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Lyle and Erik Menendez proceed to serve life sentences in jail for the brutal murders of their dad and mom on August 20, 1989, when the brothers—then 21 and 18—shot and killed them of their household’s Beverly Hills mansion.
Now, 35 years later, the Menendez brothers are the newest topics of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan‘s Monster anthology collection. Titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the collection stars Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as Lyle and Erik, with Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny portraying their dad and mom, Jose and Kitty Menendez. The primary version of the true-crime saga, which targeted on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and starred Evan Peters because the “Milwaukee Cannibal,” garnered 1 billion hours of views inside its first 60 days on Netflix.
The ten-episode season, streaming Sept. 19 on Netflix, intends to discover whether or not the Menendez brothers had been cold-blooded killers in search of to inherit their household’s fortune, because the prosecution argued, or victims of a lifetime of bodily, emotional, and sexual abuse by the hands of their dad and mom, because the protection claimed and the brothers preserve to at the present time.
Earlier than diving into the collection, listed here are 5 issues to find out about Lyle, now 56, and Erik, 53.
Lyle and Erik Menendez Had Promising Futures
On the time of their dad and mom’ murders on Aug. 20, 1989, Lyle was a scholar at Princeton, and Erik was an incoming freshman at UCLA. The brothers had grown up in Beverly Hills, having fun with a privileged life due to their rich dad and mom—Jose, a Hollywood govt, and Mary Louise “Kitty,” a former magnificence queen.
Lyle and Erik Had been Arrested Seven Months After Their Mother and father’ Murders
After Jose and Kitty had been discovered brutally shot to loss of life of their Beverly Hills mansion, Lyle and Erik spent cash recklessly, burning by way of an estimated $700,000 of their dad and mom’ wealth on vehicles, jewellery, and even buying eating places and cafes. However their eventual downfall occurred when Erik confessed to his psychiatrist, Jerome Oziel, who then shared the knowledge along with his mistress, Judalon Smyth. Smyth knowledgeable the police, revealing that Erik had confessed to the murders in remedy and that there have been audiotaped recordings of the confession. The brothers had been subsequently arrested in March 1990, sparking a multi-year authorized battle over the admissibility of Oziel’s recordings.
“I by no means thought I believed in evil, however after I heard these boys converse, I did,” Smyth advised investigative journalist Dominic Dunne in 1990.
Lyle and Erik Had been Convicted of First-Diploma Homicide
The brothers claimed at trial that their father—who was almost decapitated by a point-blank blast from a 12-gauge shotgun—was a violent pedophile. These allegations had been backed by testimony from two of the brothers’ cousins, Andy Cano and Diane Vander Molen, who stated Lyle and Erik had confided in them concerning the sexual abuse once they had been kids. As for his or her mom—who was shot 14 occasions—the brothers stated she was an alcoholic who enabled and inspired her husband’s abuse.
Their first trial, which started in 1993, led to a deadlocked jury. Within the second trial, the decide restricted testimony concerning the alleged abuse and barred the jury from contemplating manslaughter costs as an alternative of homicide. Each brothers had been convicted on two counts of first-degree homicide and sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole.
“Erik and Lyle Menendez have been incarcerated for 34 years and 6 months, and I imagine that they’re in jail for killing their lifelong abusers,” stated Robert Rand, who has spent appreciable time with the brothers for the reason that crime and is the creator of The Menendez Murders: The Surprising Untold Story of the Menendez Household and the Killings that Surprised the Nation.
“The proper verdict for the Menendez brothers’ trial ought to have been manslaughter, not homicide.”
Lyle and Erik Each Married Whereas in Jail
Regardless of their brutal crime and life behind bars, there was no scarcity of girls within the Menendez brothers. Lyle married Anna Eriksson on July 2, 1996, however they divorced on April 1, 2001, after she found he was “dishonest” on her with one other lady by way of a pen pal relationship (as conjugal visits aren’t allowed). Lyle remarried in November 2003 to Rebecca Sneed, with whom he had been corresponding for almost a decade. The ceremony happened within the visiting space of California’s Mule Creek State Jail.
Erik additionally discovered love, marrying Tammi Ruth Saccoman on June 12, 1999, at Folsom State Jail.
Lyle and Erik Menendez Have Amassed a Enormous TikTok Following
Practically 35 years after murdering their dad and mom, a big variety of teenagers are calling the brothers’ sentence unfair and unjust. The account menendezsupporterrr—which calls for “Justice for the Menendez brothers”—has over 12.9M likes and 258.1K followers. One other account, ..menendezbrothers, states in its bio, “They’re victims. don’t sexualize them,” and has 109.1K followers and 9.6M likes.
