Netflix has just released the series “Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez,” which tells the story of the Menendez brothers, sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of their parents, which occurred in 1989 in the luxurious neighborhood of Beverly Hills, in Los Angeles.
In the series, Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny play the parents, José and Kitty Menéndez, while Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch portray their children, Lyle and Erik.
The case of the Menendez brothers shocked and divided American public opinion and the trials they underwent were followed by millions of people.
This is what happened.
A crime in Beverly Hills
On March 20, 1989, Cuban-American music industry executive José Menéndez and his wife Kitty were shot dead in their Beverly Hills mansion.
Her two sons, Erik and Lyle (then 18 and 21 years old), called the police the next day to report what had happened.
Both claimed that they had found their parents dead when they arrived home.
At first the police followed the trail of mafia groups and other people close to the Menendez family as possible perpetrators of the double murder,
However, the couple’s two children were soon on the radar of the authorities, among other reasons for the luxurious life they began to lead after the death of their parentswith purchases of apartments, sports cars and luxury watches.
Erik Menendez made a mistake that would ultimately prove decisive in the case: he confessed to his psychologist, Dr. Jerome Oziel, that he and his brother had murdered their parents.
Trials and sentencing
The testimony of the younger of the two brothers reached the authorities, which made them defendants.
Both were arrested in 1990 and charged with murder, marking the beginning of a long series of legal proceedings.
The trial, which began in 1993, was one of the first to be televised in the United States, capturing the attention of tens of millions of Americans.
Erik and Lyle admitted to the jury that they had murdered their parentsbut claimed that they had done so “in self-defense” against the alleged sexual, psychological and physical abuse to which their father subjected them.
The brothers recounted chilling details about the alleged abuse and rape they were subjected to by their father, José Menéndez, since they were children, and also alleged that he had threatened to kill them so they would not tell anyone what was happening.
Both tearfully recounted on the stand the alleged ordeal they endured for years, without his mother intervening to stop the abuse.
In this first trial, family and friends corroborated the brothers’ version, describing their father as a controlling man who had his family under his thumb.
For its part, the prosecution based its accusation on the fact that the brothers committed the murder in a cold and premeditated manner in order to inherit their parents’ estate, estimated at $14 million dollars.
Some jurors believed the brothers, while others followed the prosecutors’ line.
Failing to reach an agreement on a verdict (manslaughter or murder) the first trial was declared a mistrial.
In a second trial, the circumstances changed completely: it was held without cameras and the judge did not allow testimony and evidence from the defense regarding the alleged abuses committed by José Menéndez against his children.
This way, The accused only had their own testimonies to defend themselves.
The judge also ruled out the possibility of finding the brothers guilty of involuntary manslaughter based on the alleged abuse they suffered, leaving the jury with only two options: convict them of murder or declare them innocent and set them free.
On April 18, 1996, brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of murder and received life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Erik and Lyle were held in separate prisons for 22 years and communicated by letter until they met again in 2018 at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California, where they had an emotional reunion.
To this day, they remain behind bars.
New evidence?
Since they were convicted, some of their relatives and friends have continued to campaign for their release. They say the trial in which they were convicted was marred by the failure to present testimony from those who knew about the abuse and by the lack of knowledge that existed three decades ago about the prevalence of sexual abuse from parents to children.
In addition, the defense attorneys for the Menendez brothers point out that, based on the alleged abuses they suffered, they would not have been sentenced to life imprisonment today and would have already been released from prison.
The Menéndez brothers’ cause received a boost in 2023 after the former member of the musical group Menudo, Roy Rosselló, claimed that José Menéndez sexually abused him when he was a teenager.
Rosselló joined Menudo in 1983, when he was 13, and at the end of that year the group signed a contract with the record company RCA, of which Menéndez was then executive vice president.
The Puerto Rican assured in a documentary that The rape occurred at Menendez’s home in New Jersey when he was 14 years old, and that he was taken there by Edgardo Díaz, the group’s manager and producer, whom he also accused of raping him in 2014.
In addition, in 2023, the Menéndez brothers’ defense presented to the California courts a letter that Erik Menéndez allegedly wrote to one of his cousins months before the murders in which he told him about the sexual abuse to which his father subjected him.
The Menendez lawyers believe that These tests justify a review of your clients’ case. and filed a petition in 2023 that is being reviewed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
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