Law&Crime Sidebar - Everything Netflix’s ‘Monsters’ Got Wrong About the Menendez Brothers

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

Killer brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez are back in the headlines after Netflix released the latest season of the anthology series “Monsters.” The privileged brothers killed their parents, Lyle and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. But how many liberties did producers take in the fictional series? Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber separates fact from fiction.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/SidebarMMHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wonderly Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Eric and I killed our parents together, so I'd say that makes us pretty close. Monsters, the Lyle and Eric Menendez story may be quite the hit on Netflix and may even be a catalyst for Eric and Lyle to be released from prison 35 years after they murdered their parents but just how accurate is the show what did it get right what did it get wrong we'll break it down for you right now welcome to sidebar presented by law and crime I'm Jesse Weber now we talked about this yesterday but the Netflix

series monsters the Lyle and Eric Menendez story it's got everybody talking it was the number one most watch show on Netflix at one point. That is a big, big accomplishment. There's a lot of interest in this. And this is the second season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's anthology series. And it focused on the Menendez brothers, who back in 1989, murdered their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, shot them to death with Mossburg shotguns in their Beverly Hills home. Lyle was 21 at the time. Eric was 18. Now, the brothers had two trials where they faced first-degree murder charges. The first, there were two juries, and they were able to argue imperfect self-defense, meaning that they had a genuine, if perhaps, unreasonable belief that their

lives were in danger. You see, the brothers argued that they were abused by their parents, and moreover, that Jose had molested them. And they introduced evidence not only of the abuse, so the alleged abuse, but their belief that if they expose this, that their parents would kill them. So what happened? Well, the juries, both of these juries in these cases were hung. They couldn't decide whether this was murder or manslaughter or what degree it would be. And so the brothers were tried a second time. But at this trial, you had one jury and prosecutors were successful in arguing that the abuse evidence should be limited. There's only so much the jury should hear. And that the brothers were not permitted to argue imperfect self-defense.

prosecutors were able to convince the court that the brothers could not argue that. So in other words, manslaughter wasn't an option for this jury. And in the end, the jury did in fact convict both Eric and Lyle of murder. And in 1996, they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, there's a major update. We talked about this on our previous sidebar. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office is now reviewing new evidence presented by the brothers in their habeas petition form.

from last year. Now, habeas petitions are basically saying that an imprisonment is unlawful, that here the convictions should be vacated. And the new evidence the brothers say they have is a letter that Eric allegedly wrote to his cousin almost a year before the murders, explaining that Jose was abusing him. Now, the second piece of evidence is apparently a signed declaration from Roy Rasello, a member of the boy band Menudo, who claims that Jose Menendez raped him when he was a teenager. You see, Jose was a music executive who had signed Minuto as well as other groups. And as the DA in Los Angeles reviews this evidence and decides whether they will sign on to

the habeas motion or not, one other thing can happen under California law. A district attorney can petition for the sentence to be recalled and for there to be a resentencing, especially if there's significant rehabilitation, which is alleged here. In other words, it's possible the brother's life and prison sentence could be recalled and they be sentenced to manslaughter, time served, and then they're released. So after 35 years, 53-year-old Eric and 56-year-old Lyle, they could be released from prison. It's a fascinating thing to think about. And we're going to see which way the DA decides to go. It also, by the way, I should say the court, the court has to

sign off on this as well. But putting that to the side, with all that in mind, one of the questions that we have had now, because you have to believe that this series on Netflix, is what started this conversation again. My personal belief, I think that's probably what's motivating or is part of a motivation for the DA to reconsider this evidence now. Well, one of the questions is, how accurate is this show? If people are watching this and they're forming opinions about the Menendez brothers, is it real?

Is it true? What creative liberties were taken? Well, to start this off, I'm going to give you an idea of this by talking about what Eric Menendez said. So Eric Menendez released a statement on social media through his wife. And it reads in part, quote, I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a character of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show. 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.

The statement goes on to say, quote, it is sad for me to know that Netflix's dishonest portrayal of the tragedy's surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward, back through time to an error 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. Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing is it to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma? Now, Ryan Murphy responded to this in a statement of his own to entertainment tonight, where he says, the thing that I find interesting that Eric doesn't mention in his quote is if you watch the show,

I would say 60 to 65 percent of our show in the scripts and in the film form center around the abuse and what they claim happen to them. And we do it very carefully and we give them their day in court and they talk openly about it. By the way, we want to continue following the Menendez case for you as it develops. I'm very, very curious to see how this all shakes. up. And for that, I got to call out one of our sponsors who helps make episodes of sidebar like this possible. Morgan and Morgan, if you should get injured, you got to know your legal rights. You got to know whether you're entitled to be compensated. And this firm,

America's largest injury law firm, they may be who you want in your corner. I mean, they recently secured verdicts of $12 million in Florida, $6.8 million in New York, and $26 million in Philadelphia. In all of these, mind, you're considerably higher than the highest insurance offers in these cases. And even if your case is not worth millions of dollars, Morgan and Morgan will fight for the money you deserve. There's no upfront fee. They only get paid. If you get paid, the whole process can be done straight from your smartphone. Super simple. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar. So how accurate is this show? I got to tell you, a lot of the key details appear to be true.

Even the wild parts. For example, there is a scene. where O.J. Simpson is housed near Eric in prison at one point in time after he's arrested for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Well, guess what? That's true. It happened. In fact, apparently the brothers knew Simpson beforehand because Jose had signed the former football star to Hertz commercials. And Lyle told People magazine that he was able to talk quite a bit with Simpson while in prison. Now, while the show depicts Eric, advising O.J. Simpson to take a plea in his murder case, reporting indicates that it was actually Lyle who did that. And Simpson, reportedly, considered taking a deal at one point. By the way,

talking about what's true or not, even the toupee scene was true. So there's a scene where the brother's mom, Kitty, rips a toupee off of Lyle's head. This is during an argument. And he actually did wear a hairpiece in real life. And Lyle testified that that confrontation actually happened. You see, Jose reportedly bought it for Lyle. It was apparently $1,500. The report is that he wanted to maintain a certain appearance for his son in the hopes of his future political aspirations. And it was reported that Lyle had even kept this hairpiece a secret from his brother Eric.

But let's talk about another controversial point in the show. There's been a lot talked about with this. Because the show implies that there may have been an incestuous relationship between the others. Lyle and Eric, they kiss in one scene, they shower together in another, although that was more of an imaginary dream sequence in a way. Now, a well-known expert on this case, Robert Rand. He wrote the book, The Menendez Murders, this shocking untold story of the Menendez family and the killings that stunned the nation. He has come out and said, this is totally untrue. Now, there is a minor suggestion of some contact with a toothbrush that was mentioned during

their criminal trial, but Rand told the Hollywood reporter, quote, I believe the only physical contact they might have had is what Lyle testified that when Lyle was eight years old, he took Eric out in the woods and played with him with a toothbrush, which is what Jose had done with him. And so I certainly wouldn't call that a sexual relationship of any sort. It's a response to trauma. Now, Ryan Murphy said about this. There are people who say that never happened. There were people who said it did happen. If you watch the show, what the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case. Dominic Dunn wrote several articles talking about that theory.

We are presenting his point of view, just as we present Leslie Abramson's point of view, and we had an obligation to show all of that we did. By the way, Dominic Dunn had followed the case for variety, and Leslie Abramson, who we'll talk about in a minute, had represented Eric at his criminal trial. What about the actual shooting? So the shooting on this series, on the show, is incredibly graphic, and it is, and it is very, very disturbing. And on that part, we can say, yes, that's true. Four shots to Jose, nine shots to Kitty. However, there was a substantial difference. See, on the show,

the brothers come in with the shotguns, and Jose, played by Javier Berdem, stands up off the couch, confronts them, saying, what is that? What are you doing? And then they opened fire. That apparently didn't happen in real life, that he was shot from behind. at close range. So he didn't have an opportunity to confront his sons. However, when it comes to Kitty, as shown on the series and in real life, she was aware of the shooting and even survived those initial shots. Now, there was another interesting part, too, in this show. And actually, it's in the first episode when Eric confesses to his therapist, Dr. Jerome Aziel. And he confesses that he and Lyle killed their parents. So that is a dramatic way to start a show.

show, but it turns out that too is accurate. In fact, Dr. Osio calls Lyle to come to his office, and when he finds out what his brother said, Lyle allegedly responded, I can't believe you did this. I can't believe you told him. I don't even have a brother now. I could get rid of you for this. Now I hope you know what we're going to do. I hope you realize what we're going to have to do. We've got to kill him and anyone associated to him. So the doctor actually worked with police, even had recordings of these conversations. The court ruled these tapes could be used as evidence because there was no patient doctor confidentiality or privilege because Lyle allegedly had threatened Dr. Osiel.

Okay, talking about drama, you might think it has to be made up that in the days after the killings, the brothers went on a shopping spree, a spending spree, as depicted on the show. That is true. prosecutors said the brothers, they were motivated by greed, that they were each beneficiaries of their father's life insurance policies. So what did they do? They stayed at luxury hotels. They bought Rolex watches, cars, clothes, hired a personal trainer, reportedly spent around $700,000. They even seemed to plan to buy an almost $1 million condo. So as you can imagine, that hurt the defense's claim that these brothers had just acted in self-defense. But going back to the show, there

was something else that might have been a little bit made up, the cover up in a way. So it is true, as depicted in the show, that the brother said they went to the movies at the time of the murders, that they went to see Batman. But in the show, while it depicts them going to the movies in a restaurant in real life, they never left the home where they killed their parents. Now, when it comes to the legal process and the trials, obviously there are going to be certain differences from what really happened and what is depicted in the show. For instance, the timeline of events in the show doesn't quite line up with what happened in real life on a chronological order. But from a big picture point of view, things are accurate. For example,

as I mentioned, the brothers did in fact have two separate trials with two juries in the first and one jury in the second. The show suggests that when it came to the first trial, the jury was split based on gender lines? And that is actually true. Giving an example, all votes for first degree murder for Eric were reportedly cast by men. The female jurors were leaning towards not guilty. The show depicts a moment when an earthquake in Los Angeles delayed jury deliberations during the brother's first trial. That happened. It was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake. Now, to be clear, this delayed Lyle's trial, Erics had already ended in a mistrial. But again, that point, it happened. Now, in the final episode of the series, a female juror seems to suffer a heart

attack. While reporting indicates that too happened, that during the brother's second trial, a juror had a hard attack during deliberations and had to be replaced with an alternate. And also apparently, this juror had indicated that she would have voted in favor of the death penalty for Lyle. Now, here's another interesting piece of drama. So psychiatrist Dr. William Vakari, who testified in real life. In the show, he accuses Eric's lawyer, Leslie Abramson, of encouraging him to delete parts of his notes, his examination notes of Eric in the lead up to the trial, parts that would apparently look bad. Well, that was a real life accusation. Now, Abramson said that's not true, that that didn't happen. All she said was that she told him, you just have to

redact the portions of your notes that the court had said are inadmissible. They can't be admitted into trial. By the way, speaking of Abramson, in the series, Eric and Abramson are shown playing the game Hangman in court, and that too turns out to be true. According to the Los Angeles Times, during the second trial, during closing arguments, Abramson did this. Now, there's another character in the show I want to talk about. In the show, Lyle befriends a woman named Norma in an effort to work on a book together. Now, in Monsters, she records their conversations. In reality, there was a Norma. There was a Norma Novelli, and she testified to the jury that she did have a relationship with Lyle. They spoke on the phone while he was in prison, but she claimed Lyle knew

these conversations were recorded. Lyle's defense team said that is not true. She apparently, though, in the end, sold the audio tapes to Dove Books for $12,500 without Lyle's consent. So, interesting kind of comparison there. Now, I want to address the big point of this. show. And I mentioned it before, I mentioned again. Abuse. So as I mentioned, the brothers testified in real life that they were both sexually abused by their father and that their mother was an active participant in the abuse. In the show, they make kitty out to be more of an enabler rather than a participant. But Lyle testified that his father began molesting him when he was only six years old and that it stopped when he was eight. Eric testified that the abuse

never stopped for him. There was also corroborating testimony at their real-life trial, too. Brian Anderson, a cousin of Lyle and Eric testified about severe physical abuse that they suffered at the hands of Jose. Diane Van der Mullen testified about the physical and verbal abuse by both Jose and Kitty. Andy Cano, the brother's cousin, testified that Eric confided to him that Jose was molesting him. Cano testified also that Eric always had bruises on his body. Several witnesses testified that when Jose was alone with one of his sons in the bedroom, no one was allowed to go near the bedroom.

Dr. William Vicari, who I mentioned before, testified that Eric suffered from an anxiety disorder that could affect his mental state. Dr. John Wilson testified that Eric suffered from battered person syndrome, depression, PTSD. Now, in the series, viewers are shown multiple examples of Jose. being physically abusive, slapping, throwing things, yelling. But the sexual abuse is not really shown. It's implied. And honestly, we will never really know what happened. Ryan Murphy said this to Entertainment Tonight. Our view and what we wanted to do was present

you all the facts and have you do two things. Make up your own mind about who's innocent, who's guilty, and who's the monster, and also have a conversation about something. that's never talked about in our culture, which is male sexual abuse, which we do responsibly. And there's one other fascinating scene that has real life inspiration. It's tied to this. In this series, the brothers are nervous about going on a fishing trip with their parents, Jose and Kitty. This is the day before the murders. And remember, their defense, both in the show in real life, was that their parents may want to kill them. So they had to act in self-defense. But in one scene, the brothers are on the boat talking about their plan.

to murder their parents. And in real life, that fishing trip really happened. Lyle testified that he and Eric believed the trip was how their parents were planning to kill them or were going to kill them. And look, like there is with any show about real life people and events, there are things that happen behind the scenes. And those are things that we will just not know.

We can never know for sure. But in the end, only Eric and Lyle Menendez really, truly know what happened. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time.

Add free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.