The true story behind Netflix’s ‘Monsters’
The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will premiere on Netflix this month. This is the second instalment of Ryan Murphy’s Monsters series, and it promises to deliver on everything the first season brought and more.
The series is the product of Murphy and his creative partner, Ian Brennan. It’s no surprise that the streaming giant decided to bring them both back for another series after their success with Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. They’re now looking forward to the new series, which tells the tale of another twisted individual.
In the new series, the true crime story will focus on the brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez. The two were responsible for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills home on August 20th, 1989. When they went on trial for the murder of their parents, José and Kitty, the brothers tried to justify their actions by citing years of abuse.
Lyle and Erik said they acted out of fear instead of malice or spite. Now, with the series set to land on Netflix soon, many are curious about what actually happened to Lyle and Erik and what the true story behind these murders actually is.
In the synopsis for the series, Netflix eludes to the story of Lyle and Erik a bit more. “While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed – and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole – that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents,” it reads.
The story of the Menendez brothers took the world by storm the first time around because of these contrasting reasons behind the murder. The circumstances surrounding the killing were also a point of interest, as Erik and Lyle shot their parents to murder them. Their mother, Kitty, was shot 10 times, and their father, José, was shot six times, one of which was a fatal shot delivered to the back of his head.
The brothers said that they had been at the cinema and came home to find their parents dead. After their death, however, the two brothers began living lavishly, which raised eyebrows, to the point that they were finally arrested and charged with the murder of their parents. The trial was a sensation in the US as it began in 1993 and was broadcast on TV daily.
Watch the trailer for the new installation of the Monster series below.