Everything You Need to Know About Lyle and Erik Menendez: Did Netflix’s Monsters Tell the Truth About the Menendez Brothers?

After giving some hits like American Crime Story and American Horror Story, Ryan Murphy is back with another real-life crime-based series on Netflix, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. The series is about the infamous murder of José and Kitty Menendez by their sons in 1989.

Murphy has been criticized for dramatizing real-life crimes in his earlier works as well. But this time, the series is facing heavy backlash as critics and audiences are questioning whether the incidents actually happened that way in the lives of Lyle and Erik Menéndez.

The Real-Life Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez

Lyle and Erik Menendez were born to José and Kitty Menendez. They appeared to have a privileged life before everything happened. José was an entertainment executive, and Kitty was a teacher. After their first child Lyle was born in New York, the family moved to Beverly Hills, where Erik was born.

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However, beneath their perfect lives, a dark conspiracy was developing. On August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik killed their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. According to People, they shot José from point-blank range and shot Kitty multiple times as she was trying to escape.

After the murder, the brothers called 911 and said they were out at a movie and saw their parents dead as soon as they returned home. However, just after a few months, the brothers started their lavish spending spree, which raised doubts.

The police never recovered the weapons used for the killing, but later, one of the friends of the brothers said that he found a shell in Lyle’s jacket. According to Los Angeles Times, District Attorney Ira Reiner said that he had found evidence of parental killing for monetary benefits from the recordings obtained from Erik and Lyle’s therapist, L. Jerome Oziel.

Reiner revealed that the parents had $14 million worth of fortune, which might have motivated the brothers. However, they had something else in their defense. The brothers faced two trials, one in 1993 and the other in 1995. 

According to People, the brothers claimed that they were facing emotional, physical, and s*xual abuse from their father, and their mother was supporting her husband at the time. Reportedly, their father would force them to practice tennis in the rain even if they were sick and used to threaten them not to reveal the s*xual activities he performed with them.

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Their first trial ended in hung juries, but the second trial had less evidence of their claimed abuses, which convicted them of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder in 1996. According to public records, the brothers are now serving life imprisonment at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Faces Criticism

While José and Kitty Menendez’s murder case is already disturbing enough, Ryan Murphy has made sure to make it more disturbing in the Netflix show Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Among many reasons for criticism, one particular reason is that the show implies an i*cestuous relationship between the brothers.

There has been very little evidence of this in their real lives. One scene in the show shows the brothers kissing on the lips while discussing their future plans. In another bizarre scene, the brothers are dancing weirdly close and caressing each other’s faces.

The series also has a journalist character who claims that Lyle and Erik killed their parents to hide their i*cest relationship. This information was not found in the actual coverage. Moreover, the series shows that the s*xual activities performed by the father were consensual and happened when the brothers were older.

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However, Menudo boy band member Roy Rosselló alleged that he was also abused by José Menendez as a teenager in the docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed (via People). Although the Netflix series may have exaggerated some aspects of the story, it has definitely reignited some old conversations.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available on Netflix.