It was the trial that shocked America, now 30 years later the real-life story of two brothers who killed their mother and father of their Beverly Hills mansion is hitting the headlines once more.
Lyle and Erik Menendez had been convicted of capturing their father and mom Jose and Kitty Menendez a number of instances at shut vary on 20 August 1989. They had been 21 and 18 on the time.
Picture:
(L to R) Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez, Chloë Sevigny as Kitty Menendez, Javier Bardem as Jose Menendez and Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez. Pic: Netflix
A Netflix dramatization of their story – which has drawn accusations of “dishonesty” from Erik Menendez – is at present primary within the streamer’s viewing chart.
The identical platform will probably be placing out a documentary subsequent month.
So, what was the Menendez brothers’ crime, and why are folks so fascinated by it?
The crime, trial and punishment
On 20 August 1989 Lyle and Erik Menendez shot their mother and father, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, a number of instances at shut vary within the household mansion in Beverly Hills, California.
Whereas the brothers initially advised police they discovered them useless once they bought dwelling, they had been ultimately tried for his or her homicide.
An preliminary try to attempt every brother individually in entrance of separate juries resulted in a mistrial after each juries failed to succeed in a verdict.
A second trial noticed the brothers tried collectively.
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Erik Menendez (L) left and his brother Lyle (R) in entrance of their Beverly Hills dwelling in November 1989. Pic: Getty
The defence claimed the brothers dedicated the murders in self-defence after a few years of alleged bodily, emotional and sexual abuse by the hands of their father, with no safety from their mom.
They mentioned they’d feared for his or her lives after they threatened to reveal their father.
The prosecution argued the murders had been motivated by greed, and so they killed their mother and father to keep away from disinheritance.
Proof of alleged abuse from their defence case was largely excluded from the joint trial by the decide.
In 1996, seven years after the killings, a jury discovered the brothers responsible, and so they had been convicted of first-degree homicide and conspiracy to homicide.
They had been sentenced to life imprisonment with out the potential of parole.
Erik and Lyle Menendez, now aged 53 and 56 respectively, are at present in jail in San Diego, California.
To today, each brothers say their actions stemmed from abuse by the hands of their mother and father which they are saying they’d suffered over a few 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 because the Menendez brothers.
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Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story. Pic: Netflix
It makes an attempt to discover the crime from totally different views – each from the brothers’ and oldsters’ viewpoint.
Many viewers have commented on the graphic and violent nature of the present, which is each gory and ugly.
Viewers have additionally been crucial of implications the brothers had an intimate relationship.
Bardem, who performs the daddy Jose Menendez, mentioned he was in a position to separate artwork from his private life when engaged on the present.
“I’m a true believer in the fiction, in the imagination, in the joy of playing something without being taken by it,” he mentioned.
Cooper Koch, who performs Erik, mentioned he used recordings from the real-life trial to tell his efficiency.
“I just read everything that I could. I watched the entire trial. I slept with that trial on. So, like, I went to sleep listening to Erik [Menendez] and Leslie [Hope Abramson – the lawyer who defended the brothers] on the stand.”
What does Erik Menendez say?
The day after the present got here out on Netflix, one of many real-life brothers, Erik Menendez, criticised the present, calling it “dishonest” and “inaccurate”, and hitting out at what he referred to as “blatant lies” that made up the characterisation of his older brother Lyle.
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In an announcement shared by Erik’s spouse Tammi on X, he mentioned: “I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show. I can only believe they were done so on purpose.”
He went on to accuse the present’s creator, Ryan Murphy, of “bad intent”, and mentioned the present put again the reason for male sexual assault victims by a few years.
He additionally requested: “Is the truth not enough?” and thanked folks for his or her help.
How has Ryan Murphy responded?
Murphy, who made the primary sequence of Monser about US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, responded to the feedback, saying Erik had not really seen the present, and that it was his obligation because the present’s creator to painting either side of the story.
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(L-R) Javier Bardem with Ryan Murphy on the Monsters premiere in LA. Pic: AP
Murphy advised Leisure Tonight: “It’s really hard, if it’s your life, to see your life up on screen…
“There have been 4 folks concerned, two persons are useless, what in regards to the mother and father? We had an obligation as storytellers to additionally attempt to put of their perspective based mostly on our analysis, which we did.”
Murphy was additionally the showrunner behind Glee, Pose, The Watcher, Feud, American Horror Story, Hollywood and Ratched.
It isn’t the primary dramatization of the crime, which has beforehand been made into three TV motion pictures and impressed an episode of US police procedural Legislation And Order.
The Netflix documentary
Sizzling on the heels of the Netflix drama, the streamer has a factual movie on the best way – however this one appears to have the approval of the Menendez brothers.
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Directed by Argentinian filmmaker Alejandro Hartmann, the documentary The Menendez Brothers will stream on Netflix from 7 October.
The mission guarantees to “offer new insight and a fresh perspective on a case that people only think they know”.
It can characteristic intensive audio interviews with Lyle and Erik Menendez, legal professionals concerned within the trial, journalists who coated it, jurors, household, and different knowledgeable observers.
A brand new growth
In 2023 a documentary which aired on Peacock titled Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed featured claims from former Puerto Rican boyband member Roy Rossello, who claimed the brothers’ father sexually assaulted him when he was an adolescent.
Jose was a former government at RCA Data.
Picture:
Joseph Lyle Menéndez and Erik Galen Menéndez. Pics: Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility
Shortly after that documentary premiered, attorneys for Lyle and Erik Menendez filed a petition asking for a brand new trial, in gentle of the brand new proof.
The brothers’ defence staff additionally say they’ve uncovered a letter that Erik Menendez had written to his cousin that was dated months earlier than the murders, the place he talked about what he mentioned was abuse from his father and being afraid of him.
The defence staff say this could warrant a brand new trial as a result of it is info they did not have when the case was first offered to a jury.
