The Menendez brothers, Lyle, now 56, and Eric, now 53, probably never had an abusive relationship. No evidence has been presented anywhere that they did, and the courts have both Strongly denied a sexual relationship.
None of it stops the monsterThe new Ryan Murphy-directed Netflix drama about the brothers — who were convicted of murdering their powerful Hollywood parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 — suggests just that.
The show is a spin off the monsterMurphy’s popular series about Jeffrey Dahmer, another notorious murderer whose trial scandalized Americans in the 1990s.
The series drew significant backlash from survivors for heavily fictionalizing the crimes committed by Dahmer. And no true crime fans who wanted that the monster Moving on from that debate must turn to disbelief in the direction Murphy chose to go instead—not just the fictional account, but almost certainly the relationship between the brothers.
The portrait depicts the pair as greedy, entitled fortune hunters who coveted their father’s $14 million fortune, a producer at RCA Records. Along the way, the play suggests that Lyle (Nicolas Alexander Chavez) was a sociopath who used his brother’s affections to manipulate him, while Eric (Cooper Koch) was a confused, closeted gay man — though, again, there’s no evidence of any. Offer this in place.
The show gained some complexity as Murphy and his longtime collaborator Ian Brennan (who co-wrote) the monster) Bhai began to suffer mental, physical and sexual abuse over the years Say they endured From their father and mother. The brothers have maintained for more than three decades that abuse is based on their crimes.
but the monsterIts flashy, over-saturated ’80s filter, sinister tone and obsession with wealth undermine the infamous case’s subtlety at almost every turn. It ultimately suggests that the pair made the whole thing up for sympathy — despite only recently being exposed Compelling evidence Those who gave advice were always telling the truth.
At the time of their conviction, the brothers and their defense were completely culturally dismissed; In the 90s and early 2000s it was hard to find anyone who didn’t believe the Menendez brothers were guilty.
Instead of turning these assumptions on their head, Murphy’s approach the monster Give them a new platform. It’s an extraordinary, infuriating shame, because the case and the way Americans perceive and treat abuse victims at trial, especially male abuse victims, are slowly undergoing a public reckoning. Numerous other documentaries and essay offered a different, highly belated, and revelatory take: What if they were telling the truth?
To understand how much the monster Ignoring, and how much it distorts, it is helpful to examine the events of the Menendez brother’s story.
The way the public saw the Menendez case in the 90s is very different from the way we see it now
The media called the monster “irresponsible“And Suggested that steamy scene Among the brothers “blurs the lines between what’s ‘hot’ and what’s totally inappropriate.” It is also painted Strong criticism From both brothers, and excited defense From almost every member of the main cast. In a statement Shared on X His wife, Eric Menendez, called the monster “Lyle and Me” is a vile and terrifying character portrayal – especially of Lyle, who was the target of “caricatures” that were “rooted in innocent lies”.
Murphy, for his part, rebuttal In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, it argued that Eric “issued a statement without having seen the show” and that “60 to 65 percent of our show in the script and in the film … centers around the abuse and what they claim.”
Much of the footage from the brothers’ show is rooted in actual coverage of the case from the 1990s. In a famous 1996 interview with both brothers, for example, Barbara Walters downplayed the pair’s allegations of abuse and instead Grilled Eric About whether he’s gay or not. Eric strongly denied it.
“The prosecutor brought it up because I was sexually harassed,” Eric replied, “and he felt in his own mind that if I was sexually harassed by my father, I must have enjoyed it, and therefore I must be gay, and people That gays must be sexually harassed there or they won’t be [gay]”
This was a brief summary of the prevailing cultural assumptions of a broadly anti-LGBTQ decade.
In fact, abuse has been confirmed at Menendez’s home Coming from at least three family members, all of whom took the stand at the brothers’ first trial. One of them, a cousin, the witness José repeatedly physically assaults the brothers, and claims that he saw José going to the shower with the boys; the other two claimed that Eric and Lyle told them separately About abuse as a child. They each still stand by this claim and Believe me brothers Today in 2023, the lawyer for the brothers announced the latest discovery a letter Eric Menendez wrote eight months before the murder—a letter to a cousin in which he gave a harrowing account of the ongoing abuse:
“I was trying to avoid Dad,” Eric wrote in the letter. “It’s still happening Andy but it’s worse for me now. … Every night, I lay awake thinking he might come in. … I’m afraid … he’s crazy. He warned me a hundred times not to tell anyone, especially Lyle.
In their interview in the mid-1990s, Walters, apparently barely holding back the eye roll, called the brothers “abuse excuses,” a phrase coined by the lawyer. In Alan Dershowitz A 1994 book And the case was appealed by the prosecution in the second trial of the Menendez brothers. When he challenged Eric on why he felt comfortable confessing to his therapist about the murder but not years of sexual abuse allegations, Eric explained, “Unless you’ve been molested, you don’t understand how hard it is to say.”
“Because of shame?” Walters asked suspiciously.
“Because of shame,” Eric confirmed.
What really happened at the trial of the Menendez brothers
Arguably due to the compelling nature of the brothers’ abuse claims, their first trials — two initially tried separately — each ended immobilized Jury.
One of the main stumbling blocks in the first round of trials was whether or not to convict the pair of manslaughter; In Lyle’s judgment, the decision was Divided by genderFemale jurors vote for lesser charges and male jurors vote for murder.
For the second trial, where the brothers were tried together, however, many things changed. Judge Stanley Weisberg Unauthorized Almost all of the defense evidence related to the brothers’ abuse claims, including mental health experts and medical experts, as well as “a little” evidence of the abuse the brothers testify to in their daily lives, which erases a vast majority of testimony on Jose’s controlling, temperamental, and physically violent behavior.
Both sides have lawyers on their side As stated Given what we now know about the effects of long-term abuse on children, a manslaughter conviction, which would have carried a much lighter sentence, would have been more appropriate for both Lyle and Eric.
Instead, the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Now the duo’s attorneys hope to use the new information in the case to win their clients reconsideration.
Murphy’s depiction of the case underestimates all abuse survivors
the monster Another tide could turn against the brothers and their quest for a cultural renaissance.
Murphy returns the Menendez brothers’ narrative “in an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that men were not sexually assaulted, and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women,” wrote Eric Menendez. statement Shared on X. “How disappointing to know that a person in power can undermine decades of progress to gloss over childhood trauma.”
Eric Menendez is correct. Ryan Murphy compellingly portrays the trauma and repression of the queer closet in his film musical the prom as well as between Dahmer and one American Crime Story installments, The Assassination of Gianni Versacewhich he executive produced. His ability to accurately portray the impact of a lifetime of abusive situations on the innocent, even the guilty, is not in doubt.
There is Murphy claimed that the monstertry”Rashomon Akira refers to Kurosawa’s famous film where a sexual assault story is portrayed from multiple conflicting perspectives. He also argued that he had an obligation to “storytellers” to include their views.
It’s an incredibly warped framing of the show Murphy created. It chooses to further victimize the Menendez brothers with a vile and baseless accusation, creating narratives of sibling abuse over the course of its nine episodes despite compelling evidence of extreme abuse at the hands of the parents.
This is not only an extremely irresponsible take on a very complex case – it is the most backwards, regressive and misleading approach Murphy could possibly take.
“[V]”Violence against a child creates a hundred gruesome and silent crime scenes that shadow the gloom behind the glitz and glamour,” Eric wrote.
He could easily explain the monster himself
