Lyle and Erik Menéndez are sharing their side of the story — about the crime, the aftermath and their current lives in prison — more than three decades after their high-profile murder case resulted in a life sentence.
The Menéndez Brothers, which started streaming Monday, October 7, on Netflix, features audio from interviews Lyle, 56, and Erik, 53, had with director Alejandro Hartmann.
“It was more like a chat. We got along very well, and we began speaking about harder things, more difficult issues. And then, Erik didn’t want to be a part of it at the beginning, but eventually, at some point, Lyle talked to Erik,” Hartmann told Tudum about the process of getting in touch with the brothers. “Erik accepted to be part of the documentary. And that was completely different because it’s like I came recommended by Lyle, so Erik was more open from the very beginning. From the very beginning, we could talk very openly about difficult things.”
Lyle and Erik are both currently serving out their sentences of life without parole in Donovan Correctional Facility after being arrested in 1990 on two counts of first-degree murder. The brothers admitted to killing their parents, José and Kitty Menéndez, following years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
After two trials, they were ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole in 1996. They continue to appeal the decision, and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office recently granted them a new hearing based on new evidence indicating that their father allegedly molested them.
Netflix’s special comes one month after executive producer Ryan Murphy officially explored the Menéndez story with his Monsters series. (Erik has vocalized his dislike for Monsters and how it portrayed him and Lyle.)
While discussing the making of The Menéndez Brothers, Hartmann noted that speaking with Erik and Lyle — as well as juror Betty Oldfield, Kitty’s sister Joan VanderMolen and prosecutor Pamela Bozanich — brought him back to the same conclusion.
“This is such a complex story, at some point it doesn’t matter who is right or who is wrong. It was a tragedy, it was a real tragedy, and we have to learn something about this tragedy. We have to learn something about society, about raising children, about justice, in order to avoid these kinds of things happening again,” he added. “Of course, there are still stories like this, and there will be stories like this in the future, but you have to learn something. So it doesn’t matter who is right or who is wrong at the very end in some way. For me, that’s very personal.”
Keep scrolling for the biggest revelations from Erik, Lyle and other major players in the trial:
Questions About the Response After the Murder
In 1989, José and Kitty were found dead at their Beverly Hills home after Lyle called the authorities. Lyle and Erik weren’t initially named persons of interest as the police pursued other avenues, including a potential Mafia hit.
“There should have been a police response and we would have been arrested,” Erik said in the documentary. “We had no alibi. The gunpowder residue was all over our hands. Under normal circumstances, they give you a gunpowder residue test and we would have been arrested immediately.”
It wasn’t until 1990 that Lyle and Erik were charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of their parents.
“There were shells, gun shells in my car. My car was inside the search area. All they had to do was search my car. They were searching everything,” Erik continued. “And if they would’ve just pressed me, I wouldn’t have been able to withstand any questioning. I was in a completely broken and shattered state of mind. I was shell-shocked.”
Bozanich, who tried the case in 1993, was asked why it took so long for the authorities to look into the Menéndez siblings. She replied, “Beverly Hills is a different kind of police department. They have much better customer service.”
Their Behavior After the Crime — Including Mental Health Struggles
Part of the reason why Erik and Lyle became suspects — in addition to their confession to therapist Jerome Oziel — was their shopping spree. Lyle and Erik raised eyebrows when they spent their fortune in the weeks after the murder, with $15,000 going toward three Rolex watches.
Lyle also purchased a $64,000 Porsche Carrera, while Erik got himself a new Jeep Wrangler. Lyle went on to put a $300,000 deposit on a $500,000 restaurant in New Jersey, and Erik paid $50,000 for a tennis coach while pursuing a career as a professional athlete.
“The idea that I was having a good time is absurd,” Erik explained in a recorded phone call from prison. “Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive.”
Erik continued: “One of the things that kept me from killing myself is that … I felt like I would be a complete failure to my dad at that point.”
Lyle offered his perspective in his own interview, saying, “I was not enjoying myself as a playboy … I was actually sobbing a lot at night, sleeping poorly, very distraught at times, and kind of adrift throughout this, all those months.”
The Relief of Being Arrested
“The secret of why this happened and the secret that you are responsible is a huge weight. So there was a feeling of some relief being arrested,” Lyle recalled in the doc. “Like so many of the emotions at that time in my life, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Erik, meanwhile, discussed how he struggled to adapt to his new normal.
“From that moment that I got off the plane and the detectives put handcuffs on me, everything changed,” he noted. “It was an ending of my life at that point. I was a teenager and I had no idea of what was going to come.”
Lyle and Erik were arrested in 1990 on two counts of first-degree murder each. It took several years before a trial was set after Oziel’s mistress Judalon Smyth tipped the police off about the conversations the therapist recorded of his clients discussing the crimes.
After much litigation, Judge James Albrecht subsequently ruled that tapes of the conversations between Erik and Oziel were admissible evidence because Oziel claimed Lyle threatened him, which violated his privilege as a patient.
Updates on Erik and Lyle’s Legal Counsel
Erik hired Leslie Abramson as his attorney, while Lyle brought on Jill Lansing to represent him.
“[Jill] was not the most prominent defense attorney. She turned out to be remarkably skillful, very graceful and very honest,” Lyle explained. “Everything you don’t usually find in attorneys. She was perfect for this case. She cared.”
Erik and Lyle were initially tried separately as they alleged that years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse caused them to shoot their mother and father. The case ended in a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision. When the retrial began, most of the evidence surrounding the abuse couldn’t be used as a defense. Erik and Lyle, who were tried together, were ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder.
In the documentary, Bozanich didn’t have the best things to say about Abramson, who represented Erik and later Lyle.
“If I told you what I really thought of Leslie Abramson, I would be sued,” the former lead prosecutor claimed. “Because she, I think, has lost all her money. And I’m not giving up my house.”
Bozanich added: “I had no reaction to the Menéndez brothers. There was no visceral reaction. I didn’t feel like I was in the presence of pure evil. They were like potted plants to me. They were like poisonous, potted plants, but there was nothing about them that I found fascinating. They were just these dumb jock killers.”
Why They Were Forced to Confess to Abuse
While they were awaiting their first trial, Lyle wrote a letter to Erik, which was confiscated. This opened the door for Lyle and Erik’s legal counsel to find out about the abuse they claimed took place throughout their lives.
“Lyle couldn’t express what he did in that letter in person. It was easier for him to put it on paper,” Erik explained. “It was a precious letter to me. It was one of those moments when Lyle was really expressing his own pain, and I didn’t want to just throw it away because that didn’t happen often between us.”
Erik continued: “He felt that telling the sick secrets of the family would be like killing my parents again and he did not want to do it. … As a result of them finding this letter in the summer of 1990, we now had to confess to everyone.”
Lyle was asked about the letter as well, saying, “Ultimately it became clear, particularly after they found that jail letter, that there was no way around saying what happened because they had that note. They had a confession that we were responsible for our parents’ death.”
Accusations Against Jose
The documentary featured several family members who recalled José’s alleged abuse of Lyle and Erik in individual confessionals. There was also court footage from trial testimonies where those who knew Lyle and Erik recalled being told that José was molesting them.
“People who have such small contact with my father were saying, ‘This is the most intimidating, worst human I have met in my whole life.’ So that is why there were zero character witnesses on my parents’ behalf,” Lyle said. “Why couldn’t you find that one person? Because they don’t exist.”
Bozanich didn’t deny José’s alleged infamy. “I couldn’t find anyone to say anything nice about José except for his secretary. And everybody else had just these awful stories about him and what a monster he was,” she told the cameras. “The loss of José in my mind was an actual plus for mankind. José was a really awful man and he raised two sons capable of murder, so there you go.”
Reflecting on Their Emotional Testimony
While taking the stand the first time, Lyle claimed his father started to molest him when he was 6 years old and stopped two years later. Lyle subsequently sexually assaulted Erik as a result of the trauma. Erik also allegedly started getting abused by José when he was 6, and he said it continued until weeks before the murder.
“I remember when [Lyle] apologized to me on the stand for molesting me. That was a devastating moment for me,” Erik revealed. “He had never said he was sorry to me before.”
Receiving Support From Their Family Members
Kitty’s sister, who was interviewed for the documentary, publicly chose Erik and Lyle’s side. She admitted in recent interview footage that she believes Erik and Lyle’s claims that José was abusing them — and thinks Kitty knew and did nothing about it.
“The fact that they didn’t just have a dad that was doing this but a mother that knew about it and didn’t help them, I don’t understand how she didn’t protect them,” VanderMolen said. “I can’t even explain it.”
Crossing Paths With O.J. Simpson in Prison
As the brothers awaited their trial, their case was overshadowed by O.J. Simpson, who was named as the primary suspect after his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were fatally stabbed in 1994.
The Menéndez brothers knew the athlete before they all ended up behind bars. In the 1970s, Lyle and Erik’s father helped secure an endorsement deal for Simpson during his time as a running back for the Buffalo Bills. Simpson subsequently became a regular guest at the Menéndez household.
“Probably the weirdest reconnection was obviously O.J. Simpson,” Lyle shared in the doc. “He tossed a football around my house when my father hired him. And then [we] met him again at his arrest at the county jail.”
The Shocking Tapes
The documentary touched on how undercover journalist Norma Novelli contacted Lyle. He thought she was writing a book about his life, but Novelli sold the recordings she had of Lyle without his written or verbal consent. Lyle refused to take the stand during the second trial to prevent cross examination following the release of The Private Diary of Lyle Menendez: In His Own Words!
“Hopefully there is an awareness that Norma in the end was no real situation. There’s a misconception that her tape recording me had some favor in the trial, which is just completely not true,” Lyle explained. “The Norma Novelli tapes were kept out because on those tapes I am making comments on my feelings about the judge. I felt he was making very biased decisions.”
The Aftermath of Their Sentence — and Attempts to Stay in the Same Prison
While initially remaining in the same prison, Erik and Lyle were transferred after their sentencing. Lyle was taken to Mule Creek State Prison, while Erik moved around from Folsom State Prison to Pleasant Valley State Prison.
“They put him in one van. I didn’t understand why they were putting me in another van,” Erik recalled. “I started screaming out to Lyle and they shut the door. It was the last time I saw him.”
Lyle struggled with being apart from his brother, saying, “Our start to prison life was tremendously painful. My brother actually went on a hunger strike to try to keep us together.”
Before they were separated, Lyle recalled sitting down for a “very unusual” televised interview with Barbara Walters in 1996 as a way to “try to plead that they not separate us and show how much we did not want that to happen.”
Footage from the interview showed Lyle saying how “important” it was for him to stay with Erik.
“That is what’s gotten us through these six years,” he noted. Erik added, “There’s a good probability I will never see him again … [There are] some things that you cannot take and there’s some things that you can endure. With everything taken away it would be the last thing you can take.”
Their Life in Prison
Since being sentenced to life with no parole, Lyle has dedicated his time to being an advocate for sexual assault victims. Erik, meanwhile, discussed in the documentary how his passion for art saved him, and one of the jurors even revealed in her own confessional that she exchanged letters with Erik after his trial. Erik’s painting was shown to be hanging in Oldfield’s home.
In 2018, Erik and Lyle were reunited when they were moved into the same housing unit at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility. This was the first time they had seen each other since they began serving their sentences nearly two decades prior.
“Two decades I feared I could not protect him. I just felt no peace. Like a part of me was across the state. I fought for decades to be reunited with my brother,” Lyle said. “It felt like it was finally a chance to heal. It started on that day. Now we are in the same facility. I see him every day and we talk and are very close.”
Erik called their reconnection “just happiness,” adding, “It took 21 years. It was really the change in societal attitudes about the case and child sexual abuse of boys.”
The Renewed Interest — and Pamela’s Surprising Message to Menendez Supporters
Bozanich had a shocking response when asked about the way people have started to believe Erik and Lyle more in recent years. This support included public statements from Cooper Koch (who played Erik in Monsters) and Kim Kardashian, who wrote an essay about the brothers before they received a new hearing.
“The only reason we are doing this special is because of the TikTok movement to free the Menendi. If that is how we are going to try cases now, why don’t we just have a poll? You present the facts and everybody gets to vote on TikTok,” Bozanich said. “Your beliefs are not facts. They are just beliefs.”
The attorney concluded: “And by the way, all of you TikTok people, I am armed. We got guns all over the house. So don’t mess with me.”
Looking Back at Their Crime
“I do worry and I think it is important that the seriousness of my crime not be minimized or diminished,” Erik said in the doc before admitting he still felt guilty. “I went to the only person that had ever helped me and that had ever protected me. Then ultimately this happened because of me. Because I went to him. Then afterwards, he was arrested because of me. Because I told Dr. Oziel. Because I couldn’t live with what I did, I couldn’t. I wanted to die. In a way, I did not protect Lyle. I got him into every aspect of this tragedy. Every aspect of this tragedy is my fault.”
Lyle noted that he has blamed himself as well.
“For me, I never could escape that night. That night just floods back into your mind a lot. I never found understanding,” he said. “I sometimes feel like I rescued Erik. But did I? Look at his life now. It feels impossible that I couldn’t do better. I couldn’t rescue all of us.”
The People Who Didn’t Participate in the Doc
Abramson, Lansing and Oziel declined to be interviewed for the documentary.
In 1997, Oziel lost his license to practice for violating patient confidentiality and after being accused of having sex with female patients, according to the Los Angeles Times. He told Bustle in 2017 that claims of his professional impropriety were “flatly and completely false.”
Abramson provided a statement via email, which read, “Thirty years is a long time. I would like to leave the past in the past. No amount of media, nor teenage petitions, will alter the fate of these clients. Only the courts can do that and they have ruled.”
