In Aug. 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez blasted their parents with shotguns so many times that police initially thought it was a mob hit. After months of extravagantly spending their inheritances, the brothers were arrested, and convicted of the murders in a widely publicized 1996 trial—despite their attempts to argue that the grisly attack was incited by sexual abuse at the hands of their father and fear for their lives.
Now, a new season of the Ryan Murphy true-crime anthology, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, has brought renewed attention to their crimes.
The brothers have lived relatively quietly over the last three decades—at least compared to the media frenzy that enveloped them in the 90s. But being locked up isn’t the end of their story: since then, the pair has fought to reunite with each other, found love with women through the prison mail system, and uncovered new evidence that they hope will set them free.
Erik and Lyle Menendez during their trial.
Ted Soqui/Getty
After their conviction, the pair were separated and sent to different prisons. In the intervening years, Lyle had repeatedly requested a transfer to be with his brother. It was finally granted in Feb. 2018, when he was moved south from Northern California’s Mule Creek State Prison to Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, in San Diego, where Erik had been since 2013.
The brothers were finally moved to the same cell block on April 4, 2018, in what journalist Robert Rand told ABC News was an emotional reunion. Upon seeing each other, both brothers—who had previously only communicated by mail—“burst into tears immediately,” he said.
They can now see each other at meals and in the exercise yard, Rand added.
They’ve made friends in prison, too, like rapper and convicted murderer Anerae “X-Raided” Brown, who told the New York Post that Lyle and Erik became mentors to him. He said they encouraged him to take courses in anger management and attend Narcotics Anonymous.
Not all inmates, though, have loved the brothers’ personalities. Eugene Weems, who says he was friends with Lyle at Mule Creek State Prison, reportedly encouraged him to be more respectful to other inmates.
“He’s a coward, he’s very disrespectful, he is flamboyant and he thinks he’s better than everyone else,” Weems told the Post. “This is how he is, this is truth. I dealt with him, we were friends.”
In addition to friendship, the brothers have both also found love while in prison.
Erik Menendez’s wife, Tammi.
Chris Morton/Online USA
Anna Eriksson, a Chicago-born model, first reached out to Lyle during his trial, sending him a message that read, “Hang tough,” she reportedly told People in 1996.
“All I can say is that we’ve connected, even though we’ve never touched,” she also said.
Although the two married in a less-than-legal over-the-phone ceremony in 1996, their relationship ended in 2001 after Eriksson discovered Lyle’s involvement with another woman.
That woman was Rebecca Sneed, a magazine editor-turned-defense-attorney. They had corresponded for nearly a decade before their wedding in Nov. 2003, which took place in a prison visitation area.
“Our interaction tends to be very free of distractions, and we probably have more intimate conversations than most married spouses do,” Lyle told People in 2017. “We try and talk on the phone every day, sometimes several times a day. I have a very steady, involved marriage that helps sustain me and brings much peace and joy. It’s a counter to the unpredictable, very stressful environment here.”
Erik Menendez, like his brother, met his wife, Tammi Saccoman, through letters. The two soon became close and were married in 1999.
“You can’t imagine what it was like those first five years in prison never being told, ‘I love you.’ It makes you a colder, harder person,” Erik told People in 2005. “Tammi’s love has propelled me to become a better person.”
Neither brother is eligible for conjugal visits.
While Erik and Lyle have long since adapted to life behind bars, two new pieces of evidence have recently emerged, breathing life into their case.
One is a letter, allegedly written by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano in 1988, which seems to hint at his father’s abuse.
“I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now… Every night I stay up thinking he might come in,” the letter reads. “I’m afraid… He’s crazy. He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.”
Cliff Gardner, one of the brothers’ lawyers, told CBS News the new evidence backs up the abuse claims and lessens their culpability. He argues that the brothers should have been convicted of manslaughter rather than first-degree murder, which would have got them out of prison long ago.
The other piece of evidence is a sworn affidavit from Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, in which he says he was also abused by the brothers’ father, José.
Both pieces of evidence were highlighted in a petition Gardner filed in May 2023, arguing that the brothers’ convictions should be overturned. CBS News reported that the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the claims in the petition.
Lyle and Erik Menendez during their trial.
Mike Nelson/AFP via Getty
Some of those connected to the brothers are less than enthused with their reinvigorated push for freedom.
Hector Bravo Ferrel, a former corrections officer at the prison where the brothers are incarcerated, told the New York Post that he was not surprised by the move, saying it’s in line with their “sense of entitlement.”
For Milton Andersen, brother of Kitty Menendez, the concern is more personal. “They do not deserve to walk on the face of this earth after killing my sister and my brother-in-law,” he told the The New York Times.
