Cold Open

It’s just before 10 PM, on August 20th, 1989, in a mansion in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

In a darkened ground-floor hallway, brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez stand beside the closed doors to the family room. Each of them carries a loaded shotgun loosely by their side.

As 21-year-old Lyle paces back and forth on the tile floor, 19-year-old Erik has his eyes on the crack beneath the door, watching the flickering glow from the television.

The brothers’ parents, Jose and Kitty, are watching a movie inside. Or maybe they’re just pretending to, Erik thinks. Maybe they’re really plotting – getting ready to kill their own sons.

Erik feels his heart beat faster. He can’t take the waiting anymore. So, he reaches out and puts a hand on Lyle’s shoulder. The brothers lock eyes and nod.

Erik grips his shotgun tight in one hand, and with the other, he throws open the double doors to the family room. It’s dark inside, and the light from the TV is the only thing illuminating their parents sitting on the plush couch.

Erik and Lyle storm into the room without saying a word. They simply raise their weapons…and start firing.

In the coming days, the brutal murder of Jose and Kitty Menendez will make headlines around the country. Gossip about the crime will ripple through Los Angeles as people struggle to make sense of the wealthy couple’s deaths. But these initial shockwaves will be nothing compared to what happens when Lyle and Erik Menendez are eventually unmasked as the killers. Although both will confess to murdering their parents, their explanation for why they pulled the triggers will be what keeps the world talking. And for decades to come, people will still be debating what led to the slayings of Jose and Kitty Menendez on August 20th, 1989.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is August 20th, 1989: The Menendez Murders.

Act One: Sick Secrets

It’s August 15th, 1989, less than a week before the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez.

In his family’s Beverly Hills mansion, Erik Menendez is walking downstairs to grab a snack when he hears raised voices. It’s his mom, Kitty, and his brother, Lyle, arguing about something. Erik doesn’t want to get in the middle of it, so he stops a few feet away from the kitchen door to listen. He’s never heard his mother this angry before. She’s practically screaming – something about a tennis tournament. Erik can’t quite make it out, though. They’re both yelling over the top of one another.

So, after waiting a few moments, Erik decides to let them know he’s there, thinking maybe his presence might help defuse the tension.

He steps into the doorway to see Kitty and Lyle right in each other’s faces. Neither of them notice Erik. 47-year-old Kitty’s lips are curled into a snarl. And as Erik watches on, she grabs a hold of Lyle’s thick, dark hair and pulls, like she’s trying to yank his scalp off.

Lyle cries out in pain and tries to get away. But Kitty doesn’t let go. Then, with a sick ripping noise, Lyle’s hair seems to come clean off, revealing a cleanly shaven crown beneath. Erik just stares. He had no idea Lyle wore a hairpiece. And he never realized their mother could be so aggressive.

Kitty tosses a toupee to the ground, and it lands near Erik’s feet. That’s when she and Lyle finally realize he’s standing there. No one says a word. Clutching his scalp, Lyle turns and heads out through the kitchen’s other door. Kitty pushes past Erik, stubbornly not looking at him as she goes.

Erik is left standing alone, trying to wrap his head around what he just saw. Then he goes looking for his brother.

He finds Lyle in the guest house in the backyard. Lyle explains that their father made him get the toupee a few years ago. He’d noticed Lyle’s hair was thinning and insisted on doing something about it. Jose is obsessed with the family’s image—they have to be perfect, all the time. And when Lyle is finished explaining, Erik says he has a secret of his own. Their father is molesting him.

Lyle doesn’t say anything at first. Jose used to abuse him, too, but stopped years ago, so it’s shocking to hear that Erik is still being targeted at age 17.

Erik is due to go off to college in a few weeks—he had hoped that would finally put an end to it. But Jose and Kitty have recently told him that he has to live at home with them for half the time. They say it’s so they can help him with his schoolwork, but Erik doesn’t believe it. He thinks Jose just wants to keep him close.

So, that afternoon, the brothers come up with a plan. Instead of going to the University of California in Los Angeles, Erik will go to the East Coast and stay with Lyle when he returns to Princeton in the fall. That will put him well out of Jose’s clutches. And if Jose objects, Lyle and Erik are resolved to tell someone about what’s been going on. They’re certain that will make their father agree. His pride is too important for him to allow their dark family secret to get out.

So a few days later, Lyle is the one to confront Jose. He corners his father when he arrives home from a business trip and demands to see him in the den. Jose is exhausted from traveling, but follows his son all the same.

Sitting across from his father, Lyle lists his demands. Jose is going to stop abusing Erik, and he’s going to let him move out and go to New Jersey with Lyle.

Jose Menendez has never been a man who reacts well when given orders. And today is no different. Jose explodes, telling Lyle that what he does with Erik is no one’s business but his own. Frustrated, Lyle plays what he thinks is his ace card. He swears that he and Erik will tell people about what’s been going on—the police, other members of their family, anyone who will listen.

Jose’s reaction to this is strangely calm, though. He tells his son that he and Erik have made their decision, and now they’ll just have to live with that.

These words terrify Erik and Lyle. The next day, they drive to San Diego and purchase a pair of shotguns. They know that their parents own guns and are afraid that their threat to go to the police will provoke Jose and Kitty into using them.

After years of abuse, Lyle and Erik feel certain that it’s only a matter of time before their parents make a move. So the two brothers will make a snap decision. In their minds, they will see only two options: kill or be killed. But once they pull the triggers, their life will never be the same.

Act Two: Covered Tracks

It’s just after midnight on August 21st, 1989, in Beverly Hills, several hours after Lyle and Erik Menendez shot their parents to death.

The usually quiet North Elm Drive is a hive of activity. The flashing lights of police cars throw eerie shadows on the street while residents stand at the end of their driveways in designer sweat suits and plush bathrobes.

Lyle and Erik sit on the curb while a police officer stands watch. Behind them, more officers move through the Menendez home, documenting the crime scene in the family room and taking note of any evidence that could be used to trace the killers.

Earlier in the evening, before the shooting, Lyle and Erik had tried to leave the house. But they were stopped by their father, Jose, who then retired to the family room to watch a movie with Kitty. Lyle and Erik were already deeply paranoid and assumed their parents didn’t want them to leave because they were planning to kill them that night. So, they ran upstairs for their shotguns, then burst into the family room and fired until they ran out of ammunition.

After they shot their parents, Lyle and Erik expected to hear sirens immediately, but the street outside stayed quiet. It seemed that no one had called the police, so Lyle and Erik realized that if they acted quickly enough, they might get away with their crime.

The two brothers spent the next few hours disposing of the murder weapons and their bloody clothes, then they tried to establish an alibi by arranging to meet a friend across town. When they finally returned to North Elm Drive a little after midnight, they called 911 to report their “discovery” that their parents had been murdered.

Now, as investigators search for clues, Lyle and Erik wonder if they’ve done enough to cover their tracks. When questioned, Lyle tries to throw the police further off the scent by telling them his father had a number of shady business contacts, implying that Jose was somehow involved with the mob and that the murders might have been a hit. And although there’s no real evidence to back up this claim, this is one of the best leads detectives have in the early days of their investigation into what seems an otherwise baffling crime.

The late-night slayings of Jose and Kitty Menendez are splashed across newspapers and the evening news for weeks, but as the police investigation struggles for headway, interest in the case wanes.

Meanwhile, Lyle and Erik have inherited their parents’ wealth and start spending it lavishly. They buy Rolexes, designer clothes, cars, and property. Lyle even lays out hundreds of thousands of dollars to open a chicken wing restaurant. These showy purchases arouse suspicion with investigators, who then start taking a closer look at the brothers.

But their search for evidence against them proves fruitless until one woman comes forward to say that she knows something. She tells the police that Erik Menendez confessed to the murders to her former partner, therapist Dr. Jerome Oziel. And that he has tape recordings of the sessions that will prove it.

Police serve Dr. Oziel with a warrant to seize the records. Initially, he objects to being forced to hand over the tapes. But then he invites the detectives to sit down and listen to the recordings with him. On them, both Erik and Lyle openly discuss shooting their parents.

The police waste no time. Just hours after Dr. Oziel plays the tapes for investigators, Lyle is driving along North Elm Drive, not far from the family home, when police cars surround his vehicle. Within seconds, armed officers pull him from the driver’s seat and force him to the ground. He’s placed under arrest, and soon, he is joined in custody by his younger brother Erik.

At a hastily arranged press conference, the police hail their breakthrough in the case. They tell journalists that greed was the sole motive in the crime. Jose and Kitty Menendez were worth somewhere between eight and fourteen million dollars—the detectives suggest that Lyle and Erik wanted that money, and they were willing to kill to get it.

It’s a simple narrative that quickly takes hold among the public. But it’s not the full story. And it won’t be until the trial that a darker side of the picture-perfect Menendez family will be revealed. Then it will be up to the jurors to decide who they want to believe.

Act Three: The Verdict

It’s May 21st, 1996, in a courtroom in Van Nuys, about six miles north of Beverly Hills. It’s been almost seven years since Lyle and Erik Menendez shot their parents, and today, they’re waiting to learn their fate.

Erik, now 25, stands beside his attorney, Leslie Abramson. Her arm is draped over his shoulder. This is their second time going through a trial together. The first began in the summer of 1993, but the jurors were left divided after Lyle, Erik, and other witnesses gave testimony about the sexual abuse the brothers survived.

But at this second trial, the judge has disallowed most references to the abuse. The prosecutors argued that this matter was irrelevant to the case, and the judge agreed.

It was a devastating blow for the brothers. With their main defense ruled ineligible, they stood little chance. So now, as the clerk announces the verdict, it’s not a surprise to hear the single word: guilty, ring out.

The following month, Lyle and Erik are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. After that, the Menendez brothers are sent to separate facilities, and their story begins to fade from public consciousness. All attempts to lodge an appeal fail, and it seems Lyle and Erik will spend the rest of their days behind bars.

But then, two decades later, there’s renewed interest in the case, thanks to a 2017 television series about the murders. It comes in the middle of a national reckoning with sexual abuse by powerful men, so Lyle and Erik’s claims about their father suddenly carry more weight.

More television programs follow, including another scripted series and multiple documentary specials. Then, in 2023, one man comes forward to say that he was also sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a child, seemingly corroborating the stories Erik and Lyle have been repeating for decades.

In 2024, a judge grants Lyle and Erik’s appeal for resentencing in light of the brothers’ rehabilitation and the abuse that contributed to their crime. Their new sentence is reduced to 50 years to life, which makes them immediately eligible for parole.

But as the world waits to see if and when Lyle and Erik will be freed, not everyone is convinced they should be. Some say that even if the brothers were abused, there is no excuse for murder. Others go further and insist that the allegations against Jose are all lies from cold-blooded killers. So more than three decades after the crime, debate still rages about whether justice was truly served after Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents on August 20th, 1989.

Outro

If you're interested in more of the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, listen to Series One of the podcast American Criminal.

Next on History Daily. August 21st, 1911. A handyman steals the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in one of the most notorious art thefts of the modern age.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Supervising Sound Designer Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Joel Callen.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.