Kim Kardashian and Cooper Koch, star of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, reportedly paid a visit this weekend to convicted murderers Erik and Lyle Menendez, along with other prisoners, at San Diego County’s Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
Yesterday, Erik Menendez’s wife Tammi posted a statement on social media describing Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series Monsters as “dishonest” and “disheartening slander.”
According to TMZ, Kardashian was joined by her sister Khloe Kardashian, her mother Kris Jenner and film producer Scott Budnick along with Koch, who plays Erik Menendez in the new series.
Kardashian, a longtime advocate for criminal justice reform, is said to have discussed prison reform with the inmates. She also spoke of the Greenspace project, which encourages rehabilitation by beautifying prison yards, which both Menendez brothers have been involved in.
The brothers are serving life sentences for the 1989 murders of their parents, José and Kitty. They were arrested for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder outside their home in March 1990 and sentenced in 1996. In 2024, new evidence emerged that has the potential to set them free.
Monsters stars Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny as José and Kitty, with Koch and Nicholas Chavez as the brothers.
In a statement posted to X/Twitter by his wife Tammi, Erik Menendez responded to the series by saying: “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. 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.
“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.
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“Those awful lies have been disputed and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out. So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.
“Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma. Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic.
“As such, I hope it is never forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrendous and silent crime scenes darkly shadowed behind glitter and glamor and rarely exposed until tragedy penetrates everyone involved. To all those who have reached out and supported me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
The Independent has contacted Murphy’s representative for his response to the statement.
Since the series arrived on Netflix on Thursday, viewers have been cautioning others on social media about the graphic nature of the violence depicted in the show.