"Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" stars Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny, and will premiere Sept. 19 on Netflix.
It has been more than 30 years since Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered their wealthy parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez.
The motive for that murder will be at the center of a new Netflix series about the boys, "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story."
This will be the second installment of the "Monster" anthology from creator Ryan Murphy, who in 2022 released "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story."
He assembled an all-star cast for this latest series, led by Academy Award-winner Javier Bardem as Jose Menendez and Academy Award-nominee Chloe Sevigny as his wife, Kitty.
Newcomers Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez will play brothers Erik and Lyle.
The two brothers were only teenagers on Aug. 20, 1989, when they walked into the den of their $5 million Beverly Hills mansion and shot their father point blank in the back of the head, then shot their mother in the leg as she tried to run out of the room.
In the end they shot their father five times and their mother nine, with the final bullet for each going into their kneecaps in what prosecutors would later claims was an attempt to make the murders look like a mob hit.
It was not until March of the following year however that police had enough evidence to arrest the brothers.
After they were arrested, the brothers alleged that they were driven to murder their father and mother after a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse, a claim that relatives of the brothers said was categorically false.
Jose was a Cuban immigrant who fled the country at the age of 16 after Fidel Castro took power and worked his way up from nothing to become CEO of RCA Records, where he was responsible for signing groups including the Eurythmics and Jefferson Starship. Two years before the murders, Jose pivoted into the film industry and took a role heading up the film studio now known as Artisan Entertainment.
After killing their father and mother, who was a former school teacher, the two boys got in their car and dumped the murder weapons before going to see the James Bond film "Licence to Kill." They later met some friends for drinks before returning home just before midnight, at which point Lyle called authorities.
'Somebody killed my parents,' said the older of the two brothers.
Police spoke with the brothers after arriving at the home but never checked either of the boys for gunshot residue, despite the fact that they were considered persons of interest from the start of the investigation.
Neighbors later told police that they had not thought to call 911 after hearing gunshots because they assumed the noise was just children playing in the neighborhood.
With no evidence to arrest the brothers, police began looking elsewhere for possible suspects.
Meanwhile, Lyle and Erik began to spend their father's fortune.
Prosecutors would later estimate that in the six months after their parents' murders, the two brothers spent $1 million on everything from a full time tennis coach to a Porsche. The brothers even invested in a restaurant in Princeton, New Jersey.
Their crime caught up with them however when Erik confessed to the murders during a session with his psychologist. Erik then called his brother Lyle to come join his session, and after he too detailed what the two brothers had done, the older brother threatened the life of the doctor, saying that if he ever told anyone they would kill him as well.
That psychologist, L. Jerome Oziel, happened to be having an affair at the time with a woman in his office who overheard what was said in the session.
Oziel later told his girlfriend in detail what had happened, and after the two broke up she went to police and revealed that the brothers had killed their parents and threatened Oziel's life.
She also informed police that the sessions had been taped.
The two were arrested soon after, and in a massive blow to their defense the state ruled that when Lyle threatened the life of their psychologist he voided the doctor-patient relationship that would normally have prohibited Oziel from testifying in court.
Some of the tapes were also allowed into evidence.
The two brothers were tried separately starting in 1993, and the first trial for both Lyle and Erik ended with deadlocked juries.
That was due almost entirely to the fact that it was at that first trial when the brothers claimed under oath that they had both been abused for years while being represented by two of the best defense lawyers in the country, who they paid for using the money they had inherited from their parents' $14 million estate.
On March 20, 1996, the brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder, receiving life sentences and being spared the death penalty.
They appealed their case all the way up to the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals but were denied every time.
The Menendez brothers are now serving their sentences at the same San Diego prison as they continue to fight to overturn their convictions.
Kitty's brother Milton Anderson previously told Inside Edition that his nephews should remain behind bars forever.
"They murdered for money," Anderson said in that interview.
He added: "These two guys were spoiled brats. They wanted the million. They wanted it now."
"Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story' will premiere Sept. 19 on Netflix.
