The Menendez brothers, Lyle, now 56, and Eric, now 53, likely never had an incestuous relationship. No evidence has been presented that the two did so, and in court they both vehemently deny any sexual relationship.
None of this will stop monstera new Netflix drama directed by Ryan Murphy, depicts the brothers convicted of murdering Hollywood’s powerful parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 after they suggest that they did so. .
This show is a spin-off monsterMurphy’s wildly popular series depicts Jeffrey Dahmer, another notorious murderer whose trial in the 1990s caused a national scandal.
The series sparked significant backlash from survivors because it heavily fictionalized the crimes committed by Dahmer. And who true crime fans wanted: monster To move on from this controversy, one must cringe in disbelief at the direction Murphy has chosen instead: not only fictionalizing the details, but almost certainly fabricating the relationship between the brothers. I’m sure it will.
This portrait builds on their portrayal as greedy millionaire hunters who covet their father’s $14 million fortune, a producer at RCA Records. Along the way, the drama reveals not only that Lyle (Nicolas Alexander Chavez) was a sociopath who used his brother’s affections to manipulate himself, but also that Eric (Cooper Koch) was a confused and hidden homosexual. This suggests that he was a person. There is evidence everywhere to suggest this.
The show is somewhat complicated because of Murphy and his longtime collaborator Ian Brennan (who is also a co-writer). monster) The brothers said they are beginning to rid themselves of years of mental, physical and sexual abuse from their father and mother. For more than 30 years, the brothers have argued that abuse was at the root of their crimes.
but monsterits slick, oversaturated ’80s filter, seedy tone, and obsession with wealth undermine the nuance of the infamous case at nearly every turn. In the end, it was suggested that the two made up the whole thing to gain sympathy, even though convincing evidence has recently come to light that suggests the two were telling the truth all along. are.
At the time of the conviction, the brothers and their attorneys were completely ignored culturally. In the ’90s and early 2000s, you would have been hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t believe the Menendez brothers were guilty.
Murphy’s approach does not overturn these assumptions; monster It’s about giving them a new platform. This is extremely frustrating and shameful, as the public is slowly coming to terms with this case and the way the American public understands and treats abuse victims, especially male abuse victims, in court. Many other documentaries and articles offer a different and much belatedly revelatory perspective. I mean, what if they were telling the truth?
To understand how much monster To see what you’re missing, and how distorted it is, it helps to look at the facts of the Menendez brothers’ story.
The public perception of the Menendez case in the 1990s was very different from how we see it today.
Media companies called monster Calling it “irresponsible”, he suggested that the steamy scenes between the brothers “blur the line between what is ‘hot’ and what is completely inappropriate.” It also received scathing criticism from its siblings, prompting defense from nearly all of the main cast. In a statement shared by his wife on X, Eric Menendez called out: monster “A despicable and frightening portrayal of Lyle and me” — specifically about Lyle, who was the target of a “caricature” that was “rooted in blatant lies.”
Murphy disputed this in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, claiming that Eric “made the statement without having seen the show,” adding that “60 to 65 percent of our show in the script and in the movie… There is,” he claimed. What they claim is abuse happened to them. ”
Many of the brothers portrayed on the show are rooted in reports of real events from the 1990s. For example, in a famous 1996 sibling interview, Barbara Walters downplayed her brother’s abuse allegations and instead lashed out at whether Eric was gay. Eric flatly denied it.
“The reason the prosecutor brought it up is because I was sexually molested,” Eric replied. Homosexuals must undergo sexual abuse, otherwise they wouldn’t. [gay]”
It was a sweeping encapsulation of the cultural assumptions that pervaded a decade of widespread anti-LGBTQ sentiment.
In fact, evidence of abuse at Menendez’s home came from at least three family members, all of whom took the stand at the brothers’ first trial. One of them, a cousin, claimed to have witnessed Jose repeatedly physically abusing his brothers and to have seen Jose go to take a shower with the boys. The other two claimed that Eric and Lyle spoke separately about their childhood abuse. They still support these claims and believe in their brothers. In 2023, the brothers’ lawyers announced that a letter written by Eric Menendez eight months before the murders had recently been discovered. In the letter, he wrote to his cousin describing the ongoing abuse in harrowing detail.
“I have tried to avoid my father,” Eric wrote in the letter. “Andy, it’s still going on, but it’s worse for me now. … Every night I wake up thinking he might come in. … I’m scared… It’s crazy. He warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.”
In an interview in the mid-1990s, Walters, who could barely restrain himself from rolling his eyes, accused his brothers of “excusing abuse.” The phrase was coined by attorney Alan Dershowitz in a 1994 book and applied to the case by prosecutors in 2016. Second trial of the Menendez brothers. When she asked Eric why he felt comfortable confessing to the murder of his therapist, but not about the years of sexual abuse allegations, Eric replied, “Unless you’ve been sexually abused, you can’t come forward.” I can’t understand how difficult it is to do that.”
“Because it’s embarrassing?” Walters asked skeptically.
“Because it’s embarrassing,” Eric admitted.
What really happened in the Menendez brothers’ trial
Perhaps because of the persuasive nature of the brothers’ abuse claims, each of their first trials (initially the two were tried separately) ended in a deadlocked jury.
One of the main hurdles in the first round of trials was whether to convict the two of manslaughter or murder. In Lyle’s trial, the verdict was divided by gender, with female jurors voting for the lesser charge and male jurors voting for murder.
But in the second trial, where the brothers were tried together, much changed. Judge Stanley Weisberg considered nearly every defense related to the siblings’ abuse claims, including mental health experts and medical experts, as well as the “minutiae” of the evidence testifying to the abuse the brothers suffered in their daily lives. He dismissed the evidence on his side and wiped out a huge amount of information. Much of the testimony concerned Jose’s controlling, hot-tempered, and physically violent behavior.
Their attorneys then argued that a lesser manslaughter conviction, which carries a lighter sentence, would be more appropriate for both Lyle and Eric, given what we now know about the effects of long-term abuse on children. He said it would be fine.
Instead, the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The two lawyers are now hoping to use the new facts in the case to win a retrial for their clients.
Murphy’s depiction of the incident undermines all abuse survivors
monster There is a good chance that they will bring about a new shift in the tide as they seek to rebuild their brothers and their culture.
Murphy took the Menendez brothers’ story back “to a time when prosecutors built a story around a belief system that men were not sexually abused and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women.” wrote Eric Menendez in a statement shared on X. “How demoralizing it is to know that one person in power can undo decades of progress in understanding childhood trauma.”
Erik Menendez is right. Ryan Murphy convincingly portrays the trauma and oppression of the queer closet in his musical film prom similarly Dahmer and american crime story installment payment, The assassination of Gianni Versace”, which he executive produced. There is no doubting his ability to accurately depict the effects that a lifetime of abusive situations have on innocent people and even guilty people.
Murphy claimed that monster try “”Rashomon It’s a kind of approach,” he said, referring to director Akira Kurosawa’s famous film, which tells the story of sexual assault from multiple and conflicting perspectives. Furthermore, he argued that there is an obligation to “narrators” to include their perspectives.
That’s an incredibly dishonest framework for a show that Murphy has created. Despite compelling evidence of extreme abuse by their parents, they chose to further victimize the Menendez brothers with shocking and unsubstantiated accusations, crafting a story of sibling incest over nine episodes. .
This is not only a highly irresponsible interpretation of a highly complex case, it is the most backward, regressive, and confusing approach Murphy could have taken.
“[V]”Violence against children creates a hundred horrifyingly silent crime scenes, with dark shadows behind the glitz and glamor,” Eric wrote.
he could have easily explained monster itself.
