Warning: The following post contains discussions of sexual assault and child abuse.
Erik Menendez is speaking out about Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the season of the Netflix anthology Monster that dramatizes his and his brother’s 1989 murder of parents José and Kitty Menendez, for which they’re serving life sentences.
“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,” Erik wrote in a statement his wife, Tammi, posted on X. “It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe [co-creator] Ryan Murphy cannot be this naïve and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.”
As the series’ synopsis recaps, the prosecutors in the Menendez brothers’ case argued that the brothers murdered their parents to inherit the family’s fortune. But the brothers claimed that they committed the crimes after years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at their parents’ hands. Specifically, Erik and Lyle alleged that José sexually abused them as children, People reports.
“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,” Erik added in his statement. “Those awful lies have been disrupted 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.”
Netflix
In the series, Cooper Koch plays Erik, Nicholas Alexander Chavez plays Lyle, Javier Bardem plays José, and Chloë Sevigny plays Kitty.
RelatedNetflix Users Slam Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monsters’ for Menendez Brothers Portrayal: ‘Disgusting Piece of Trash’
Murphy and co-creator Ian Brennan turned their attention to the Menendez brothers after covering the life and crimes of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Monster’s first season, which sparked multiple controversies, including backlash from the families of Dahmer’s victims.
In his statement about Monsters, Erik said, “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.”
If you or someone you know is the victim of sexual assault, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is the victim of child abuse, contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453). If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Now Streaming, Netflix
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