BEVERLY HILLS– At first glance, the empty Mediterranean villa on this quiet, leafy street is an unlikely destination for tour buses and true crime freaks.

But 722 North Elm Drive is an infamous address: Once the home of Prince and Elton John and a Saudi prince, this is the million-dollar mansion where Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents with a series of shotgun blasts on a summer night in August 1989.

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Ben Sherwood

Ben Sherwood

Just behind the carefully trimmed hedge and behind a row of elegant windows, brothers José and Kitty Menendez butchered in the family’s cozy family room.

21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Erik shot their father six times in the head and body. They shot her mother ten times, stopping only to reload. As she crawled away, her eldest son was fatally shot in the face. (Note: An image below shows the bloody aftermath of the shooting.)

The carnage was so great that Los Angeles police initially suspected a mob attack. However, six months later, the brothers were arrested after investigators received an apparent confession about the murders that Erik had made to a psychologist he was seeing.

They were tried twice, initially separately – in both cases the jury was deadlocked. But after a joint retrial in 1996, Lyle and Erik were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

For many years, her home on North Elm Drive has been a routine stop for spooky “graveyard” tour buses that take gawkers to crime scenes, such as the Charles Manson murder scene “Helter Skelter” not far away in Benedict Canyon, or OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo in Brentwood.

Netflix

Now powered by the Netflix series Monsterthat retells the infamous saga, a steady stream of cars drive past the chain-link fence erected in front of the Menendez home, which recently sold for $17,000,000 and is currently being renovated.

On a secluded block usually frequented only by dog ​​handlers and gardeners, tourists now gather on the sidewalk and debate whether Lyle and Erik should get a new trial. (The brothers said they were abused by their parents and feared for their own lives the night of the murder.) Intrepid visitors slip through a gap in the locked gate – clearly marked “No Trespassing” – to take photos and videos of it make the property.

“I like psychological thrillers,” a 33-year-old woman who visited the crime scene told the Daily Beast after finishing watching the Netflix show last week. “This seems to be the safest neighborhood. It feels so safe. And it gives me goosebumps to be here.”

“I can’t judge her,” said the woman, a Hollywood camera assistant originally from Kyrgyzstan. “They had their problems.” The last time she visited a famous place, she added, she went to Chicago and “Home alone House” in Winnetka.

Her friend, a 24-year-old personal trainer from Kazakhstan who accompanied her on the visit, had just started watching Monster. “I didn’t expect to see so many people here,” they told the beast. “There are so many cars. And so many tourists.”

North Elm Drive residents aren’t sure what to make of the spectacle.

Jen, 50, who grew up two houses away from the crime scene, said she couldn’t believe so many people wanted the brothers released from prison. “Two terrible, brutal and bloody murders took place there,” she said of her former home.

LA County District Attorney

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That summer night in 1989, Jen said her mother and brother heard what sounded like Chinese fireworks – and then screams. (After police received a 911 call from the house, they found Lyle and Erik crying on the front lawn, claiming they had come home to find their parents’ bodies.)

“It would haunt me to live there,” Jen added.

However, others inevitably wonder what it would be like to own a real haunted house.

Built in 1927, the 9,000 square foot villa features 7 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, a pool and a guest house spread over half an acre. The photos below, courtesy of Realtor.com, provide a tour of the home’s interior – prior to the renovations currently underway.

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Jose Menendez bought the Elm Drive property in 1988 for $4 million. After he and his wife were killed a year later, the house sat empty for a time. It was sold in 1991, with the proceeds going primarily to the IRS.

Over the years the property changed hands and was renovated several times; It was owned by the co-creator of the hit TV series for eight years Murder, she wrote. The new owners, reportedly a wealthy family of Persian descent, have not yet moved in – perhaps a coincidence amid the current excitement. After purchasing the home last March, they began their own remodeling process.

Editor’s note: Ben Sherwood has been following the Menendez story since 1989, when he began working at ABC News and was assigned to help cover the saga with an award-winning ABC News team PrimeTime Live.