It was the trial that shocked America; today, 30 years later, the true story of two brothers who killed their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion is making headlines again.

Lyle and Erik Menendez were found guilty of shooting their father and mother, Jose and Kitty Menendez, multiple times at close range on August 20, 1989. They were 21 and 18 years old at the time.

A Netflix The dramatization of her story – which has brought Erik Menendez accusations of “dishonesty” – is currently Number one in the streamer’s viewer charts.

A documentary will be released on the same platform next month.

So what was the Menendez brothers’ crime and why does it fascinate people so much?

The crime, the trial and the punishment

On August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez shot their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, multiple times at close range in the family mansion in Beverly Hills. California.

Although the brothers initially told police they found her dead when they returned home, they were eventually charged with murder.

An initial attempt to try each brother individually before separate juries ended in a mistrial after neither jury reached a verdict.

In a second trial, the brothers were tried together.

The defense claimed the brothers committed the murders in self-defense after suffering years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from their father and receiving no protection from their mother.

They said they feared for their lives after he threatened to betray their father.

The prosecution argued that the murders were motivated by greed and that they killed their parents to avoid being disinherited.

Evidence of the alleged abuse from their defense was largely excluded by the judge in the joint trial.

In 1996, seven years after the murders, a jury found the brothers guilty and convicted them of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

They were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Erik and Lyle Menendez, now 53 and 56 years old respectively, are currently in prison in San Diego, California.

To this day, both brothers claim that their actions were the result of abuse by their parents, which they themselves suffered for years.

The Netflix drama

“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” stars Oscar winner Javier Bardem as Jose, Chloë Sevigny as Kitty, and Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as the Menendez brothers.

An attempt is made to shed light on the crime from different perspectives – both from the point of view of the brothers and from the point of view of the parents.

Many viewers have criticized the graphic and violent nature of the show, which is both bloody and gruesome.

Viewers were also critical of the suggestions that the brothers had an intimate relationship.

Bardem, who plays father Jose Menendez, said that working on the show allowed him to separate art from his personal life.

“I firmly believe in fiction, in imagination, in the joy of playing something without being carried away by it,” he said.

Cooper Koch, who plays Erik, said he used footage of the real trial for his portrayal.

“I just read everything I could. I watched the entire trial. I was asleep while the trial was going on. So I fell asleep listening to Erik (Menendez) and Leslie (Hope Abramson – the lawyer who defended the brothers) on the witness stand.”

What does Erik Menendez say?

A day after the show aired on Netflix, one of the real-life brothers, Erik Menendez, criticized the show, calling it “dishonest” and “inaccurate” and railing against the “blatant lies” that made up the characterization of his older brother Lyle.

In a statement shared by Erik’s wife Tammi on X, he said: “I thought we had moved beyond the lies and devastating character portrayal of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle based on horrific and blatant lies that ran rampant on the show. I can only believe this was done on purpose.”

He accused the show’s creator, Ryan Murphy, of “bad intentions” and said the show had set back the treatment of male victims of sexual assault by many years.

He also asked, “Isn’t the truth enough?” and thanked people for their support.

How did Ryan Murphy react?

Murphy, who produced the first season of “Monser” about US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, responded to the comments by saying that Erik had not even seen the show and that as the creator of the show it was his duty to present both sides of the story.

Murphy told Entertainment Tonight: “It’s really hard when it’s your life on the line, to see your life on screen…

“Four people were involved in the incident, two people are dead. What about the parents? As storytellers, we had an obligation to also try to bring in their perspective based on our research, which is what we did.”

Murphy was also the showrunner behind Glee, Pose, The Watcher, Feud, American Horror Story, Hollywood and Ratched.

This is not the first dramatization of this crime; it has already been made into three television films and inspired an episode of the US police series “Law and Order”.

The Netflix documentary

Immediately after the Netflix drama, the streamer is working on a documentary film – but this seems to have the approval of the Menendez brothers.

The documentary film “The Menendez Brothers,” directed by Argentine filmmaker Alejandro Hartmann, will be streamed on Netflix from October 7.

The project promises to “provide new insights and a fresh perspective on a case that people only think they know.”

It will include extensive audio interviews with Lyle and Erik Menendez, lawyers involved in the trial, journalists who covered it, jurors, family members and other informed observers.

A new development

In 2023, a documentary titled Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed aired on Peacock, which focused on allegations made by former Puerto Rican boy band member Roy Rossello, who claimed that the brothers’ father sexually abused him when he was a teenager.

Jose was formerly an executive at RCA Records.

Shortly after the documentary premiered, attorneys for Lyle and Erik Menendez filed a motion for a retrial in light of the new evidence.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told Sky News’ US partner, NBC News, that the allegations were currently being investigated and that a response would be submitted by September 26.

The brothers’ defense team also said they discovered a letter that Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin months before the murders, in which he spoke of abuse by his father and of his fear of him.

The defense team believes this should justify a retrial because they did not have this information when the case was first heard before the jury.