With the recent release of the Netflix drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and the follow-up documentary The Menendez Brothers, true-crime enthusiasts are now turning their attention to the Beverly Hills mansion where it all went down.
Posts of the house’s exterior and interior have been going viral on TikTok, gaining millions of views from those invested in the case. One video with 1.4 million views, posted on October 6 by user @manizzle_16, sees the user drive by 722 North Elm Drive in Los Angeles. Another video with more than 818,000 views, from a Menendez brothers fan account, shows a slideshow of photos of the house dating back to the 1980s, including the room where the murders took place.
On September 25, user @momonii_ posted a video they captioned, “Come with me to look inside the house where The Menendez brothers killed their parents.” Viewed over 1.1 million times, we see the TikToker walk right up to the front door and hold her phone up to the glass so that curious fans can catch a glimpse of the inside.
However, in another video, user @michaelpavano explains that people are getting the actual house confused with its neighbor. The Menendez mansion, recently purchased in March, is currently undergoing renovations and, as a result, is surrounded by a high, screened construction fence. In the video, with 398.1K views, he holds his phone over the fence to give viewers a glimpse of the real Menendez house. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to hop the fence and film something for you guys,” he says. “But that would be incredibly disrespectful and highly illegal. So obviously, I’m not gonna do that.” The famous house has changed hands many times in the 35 years since the murders, most recently selling for $17 million.
TikTok clips are often soundtracked to either “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” or “Blame It on the Rain” by Milli Vanilli, both of which appear in Monsters. Following the nine-episode series’s release, TMZ reported that the property has become a magnet for true-crime enthusiasts, with locals noticing an uptick in visitors hoping to see it firsthand.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were found guilty of murdering their parents in 1989 and have spent nearly 35 years behind bars. On October 3, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón revealed that his office would reexamine new evidence provided by the brothers’ lawyer, aiming to support their claim that the killings resulted from years of sexual abuse by their father and fear for their own safety.