The true crime drama series, Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, has been one of the most-watched shows on Netflix since its premiere on September 19, once again driving enormous interest in the Menendez brothers, who in In 1989, his parents were murdered with shotguns inside the family mansion in Beverly Hills.
On Monday, the same streaming platform premiered The Menendez Brothers, a feature-length documentary by Alejandro Hartmann, which is based on 20 hours of new telephone interviews with the brothers from prison. It also includes on-camera interviews with surviving family members, journalists, the first prosecutor and several jurors from the two criminal trials of the 1990s.
After an exceptional trial that ended with hung juries in 1994 (the brothers had different juries), Lyle and Erik were retried and sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the second trial, the judge prohibited the defense from using most of the testimony that supported their argument that the brothers had killed their parents out of fear after years of sexual, emotional and physical abuse.
The case has become something of a cause célèbre in recent years, with celebrities and young social media users advocating for the brothers’ release, especially as new evidence appears to support allegations of abuse.
At the same time, an avalanche of books, documentaries, and fictional series have taken a more sympathetic stance toward the siblings than they initially received; This latest documentary comes days after Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced that his office was reviewing the case, stating: “We have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us.”
Much of the documentary returns to the same point and draws heavily on archival footage, particularly from the first trial, which aired on Court TV. However, several new, lesser-known and long-forgotten details stand out. Here is a summary.
The week before the murders
Although some of the events were already recounted at trial, Lyle and Erik, now ages 56 and 53, say more in new interviews about the fear and despair they felt just before the murders.
As he tells in the documentary, Erik was looking forward to graduating high school and going to Stanford University so he could get away from his father, Jose. After his father told him he couldn’t go to Stanford—and would instead have to live at home and attend UCLA—Erik began having suicidal thoughts. It was then, he says, that he revealed to Lyle that his father continued to sexually abuse him. “It was the most devastating moment of my life,” he says.
Lyle describes how he confronted his father about the abuse and indirectly discovered that his mother, Kitty, knew everything.
Erik says it was the first time he realized that Lyle was truly afraid; They sincerely believed, he says, that Jose and Kitty were going to kill them.
Lyle and Erik’s mental health after the murders
The brothers’ behavior after the murders — which included wasting money — was cited by prosecutors as evidence that they had killed their parents for money.
In the documentary, both brothers claim that they did not feel happy or carefree after the murders. Lyle says he cried at night, slept poorly and felt adrift.
Erik says, “The idea that he was having a good time was absurd,” later adding that he still missed his mother terribly and wished he could talk to her.
His life in prison
After their conviction, the main concern of both was that they not be sent to different state prisons. In the documentary, Lyle says the only reason they agreed to an interview with Barbara Walters in 1996 was to publicly plead for them to stay together. Anyway, they were separated.
“Our beginning in prison life was tremendously painful” because of that separation, Lyle says. Erik went on a hunger strike at that time.
The two met when Lyle was transferred in 2018 to a San Diego prison, where Erik was being held. Now they can talk to each other every day.
Lyle says he has been able to find a kind of “mental freedom” over the years, taking on what he calls a “father confessor” role for other victims of prison abuse. Erik has taken to painting, describing it as “a spiritual or healing means to express myself.” Sometimes he paints 12 hours a day.
The accusation remains firm
“The only reason we are doing this special is because of the movement on TikTok,” Pamela Bozanich, who prosecuted in the first trial, says in the documentary. Instead of holding criminal trials, he ironically suggests, why not just do polls on social media?
Time does not seem to have altered his opinions on the case.
“I’m telling you now, that whole defense was made up,” he says, adding: “And if I were an immoral person, I would have made it up the same way.”
Erik’s original defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, declined to be interviewed for the documentary. He wrote in an email to producers: “I would like to leave bygones behind.”
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