The Menendez Brothers,
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” tells the story of the 1989 murders of two brothers and their trials. Since then, a lot has changed.
Having arrived in America as a destitute youngster, José Menendez was driven to achieve success and set high standards for both himself and his two kids, Lyle and Erik. The Menendez brothers would later claim, meanwhile, that their desire for wealth and status had a lethal side that no one was aware of.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is about the 1989 killings of José and his wife, Kitty, by their children, which occurred 35 years later. The new season of the Netflix anthology series, which follows the hugely popular first chapter featuring serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, premieres on Thursday and stars Academy Award winner Javier Bardem as José Menendez.
The Menendez killings were among the most horrifying in recent memory, even without the added element of family strife. However, the brothers’ claimed terrible truths about their father, José, cast a shadow over the case even now.
José left Cuba when he was a teenager.
1944 saw the birth of José Menendez in Havana, Cuba. His mother was a brilliant swimmer and a member of the nation’s sports hall of fame, while his father was a soccer player and accounting firm owner, according to crime researcher and author Rachel Pergament. Terry and Marta were his two elder sisters.
José’s mother spoilt him and he became known as a troublemaker throughout Cuba. A family neighbor named Alicia Hercz told 20/20, “He was the only boy, and [his] mother adored him and emphasized his machismo and his male image, so much so that he became a little bit of a bully.” He started to act like a little monster toward his parents. It was challenging.
José’s parents made the difficult political decision to move their son to the United States in 1959, after Fidel Castro had taken over as leader of the Cuban Revolution. The teenager made his home in an attic belonging to a cousin in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. He struggled to learn English because he couldn’t speak it and wanted to keep up his marks in high school.
José, like his mother, was a skilled swimmer who was accepted to Southern Illinois University on an athletic scholarship. He met Mary Louise “Kitty” Andersen, a senior who was two years older, when he was a freshman. José married Kitty in 1963 over his family’s objections, saying he was too young. José was 19 at the time. After moving to New York City, José changed his college to Queens College in order to complete his accounting degree.
In the end, José and Kitty had two boys. Erik arrived in November 1970, after Lyle arrived in January 1968.