Before the O.J. Simpson case transfixed America and forever changed the media, there was the Menendez Brothers case. It’s this highly publicized trial that stands at the center of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s latest series for Netflix, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
An anthology sequel to “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” “Monsters” promises to dive into this hugely impactful case as it asks who the real monsters were: the brothers, their murdered parents or the media and the public at large? Sourced largely from Robert Rand’s book, “The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation,” here’s your brief guide to this convoluted case.
The murder of José and Kitty Menendez
On August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez entered the Beverly Hills mansion they shared with their parents, shotguns in hand. They then proceeded to repeatedly shoot their mother and father while the married couple were sitting in the living room. By the end of the assault, José was shot six times, and Mary Louise Andersen, aka Kitty, was shot 10 times.
Thus began the case that would partially define the ’90s and forever change modern consumption of true crime.
Initially, the brothers denied having any involvement in the deaths, claiming they came home to find their parents murdered. Both brothers were so distraught the police opted not to swab their hands for gunshot residue.
Lyle and Erik tried to convince authorities that the mafia was responsible for these murders, but the more police investigated — and the more money the brothers spent — the more they suspected Lyle and Erik. Both spent extravagantly, Lyle buying a restaurant, a Rolex and a Porsche. As for Erik, he hired a full-time tennis coach. After a failed attempt with a wire, the police were finally able to track down a confession thanks in part to Jerome Oziel, a psychologist who worked with the brothers. Oziel told his mistress, Judalon Smyth, that they confessed to the murders during a session and asked her to wait in his waiting room as a witness while he spoke to the brothers. When Smyth brought that confession to police, they were able to arrest the brothers.
Lyle was arrested on March 8, 1990, and Erik turned himself in three days later. Instead of pleading not guilty, the defense made the argument the brothers killed their parents out of fear and self-preservation. Those claims completely shattered the picture-perfect illusion of the Menendez family.
Accusations of sexual and physical abuse
The way the brothers tell it, the abuse started early. At first, it was tied to their performance on the tennis court. A demanding father with high standards, José Menendez pushed his sons to be the best at the sport. Later, a coach who worked with the family would corroborate this, describing José as “the harshest person I’d ever met.” Then came the sexual abuse.
For both brothers, it started around the age of six. They claimed their father would massage them after matches. Before long, those massages became more invasive and disturbing, eventually leading to rape. Though Lyle said he was only victimized during his childhood, Erik suffered at the hands of his father well into adulthood. Lyle Menendez also claimed that their mother Kitty sexually molested the brothers for a period and that she knew about the abuse at the hands of their father.
By 1989, Lyle assumed his father’s abuse of Erik had stopped. When he learned that wasn’t the case — and that Erik was expected to live at home rather than move away for college — Lyle confronted his father. The family had a series of confrontations about the topic, the last of which happened before José and Kitty were killed. The brothers have claimed they shot their parents because they were afraid José and Kitty were going to murder them first.
The first Menendez trial
Though the Menendez case wasn’t the first trial broadcast by Court TV, it was the trial that put the network on the map and changed the way true crime is consumed. The brothers were tried separately with Lyle being represented by Jill Lansing and Erik being represented by Leslie Abramson.
As the defense argued the brothers acted in fear for their lives, the prosecution painted a very different picture, arguing that the brothers killed their parents to get to their inheritance faster. The defense countered that the brothers were already wealthy so there would be little need for this extreme response. If wrapping the juries’ heads around the emotional reactions of the very rich and incest in the 1990s wasn’t daunting enough, the prosecution and defense also had to deal with Oziel and Smyth.
Smyth only told police about the brothers’ confession to Oziel after the pair had broken up. But in a shocking twist, Smyth actually testified for the defense, later retracting her previous statement and claiming that Oziel had “brainwashed” her. She also accused Oziel of abuse and moved in with his wife and children for a period of time. The he-said, she-said chaos of Oziel and Smyth took up a great deal of the first trial and pulled some of the focus off of the Menendez brothers.
Altogether, the first trial took more than six months counting jury deliberations. It officially came to an end in January of 1994 with two deadlocked juries. Soon after, Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti ordered a retrial.
The second Menendez trial
For the second trial, Judge Stanley Weisberg did not allow cameras in the courtroom. That was one reason why the case was less publicized. Another? Five months after the ruling, O.J. Simpson was arrested for the arrest of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, a case that completely captured the media’s attention.
This second trial limited testimony about sexual abuse claims and tried the brothers together. It also did not allow the jury to vote on manslaughter instead of murder charges and dramatically limited Oziel and Smyth’s involvement. This time the jury was able to come to an agreement, convicting Lyle and Erik Menendez of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Where are the Menendez brothers today?
For most of their time in prison, the brothers were separated with Lyle in Mule Creek State Prison and Erik in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility. That changed in 2018 when Lyle was moved to Richard J. Donovan.
Both have married while in prison. Lyle was married to Anna Eriksson for a period of time before divorcing her and later marrying Rebecca Sneed in 2003. As for Erik, he married Tammi Saccoman in 1999.
Lyle and Erik both filed habeas corpus petitions with the Supreme Court of California, which were denied in 1999. They later appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which also denied them, in 2005. In May of 2023, the brothers sought a new hearing based on newly discovered evidence after former boy band member Roy Rosselló claimed José Menendez drugged and raped him.
