Erik and Lyle Menéndez phone in from Donovan Correctional Facility in the official trailer for Netflix‘s The Menéndez Brothers. Streaming Oct. 7, the documentary features new interviews with the brothers as they reflect on the murder of their parents nearly three decades ago and the sensationalized trial that followed.
“Everyone asks why we killed our parents,” Erik says in the trailer. “Maybe now people can understand the truth.” The documentary from director Alejandro Hartmann puts first-hand accounts from the Menéndez brothers in conversation with commentary from prosecutor Pamela Bozanich, their cousin Diane Vander Molen, and other experts on the 1996 trial for the murder of José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez. Both brothers are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.
In the trailer, Erik says: “Lyle was the only person that had ever protected me. What happened that night is very well known, but so much hasn’t been told.” Looking back on the trial, Bozanich states that she knew from the beginning that their motive for murder was rooted in “plain old greed.” The brothers have maintained that it wasn’t about wealth at all, but rather years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. “Two kids don’t commit this crime for money and there’s people that believe I shouldn’t spend the rest of my life in prison,” Erik says, with Lyle adds: “We would much rather lose the murder trial than talk about the sick secrets of the family.”
The Menéndez Brothers comes on the heels of Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story, which premiered on Netflix last week. The series recreated the scenes of the night of the murder and the events that followed. It also included some creative liberties taken on Murphy’s part, including a seemingly incestuous plot line that sparked backlash from viewers as well as Erik Menéndez and his wife Tammi.
“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show,” Erik wrote in a statement shared by Tammi on social media. “I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.”
Following the release of the series and subsequent statements, actor Cooper Koch — who played Erik in Monsters — visited the two brothers in prison alongside Kim Kardashian. Koch and Kardashian spoke to a group of around 40 inmates, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Their conversation reportedly centered around prison reform and was also delivered in the company of Khloé Kardashian, Kris Jenner, and Anti-Recidivism Coalition founder Scott Budnick.
