4 takeaways from The Menendez Brothers on Netflix

The true crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” has become one of the most-watched series on Netflix since its debut on September 19, sparking massive interest once again in the Menendez brothers, who killed their parents in 1989 with shotguns inside. Family mansion in Beverly Hills.

On Monday, the same streaming platform released “The Menendez Brothers,” a feature-length documentary by Alejandro Hartman drawn from 20 hours of new phone interviews with the brothers from prison. It also includes on-camera interviews with surviving family members, journalists, the first public defender, and several jurors from the two criminal trials of the 1990s.

After a sensational trial that ended in a hung jury in 1994 (the brothers had a separate jury), Lyle and Eric were retried and convicted in 1996, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the second trial, the judge barred the defense from using most of the testimony supporting its argument that the brothers killed their parents out of fear after years of sexual, emotional and physical abuse.

At the same time, a series of books, documentaries and scripted series have taken a more sympathetic view of the brothers than they originally had; This latest documentary comes days after Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced that his office was reviewing the case, saying: “We have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is presented to us.”

Much of the documentary is based on the ground and relies heavily on archival footage, especially from the first trial, which was broadcast on court television. However, several new, lesser-known and long-forgotten details stand out. Here's a news report.

The week before the murders

Although some of it was recounted in court, Lyle and Eric, now 56 and 53, share more in new interviews about the fear and desperation they felt before the murders occurred.

As he says in the documentary, Eric was looking forward to graduating high school and going to Stanford University so he could get away from his father, Jose. After his father told him he couldn't go to Stanford—and would instead have to live at home and attend UCLA—Eric became suicidal. He says that was when Lyle revealed that their father was still sexually abusing him. “It was the most devastating moment of my life,” he says.

Lyle describes confronting his father about the abuse and indirectly discovering that this mother, Kitty, knew all about it.

Eric says this was the first time he felt like Lyle was truly afraid; He says they honestly thought Jose and Kitty were going to kill them.

Lyle and Eric's mental health after the murders

Prosecutors have cited the brothers' behavior after the murders – which included a lavish spending spree – as evidence that they killed their parents for money.

In the documentary, the two brothers say that they were not happy or comfortable after the murder. Lyle says he would cry at night, sleep poorly and generally feel indifferent.

“The idea that I was having a good time was ridiculous,” Eric says, later adding that he still misses his mother terribly and wishes he could talk to her.

Their lives in prison

After their conviction, their biggest concern was not being sent to a different state prison. In the documentary, Lyle says the only reason they agreed to be interviewed by Barbara Walters in 1996 was because they publicly pleaded to stay together. They were separated anyway.

“Our start to life in prison was very traumatic” because of this separation, Lyle says. Eric went on a hunger strike at that time.

The two were reunited when Lyle was transferred in 2018 to a prison in San Diego, where Eric was being held. They are now able to talk to each other every day.

Lyle says he's been able to find a kind of “mental freedom” over the years, taking on what he calls the role of “father confessor” to other victims of abuse in prison. Eric turned to painting and described it as a “spiritual or therapeutic way to express myself.” He sometimes paints 12 hours a day.

The prosecution is firm

“The only reason we are doing this special is because of TikTok,” Pamela Bozanich, who handled the first trial, says in the documentary. Instead of holding criminal prosecutions, she ironically suggests, why not just conduct social media polls?

Time does not seem to have changed her views on the issue.

“I'm telling you now, this whole defense was fabricated, and if I were an unethical person, I would have made it up in much the same way,” she says.

Eric's original defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, declined to be interviewed for the documentary. “I would like to leave the past in the past,” she wrote in an email to producers.