The Menendez Brothers: What to Know Ahead of the New Netflix Series

On Aug. 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez, ages 21 and 18, shot and killed their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion. Both were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 after two highly publicized trials, the first of which was broadcast on the then-nascent Court TV.

But in the 35 years since the crime, the public has become increasingly divided on whether the brothers were merely the stone-cold opportunists the prosecution said they were. Now Ryan Murphy — who has a longstanding knack for taking on stories at the intersection of true crime, celebrity and media — is weighing in with a new scripted version of their story, premiering Thursday on Netflix.

Titled “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” the series stars Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as Lyle and Erik, with Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny playing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. It is the second installment of the Monster anthology, created by Murphy with Ian Brennan. The first focused on the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

A lot has happened since 1989 — including numerous documentaries, podcasts and a “Law & Order” series — as the case and cultural attitudes have evolved. Need to get caught up? Here’s a brief refresher and an update on more recent developments.

The Menendez family story

Jose Menendez was a successful entertainment executive who fled his native Cuba for the United States on his own at the age of 16, shortly after Fidel Castro took power. He married his college girlfriend, Mary Louise Andersen, better known as Kitty. They had two sons, and after some time on the East Coast, the family settled in the Los Angeles area.