Monsters: Who are Lyle and Erik Menendez and when did the brothers kill their parents?

NETFLIX is again with its newest installment of its Monster collection, this time The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

With a star-studded solid, the movie portrays the horrors inflicted by two brothers on their mother and father.

Who’re the Menendez brothers?

Joseph Lyle Menéndez and Erik Galen Menéndez are brothers who have been convicted of the murders of their mother and father, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez.

Their father, José, had moved to the US on the age of 16 through the Cuban Revolution in 1960.

He attended Southern Illinois College the place he met Mary Louise “Kitty” Andersen.

The couple married in 1963 and had their first baby, Joseph Lyle, on January 10, 1968.

The household moved to New Jersey from New York, after which Erik Galen was born on November 27, 1970.

In 1976, Lyle confessed to his cousin, Diane Vander Molen, that he was being sexually abused by his father.

Kitty sided along with her husband and mentioned Lyle was mendacity.

In 1986, José’s profession as a company government on the then-known Worldwide Video Leisure firm, took the household to Beverly Hills, California.

Solely two weeks earlier than the murders, Erik had reached the second spherical of qualifying within the Boys’ 18 singles, being a gifted tennis participant.

Lyle enrolled at Princeton College, however his poor grades led to tutorial probation and he was finally suspended for plagiarism.

When did the Menendez brothers kill their mother and father?

On the night of August 20, 1989, a grim scene unfolded within the den of a Beverly Hills mansion belonging to José and Kitty Menéndez. 

Their sons, Lyle and Erik Menéndez, entered the room armed with shotguns. 

José was the primary to be hit, struggling six photographs, together with a deadly one to the again of his head from a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun. 

Kitty was shot ten instances.

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Critically wounded and slowly crawling on the bottom, she was crying out when Lyle reloaded his gun and returned to ship the deadly shot to her face.

After the killings, the brothers remained on the scene, anticipating a fast police response triggered by the loud gunshots. 

Nonetheless, when the authorities arrived, Lyle and Erik fabricated an alibi.

They claimed they have been at a neighborhood movie show watching Batman and later attended the Style of L.A. pageant on the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. 

The police initially did not conduct gunshot residue exams on the brothers, which might have revealed latest use of firearms.

Within the subsequent months, the Menéndez brothers went on a lavish spending spree. 

Lyle bought a restaurant in Princeton, New Jersey, together with luxurious objects like a Rolex watch and a Porsche Carrera. 

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In the meantime, Erik employed a full-time tennis coach and took part in tournaments overseas, together with in Israel. 

Choosing a change of surroundings, they left their Beverly Hills mansion and moved into adjoining condos in Marina del Rey.

They incessantly dined at costly eating places and took luxurious journeys to the Caribbean and London, spending round $700,000 in whole.

Regardless of the extravagant expenditure, members of the family contended there was no change within the brothers’ spending patterns post-murders. 

Their high-profile life-style included attending a New York Knicks recreation, the place they have been unwittingly captured within the background of a sports activities buying and selling card.

Because the police investigation superior, the main target first included numerous suspects with potential motives, together with mob connections.

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Nonetheless, progressively the probe zeroed in on Lyle and Erik on account of their sudden monetary windfall and reckless spending. 

The police even orchestrated a sting operation involving his good friend Craig Cignarelli.

Carrying a wire, he nonetheless did not elicit a confession from Erik throughout an informal dialog at a beachfront eatery.

The breakthrough within the case got here when Erik confessed to the crimes to his psychologist, Jerome Oziel. 

Oziel’s mistress, Judalon Smyth, conscious of the confession, later revealed it to the police amid private conflicts with Oziel. 

This info led to Lyle’s arrest on March 8, 1990, and Erik’s subsequent give up three days later upon his return from Israel.

The authorized proceedings reached a important level when the Supreme Court docket of California dominated in 1992 that almost all of the confession tapes have been admissible in courtroom.

This led to formal indictments by December of that 12 months. 

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The trial was nationally televised in 1993 by Court docket TV, riveting the general public and marking the case as a sensational chapter in American authorized historical past.

Why did the Menendez brothers kill their mother and father?

The siblings had a turbulent upbringing, with reviews of sexual abuse.

Represented by their protection lawyer Leslie Abramson, the Menéndez brothers claimed they killed their mother and father in self-defense.

They mentioned they feared for their very own lives after a lifetime of sexual abuse by the hands of their father, who they described as a perfectionist and a pedophile.

The attorneys portrayed their mom as an enabler of their father’s conduct, calling her egocentric, mentally unstable, and abusive.

In addition they claimed she had tendencies towards alcoholism and drug dependancy. 

Supporting their claims, the brothers’ cousin, Andy Cano, testified that Erik had confided in him in regards to the sexual abuse throughout their childhood.

Their cousin, Diane, acknowledged that she as soon as advised Kitty about José’s molestation of Lyle, though Kitty advised her that it was false.

Nonetheless, alleged images of the brothers’ genitalia, taken by their father once they have been youngsters, have been introduced in courtroom

On the opposite facet, the prosecution argued that the killings have been performed for monetary achieve.

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A few weeks earlier than the killings, the brothers testified that their father threatened to kill them if they didn’t maintain the abuse secret after they tried to confront him.

The trial concluded with two juries unable to succeed in a verdict, main Los Angeles County District Lawyer Gil Garcetti to announce that the brothers would face a retrial.

Each brothers have been finally convicted on two counts of first-degree homicide and conspiracy to homicide.

They have been then sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole. 

Because the brothers didn’t have any prior convictions or historical past of violence, the jury determined to not impose the dying penalty.

That mentioned, the jury believed that they dedicated the killings with a purpose to inherit their father’s wealth and never in self-defense.

The brothers have been then despatched to separate prisons and have been segregated from different prisoners. 

Then in February 2018, Lyle was moved to Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility becoming a member of Erik.

They remained in several models. 

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Erik had additionally been at Nice Valley State Jail, California.

Easy methods to watch Monsters

After creating Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story in 2022, showrunners Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan tackle this high-profile case that captivated the nation within the ’90s. 

Javier Bardem, Chloë Sevigny, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Cooper Koch, and Nathan Lane shall be becoming a member of the solid.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story shall be out on Netflix on September 19.