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996 after three years of proceedings.

When does Monster season 2 air on Netflix?

Their story is now the focus of the second season of Netflix’s anthology series Monster, following the controversial Dahmer in 2022.

The series, titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, is streaming on Netflix from today, Thursday September 19.

Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story stars Nicholas Chavez, Chloe Sevigny, Javier Bardem and Cooper Koch (Picture: Netflix)

It stars Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny star as Jose and Kitty, while Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch play Lyle and Erik.

The streaming service has teased the show will ‘tackle another high-profile case that captivated the nation in the ’90s’ and the events surrounding the brutal slayings’.

Who are Lyle and Erik Menendez?

During their trials, the brothers cited years of abuse as the reason for murdering their parents, however, prosecutors argued that their motive was to get their hands on the family fortune.

The brothers were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents seven years earlier (Picture: Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

When the trial was first broadcast on the new cable network Court TV in 1993, it sparked a frenzy.

The channel not only aired the trial but countless hours of coverage before and after each day’s proceedings.

Prosecutors alleged the brothers were willing to murder their parents to claim their inheritance early, however, their lawyers said it was a matter of self-defense after Jose had allegedly molested them since they were children.

Kitty and Jose were gunned down in their Beverly Hills home (Picture: ABC)

It was also claimed Kitty struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction was potentially an enabler of her husband.

The first trial lasted six months and ended with two deadlocked juries, with the brothers then retried in a single trial, at which time cameras were blocked from the courtroom.

The pair were eventually convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder.

Where are Lyle and Erik Menendez now?

Lyle and Erik were sent to separate prisons until 2018 when permitted to serve out their sentences at the same facility in San Diego.

The brothers are currently serving life sentences (Picture: Associated Press)

The brothers, now aged 56 and 53, are each serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, although there have been efforts to overturn their convictions.

In 2017 Lyle spoke about the ongoing interest in the case.

‘There are, like, two to three hundred parricide cases a year, where a parent is killed by a child. And they are almost all related to abuse. And they are almost all settled. This case they picked out as different,’ he told Deadline.

‘And I think that it was very easy, because it was Beverly Hills and my father had a lot of money, to sort of sell this headline that these brothers killed for money.’

The shocking crime is the focus of the second season of Netflix’s Monster anthology series (Picture: Miles Christ/ Netflix)

Last year they also launched efforts for another appeal after newly discovered evidence alleged their father had also molested boy-band member Roy Rosello, who said he had been drugged and raped by Jose when he was a teenager in the early 1980s.

Rosello had been a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who were signed by RCA Records, where Jose was an executive.

The allegations came after a letter emerged. In 1988, about eight months before the murders, Erik wrote a letter to his cousin which read: ‘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.’

The brothers’ attorney Cliff Gardner, filed a petition in May last year citing both Rosello’s claims (which he backed up in an affidavit) and the letter as evidence their convictions should be quashed.

‘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,’ he told the 48 Hours programme.

The show’s co-creator Ryan Murphy has said the show is about ‘how monsters are made as opposed to born’ (Picture: Netflix/ Miles Crist)

‘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.’

Soon after the district attorney’s office said it was ‘investigating the claims’.

Ahead of the release of the series, creator Ryan Murphy said ‘many, many years’ were spent researching the case.

‘This season was about abuse. Who is believed, who’s not believed…all the stuff in here, by the way, is true. Things you really can’t make up, but the thing that I was struck by when Ian (Brennan, the co-showrunner) and I were working on it was … [the show is] really more interested in talking about how monsters are made, as opposed to born,’ he said.

‘We try to not have too much judgment about that, because we’re trying to understand why they did something, as opposed to the act of doing something.’

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is now streaming on Netflix.

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