The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story’ Draws Response From Erik Menendez

Netflix is trying to capitalize on the success of its third most-watched show ever, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer story, by having creator Ryan Murphy do a whole series about famous killers. Now, that’s led to the release of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which has shot to the top of Netflix’s Top 10 list instantly, and is likely to stay there.

The show follows the story of the two brothers who murdered their parents, were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. And as usually happens, the subjects are not very amused about their portrayal there.

The show has drawn a response from Erik Menendez himself, currently serving his life sentence, now age 53. Here’s what he said in a newly released statement:

“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 believe they were done so on purpose. 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 bad 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 – back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women. Those awful lies have been disputed and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out. So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.”

“Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma. Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic. As such, I hope it is never forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrendous and silent crime scenes darkly shadowed behind glitter and glamor and rarely exposed until tragedy penetrates everyone involved. To all those who have reached out and supported me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

It’s not made specific what scenes Erik may be pushing back against in the show. There is focus on the abuse Erik and Lyle faced from their father, including a one-shot episode that is an entire conversation about Erik describing, in extremely graphic detail, the nature of his abuse. The boys are not exactly portrayed as heroic, but the abuse they suffered is a significant part of the story. Though it’s no shock that they might not like their depiction in a show like this, given the context. We’ll see if Lyle comments, or if this draws a response from Murphy or Netflix. Last time around, Murphy had to contend with ire from the families of Dahmer’s victims. Now it’s a killer himself.

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