The Menendez brothers, Lyle and Erik Menendez, marked a dark anniversary on August 20, 2024 — 35 years since they killed their parents, José and Kitty Menendez.
While José, an entertainer, and Kitty, a former teacher, were watching television in their Beverly Hills home on August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik shot them at point-blank range with shotguns – then called 911 themselves, saying they had come home from night out and found the dead bodies of their parents. The intrigue in the case was almost immediate, with the initial investigation eyeing the mob as potential suspects.
But notes from the brothers’ therapists, a shotgun shell and a script pointed to Lyle and Erik who prosecutors said were privileged, spoiled and eager to cash in on their father’s $14 million fortune. Lyle and Erik had three separate trials, during which they claimed that José was physically, emotionally and sexually abusive and that Kitty was addicted to drugs and alcohol, physically abusive and the enabler of José.
In March 1996, the brothers were convicted of two counts each of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. They are now incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
However, in 2023, Lyle and Erik’s lawyers filed a motion to overturn the brothers’ convictions in light of new evidence — letters Erik wrote eight months before the murders and Roy Rossell’s claims that José drugged and raped him in the 80s.
Lyle and Erik’s case and conviction have been the subject of several television projects over the years, from A&E’s The Menendez murders: Erik tells all 2017 at Peacock’s Menendez + Menudo: The Boys Betrayed 2023. Their chilling true story is also the subject of Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez.
“Looking back at the trials, Erik and I and our family thought we were going into a manslaughter case with a district attorney who understood the traumatic effect of sexual assault on a person,” Lyle said in the 2024 Fox Nation documentary series. The Menendez brothers: Victims or criminals. “And we ended up with the same sentence as a serial killer.”
From their time in prison to their marriages, here’s everything you need to know about the Menendez brothers and where they are now.
Where are the Menendez brothers now?
Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez in court in 1990. Nick Ut/AP
For more than 20 years, Lyle and Erik were incarcerated separately, with Lyle at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif., and Erik about 500 miles away at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Institution in San Diego County. The brothers hadn’t spoken in years, although they communicated by letter (and played chess by mail). In February 2018, Lyle was moved to another apartment with Richard J. Donovan — and in April of the same year, Erik moved into the same apartment as Lyle.
When the Menendez brothers were reunited, they burst into tears and Lyle whispered, “Finally,” he told DailyMailTV. “It was just an extraordinary moment,” he added. “It’s just something I wasn’t sure would ever happen.”
In 1999, Erik married his longtime pen pal Tammi Ruth Saccoman, with whom he shares his stepdaughter, Talia. Tammi wrote a book, They Said We’d Never Make It: My Life With Erika Menendezabout their relationship and experiences. Erik also took up painting – and even gave a portrait to comedian Kathy Griffin – and, with other inmates, tried to reform the prison.
“Getting arrested was such a relief. My life was over and I was glad,” Erik told PEOPLE in 2005, adding that he was never motivated by money. “When I was arrested and put in jail, that person I was started to re-emerge. I had to find it myself.”
Lyle served as president of the inmate government at Mule State Creek Prison before he was transferred and worked in a support group for other inmates who had suffered sexual abuse. From 1996 to 2001, he was married to Anna Eriksson. Two years later, he married Rebecca Sneed, with whom he said he had a healthy relationship.
“I have a very stable, involved marriage and that helps sustain me and brings a lot of peace and joy,” Lyle said in 2017. “It’s a counter to the unpredictable, very stressful environment here.”
Will the Menendez brothers ever get out of prison?
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Erik and Lyle Menendez in Los Angeles.
Kim Kulish/Sygma/Getty
The Menendez brothers are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, but there have been attempts to overturn their convictions. The brothers’ lawyers filed a motion with the court on May 3, 2023, citing Rosselló’s allegations against José featured in the Peacock documentary series Menendez + Menudo: The Boys Betrayed as well as a newly discovered letter Erik wrote to one of his relatives describing his father’s sexual abuse just months before the murders.
“The new evidence not only shows that Jose Menendez was a very violent and brutal man who sexually abused children, but strongly suggests that he was — in fact — still abusing Erik Menendez as late as 1988,” the filing reads in part, according to documents that got Los Angeles Times. “Instead, the crime was manslaughter, not murder. The murders occurred in imperfect self-defense, after a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse by their parents.”
The filing also noted that in their second trial, evidence of the alleged sexual abuse they suffered was excluded, and prosecutors accused the brothers of fabricating the allegations because they were never substantiated. Lyle and Erik’s attorneys have asked for an evidentiary hearing or to overturn the brothers’ convictions and sentences.
What new evidence has been discovered regarding the Menendez brothers?
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Erik and Lyle Menendez on the steps of their Beverly Hills home in November 1989.
Ronald L. Soble / Los Angeles Times via Getty
In April 2023, Rosselló, a former member of the popular Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, seemingly corroborated Lyle and Erik’s stories of abuse when he told his own story about José.
He claimed that a Hollywood executive drugged and raped him as a teenager.
“I know what he did to me in his house,” Rosselló said Menendez + Menudo: The Boys Betrayed. “That’s a pedophile,” he added, referring to José’s photo.
Along with Rosselló’s statement, the brothers’ lawyers also produced a never-before-seen letter written by Erik in 1988. It was discovered by José’s sister Marta Cano and addressed to her late son Andy.
“I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening, Andy, but now it’s worse,” the letter read. “I can’t explain it. He [sic] so fat I can’t bear to see him. I never know. When it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy. I stay up every night thinking he might come in. I have to put it out of my mind.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has yet to decide whether to retry Lyle and Erik based on the new evidence.
What did the Menendez brothers say about their crimes and imprisonment?
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The trial of LYLE and ERIC MENENDEZ. Ted Soqui/Sygma/Getty
Erik gave his first full-length interview of 2017 for A&E’s docuseries The Menendez murders: Erik tells all. He shared graphic details of encounters with his abusive father, including one “overwhelming memory” of José banging on his bedroom door.
“He would let me massage him and let me give him oral sex. He would vividly describe to me how he would kill me if I ran away,” Erik recalled.
The younger Menendez brother also expressed regret over the killings, saying, “I wanted to go back in time. I wanted to take everything that Lyle and I had done.”
That same year, Lyle spoke to PEOPLE. He also admitted that he still “carries guilt” over his parents’ murders.
“This tragedy will always be the most incredible and saddest thing that has ever happened to me in my life,” he said. “You can’t escape memories, and I stopped trying a long time ago.”
While in prison for the past three decades, the Menendez brothers tried to be “productive” people. In June 2024, Lyle graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UC Irvine along with 23 of his inmates, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in urban planning.
“I just decided, even though I’m in prison and there’s no hope of freedom, I still have a chance to feel proud of what I do with my day,” Lyle told the crowd at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville by phone. “Education seemed like an obvious answer to that question.”
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Source: HIS Education