After the breakout success of “Dahmer,” Ryan Murphy returns to Netflix Sept. 19 with “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” the second installment in his true crime anthology series.
After murdering both their parents in 1989, the Menendez Brothers became household names in the early ’90s when their criminal trial was broadcast nationwide. Erik Menendez’s legal council, led by attorney Leslie Abramson, cited self-defense against the brothers’ abusive father, José Menendez, and their complacent mother, Kitty Menendez, as justification for the killings. Pam Bozanich, one of the prosecutors, argued the motive was financial gain, supported by the Menendez Brothers’ exuberant spending of their family’s fortune following the murders.
The first trial ended in a hung jury. The Menendez Brothers’ case was retired until 1995 when they were called in for retrial. The second trial was less publicized because cameras were banned…
