Erik Menendez Slams Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monsters’: “Dishonest Portrayal of the Tragedies Surrounding Our Crime”
Erik Menendez is not very happy with Ryan Murphy‘s latest true-crime anthology series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
The Netflix show chronicles the case of real-life brothers, Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez.
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Erik shared in a statement, which his wife Tammi Menendez posted on social media Thursday night, “I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant likes 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,” the statement continued. “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? Erik added.
The Menendez case and trial became a media sensation in the early 1990s. During their original 1993 trial, the brothers claimed they shot their parents after suffering years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father and with the knowledge of their mother. Following Erik and Lyle’s conviction for premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder, both boys were given consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch portray Lyle and Erik Menendez, respectively, in the series, in addition to Javier Bardem as José, Chlo? Sevigny as Kitty, Nathan Lane as Dominick Dunne and Ari Graynor as Leslie Abramson. “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story dives into the historic case that took the world by storm, paved the way for audiences’ modern-day fascination with true crime, and in return asks those audiences: Who are the real monsters?” the show’s logline reads.
Erik concluded in his statement, “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.”
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