Erik Menendez calls out Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series Monsters
Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series has caused a lot of controversy in the few days it’s been available on the streaming platform, and now the real-life inspiration for the show, Erik Menendez, has spoken up about the writer’s depiction of him.
Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story was released on September 19 and viewers have since accused him of glorifying true crime as well as sexualising the brothers’ relationship with each other.
Erik has now responded to Murphy, via an online statement, in particularly taking issue with the show’s portrayal of his brother Lyle, calling Murphy out for “creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in this show”.
Posted to his wife Tammi’s X account, Menendez said: “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 and 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… Murphy has shaped his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.”
He also accused the series for reversing the progress we have made when it comes to supporting survivors of trauma and sexual abuse, especially if they are men. Menendez ended the statement by thank those who have supported him thus far and his hope that the truth will prevail.
Erik is currently serving out a life sentence with his brother Lyle at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.
In the show, which dramatises the murders of Erik and Lyle’s parents José and Kitty in 1989 as well as the subsequent trial of the Menendez brothers in 1996 in which they were convicted of first-degree murder, Erik is played by Cooper Koch and Lyle is played by Nicholas Chavez.
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