The Netflix docuseries Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story offers a look at the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez. Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the show takes viewers back through the events leading up to the killings on August 20, 1989, and through the subsequent two trials – and ultimate conviction – of Lyle and Erik Menendez for the crimes.
Over nine episodes, viewers are presented with a fair amount of accurate information but there’s a lot to the actual story of the Menendez brothers that’s omitted or distorted. This is especially true when it comes to their assertions about the abuse they experienced throughout their childhoods. Some of these omissions may constitute inaccuracies in Monsters, given how substantially they change the narrative.
Additionally, new evidence that has emerged since Lyle and Erik were each sentenced to life in prison is nowhere to be seen.
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An envelope containing naked photos of both Erik and Lyle Menendez when they were six and eight years old, respectively, was presented as evidence in the brothers’s first trial in 1993.
The envelope had the words “Erik’s birthday, November 1976” written on the outside in Kitty Mendenez’s handwriting. The photos themselves did not show the boys’s faces, but rather focused on their genitals.
When defense lawyer Leslie Abramson reportedly presented them to the jury as part of her closing arguments, she “stuck pins into the photo of the younger brother, recalling his testimony that his father stuck pins and tacks into him during sex.”
Lyle Didn’t Abuse Cocaine Or Bully His Brother
Lyle Menendez’s character is misconstrued in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Mendendez Story by omitting information that debunks rumors and false assertions about him. Despite depictions of Lyle using cocaine, there’s no evidence to support the notion that he used drugs of any kind.
As an athlete, one who played on the tennis team at Princeton University, Lyle may not have been inclined to abuse drugs or alcohol. Because he was under the constant scrutiny of his father, Lyle also reportedly tried never to let his parents down and was so “straight-laced” that he and his girlfriend, Stacy, “went to the prom and came home early.”
Erik Menendez has also made it clear that Lyle did not bully him. Erik looked up to his brother but immediately came to Lyle’s defense after Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story aired:
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 be live they were done so on purpose.
Members Of The Boy Band Menudo Later Revealed They Were Abused By Jose Menendez
A trained accountant, Jose Menendez became CEO of RCA’s records division. John Mason, an entertainment lawyer at RCA and a friend of Menendez, said, “His attitude was, ‘I’m a winner. I’m going to take this dog company and make it No. 1.”
This was exactly what Menendez did at RCA. He was head of RCA Records when the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo was signed. Menendez shepherded the group, ultimately helping them sell millions of albums worldwide.
While Menendez reportedly chided RCA musicians about doing drugs, former Menudo member Roy Rosello later said that Menendez drugged and sexually abused him. In the Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudao: Boys Betrayed, Rosello alleged:
That’s the man here that raped me… That’s the pedophile.
Rosello was looking at a picture of Jose Mendendez at the time.
The docuseries also included a recording of Erik Menendez commenting about Rosello’s assertions:
It’s sad to know that there was another victim of my father… I always hoped and believed that one day the truth about my dad would come out, but I never wished for it to come out like this – the result of trauma that another child has suffered.
Angelo Garcia, another former member of Menudo, recounted sexual abuse as well in the HBO Max docuseries Menudo: Forever Young, although Garcia did not name his abuser.
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At 17, Erik Menendez Wrote A Telling Letter To His Cousin
In December 1988, Erik Menendez wrote a letter to his cousin, Andy Cano, about the abuse he and his brother, Lyle, had undergone. In the letter, Erik wrote,
I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now. … Every night I stay up thinking he might come in. … I’m afraid. … He’s crazy. He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.
The letter came to light after Cano’s mother, Marta Cano, found it in storage. Cano, who passed away in 2003, testified at Erik and Lyle’s two trials about conversations he had with Erik about the abuse.
According to Marta, her son was “traumatized” by the killings and trials alike. She also stated that Andy’s death from an accidental sleeping pill overdose was related to the matter.
In May 2023, attorneys Mark Geragos and Clif Gardner filed petitions for writs of habeas corpus (unjust detention) on behalf of their clients, the Menendez brothers, as a result of the new evidence. They asserted,
In short the new evidence not only shows that Jose Menendez was very much a violent and brutal man who would sexually abuse children, but it strongly suggests that — in fact — he was still abusing Erik Menendez as late as December 1988. Just as the defense had argued all along.
No ruling has been made on the petition, although an informal response was due in late September 2024. In October 2024, it was announced that the new hearing was set for November 29, 2024.
It was also in October 2024 that attention on the Menendez brothers and their conviction became even more acute. Social justice advocate, entrepreneur, and reality TV star Kim Kardashian, for example, penned a letter advocating for reconsideration of Lyle and Erik’s life sentences because, in her words:
We owe it to those little boys who lost their childhoods, who never had a chance to be heard, helped or saved.
After a separate documentary called The Menendez Brothers was released on Netflix in October 2024 about the brothers, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon announced on October 24, that he would be recommending resentencing for Erik and Lyle Menendez the following day. He stated,
We are going to recommend to the court [on Friday] that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and they would be sentenced for murder.
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The Judge In The Brothers’ Second Trial Didn’t Allow Much Of The Sexual Abuse Evidence Seen In The First Trial
Erik and Lyle Mendendez both alleged that their parents sexually abused them during their initial trials. While the defense teams each presented their cases, prosecutors argued that the boys were after financial gains when they killed their parents. Lyle’s prosecutor, Pam Bozanich, claimed, “men could not be raped, because they lack the necessary equipment to be raped.”
The first trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez for the 1989 killings of their parents, Jose and Kitty, ended in two hung juries – one for each brother. As deadlock loomed, Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti said, “I’d rather have a hung jury than a manslaughter verdict, because this is a murder case.”
Garcetti retried both boys and Judge Stanley Weisberg oversaw the proceedings. No cameras were allowed inside the courtroom, which helped prevent the second trial from becoming as much of a media sensation as the first. The manslaughter charge was also taken out of consideration and, throughout the proceedings, Judge Weisberg limited the amount of testimony given about sexual abuse allegations.
It was only in the penalty phase – after Lyle and Erik had been convicted – that testimony about sexual abuse was allowed. Before that, the prosecution successfully argued testimony from witnesses about the topic was irrelevant. They told the jury that the Menendez brothers were lying, simply using “the abuse excuse” to get away with murder.
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The Role Of Mental Health Professionals Is Misrepresented On The Show
Therapist Dr. L. Jerome Oziel had recordings of his conversations with Erik and Lyle Menendez, some of which were later used in their initial trials. Oziel lost his license to practice in 1997 for violating patient confidentiality but was also on probation at the time of the first trial for exchanging therapy for construction work on his house.
Multiple mental health professionals met with both Lyle and Erik went they were in prison awaiting both trials. Drs. John Brier, Anne Tyler, Stuart Hart, and Ann Burgess all gave expert testimony that one or both of the Menendez brothers acted out of fear, were truthful about the abuse, and showed signs of trauma from years of mistreatment.
Dr. William Vicary, who was appointed by attorney Leslie Abramson to evaluate and treat Erik, testified that he believed his patient was truthful as well. It later came to light that Vicary,
Rewrote pages of his clinical notes deleting potentially damaging material, knowing that his rewritten notes would be provided to prosecutors and used in court as though they were originals.
Vicary acted under the direction of Abramson, but no charges were brought against the latter. Vicary was placed on probation for the matter in 1998. Subsequently placed on probation in 2012 for an unrelated matter, Vicary surrendered his license to practice medicine in California in 2019.
The brothers petitioned for mistrials based on the actions of Abramson and Vicary, but both were denied.
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Erik And Lyle Menendez Went Decades Without Seeing Each Other
After they were sentenced to life in prison, Erik and Lyle Menendez were sent to different prisons until 2018. While apart, the brothers wrote letters to each other and, according to author Robert Rand, began “playing a chess match together that they make moves by mail” in 2016.
Lyle Menendez was moved from Mule Creek State Prison in Northern California to R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in February 2018. Erik had been at the facility in San Diego since 2013 and, when the brothers saw each other, they “burst into tears immediately.” They were moved to the same housing complex at the prison in April where they can spend time together during meals and in the exercise yard.
Rand described what the brothers told him about their reunion:
[Lyle] missed his brother so much. And Erik had also talked about how much he missed Lyle. So this is just an overwhelming, emotional, happy moment for not only the brothers but their entire family.
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Lyle And Erik Menendez Are Both Married And Did Not Have An Incestuous Relationship
As one of the most-talked-about scenes in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the depiction of the brothers engaging in sexual acts with one another is based on gossip. Critical viewers of the show have the presentation of Lyle and Erik as lovers as “terrible” and “disrespectful.”
It did come to light during their second trial that Lyle had violated Erik on one occasion with a toothbrush. It was not part of an romantic relationship. Rather, during his testimony, Lyle said his father would “just [play] with me… I played with Erik the same way. And I’m sorry.”
Additional implications that Erik was homosexual are also unsubstantiated. Both Lyle and Erik have gone on record that they are straight and both have married women since going to prison.
In 1999, Erik married his wife, Tammy, and after divorcing his first wife, Anna Eriksson, Lyle remarried his current wife Rebecca in 2003. Erik and Tammy have one daughter, Talia.
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