Who are the Menendez family, at centre of US murder case?

The mystery behind why two young men killed their wealthy parents in their plush Beverly Hills mansion in the late 1980s has prompted books, documentaries and dramas.

A jury in 1995 decided Lyle and Erik Menendez had committed murder in order to get a $14m (£11m) inheritance.

But their lawyers have always argued they acted in self-defence after years of sexual abuse.

On Monday, the brothers will appear in court in Los Angeles by video link to find out if their bid for freedom can proceed.

Here's what you need to know about the family at the centre of the story.

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He was born in New York and spent some of his childhood in New Jersey, before the family moved to California in 1986.

A year later, Lyle was accepted by Princeton University so moved back to the east coast to study. But he was suspended from the university for plagiarism and eventually withdrew.

He was 21 when he and his brother shot their parents Jose and Kitty multiple times at close range.

It was Lyle's 911 call that first alerted the police, with the words "someone killed my parents". But eight months later, he was the first son to be arrested.

He testified in the first trial that he had been sexually abused by his mother and father.

In the days before the murder, his brother had told him he had also been abused, so Lyle confronted his parents.

Arguments followed and Lyle told the court they were convinced they could be killed to stop the family secret coming out.

The case was declared a mistrial and Lyle chose not to give evidence at the retrial. He and his brother were sentenced to life without parole.

He married twice behind bars and his current wife is a magazine editor, Rebecca Sneed.

Younger brother Erik alluded to some of the abuse he allegedly suffered in a letter written to his cousin months before the killings. This was later unveiled as new evidence in the siblings’ case.

As well as the physical and sexual abuse, Erik, now 53, accused his father of pressurising him to succeed in fields such as tennis - in which he was a teenage talent.

He is also said to have expressed an interest in screenwriting, creating a script about a son who kills his wealthy parents for inheritance money.

Erik ended up with a criminal record - committing burglaries with his brother but avoiding jail time.

The brothers shot their parents when Erik was 18 - and it was the younger Menendez who first confessed to the crime, speaking to his therapist.

Erik married Tammi Saccoman in 1999, three years after his conviction, following a pen-pal relationship that turned into a romance.

He has incurred some rules violations while imprisoned in California, but is also reported to have become more religious and has spent time providing hospice care to terminally ill inmates.

Erik once told People magazine that he was a “good person” but “needed” to go to prison.

Born in Havana in 1944, the Menendez brothers’ father was sent by his parents to the US during the Cuban Revolution with little money.

After meeting his future wife Kitty, with whom he had his two sons, Jose went on to amass a fortune of millions of dollars working as a music and film executive.

That included as the head of top record label RCA - which signed artists including Duran Duran.

He gained a reputation as a ruthless businessman, and was described after his death by both sons as a harsh and overbearing parent who abused them.

He was 45 when he was killed on 20 August 1989.

Years after his death, Jose was accused of raping a member of boyband Menudo that was signed to RCA - an allegation that prompted his sons to request a new hearing in their own case.

The mother of Erik and Lyle was born Mary Louise Anderson in Oak Lawn, Illinois, in 1941, according to journalist Robert Rand - who wrote one of the definitive tellings of the incident and its aftermath, The Menendez Murders.

She met her future husband Jose Menendez in a philosophy class at Southern Illinois University, where she was studying communications.

The couple married in 1963 and moved to New York, and had their first son five years later. A second followed.

She raised the two boys in Princeton, New Jersey, as her husband was away a lot helping to run his huge record company.

His career took the family to the west coast, a move that reportedly made Kitty unhappy.

Her life ended aged 47 at the hands of her sons when she was shot four times in the head and five times in the body.

Members of Kitty’s family have had their say on the brothers’ new bid for freedom.

Her sister Joan Anderson VanderMolen said times had changed. When the sons were convicted in the 1990s, she said, “the whole world wasn’t ready to believe that the boys could be raped, or that young men could be victims of sexual violence". But “we know better", she added, and "a jury today would never deliver such a harsh sentence".

The brothers' cousin Diane VanderMolen has also supported their account, telling ABC News in 2017: "I know that they would never, ever have done what they did unless they felt that they had no choice - that it was either them or their parents."

But the family is not in total agreement.

A lawyer for Kitty’s brother, Milton Andersen, called the brothers "cold-blooded" and said their "actions shattered their family and left a trail of grief that has persisted for decades".

"Jose was shot six times, and Kitty was shot 10 times, including a shot to her face after Erik reloaded." Mr Andersen believes his nephews should stay in prison for their "heinous act", the lawyer added.

Previous statements have also suggested disagreement between Kitty's other brother Brian Andersen Sr - who in 2017 dismissed abuse claims against his sister as "insanity" - and his son, Brian Andersen Jr, who supports the brothers.