Current:Home > FinanceHere's What Erik Menendez Really Thinks About Ryan Murphy's Menendez Brothers Series -StockPrime
Here's What Erik Menendez Really Thinks About Ryan Murphy's Menendez Brothers Series
View
Date:2025-04-16 18:01:03
Erik Menendez is speaking out against Ryan Murphy's series about him and his brother Lyle Menendez, who are serving life sentences for murdering their parents in 1989.
Erik's shared his thoughts about Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story in a message his wife Tammi Menendez shared on X, formerly Twitter, Sept. 19, the day the show premiered on Netflix.
"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," Erik said. "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."
E! News has reached out to Murphy and Netflix for comment on the 53-year-old's remarks and has not heard back.
In Monsters, the second season of an crime drama anthology series that Murphy co-created with Ian Brennan, Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch play Lyle and Erik, respectively, while Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny portray the brothers' parents, José Menendez and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez.
In 1996, following two trials, Erik and Lyle, 56, were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder for the 1989 shotgun killings of their father and mother in their Beverly Hills home. The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors had said Erik and Lyle's motivation for the murders stemmed from their desire to inherit the family fortune. The siblings had alleged their parents had physically, emotionally and sexually abused them for years and their legal team argued they killed their mother and father in self-defense.
"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," Erik said in his statement, "back though 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."
He continued, "Those awful lies have been disrupted 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."
Erik added that "violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic."
"As such," he continued, "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."
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News AppveryGood! (442)
Related
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- Gotham signs 13-year-old MaKenna ‘Mak’ Whitham through 2028, youngest to get an NWSL contract
- Simone Biles will attempt a new gymnastics skill on uneven bars at Olympics. What to know
- Belgium women's basketball guard Julie Allemand to miss 2024 Paris Olympics with injury
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
- Olympics schedule today: Every event, time, competition at Paris Games for July 26
- Arkansas abortion measure’s signatures from volunteers alone would fall short, filing shows
- This Mars rock could show evidence of life. Here's what Perseverance rover found.
- 2025 'Doomsday Clock': This is how close we are to self
- The Daily Money: Stocks suffer like it's 2022
Ranking
- Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie return for an 'Encore,' reminisce about 'The Simple Life'
- Fed’s preferred inflation gauge cools, adding to likelihood of a September rate cut
- Olympics 2024: Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's Kids Luna and Miles Steal the Show at Opening Ceremony
- Fostering a kitten? A Californian university wants to hear from you
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- Olympics schedule today: Every event, time, competition at Paris Games for July 26
- Wildfire sparked by a burning car triples in size in a day. A 42-year-old man is arrested
- Taco Bell is celebrating Baja Blast's 20th anniversary with freebies and Stanley Cups
Recommendation
Don't let hackers fool you with a 'scam
This Mars rock could show evidence of life. Here's what Perseverance rover found.
Homeless people say they will likely return to sites if California clears them under Newsom’s order
Snoop Dogg carries Olympic torch ahead of Paris opening ceremony
Juan Soto praise of Mets' future a tough sight for Yankees, but World Series goal remains
A look at ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, the kingpin of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel who is now in US custody
Martin Indyk, former U.S. diplomat and author who devoted career to Middle East peace, dies at 73
Why Ballerina Farm Influencer Hannah Neeleman Rejects Tradwife Label