1970-present
Erik Menendez Now: New Netflix Series in Progress about the Menendez Brothers
Erik Menendez, 52, and his 55-year-old brother, Lyle, will be the subject of the second season of Ryan Murphy’s hit Netflix anthology series Monster, following the success of 2022’s original series about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will debut on Netflix in 2024; an exact release date hasn’t been announced. Additionally, Netflix will have exclusive access to the Menendez brothers for an upcoming documentary feature about the infamous killers.
Who Is Erik Menendez?
Erik Menendez is serving a double life sentence for killing his parents with his older brother, Lyle. On August 20, 1989, the Menendez brothers shot their parents, José and Kitty, at their home in Beverly Hills. During their highly publicized trials, which began in 1993, the brothers claimed they acted in self-defense after years of physical and sexual abuse. Both were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996. Erik got married three years later and is still with his wife, Tammi, who wrote a book about their relationship in 2005. In 2023, the Menendez brothers filed a petition to vacate their convictions based on new evidence supporting their earlier testimonies that José sexually abused them.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Erik Galen Menendez
BORN: November 27, 1970
BIRTHPLACE: Blackwood, New Jersey
SPOUSE: Tammi Ruth Saccoman (1999-present)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius
Early Life
Erik Galen Menendez was born on November 27, 1970, in Blackwood, New Jersey, the younger son of José and Mary “Kitty” Menendez. José, a Cuban immigrant, had made himself into a successful entertainment executive, and he exerted tremendous pressure on his boys to succeed as well.
Shy and quiet, Erik grew up emulating his older brother, Lyle. Like his brother, he says José molested him for years. Lyle says he experienced the abuse for a few years as a young child, whereas Erik says the abuse began when he was 6 years old and continued until he was 18. The brothers separately confided in their cousins, one of whom told a disbelieving Kitty.
After the family moved to Southern California in 1986, Erik and Lyle fell in with more of a troublemaking crowd. Erik was twice nabbed for burglary in 1988, avoiding jail time but attending court-ordered therapy.
He took an interest in screenwriting, ominously creating a script about a son who murders his wealthy parents. Erik also demonstrated considerable talent at tennis, ranking No. 44 among 18-and-under players in the nation and No. 7 in Southern California rankings. His father put tremendous pressure on him to succeed in athletics, academics, and everything else.
“It seemed like José was so competitive, he was doing everything he could to try to make [Erik] better,” their former swim team coach told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. “But he was so completely overbearing, it had the opposite effect. Erik had so much less self-confidence because everything he did was never good enough.”
Around December 1988, when he was 18, Erik wrote a letter—that was rediscovered and made public decades later—to his cousin Andy Cano that describes how his father was still sexually abusing him and the emotional toll it caused. “I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening Andy, but it’s worse for me now,” the letter reads. “I can’t explain it. He [sic] so overweight that I can’t stand to see him. I never know. When it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy. Every night, I stay up thinking he might come in. I need to put it out of my mind.”
Murder of José and Kitty Menendez
On August 20, 1989, José and Kitty were shot and killed at home, an act that shocked neighbors in their ritzy Beverly Hills neighborhood. José was shot six times with a shotgun, while Kitty suffered 10 gunshot wounds. The crime was so brutal that police initially believed the slayings were a mob hit. Lyle called the police to report the murders, nearly two hours after they had taken place. Early investigations focused on business rivals and a porn executive who previously had problems with José.
Police didn’t give much thought to extensively questioning Erik and Lyle that night, but the men soon raised eyebrows by taking advantage of their newfound access to the family riches. Erik hired a personal tennis coach, spent money on flights abroad to compete in matches, and even put $40,000 into funding a Los Angeles rock concert. The two brothers spent a total of $700,000 in the six months after their parents’ deaths.
However, Erik was also becoming burdened with guilt, and in late October, he confessed the crimes to his therapist, L. Jerome Oziel. Upon learning of this, Lyle reportedly grew angry and threatened to kill Oziel if he told anyone else. But the therapist confided in his girlfriend, who in turn tipped off the police.
The brothers were arrested within days of each other in March 1990, and in late December 1992, they were indicted for first-degree murder. Tape recordings made by Oziel became a subject of legal jousting over the issue of doctor-patient privilege violation. Eventually, some of the tapes were admitted as evidence.
Trials and Conviction
The Menendez brothers’ trials went on to become a national sensation due to their broadcast on Court TV, then a relatively new cable television channel that later became TruTV. In July 1993, the trial for Erik and Lyle began, with separate juries designated for each defendant. The brothers testified that they had been subjected to years of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Their cousin Andy Cano also took the stand to back their abuse claims.
The night of the murders, the brothers claimed Lyle threatened to expose their father as a child molester, then they began to fear he would to kill them to keep them silent. “I thought I was going to die,” Erik testified about that night. In response, Erik claimed the brothers retrieved their shotguns, entered the den where their parents stood, and “just started firing.” He claimed to recall few specific details about the actual killings.
Prosecutors, who were seeking the death penalty, countered that the brothers wanted to get their hands on the family fortune. Shortly before he was killed, José Menendez reportedly discussed plans to write his sons out of his will, which prosecutors cited as a motive for the murders. In January 1994, a mistrial was declared when the juries were unable to decide on whether to convict for manslaughter or murder.
A second trial began the following year, this time with just one jury and no cameras present. The judge in the second trial limited the amount of testimony and expert witnesses regarding the brothers’ sexual abuse claims, which changed the direction of the case. Additionally, the judge didn’t allow the jury to consider a charge of manslaughter instead of murder. The brothers were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1996 and later sentenced to consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Life in Prison
Erik was originally sent to California’s Folsom State Prison, then later transferred downstate to Pleasant Valley State Prison. He spent years seeking a new trial after his 1996 conviction, fighting his way through the California courts along with his brother, but they were denied at every turn. In 2005, the case reached a federal appeals court, which refused to grant the Menendez brothers a new trial.
During an interview to promote his wife’s 2005 book, Erik expressed remorse over his parents’ murders, referring to his awareness of the crimes as “my real prison.” “People view me as this dark guy, a killer... It’s always been a struggle for me to realize that I’m the nation’s villain,” he told People magazine.“I’m really not. I’m a good person. I like who I am.”
At Pleasant Valley, he worked as a night janitor and read in his free time. He has grown more devoutly religious and led prayer groups while incarcerated, according to People magazine. His brother told ABC that Erik worked with terminally ill and physically challenged inmates.
The Menendez brothers are now both serving their time at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. In April 2018, they were placed in the same housing unit, where they would get to interact for the first time in more than 20 years by participating in educational and other rehabilitation programs together.
Upon see each other for the first time in decades, the brothers “burst into tears immediately,” journalist Robert Rand, who is intimately familiar with their case, told ABC News. “They just hugged each other for a few minutes without saying any words to each other. Then, the prison officials let them spend an hour together in a room.”
Wife
In 1999, Erik married pen pal Tammi Ruth Saccoman. Their wedding took place in the Folsom State Prison waiting room, where they used a Twinkie as their wedding cake. She has a daughter, Talia, from a previous relationship.
Tammi first wrote to Erik during his initial trial. “I saw Tammi’s letter, and I felt something,” he later told People. “I received thousands of letters, but I set this one aside. I got a feeling.” Their correspondence broke off when Tammi’s first husband died by suicide, but they eventually reconnected and met for the first time in August 1997.
In 2005, Tammi self-published the book They Said We’d Never Make It: My Life with Erik Menendez. The couple talks on the phone regularly and can kiss when she comes to visit. However, Erik is not allowed conjugal visits.
2023 Abuse Allegations against José Menendez
In April 2023, news broke about a forthcoming docuseries on Peacock called Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed with new allegations that José Menendez sexually abused a member of the boy band Menudo. When the series released the following month, Roy Rosselló detailed how José, who worked with Menudo in his capacity as a music executive, had drugged and raped him as a teenage in the mid-1980s.
“To be honest, I feel horrible,” Erik said in the series. “It’s sad to know there was another victim of my father. You know, I always hoped and believed that one day the truth about my dad would come out, but I never wished for it to come out like this.”
The claim offers faint hope that Erik and Lyle might be freed. In July, the Menendez brothers filed a petition asking the court to vacate their murder convictions in light of the new evidence. Additionally, their aunt had recently found the letter Erik wrote to their cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murders about his father’s continued abuse. The discovery allowed the Menendez brothers to cite it in their petition.
Menendez Brother Documentaries and Movie
In early 2017, ABC News aired Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers—American Sons, American Murderers. That June, Lifetime aired the movie Menendez: Blood Brothers, starring Courtney Love as their mom, Kitty.
The true crime anthology series Law & Order: True Crime debuted on NBC in September 2017, starring Edie Falco as the Menendez brothers’ controversial attorney Leslie Abramson. TV critic Verne Gay said the series basically amounted to “a good and particularly long episode of Law & Order,” though he praised Falco’s performance.
In October 2017, A&E dug into some of the motivating factors that fueled the brothers by interviewing Dr. Stuart Hart, who served as an expert defense witness during their trials. Then in late November, the network debuted the limited series The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All, featuring interviews with the younger brother and family members, as well as other exclusive footage.
The Menendez brothers will once again take over TV screens sometime in 2024 in a new season of Netflix’s hit anthology series Monster. In the first season, co-creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan focused their lens on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. An exact release date for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story hasn’t been announced. Additionally, Netflix will have exclusive access to Lyle and Erik Menendez for an upcoming documentary feature about the infamous killers.
Quotes
- People view me as this dark guy, a killer... I’m really not. I’m a good person.
- I’m not saying what I did was right or justifiable. I needed to go to prison. But place another child in my life and see what happens. I felt it was either my life or my parents’ life. It’s as if there was kerosene all over the floor that a match could light at any time. And my soul was burnt to death.
- Tammi is what gets me through. I can’t think about the sentence. When I do, I do it with a great sadness and a primal fear. I break into a cold sweat. It’s so frightening I just haven’t come to terms with it.
Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us!
The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us
Colin McEvoy joined the Biography.com staff in 2023, and before that had spent 16 years as a journalist, writer, and communications professional. He is the author of two true crime books: Love Me or Else and Fatal Jealousy. He is also an avid film buff, reader, and lover of great stories.
