Why Did the Menendez Brothers Kill Their Parents? The True Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez By Jessica Sager and Samantha Stutsman

Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, on the evening of Aug. 20, 1989, in their Beverly Hills home.

Each armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, Lyle, then 21, and Erik, then 18, shot their dad and mom over a dozen times. They fired at José at point-blank range and kept shooting Kitty as she was trying to flee.

The prosecution believed that the siblings killed their parents to access the family’s fortune of more than $14 million. Still, Lyle and Erik have maintained that they murdered José and Kitty due to ongoing mental, physical and sexual abuse.

“I’m not saying what I did was right or justifiable. I needed to go to prison. But place another child in my life and see what happens,” Erik told PEOPLE in 2005. “I felt it was either my life or my parents’ life. … Being arrested was such a relief. My life was over, and I was glad. I didn’t want the money.”

The Menendez brothers, whose story was at the center of the 2024 Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, were each sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996. However, in May 2025, Lyle and Erik were resentenced to 50 years to life in prison, which made them immediately eligible for parole.

Erik was denied release at his parole hearing on Aug. 21. Lyle’s hearing is scheduled for Aug. 22.

Here’s everything to know about the true story behind José and Kitty Menendez’s murders at the hands of their sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez, including their motive and aftermath.

Who are the Menendez brothers?

The children of Hollywood executive José and former pageant queen Kitty, Lyle and Erik were born into wealth and privilege.

After graduating from Beverly Hills High School in 1987, Lyle attended Princeton University, where he played varsity tennis. He was reportedly suspended for plagiarism after his first semester but returned in early 1989 and dropped out again later that year.

During his year away from Princeton, he asked his father for money for a trip to Europe with a girlfriend; when José refused, Lyle’s girlfriend paid his way.

Meanwhile, Erik was an aspiring tennis player who had planned to attend UCLA but rescinded his enrollment after the murders. In 1987, he wrote a screenplay in which an 18-year-old murders his rich parents for their money.

Lyle and Erik claimed that José sexually abused them as children, which they cited as their reason for murdering José and Kitty in their Beverly Hills home.

How did the Menendez brothers kill their parents?

Armed with 12-gauge shotguns, Lyle and Erik shot their parents over a dozen times in their Beverly Hills home on Aug. 20, 1989.

The brothers have maintained that they fought with José before the slayings, with Lyle trying to protect Erik from their father’s abuse.

After the murders, Lyle called 911, saying between sobs that he and Erik had come home from watching a movie to find their parents dead. Lyle later attributed his sobs on the phone to being “broken down with stress” and trauma.

In the months after the killings, the brothers both spent money lavishly: Lyle purchased a café, a Rolex watch and expensive clothing, while Erik hired a full-time tennis coach to pursue the sport professionally.

The weapons were never recovered, but a friend of the brothers found a shell casing in Lyle’s jacket pocket. It wasn’t until police obtained recordings from Erik and Lyle’s therapist, L. Jerome Oziel, that they had “crucial evidence” pointing to parricide.

Why did the Menendez brothers kill their parents?

The prosecution’s narrative is that Lyle and Erik murdered their parents for money, but the brothers, having admitted to killing them, alleged that it was due to ongoing physical, emotional and sexual abuse from their parents.

Defense witnesses corroborated that the brothers’ upbringing was less than idyllic. Charles Wadlington, Lyle and Erik’s childhood tennis coach of five years, alleged that José forced them to practice in the rain, cold weather, on holidays and even when they were sick.

“He was just a scary guy,” Wadlington testified. “You could tell he had some kind of hold over them.”

The main focus of the defense and the brothers’ stated motive was the sexual abuse. Lyle testified that José began molesting him and showing him violent pornography when he was about 6 years old. Lyle also recalled that when he first told his mother, Kitty, about the abuse, she staunchly denied it.

“I told my mom to tell Dad to leave me alone, that he keeps touching me,” Lyle said during the trial, according to The New York Times. “She told me to stop it, that I was exaggerating and my dad had to punish me when I did things wrong.”

Lyle also alleged that Kitty’s mental health had been “deteriorating” and that she later participated in the abuse, making him watch her undress and putting his face in his sheets when he wet the bed.

The brothers claimed that when Lyle was about 8 years old, José stopped sexually abusing him and began sexually abusing 6-year-old Erik.

“I was my father’s prized son,” Lyle told PEOPLE in 2017. “At the same time I had been very brutalized by him and keeping his secret was a part of who I was. What I regret is not having our family somehow get this secret out earlier and maybe it could have been resolved without this tragedy and destruction.”

In A&E’s 2017 docuseries The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All, Erik recalled his own experiences in harrowing detail. “He would have me massage him, and he would have me perform oral sex on him,” he said. “He would graphically describe to me how he would kill me if I ran away.”

Erik told PEOPLE in 2005 that his childhood was far from the wealthy and spoiled life that the prosecution suggested he and Lyle had. “Oh, people say that I had everything, that I was rich and lived in Beverly Hills,” he explained. “But if you had photos of the events of my childhood, they would be crime photos. I was dying long before the night I killed my parents.”

What happened to the Menendez brothers after their arrest?

Lyle was arrested in March 1990, and Erik was arrested at the airport three days later after flying home from a tennis tournament in Israel. The brothers were each charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Their first trials, which were conducted separately and broadcast on Court TV, ended in two hung juries. In a second trial, the brothers were tried together, resulting in their convictions, and they were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996.

Are the Menendez brothers still in prison?

Yes, Lyle and Erik are currently serving out their sentences at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, according to public records.

In May 2025, the brothers became eligible for parole after a Los Angeles judge reduced their sentences from life in prison without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life.

Erik went before a California parole board on Aug. 21, but they denied his release.

“While we respect the decision, today’s outcome was, of course, disappointing and not what we hoped for,” a spokesperson for the Menendez brothers said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. “But our belief in Erik remains unwavering. We will continue to stand by him and hold to the hope he is able to return home soon.”

Lyle’s parole board hearing will take place on Aug. 22.

Does the Menendez brothers’ family support them?

Most of the Menendez brothers’ family members believe that they were sexually abused and reportedly “rallied around” Lyle and Erik after the slayings. One close family member told PEOPLE, “There are certain things in life people do not make up.”

Kitty’s eldest sister, Joan Vander Molen, echoed the sentiment, telling PEOPLE in 2017, “Our family tragedy should be a lesson to all on the destructive effects of child abuse and molestation, whether they are wealthy or not.”

Lyle and Erik’s cousin Diane Vander Molen told ABC News that, in 1976, Lyle confided in her that José sexually abused him. She also recalled telling Kitty, who reportedly said that Lyle was lying and separated him from Diane — and that was the last Diane heard about it.

Kitty’s brother, Milton Andersen, however, said the abuse allegations were “bull.”