Lyle and Erik Menendez have been serving life sentences for the brutal murders of their parents on August 20, 1989, when the brothers — then 21 and 18 — shot and killed José and Kitty Menendez inside their Beverly Hills mansion.
More than three decades later, the Menendez brothers were thrown back in the spotlight as the focus of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. The 10-episode series reexamines the central question at the heart of their case: were they cold-blooded killers motivated by greed, as prosecutors claimed, or victims of years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as the defense argued — and as the brothers still maintain?
On May 13, 2025, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic resentenced Lyle and Erik to 50 years to life, making them eligible for parole after serving more than 35 years. Their parole hearings were scheduled for August 2025, and Erik was denied parole, while Lyle still awaits his fate as of August 22, 2025.
At the time of their parents’ murders on Aug. 20, 1989, Lyle was a student at Princeton, and Erik was an incoming freshman at UCLA. The brothers had grown up in Beverly Hills, enjoying a privileged life thanks to their wealthy parents — Jose, a Hollywood executive, and Kitty, a former beauty queen.
After Jose and Kitty were found brutally shot to death in their Beverly Hills mansion, Lyle and Erik spent money recklessly, burning through an estimated $700,000 of their parents’ wealth on cars, jewelry, and even purchasing restaurants and cafes. But their eventual downfall occurred when Erik confessed to his psychiatrist, Jerome Oziel, who then shared the information with his mistress, Judalon Smyth. Smyth informed the police, revealing that Erik had confessed to the murders in therapy and that there were audiotaped recordings of the confession. The brothers were subsequently arrested in March 1990, sparking a multi-year legal battle over the admissibility of Oziel’s recordings.
“I never thought I believed in evil, but when I heard those boys speak, I did,” Smyth told investigative journalist Dominic Dunne in 1990.
Despite their brutal crime and life behind bars, there was no shortage of women interested in the Menendez brothers. Lyle married Anna Eriksson on July 2, 1996, but they divorced on April 1, 2001, after she discovered he was “cheating” on her with another woman through a pen pal relationship (as conjugal visits are not allowed). In November 2003, Lyle married Rebecca Sneed, a former magazine editor turned attorney. They had been in contact for nearly a decade before marrying in a ceremony at Mule Creek State Prison. Despite their 2024 separation, Sneed continues to support Lyle and advocates for his and Erik’s release.
