Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez revealed the chilling reason why they brutally killed their parents.
The brothers were arrested nearly three decades ago after shooting their father José, 45, and mother Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez, 47, at their home in Beverly Hills on August 20, 1989.
The case has been spotlighted in the second season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's Netflix series, Monster.
On the night of the parents' murder, Lyle, a then-22-year-old Princeton student, and Erik, a then-19-year-old professional tennis player, walked into their family home with firearms.
They shot their father five times, including one point blank in the back of the head, before turning the gun on their mother as she tried to flee. She was shot nine times, per Daily Mail.
The siblings discarded the gun, and their clothes and bought tickets to the cinema to see Batman. They then returned to their home and called 911, hysterically screaming that they discovered their parents' bodies, and even claimed that it may have been carried out by a mob.
Police believed their version of events, and did not initially suspect them. However, they soon became suspicious after the brothers started spending their inheritance on expensive cars and watches, weeks after they'd slain their parents.
But it wasn't until a therapy session with Dr. Jerome Oziel that their suspicions were confirmed. In the recording, which was taped on 11 December 1989, the brothers told Oziel that they had killed their mother to put her "out of her misery" while their father deserved to die because "his infidelity had led to that misery," as cited by LA Times.
The siblings were apprehended six months after the murders. Lyle first in March 1990, before Erik handed himself in three days later. The case led to a highly publicized multi-year legal battle involving two juries, two trials, and one mistrial.
The Menendez brothers told the courtroom that they suffered years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of their deceased parents, saying they murdered them out of self-defense, per Forbes.
The first trial ended on January 13, 1994, in a mistrial. It wasn't until March 1996, that Lyle and Erik were found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder, according to Cosmopolitan.
The prisoners were sent to two different prisons but were reunited in 2018 after they were moved to the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
Neither Erik, now 53, nor Lyle, now 56, are eligible for parole and will spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Ryan Murphy's new true crime series - which brought us Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - has been released on Netflix.
In the show, Cooper Koch stars as Erik, while Nicholas Alexander Chavez takes on the role of Lyle. Chloë Sevigny plays their mother and Javier Bardem portrays their father José.
You can watch Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story now.
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