The Menendez brothers are the new focus of Netflix's second Monsters series, with the nine part dramatisation Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story examining the true story of two brothers who fatally shot their parents at their Beverly Hills home on August 20, 1989.
Though the Menendez brothers claimed years of abuse by their parents to be the motivation for their murder, prosecutors argued that the pair sought to kill them because they wanted the family fortune, including a $14-million estate, for themselves.
But where are the Menendez brothers now? Here's what life looks like for the Menendez brothers in 2024, 35 years on from the murder of their parents.
Including Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch.
What happened to the Menendez brothers?
Both Lyle and Erik received life sentences for their crimes in 1996 after their father, José Menendez and mother, Kitty Menendez, were shot multiple times using shotguns.
Though the Menendez brothers initially told police they were watching Batman at the cinema and came back to find their parents dead, after authorities went through other suspects such as mob members, they eventually began investigating the brothers.
Through their trial, the Menendez brothers claimed their motive for killing their parents was years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse, with them acting out of fear for their lives and in self defence.
Despite family members supporting these claims in court and testifying that Erik and Lyle had shared stories of abuse before the murders were carried out, prosecutors asserted that the brother has killed their parents in order to inherit their wealth given that they spent fairly extravagantly following the murders.
For context, between committing the crime and their confession in October 1989, the brothers spent roughly $700,000, with this equating to $1 million today, with purchases including Rolex watches, lavish new clothes, cars and everything in between.
While the first trial came back with no verdict, the brothers went to a second trial in 1995, this time with one jury rather than two (there had originally been two juries for each brother).
In this second trial the defence was limited in referencing sexual abuse allegations, and ultimately the two brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder in 1996. Six years after the brothers were first arrested in 1990, Lyle and Erik Menendez received two consecutive life sentences.
Where are the Menendez brothers now?
At the time of writing, Lyle Menendez is 56 years old, while younger brother Erik is 53 years old.
After they were sentenced, the two were placed in separate prisons, with Lyle Menendez going to Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Northern California, while Erik was held in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. Neither of the brothers are eligible for parole.
However, following 22 years apart, in 2018 the Menendez brothers were reunited, with prison officials moving Erik to Lyle's unit in San Diego's Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility despite concerns that the brothers might plan an escape together.
On this reunion, journalist Robert Rand who has covered the Menendez brothers closely since 1989, said that when the guard opened the door, the two “burst into tears immediately.”
He added, “They just hugged each other for a few minutes without saying any words to each other. Then the prison officials let them spend an hour together in a room.”
In early 2017, Lyle Menendez told ABC News “I am the kid that did kill his parents, and no river of tears has changed that and no amount of regret has changed it. I accept that. You are often defined by a few moments of your life, but that’s not who you are in your life, you know. Your life is your totality of it… You can’t change it. You just, you’re stuck with the decisions you made.”
The Menendez brothers' partners
Oh, and it's worth us mentioning that prison hasn't kept the brothers from making romantic connections, too.
Tammi Saccoman became Erik's pen pal after writing to him following his first trial. The pair first met in person in 1997 before marrying at Folsom State Prison in 1999. Tammi went on to write a book about her relationship with Erik called They Said We’d Never Make It: My Life With Erik Menendez.
Likewise, in 2003 Lyle wed journalist-turned-attorney Rebecca Sneed in the Mule Creek State Prison's maximum security area. The wedding was his second following a marriage to former model Anna Eriksson which ended in divorce.
In an interview with ABC News in 2017, Lyle said “I’ve found I can have a healthy marriage that is complicated and built around conversation and finding creative ways to communicate, sharing, without all the props that are normally there in marriage in terms of going out to dinner and having as much intimate time together and so on.”
Will the Menendez brothers get out of prison?
Through the years the brothers have filed several appeals, though all have been denied.
Most recently, in 2023 the Menendez brothers filed an appeal for a new hearing based on fresh evidence which included a testimony from former boy band member Roy Rosselló who claimed to have also been raped by José Menendez at the age of 14. The newly acquired evidence came in a Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
“This undercuts the state’s theory,” Cliff Gardner, a representative for the brothers told The Los Angeles Times last year.
“We know the abuse was occurring, and Jose was exactly the type of person that would sexually abuse a 13-year-old," he said.
For now, the Menendez brothers remain in prison, with the pair counselling other inmates who have suffered sexual abuse, according to journalist Robert Rand.
In a recent interview on the double parricide, Rand said “Eric and Lyle Menendez have been incarcerated for 34 years and six months, and I believe that they are in prison for killing their lifelong abusers,"
He added, “The correct verdict for the Menendez brothers trial should have been manslaughter, not murder.”
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available to watch on Netflix now.
