4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
August 20, 1989. Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot and kill their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion, sparking a decades-long nationwide debate about what justice looks like.
History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.
Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad-free. |
0:04.1 | Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondry app. |
0:06.0 | As a member of NoisorPlus at noisor.com or in Apple Podcasts, |
0:10.5 | or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com. |
0:16.6 | A listener note, this episode contains references to child abuse and murder |
0:20.3 | and may not be suitable for all audiences. |
0:31.6 | It's just before 10 p.m. on August 20, 1989, in a mansion in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. In a darkened ground floor hallway, |
0:41.0 | brothers Lyle and Eric Menendez stand beside the closed doors to the family room. Each of them carries |
0:46.6 | a loaded shotgun loosely by their side. As 21-year-old Lyle paces back and forth on the tile floor, |
0:53.8 | 19-year-old Eric has his eyes on the |
0:56.1 | crack beneath the door, watching the flickering glow from the television. The brother's parents, |
1:01.5 | Jose and Kitty, are watching a movie inside. Or maybe they're just pretending to, Eric thinks. Maybe |
1:07.4 | they're really plotting, getting ready to kill their own sons. Eric feels his |
1:12.5 | heartbeat faster. You can't take the waiting anymore. So he reaches out and puts a hand on |
1:18.1 | Lyle's shoulder. The brothers lock eyes and nod. Eric grips his shotgun tight in one hand, |
1:24.1 | and with the other, he throws open the double doors to the family room. It's dark inside and the light from the TV is the only thing illuminating their parents |
1:31.3 | sitting on the plush couch. Eric and Lyle storm into the room without saying a word. |
1:37.3 | They simply raise their weapons and start firing. |
1:49.6 | In the coming days, the brutal murder of Jose and Kitty Menendez will make headlines around the country. |
1:51.4 | Gossip about the crime will ripple through Los Angeles as people struggle to make sense |
1:55.3 | of the wealthy couple's deaths. |
1:57.5 | But these initial shockways will be nothing compared to what happens when Lyle and Eric Menendez |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 13 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Airship | Noiser | Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Airship | Noiser | Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.