Fact-Checking ‘Monsters’: Did Lyle and Erik Menendez Actually Have an Incestuous Relationship? What the Show Got Right and Wrong

Ryan Murphy‘s Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story brought one of the most notorious criminal cases of the 1990s back into the forefront, but not all of the dramatizations were accurate.

The series examines how and why Erik (Cooper Koch) and Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) murdered their parents, José (Javier Bardem) and Kitty (Chloe Sevigny) — including the brothers’ in-court allegations that their parents were sexually and emotionally abusive. After its release, Erik slammed the show for what he claimed were “horrible and blatant lies,” especially in the portrayal of his older brother.

“I can only believe they were done so on purpose,” Erik said in a statement that his wife, Tammi Menendez, shared on social media. “It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.”

Murphy responded to the criticism, telling Entertainment Tonight that he doubted Erik or Lyle saw the series and that his intent was to show multiple perspectives and let viewers interpret the crime and its causes for themselves.

“Our view and what we wanted to do was present you all the facts and have you do two things: make up your own mind about who’s innocent, who’s guilty, and who’s the monster, and also have a conversation about something that’s never talked about in our culture, which is male sexual abuse, which we do responsibly,” Murphy said, estimating that “60 to 65%” of the show focuses on the abuse the brothers alleged they endured.

Here is the fact vs. fiction of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

Did Lyle and Erik Menendez have an incestuous relationship?

In episode 2 (“Spree”) of Monsters, Lyle and Erik kiss on the lips, and in episode 6 (“Don’t Dream It’s Over”) Kitty finds Lyle and Erik showering together (though this scene is in a fantasy sequence). While some viewers felt that the Netflix series implied that Erik and Lyle murdered their parents in part because José and Kitty discovered they were in an incestuous relationship, there is no indication that this ever happened.

Both Lyle and Erik testified in court that they never had a sexual relationship. Lyle said on the stand that when he was 8 years old, he sexually abused Erik in the woods one time.

“Rumors were going around the trial that maybe there was some sort of weird relationship between Erik and Lyle themselves, but I believe the only physical contact they might have had is what Lyle testified, that when Lyle was 8 years old, he took Erik out in the woods and played with him with a toothbrush — which is what [their father] José had done with him,” Robert Rand, author of the 2018 book The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menéndez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation, told The Hollywood Reporter. “I certainly wouldn’t call that a sexual relationship of any sort. It’s a response to trauma.”

Did Dominick Dunne really insinuate that the Menendez brothers were in an incestuous relationship?

Journalist Dominick Dunne, played by Nathan Lane in Monsters, did, in fact, cover the Menendez brothers’ trials for Vanity Fair. In real life, Dunne never insinuated that Erik and Lyle were in an incestuous relationship.

In his later reporting for the magazine, Dunne expressed doubt that Lyle and Erik were sexually abused and praised their “acting” on the stand.

Is Lyle Menendez actually bald?

The storyline in Monsters that sees Lyle wearing a toupee and contending with his early on-set baldness was accurate. Lyle lost his hair at a young age and kept it a secret from his younger brother, wearing a state-of-the-art hairpiece that he purchased in 1988 for $1,450, according to one of Vanity Fair‘s 1994 stories on the brothers.

What’s more, in Rand’s book, the author claims that Kitty did, in fact, tear off Lyle’s toupee in a rage, causing him tremendous pain, as the hairpiece was designed to only be removed using a special solvent.

In real life, the defense claimed that when Erik saw Lyle without his toupee, he realized he was safe enough to reveal his own secret: that he had been enduring sexual abuse at the hands of their father since childhood.

Did José Menendez see Erik and Lyle approaching with shotguns?

In Monsters, Erik and Lyle, each brandishing shotguns, enter the living room where their parents are watching TV. José sees them and asks what they’re doing before they shoot him and Kitty.

In reality, José likely didn’t see the boys before he was killed, as he was shot from behind at point-blank range, according to the Los Angeles Times. Kitty did know her sons were the shooters however, as she saw them, survived the first few shots and tried to escape before they delivered the fatal blows.

Did Erik and Lyle Menendez actually go to the movies for an alibi?

In both the series and real life Erik and Lyle said they went to the movies and weren’t home at the time of the murders, but they only actually went to the movies and a busy restaurant for an alibi in Monsters. In real life, they never left the family home the night they murdered their parents.

“Twelve shots in the middle of Beverly Hills on a Sunday night, and no one calls the police. We’re waiting at the house, and no one shows up,” Erik recalled to ABC News in 1996. “I still can’t believe it. We didn’t have an alibi, all we did was say we were at the movies.”

Did the Menendez brothers play Milli Vanilli at their parents’ funeral?

According to Rand, Lyle did play Milli Vanilli’s “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” at a memorial service for his parents.

The author also shared on X (formerly Twitter) that several Milli Vanilli songs were played at a memorial service for José and Kitty at the Directors Guild of America on Aug. 25, 1989.

Did the Menendez brothers actually confess to their therapist?

Yes, and the true story is just about as dramatic as what was portrayed in Monsters. In the show, L. Jerome Oziel (played by Dallas Roberts) asks his mistress, Judalon Smyth (Leslie Grossman), to come to his office to serve as a witness after Lyle threatens to kill him. She listens in from the other side of a door as Lyle confesses to the murder of his parents. Oziel later tells Smyth he planned to put the taped confessions in a safe deposit box and would give her the key to it. Smyth, fearing for both of their lives, urges Oziel to go to the police with what he knows.

What actually happened is a bit different: In October 1989, Smyth said she did overhear Lyle and Erik telling Oziel that they killed their parents. However, Vanity Fair reported that it wasn’t until March 1990, after she and Oziel split, that Smyth tipped off police that she had audio recordings of their admission, ultimately leading to their arrest.

Weeks later, Smyth sued Oziel, accusing him of drugging and sexually assaulting her, as well as of physically abusing her during their relationship, according to the Los Angeles Times. The case was eventually settled.

Prosecutors and the Menendez brothers’ defense team fought over whether the tapes would be admissible in court for more than two years until the California Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that the majority of the recordings could be submitted as evidence.

When Smyth took the stand in Lyle and Erik’s 1993 trial, she walked back her original testimony and accused Oziel of “brainwashing” her into thinking she actually heard more details than she really did. In a 2015 episode of Murder Made Me Famous, Smyth alleged that she only heard bits and pieces of the brothers’ conversation, but that she did, in fact, hear them confess to the slayings.

Another moment in the series that happened in real life: Smyth really did say, “I would not want children that looked like Dr. Oziel.”

Did the Menendez brothers really have multiple trials?

While individual details within the Menendez brothers’ trials varied from what was portrayed in Monsters, they did indeed have multiple criminal trials before ultimately being convicted.

In the first trial in 1993, Lyle and Erik were tried separately with two different juries. After several weeks of deliberations, both juries were still divided over whether Erik and Lyle should be convicted of murder or of manslaughter, CBS News reported, and both trials ended in mistrials. The brothers faced the possibility of the death penalty if they’d been convicted of first-degree murder in the initial trial.

Lyle and Erik’s second trial, in 1995, played out much differently than the first: Lyle didn’t take the stand at all, and almost no testimony about the sexual abuse they claimed to endure was permitted in court.

Were there really earthquakes during the Menendez trials?

In Monsters episode 8, “Seismic Shifts,” an earthquake hits Los Angeles and delays jury deliberations in the first trial. This wasn’t just for dramatic effect: In January 1994, a 6.7-magnitude earthquake did indeed hit L.A., causing damage in the Van Nuys neighborhood where the courthouse was located, according to the Associated Press.

This led to delays in jury deliberations for Lyle’s first criminal trial; Erik’s first trial had already ended in a mistrial a week earlier.

Did Lyle Menendez actually write a book?

In Monsters, Lyle develops a relationship with a woman named Norma over the phone and plans to work with her on a book. It’s revealed that she’s recorded their conversations, which leads Lyle to not testify in his second murder trial because Norma’s recordings hurt his credibility.

In real life, a woman named Norma Novelli testified that she met Lyle in person when she visited him in prison and that their friendship continued through phone calls, per the Los Angeles Times. She claimed that Lyle consented to her recording their conversations because she couldn’t take notes fast enough during their conversations.

Novelli also alleged that after Lyle’s first trial, she learned that she could make money off of the tapes themselves, leading her to sell the audio to Dove Books for $12,500.

Did the Menendez brothers really fundraise for their defense attorneys?

In Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Erik’s defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, scolds the brothers in their second trial for fundraising to pay her fees, telling them that it makes them look bad.

In fact, Abramson actually helped Erik fundraise for his second trial instead of discouraging it. The Los Angeles Times reported that in March 1996, she sent out letters from her own firm on its letterhead soliciting donations for Erik’s defense fund to the tune of $1 million.

She wrote in part, “If I were rich I would gladly represent Erik again for free. But the harsh reality is that I support a family and am already seriously in debt because of the inadequacy of the fee I received to represent Erik in the first trial.”

By the time of the second trial, the money from the family’s estate had run out and Abramson agreed to represent Erik pro bono — a public defender represented Lyle.

Did Leslie Abramson really ask the brothers’ psychiatrist to edit his notes?

Psychiatrist William Vicary (played in Monsters by Gil Ozeri) accused Abramson of asking him to delete incriminating portions of his notes from his examinations of Erik during the second trial.

In real life, Vicary did make the allegation, which Abramson denied. She was cleared of wrongdoing in a misconduct investigation that concluded in 1999, per the Los Angeles Times.

Abramson said she had simply requested that Vicary redact portions of the notes that the court had deemed inadmissible. Her lawyer also said she had already provided complete versions of Vicary’s original notes to prosecutors.

Did Erik Menendez really play hangman with Leslie Abramson in court?

In episode 9 of Monsters, titled “Hang Men,” Erik and defense attorney Abramson are seen playing hangman in court.

This actually did happen during the closing arguments portion of the 1996 trial, according to the Los Angeles Times: Abramson said it was her “custom” and that she often used adjectives to describe prosecutors for the game.

Did Erik and Lyle Menendez really befriend O.J. Simpson in prison?

In the penultimate episode of Monsters, viewers see Erik speaking to O.J. Simpson in the next cell (though Simpson’s face is never shown). The NFL running back, who was later acquitted of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, actually knew the Menendez family for years.

Lyle previously told PEOPLE that Simpson came to their house “several times” when he was growing up, adding, “I certainly never thought that we’d be later meeting in prison, facing murder charges. That’s for sure.”

The brothers first met Simpson after José signed him to star in Hertz commercials, and Lyle recalled Simpson throwing footballs with him and Erik, as well as gifting them autographed footballs. Lyle also said he ran into Simpson at a restaurant in L.A. a few months before he and Erik murdered their parents. They next saw each other in jail when they were awaiting their respective trials.

“We were able to talk quite a bit,” Lyle said. “We shared the same attorney [meeting] room and we were housed in the same area. My brother was in the cell next to him for most of his trial, so we had a lot of conversations.”

The one part of the Simpson relationship the show gets wrong, according to Rand, was that it wasn’t Erik who advised Simpson to take a plea deal — it was Lyle.

“For 100 hours of contact between the two inmates, the two high-profile prisoners talked openly and exchanged dozens of letters,” Rand wrote in The Menéndez Murders. “Lyle advised O.J. he should consider taking a plea deal and O.J. briefly considered that option — according to Lyle — but later told [Lyle] he couldn’t do that because it would ruin his reputation and he would never work again.”