Following the huge success of Dahmer: An American Cannibal, Netflix is preparing a second season about another reallife case. This time it’s about the story of the brothers Lyle (55) and Erik Menéndez (52), who are accused of having killed their own parents. There is no release date yet, but the title should appear in 2024.
The brothers were 18 and 21 years old in 1989. They were found guilty of shooting their parents, millionaire couple Jose and Kitty Menendez, at close range in their Los Angeles mansion.
The allegation is that the crime was motivated by greed, but they said they were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of their father, an attitude that was “accepted” by their mother.
who was
José Menéndez fled Cuba after the revolution and lived in the United States. In college he met Mary Louise “Kitty” Anderson and they soon married. The couple moved to New York City, where José became an entertainment manager.
With professional success, the family, which now also included Erik and Lyle, moved to Los Angeles. José promoted RCA Records deals with bands such as Duran Duran and Menudo.
The Menéndez brothers excelled in several fields: While Lyle was financially easy, Erik was a very good tennis player.
As the two grew older, some “warning signs” began to appear.: Erik engaged in several robberies and was forced into therapy while Lyle was suspended from Princeton for plagiarism.
The crime
On August 20, 1989, the brothers told police that when they returned home, they found their parents dead.
The bodies were decimated so far that they were hardly recognizable to the police.
The couple was killed by 15 shots from two 12gauge shotguns. José was shot multiple times in the arms and once in the head, and Kitty was shot in the torso and face.
A The first suspicion concerned an alleged mafia revengebut was soon discarded.
Erik and Lyle were arrested after Erik was reported by his psychologist’s girlfriend.who told officers the therapist had been physically threatened by Lyle.
With the complaint, the tape recordings of the psychoanalysis sessions were admitted as evidence.. In it, Erik spoke about the murders of his own parents.
The judgment
Greed. The prosecution argued that the two young people killed their parents to get their inheritance.
sexual abuse. The defense has already stated that the crime was retaliation for having been sexually abused by their father, with their mother’s connivance. The abuses were never proven.
The brothers’ trial began in 1993, In two cases, however, the jury failed to reach an agreement.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995.
A case investigator said they could plan an escape together.. Therefore, starting in 1996, they were imprisoned separately.
They never met or spoke on the phone again.. There are only accounts of them writing letters to each other and playing chess remotely, detailing the movement of the pieces by mail.
In February 2018, Lyle Menendez was downgraded and transferred to the same prison as Erik Menendez.
In April of the same year, they received permission to interact with each other.
Both cried a lot when they met again.reported the press at the time.
In an interview with American television in September 2017, Lyle spoke about his mother. “I love my mother, I still cry for her and I don’t forgive her,” he said. “Her life ended, and essentially ours, because she chose not to report what happened. What kind of mother allows that?”
movies
The Netflix series, directed by Ryan Murphy, isn’t the first to talk about the case.
The 1994 film Natural Born Killers was the first production to chronicle the brothers’ story.
In 2017, Lifetime released the feature film Menendez: Blood Brothers, also about the case.