‘Incestuous fantasy’: Netflix crime drama reignites debate over Menendez murders | Netflix

It was a crime that shocked and fascinated a nation.

On the night of August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez, then aged 21 and 18, burst into their Beverly Hills mansion and shot their father, Jose, five times in the back of the head at close range, and their mother, Kitty. , nine times, including in the face when she tried to crawl away. In a panicked emergency call, they then claimed that someone had killed their parents.

The brothers eventually confessed, but always maintained that they acted in self-defense. During two harrowing trials, they claimed they feared their parents would kill them to stop their father’s long-term sexual abuse. Ultimately, the prosecution’s argument won, that they killed to inherit a multimillion-dollar estate, and today they continue to serve life sentences without parole.

But in the past week, the story of Menendez’s killings, and of what took place in the months and years leading up to the attack, has been thrust back into the spotlight.

More than three decades after the family became a gossip sensation, the Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has reignited the debate over the brothers’ guilt. The series jumped to the top of the Netflix charts and generated a growing number of Menendez defenders, many of whom were not born when the crimes were committed.

True Crime impresario Ryan Murphy’s nine-part series is a follow-up to his first Monsters series, about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and has sparked a public feud between the brothers and the show’s creator.

The biggest points of contention are attempts to tell the Menendez story from different perspectives, including those of the parents, and the creative liberties taken in the script, such as an implied incestuous relationship between Lyle and Erik.

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The series, starring Javier Bardem, Chloë Sevigny, Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez, was viewed 12.3 million times last week and is among Netflix’s top 10 most-watched TV shows in 89 countries.

Google searches for “Lyle and Erik Menendez” increased 2,000% in a week, and in the past month there were more than 2 million searches each for Erik and Lyle Menendez.

Thousands of posts have defended the brothers on TikTok, 80% of which come from people between the ages of 18 and 24. Clips of the trial have been played up to 15 million times, with many condemning the “gender bias” of the justice system. More than 300,000 people have signed a petition to free the brothers.

In a statement shared by Erik Menendez’s wife, Tammi, on

Erik Menendez also accused Murphy of “bad intentions.” “Netflix’s unfair portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has taken the painful truths several steps backwards – back in time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative based on a belief system that men were not sexually abused and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women,” he said.

Murphy quickly hit back, saying: “It’s interesting that he made a statement without having seen the show.” The director acknowledged that it was “very difficult” to see your life on screen, but said it was his duty to portray both sides of the story.

Murphy said: “I would say 60%-65% of our show focuses on the abuse and what they believe happened to them. In this day and age when people can talk about sexual abuse, talking and writing about all points of view can be controversial. Four people were involved. Two people are dead; What about the parents?”

But it didn’t stop there. On Thursday, Tammi posted another statement from the extended Menendez family, saying they were victims of Murphy’s “grotesque shockadrama.” They criticized the “phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare” that “ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations.”

They include claims by a member of the boy band Menudo that Jose raped him when he was a teenager, and a letter Erik wrote months before the murders about abuse and fear of his father. Lawyers are now using the new evidence to challenge the brothers’ detention.

Murphy said his show had “opened the possibility” that this evidence could provide “a way out for the brothers” and was “the best thing to happen to them in 30 years” because it gave them “a new trial in court.” public opinion”.

Even celebrity Kim Kardashian, a criminal justice reform advocate, has visited the brothers in prison with Cooper Koch, who plays Erik. Afterwards, Koch said he “stands by” and “supports” the brothers in their call for a new trial.

Robert Rand, an investigative journalist and author of The Menendez Murders, told the Sun: “I personally feel, based on the evidence I have seen in court … that Erik and Lyle Menendez feared for their lives the night they killed their parents. .”

There are few signs that the Menendez conversation will be over anytime soon. Netflix has announced a documentary that promises to tell the brothers’ story “in their own words.”

In the trailer Erik says: “Everyone asks why we killed our parents. Maybe now people can understand the truth.”