Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were raised in Princeton, were convicted in the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parent Jose and Kitty in Beverly Hills
The true crime tale of New Jersey-raised killers Lyle and Erik Menendez, convicted in the brutal shotgun slaying of their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, will be the subject of the newest Dick Wolf series, "Law & Order: True Crime."
The timeworn franchise -- only "Law & Order: SVU" remains on the air -- often fictionalizes sensational cases, but not this time, thanks to the public's current fixation with true crime, sparked by the success of Netflix's "Making a Murderer" and FX's "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story."
Like "The People v. O.J. Simpson," which wrapped Wednesday night, the new "Law & Order" will be an anthology that will tackle a single true crime case each season.
Most people associate the Menendez brothers with the culture of privilege bred in Beverly Hills, but the brothers were raised in Princeton, only moving to California, where Jose Menendez had become CEO of Live Entertainment, two years before the murders. Though the brothers were considered suspects from early on, it took six months for police to charge them, and the trial, which aired on Court TV, became a national obsession.
Their lawyers claimed the brothers killed their parents because Jose physically and sexually abused them, and that their mother Kitty was an alcoholic who let it happen. Prosecutors argued the brothers acted purely out of greed for their inheritance. They were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, SoundCloud or Spreaker."This case captured the public's attention like nothing before it as it examined taboo issues such as patricide and matricide in gruesome detail, all against a backdrop of privilege and wealth," says NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke in a statement. "We will recreate the cultural and societal surroundings of both the murders and trials when people were not only obsessed with the case but examining how and why these brothers committed these heinous crimes."
The first season will be eight episodes long.
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