The Menendez Brothers is a documentary on Erik and Lyle Menendez who are known for being charged with killing their parents in their Beverley Hills home in 1989. While they were accused of murdering their parents to inherit their wealth, they claimed that they killed their parents out of fear for their lives.
The brothers stated that throughout their childhood they were s*xually, physically, and mentally abused by their father. Their mother who allegedly knew about the abuse did nothing to stop it. Erik and Lyle were given a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Their case recently inspired the Netflix series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Today, many find themselves divided in their opinion of the brothers. Many wonder if they were stone-cold killers out to get their parents' wealth or if they were victims who had to resort to murder.
The Menendez Brothers documentary release date
Netflix will be releasing The Menendez Brothers documentary on October 9, 2024. Audiences can expect to find true details of the brothers and their case in this documentary than in the series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. The latter is a scripted and fictional version of the events that unfolded in the brothers' lives.
What is the plot of The Menendez Brothers?
The Menendez Brothers documentary will detail the accounts of both trials in the words of Lyle and Erik Menendez. The documentary gives a platform to the brothers who will speak about the case for the first time in three decades.
The documentary's plot is about the accounts of both brothers who were charged with the murder of their parents, José Menendez and Mary Louise Menendez also known as Kitty. The series is directed by Alejandro Hartmann.
What do we know about the Menendez brothers?
The Menendez brothers' father at the age of sixteen moved to America after fleeing Cuba. He met his future wife Kitty while they were in college and soon after got married and had two sons. After moving around the East Coast, the family moved to Beverly Hills for good.
The brothers had a childhood abundant in wealth and luxury and lived in a highly regarded area. As they grew up, Erik pursued a tennis career, even becoming a nationally-ranked tennis player. Lyle went on to attend Princeton University but was suspended due to plagiarism.
On August 20, 1989, 21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Erik shot and murdered their parents who were sitting in the living room and watching TV. The brothers bought tickets to a film and stated that they went to a festival in Santa Monica to prove they had an alibi. They also called 911 in distress reporting that someone had shot their parents.
While the sons weren't considered suspects initially, their behavior during their parent's funeral and their lavish spending on travel and luxury items soon brought them under the radar of suspicion.
The police obtained a tape of their confessions from Judalon Smyth who was having an affair with Erik's therapist, Jerome Oziel. Soon after, both brothers were arrested. The brothers had two trials. Their first trial which tried them both separately was highly televised and ended with deadlocked juries.
Their second trial tried them both together but was not televised. During the trials, both brothers were accused of murdering their parents to inherit their wealth. Witnesses had also claimed that their parents were often scared of them.
The brothers claimed that they killed their parents as their father had s*xually, physically, and mentally abused them and their mother had enabled him. Fearing for their lives after their father threatened to kill them, the brothers resorted to killing their parents. Witnesses also claimed that the brothers' testimony of their father's abuse was true.
The jury in the second trial charged both with two counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They were sent to different prisons and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. After serving two decades in separate prisons, the brothers were reunited in 2018 in the same housing unit.
The documentary will be on Netflix on October 9, 2024.
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