Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez are speaking out.
While the 1989 slayings of their parents José Menendez and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez and their subsequent conviction for the crime recently served as inspiration for Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix drama, in the documentary The Menendez Brothers, the duo are sharing their story in their own words.
“Everyone asks why we killed our parents,” Lyle, speaking by telephone from prison, said in the Sept. 23 trailer for the upcoming documentary. “Maybe now people can understand the truth.”
Looking back on the 1993 trial, he reflects on how the press coverage shaped how people viewed them and their life.
“There was a media spectacle from the beginning,” Lyle explained in a voiceover, “so we were not the ones who told the story of our life.”
As Erik put it, “We looked like the perfect family, but behind the walls, something very wrong was happening.”