On Aug. 20, 1989, two sobbing brothers called 911 claiming they had just discovered their parents shot to death in the living room of their Beverly Hills mansion — an apparent gangland killing resulting from their father’s business dealings, the brothers later claimed.
But in a shocking reversal, Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, were charged and eventually convicted in the brutal shotgun killings of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. In 1996, they were sentenced to life in prison.
The case captivated viewers across the United States, as one of the first criminal trials to be broadcast in full on cable television. Now their story is being revisited in a Netflix drama from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan that explores the brothers’ motives for murder — including their claims of abuse at the hands of their parents, and prosecutors’ suggestions that the slayings were a money grab…