The Menendez Brothers Are Back in the Spotlight. Here’s What to Read and Watch to Understand Their Case
Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has become one of the most popular shows on Netflix since premiering last week. The series is based on the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 for murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on Aug. 20, 1989, in their Beverly Hills mansion.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The men, who are serving life sentences in prison, are having a cultural moment that goes beyond Murphy’s dramatization. Over the last five years, TikTok users have been revisiting the case, bringing new attention to Lyle and Erik’s revelations that their father had sexually abused them while their mother ignored it, and raising questions about how their narrative was presented in the courtroom. Prosecutors argued that the brothers murdered their parents to gain access to their multi-million dollar estate. The defense said they were acting in self-defense.
On Oct. 7, the documentary The Menendez Brothers, debuts on Netflix, featuring interviews with the brothers themselves, lawyers involved in the trial, the journalists who covered it, and jurors. For those who have watched Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story—or who just want to be prepared for the documentary—here is a guide on what to watch, read, and listen to about the case.
What to read
“Nightmare on Elm Drive” by Dominick Dunne for Vanity Fair
Named for the address of the Menendez family mansion in Beverly Hills, the feature in the Oct. 1990 issue of Vanity Fair details the brothers’ extravagant spending spree after their parents’ death and Erik’s confession of the crime to his therapist. Dunne continued to cover the case throughout the 1990s and is portrayed by Nathan Lane in Murphy’s show.
Read the story here.
They Said We’d Never Make It: My Life With Erik Menendez by Tammi Menendez
Tammi Menendez first wrote to Erik while watching 1993 trial coverage and feeling sympathy for him. They became pen pals, and after Tammi’s husband died, she visited Erik at Folsom State Prison, where they got married in 1999. The purpose of the self-published book is to emphasize the Menendez brothers’ point of view regarding what happened in their house growing up. The book is currently out of print but can be found on resale sites.
The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings That Stunned the Nation by Robert Rand
The 2018 book is a culmination of reporting by Robert Rand, who had been covering the case since the beginning, originally for the Miami Herald and Playboy. It details the sexual abuse that the Menendez brothers’ endured and talked about during the trial. The book also inspired the dramatic scene Netflix’s Monsters in which Kitty Menendez (Chloë Sevigny) rips off Lyle Menendez’s (Nicholas Chavez) toupee at the dining room table.
Buy The Menendez Murders here.
What to watch
Law and Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders
The 2017 NBC mini series is a dramatization of the Menendez case that focuses on the brothers’ defense lawyer Leslie Abramson, played by Edie Falco. Falco never said whether she thought the verdict was fair or not, arguing that’s a decision left for lawyers. She credits Abramson for humanizing the men, arguing that there is a tendency to separate people into “good people people and bad people, and I think she was trying to let people imagine that maybe you don’t always know which is which all the time.”
Buy episodes here.
Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed
The Peacock docu-series features Roy Rosselló, star of Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who claims that Jose Menendez sexually abused him when the record label RCA was representing him, and Menendez was an RCA executive. The filmmakers use Rosselló’s testimony to give credence to the Menendez brothers’ longtime claim that they murdered their father because he had been sexually abusing them.
Watch the series on Peacock.
The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All
The 2017 A&E docu-series bills itself as the most extensive interview with Erik Menendez until that point. In addition to interviewing Erik by phone, the filmmakers also interviewed prosecutors, family friends, law enforcement and legendary journalists like CNN’s Larry King and Associated Press trial reporter Linda Deutsch. As Erik said in a statement timed to the series, “The tragedy didn’t end on that night, as devastating as that night was. It didn’t end there for my family, and it continues on to this day…It will never end.”
Watch the series on Amazon Prime Video.
What to listen to
Murder & The Menendez Brothers: A Court TV Mystery
Nearly three decades after Court TV’s coverage of the Menendez case helped popularize true crime as a genre, it expanded on its coverage of the case in a 2020 podcast. The episodes explore how the brothers avoided arrest for seven months and focuses on the Beverly Hills police department’s investigation, featuring interviews with detectives and a 9-1-1 dispatcher who answered that fateful call from Lyle Menendez.
Listen here.
The Menendez Brothers’ Fight for Freedom
This 2024 CBS ’48 Hours’ special program features an interview with Lyle Menendez from prison and looks into possible new evidence that the brothers hope could lead to their freedom. Cliff Gardner, one of their lawyers, refers to a letter that Erik wrote his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murder about his father’s erratic behavior and how he feared for his life. Cano did testify in the brothers’ defense, but passed away in 2003. The letter was never presented in a trial because Cano’s mother found the letter in storage after his death.
Listen here.