The 10 biggest revelations in the Menendez Brothers documentary.

It's officially Menendez brothers month on Netflix, with the release of a new documentary about the case.

The new Alejandro Hartmann-directed true crime documentary, The Menendez Brothers, follows the release of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

The nine-part dramatisation of the Menendez brothers' story begins with the murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in 1989. The series stars Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as Lyle and Erik.

Watch the trailer. Post continues after video.

After two trials, Lyle and Erik were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 for José and Kitty's deaths. The brothers have long maintained they acted in self-defense after enduring years of alleged sexual, emotional and physical abuse.

The Menendez brothers are currently serving life in prison without the chance of parole.

In response to the Ryan Murphy series, Erik rejected it as a "dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime."

The documentary serves as an opportunity for the men to share their stories in their own words.

For the first time in almost 30 years, the brothers have spoken out in joint audio interviews for the documentary, which features interviews with the Menendez family, as well as players involved in the '90s case.

So what did we learn? Here are some of the biggest revelations from The Menendez Brothers on Netflix.

The Menendez brothers shared their state of mind after the murders.

After murdering their parents, Erik said he was left "shell-shocked" and claimed he would have easily confessed to the killings if put under any pressure.

"If they [police] would have just pressed me, I wouldn't have been able to withstand any questioning. I was in a completely broken and shattered state of mind," he said.

Erik questioned the police's procedure on that fateful night, as the brothers lacked an alibi and had kept the shotgun shells in their car.

"The gunpowder residue was all over our hands. Under normal circumstances, they give you a gunpowder residue test, and we would have been arrested immediately," Erik said.

Erik said that leading up to the murders and then after, he struggled with suicidal ideation.

"One of the things that kept me from killing myself is that I was, I felt like I would be a complete failure to my dad at that point," he said.

The Menendez family. Image: Netflix.

The Menendez brothers remained protective of their parents.

After being arrested and going to trial, Lyle admitted he was resistant to sharing his father's alleged sexual abuse, even claiming he'd rather go to jail than reveal their history.

"I would much rather lose the murder trial than talk about our past, and what had happened," Lyle reflected.

Erik shared that he still has a special place in his heart for his mother, Kitty, but has complicated feelings about his father.

"I miss my mother tremendously. I wish that I could go back and talk to her and give her a hug and tell her I love her, and I wanted her to love me and be happy with me and be happy with that, that I was her son and feel that joy and that connection," he said.

"It's more difficult with my father. To me as a boy, he was more than just a man; he was like the modern version of an ancient Greek god. He was different than any man I had ever met. And I simply idolised him. I wanted to be like him. But he was rarely a dad."

The Menendez brothers attempted to explain their notorious post-murder shopping spree.

One part of the case and Monsters series that's hard to look past is how gleefully the brothers seemed to spend their family's cash after the death of their parents.

Lyle and Erik bought three Rolex watches, a Porsche Carrera, a new Jeep Wrangler, and laid down a deposit on a restaurant in New Jersey.

Erik denies this shopping spree was any kind of celebration.

"The idea that I was having a good time is absurd," Erik said. "Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive."

Lyle agreed that his erratic behavior in the months following the murders wasn't all that it seemed. "I was not enjoying myself as a playboy… I was actually sobbing a lot at night, sleeping poorly, very distraught at times, and kind of adrift throughout this, all those months," he said.

The shopping spree featured in the Monsters series. Image: Netflix.

Erik Menendez blames himself for his brother's imprisonment.

All these years later, Lyle and Erik both carry shame for what happened, with Erik blaming himself for Lyle's arrest and conviction.

"Let's just be honest, he was arrested because of me, because I told Dr. Oziel. Because I couldn't live with what I did. I couldn't live with it. I wanted to die," Erik said. "In a way, I did not protect Lyle. I got him into every aspect of this tragedy. Every aspect of this tragedy is my fault."

Meanwhile, Lyle carries unresolved feelings about his younger years with his brother.

"I feel sometimes like I rescued Erik, but like, did I? I mean, look at his life, you know," he said.

José Menendez was worse than he was depicted in Monsters.

Something that didn't come across in Monsters is just how despised José Menendez was, by basically everyone he met.

This became apparent in the first trial.

"People who have such small contact with my father were saying, 'This is the most intimidating, worst human I have met in my whole life.' So that is why there were zero character witnesses on my parents' behalf," Lyle said. "Why couldn't you find that one person? Because they don't exist."

Even the state prosecutor, Pamela Bozanich (aka the lawyer who fought against the Menendez brothers in the first trial), agreed that José was universally despised.

"I couldn't find anyone to say anything nice about José Menendez except his secretary," she said. "The loss of José Menendez, in my mind, was an actual plus for mankind."

 José and Kitty Menendez. Image: Netflix.

Kitty Menendez's sister supports Lyle and Erik Menendez's claims.

In one of the most surprising parts of the documentary, Kitty's sister Joan Vander Molen stood firmly by Erik and Lyle's side.

She said she believes Erik and Lyle's sexual abuse claims.

"The fact that they didn't just have a dad that was doing this but a mother that knew about it and didn't help them, I don't understand how she didn't protect them," Vander Molen said. "I can't even explain it."

The '90s were an awful time for boys and men claiming to be sexual assault victims.

There are countless disturbing moments in the documentary but one of the most infuriating parts was the archival footage showing the reactions to the Menendez brothers' case in the early '90s.

After the brothers alleged that their father had been sexually assaulting them, the reactions from journalists, TV presenters and comedians were downright baffling.

Their allegations were almost completely dismissed as they were publicly ridiculed for their wealth and privilege. Two of the worst culprits were a tone-deaf Kathy Griffin set and a skit performed on Jay Leno's Tonight Show.

In response to the latter, Vander Molen admitted she reached out to the talk show. "I called Jay Leno's show one time to protest them making fun of them. And that's all they did — they just made fun of them. I was told that we were public property now, and they could do what they wanted."

Of course, a lot has changed in the 30 years since the men were convicted. The brothers credit young people on TikTok for keeping their case on the top of people's minds.

"Young people have taken the time to figure out what happened, and they understand it in ways that older people don't," Lyle said.

"I feel more hope when society seems to be understanding sex abuse even better."

 Lyle Menendez with his attorney Jill Lansing in 1994. Image: Getty. 

The prosecutor in the first trial is, errr… interesting!

Pamela Bozanich prosecuted the Menendez brothers' first trial in 1993, and she features throughout the new documentary.

It's clear from the outset that she still believes the Menendez brothers deserve to be in prison and she shares a few off-colour remarks about the growing campaign to free them.

"The only reason we're doing this special is because of the TikTok movement," she said.

"Your beliefs are not facts. They're just beliefs. And by the way, all you TikTok people, I'm armed. We got guns all over the house. So don't mess with me."

Alrighty then!

Leslie Abramson gave a tepid response to the case getting attention.

What about Erik's defense attorney who is featured prominently in the Monsters series? Leslie Abramson was invited to participate in the film but she declined the invitation.

Despite the passion she had for the brothers in the trials, she was surprisingly dismissive of the countless young people on TikTok trying to bring awareness to the brothers' case.

"Thirty years is a long time. I'd like to leave the past in the past," she said, in a message played at the end of the film.

"No amount of media, nor teenage petitions will alter the fate of these clients. Only the court can do that and they have ruled."

Leslie Abramson has moved on from the Menendez trial. Image: Getty.

Lyle Menendez has dedicated his life to helping sexual abuse survivors.

In the decades since they were convicted and sentenced, Lyle and Erik have found new passions in life.

Erik honed his artistic skills, sometimes painting as many as 12 hours per day, and has sent paintings to one of the ex-jurors who he kept in contact with.

Meanwhile, Lyle said he has become a "safe place" for inmates and strangers to confide in about their experiences with sexual assault.

"I began to receive a lot of letters from other victims, and I began to connect with their own experiences because they were similar to mine. There were a lot of people, professional people. I mean, I was getting letters from police officers, citizens, educated people, international people who had gone through this," he said.

"I was sort of Father Confessor in that way, and it's kind of ironic that I would be the one who ended up devoting my life in prison to sex abuse survivor issues. I would have never have predicted any of that."

After initially being separated in different prisons, which Erik protested with a hunger strike, the brothers were eventually reunited at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in April 2018.

The Menendez Brothers is currently available to stream on Netflix. 

Feature image: Netflix.