TRIAL OF THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS IN LOS ANGELES (Photo by Kim Kulish/Sygma via Getty Images)
Erik Menendez has spoken out after the release of Ryan Murphy’s Monsters anthology series about his life. The 53-year-old criticized the show, calling it a “dishonest portrayal” of the 1989 murder of his parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez, a crime he and his brother admitted to committing.
On Friday, Sept. 20, Erik released a statement on his Facebook page slamming the 10-episode series and the portrayals of himself and his brother. The brothers argued the killings were self-defense and claimed that they had endured years of sexual and physical abuse by their parents, especially their father, José.
“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show,” he started. “I can only believe they were done so on purpose. 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.”
Erik continued, “It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward — back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women.”
He also stated that Murphy, the creator of Monsters, “shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and me and disheartening slander.” He went on, “Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing is it to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma.”
Erik Menendez’s recent backlash isn’t the only controversy surrounding the new series, which is currently the No. 1 show on Netflix in the US.
On Sept. 20, Forbes reported that critics have raised concerns over some scenes suggesting an incestuous relationship between the brothers. During his retrial in 1995, Lyle testified he had molested Erik while they were children. However, the series portrays their sexualized interactions while they are adults and as apparently consensual acts.
One post on X, formerly known as Twitter, which was liked more than 180,000 times, called out the show for portraying the brothers as an “incestuous fantasy.” Meanwhile, another post was liked more than 90,000 times and said that “creating incest fanfiction of real life brothers is INSANE.”
Another controversial moment in the series occurs when journalist Dominick Dunne suggests the brothers killed their parents to hide their romantic relationship. Today.com reported that the real-life Dunne never presented this theory in his trial coverage. In his 1990 Vanity Fair article, “Nightmare on Elm Drive,” sources told him that the brothers had been sexually abused.
Over ten episodes, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story explores the troubled Menendez family in the years, months, and weeks leading up to the brutal murders, as well as the brothers’ trials that followed in the early ’90s. The first trial occurred in 1993, with the duo tried separately, resulting in two hung juries.
LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES: This 1992 file photo shows double murder defendants Erik (R) and Lyle … [+]
Meanwhile, in the second trial that began in 1995, the brothers were tried together and convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder. Prosecutors depicted the Lyke and Erik as cold-blooded killers driven by a desire to inherit their family’s wealth, while the defense argued that they were victims of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by their parents.
Erik and Lyle were found guilty of first-degree murder. They were sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole and are currently serving their sentences at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.
The brothers’ defense attorney, Cliff Gardner, is hoping to secure their release based on new evidence. This includes a letter Gardner claims was written by Erik Menendez to his cousin, Andy Cano, in December 1988—about eight months before the crime—in which Erik discusses the sexual abuse. During the trial, prosecutors implied that Cano was lying about Erik confiding in him.
Another new development was in April 2023, when Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, alleged that Erik and Lyle’s father, José, sexually assaulted him as a teenager. In a sworn affidavit filed in 2023, Rosselló said that José took him to his home in the fall of 1983 or 1984 as a teenager and raped him. Rossello also stated in the affidavit that José sexually abused him in two other instances.
In May 2023, Gardner filed a habeas petition, presenting the letter and Rossello’s affidavit as new evidence that argues his clients’ convictions should be overturned. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told “48 Hours” that it is investigating the claims made in the habeas petition.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is streaming on Netflix. Watch the official trailer below.