José emigrated from Cuba as a teenager

José Menendez was born in Havana, Cuba in 1944. According to crime researcher and author Rachel Pergament, his father was a soccer player who owned an accounting firm, while his mother was a star swimmer and member of the country’s sports hall. He had two older sisters, Terry and Marta.

In Cuba, José was spoiled by his mother and developed a reputation as a troublemaker. “He was the only boy, and (his) mother adored him and emphasized his machismo and his masculine image, so much so that he became a bit of a bully,” said Alicia Hercz, a neighbor of the family, 20/20. “He became a bit of a monster for the parents. It was hard to keep him under control.”

After Fidel Castro seized power in 1959 following the Cuban Revolution, José’s parents decided to send their son to the United States to escape the tumultuous political climate. The teenager settled in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where he lived in a cousin’s attic. Although he did not speak English, he worked hard to learn the language and keep his grades up in high school.

Like his mother, José was an accomplished swimmer and received an athletic scholarship to Southern Illinois University. When he was a freshman, he met a senior named Mary Louise “Kitty” Andersen, who was two years older. Although his family objected, believing José to be too young, the 19-year-old married Kitty in 1963. The couple moved to New York City, where José transferred to Queens College to pursue a degree in accounting.

José and Kitty eventually had two sons. Lyle arrived in January 1968 and Erik followed in November 1970.

He was a tireless worker

Now that he had a family to support, José was more determined than ever to succeed in America. According to The Los Angeles TimesIn 1938, he got his first professional job at the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand. One of his clients, Lyon’s Container Service in Illinois, was so impressed with his work that the company hired him to be their controller. Within three years, José was president of the company.

José Menendez in 1988, the year before he was murdered

At age 35, he became executive vice president of U.S. operations for car rental company Hertz, a subsidiary of consumer electronics company RCA. A year later, RCA moved José to its records division and eventually named him chief operating officer. “His attitude was, ‘I’m a winner. I’m going to take this dog company and make it No. 1,'” John Mason, an entertainment attorney and friend of José, told the Times.

José expanded the company’s Latin music catalog and helped sign well-known groups including Duran Duran, the Eurythmics, and the boy band Menudo. His success allowed him to move the family from New Jersey to California, first to the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas and then to Beverly Hills.

But along with his relentless drive to succeed, Menendez had a tendency to flaunt his power and status. According to the TimesLyle told stories of his father berating employees and mistreating waitstaff in restaurants. “I got that from my dad. They’re there to serve me,” Lyle once said, justifying his own similar behavior.

Behind the scenes, José was just as strict with his children.

José drove Lyle and Erik to perfection

Growing up, both Lyle and Erik, who had a reputation for being aloof and often kept to themselves, showed promise in sports such as swimming and tennis. Wanting them not only to succeed but to be the best of everyone, José coached his sons hard, perhaps too hard.

Erik won his swimming races with ease, but José would yell at him at the pool. “It seemed like José was so competitive, he did everything he could to make him better,” a former coach told the Times. “But he was so controlling, it had the opposite effect. Erik had so much less self-confidence because nothing he did was ever good enough.” When both of his children decided to play competitive tennis, José spent hours with them on the court behind their home near Princeton, New Jersey. They hit balls together as José shouted instructions.

His helicopter parenting extended beyond sports. José stepped in when Lyle and Erik were caught in two burglaries after the family moved to California. Erik took the fall and got probation so Lyle could still attend Princeton University. When Lyle was accused of plagiarism at the Ivy League school and was suspended for a year, José insisted that his eldest son stay in New Jersey so he wouldn’t have to confess Lyle’s misdeeds to anyone, according to Vanity Fair.

José also allegedly clashed with Lyle over his girlfriends, which led to a rift between them. At the time of José and Kitty’s murders, Lyle was living in the guest house on the property rather than in the family home.

Although it was clear that the brothers harbored some resentment toward their father, no one expected that they would accuse him of such horrific abuse after their arrest.

The Menendez brothers said that José had sexually abused them

On August 20, 1989, the Menendez brothers shot their parents to death in their Beverly Hills home. Although the killings were initially believed to be mob-related or a business deal gone horribly wrong, Lyle and Erik were arrested in March 1990 and later charged with first-degree murder. The defense team argued that the brothers, fearing their father would kill them for revealing his alleged history of sexual abuse, shot their parents in self-defense.

During Lyle and Erik’s trials before separate juries, attorney Leslie Abramson called on more than a dozen family friends to corroborate their stories of emotional and sexual abuse, A&E reported. According to the TimesEach brother said that José had abused them—Lyle from ages 6 to 8 and Erik for about a dozen years from ages 6 to 18. Lyle also testified that his father hit him in the mouth and stomach and sometimes whipped him with a belt.

But after Lyle and Erik’s initial trials resulted in a jury that could not reach a verdict, a judge in their joint retrial ruled that the defense had not presented sufficient evidence of José’s alleged abuse. The brothers were convicted on March 21, 1996.

Since José’s death, more allegations have surfaced

Although the Menendez brothers remain in prison for life without the possibility of parole, more evidence has surfaced that further highlights their accusations against José.

In 2018, journalist and author Robert Rand discovered a letter Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano a year before José and Kitty were murdered. Erik, who was 17 at the time, described his father’s ongoing abuse. The letter was never presented to the court during the brothers’ trial. “I looked at it and I thought, ‘Oh my God, this could be really important to the case,’” Rand said. The Hollywood Reporter.

Although the brothers’ claims against their father have never been proven, they came under renewed scrutiny last year when Roy Rosselló, a former member of Menudo, the boy band José helped sign, accused the late music executive of raping him at a party in the mid-’80s. Rosselló was just 14 when he said the assault occurred. “I know what he did to me in his house,” Rosselló said in the documentary Menendez + Menudo: Boys BetrayedThe alleged abuse of the brothers plays an important role in the story of Monsters.

Watch Monsters Now on Netflix

All nine episodes of Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez has been streaming on Netflix since September 19. Javier Bardem stars as José Menendez opposite Chloë Sevigny as Kitty Menendez and Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as brothers Lyle and Erik.

Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as Associate News Editor in February 2023, and prior to that, he worked as a newspaper reporter and copy editor for nearly eight years. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he’s not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie or cheering on his favorite sports teams.