Ryan Murphy will tell the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers who were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, in Season 2 of his Netflix Monster anthology series.
Titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, it’s the first of two installments ordered by the streamer following the massive success of last year’s DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. To accompany the announcement, Netflix shared a teaser for the upcoming season featuring the August 1989 call to 911 in which Lyle tearfully tells the operator that his parents have been shot. Watch it below.
José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez were shot and killed at their mansion in Beverly Hills on August 20th, 1989. Lyle and Erik initially weren’t suspects in the murders, but the police began to investigate the brothers’ involvement due to their obvious financial motive and extravagant spending after the killings.
Eventually, Erik made a confession to his psychologist Jerome Oziel, who in turn told his mistress Judalon Smyth. The latter became a key witness in the Menendez brothers’ trial, during which they said they committed the murders out of fear after a lifetime of abuse at the hands of their parents — particularly sexual abuse from their father.
The brothers were tried separately in a first trial that was a nationwide sensation broadcast on Court TV. After two deadlocked juries, they were retried and both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were previously the subjects of a Lifetime movie starring Courtney Love, as well as an eight-episode special of the Law & Order franchise subtitled True Crime – The Menéndez Murders.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is expected to premiere on Netflix in 2024.
