Ryan Murphy “never spoke to us”

Now the entire Menendez family shares their thoughts on the Netflix series Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendezand accused co-creator Ryan Murphy of never speaking to the relatives of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the incarcerated brothers who are the subject of Murphy and Ian Brennan's hit series.

In a sharp statement from the 24-member extended Menendez family shared on social media Early Thursday morning, family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez began their letter by saying that they “know, love and want to have home with us” the brothers, who served more than three decades in prison for the 1989 murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez.

The family further described the true crime drama as a “phobic, disgusting, anachronistic, episodic nightmare that is not only full of untruths and outright lies, but also ignores recent exonerating revelations.”

vocation Monster The family said they were “victimized” by the series, which has been the No. 1 series in the U.S. on Netflix since its release on September 19.

“Murphy claims he spent years researching the case, but ultimately relied on exposed pro-law enforcement scribbler Dominick Dunne to justify his slander against us and never spoke to us,” the family said of the prolific producer and showrunner, whose anthology series includes American crime history, American Horror Story And American sports historyamong many others.

The family continued to call Monster They called the defendants “character assassination” and said they “know what went on in their home and what an unimaginably turbulent life they had to endure.” They added that several of them had witnessed “the many atrocities that one should never have to witness.”

They ended their statement by rejecting the series from Murphy and Netflix “and everyone else involved” because they “have no understanding of the impact of years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.” Maybe Monster is all about Ryan Murphy.”

Erik Menendez' wife Tammi Menendez shared the statement your X-account and said it was on behalf of Erik's aunt Joan VanderMolen and the Menendez family. The note was addressed to the Netflix show and to Murphy. Tammi had previously shared Erik's response, which was widely reported (including by The Hollywood ReporterThe Menendez brothers are incarcerated at the Donovan Correctional Facility in California and do not have access to Netflix in prison. The Hollywood Reporter spoke last week with journalist and expert on the Menendez trial, Robert Rand, who said Erik probably got a description from his wife of how he and Lyle are portrayed in the series.

A day after the series' release, Erik issued a statement criticizing the series, Netflix and Murphy, saying their “dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has taken the painful truths several steps back – back to an era when the prosecution built its narrative on a belief system that said men were not sexually assaulted and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women.”

Murphy then responded to Erik's reaction by expressing his condolences and also defending the research done for the series, which tells the case of the real-life brothers, played by Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch.

“I think it's interesting that (Erik) doesn't mention in his quote that if you look at the show, 60 to 65 percent of our show in the scripts and in the film form is about the abuse and what they say happened to them,” Murphy had said. “And we're very careful about that, giving them their day in court and them speaking openly about it. In this time when people can really talk about sexual abuse, it can be controversial to talk about it and write about it and write about all points of view.”

Monster was also criticized by viewers for some scenes depicting an incestuous relationship between the adult brothers (some of the sexualized interactions include the brothers kissing). During his retrial in 1995, Lyle testified that he had abused Erik when they were children. In the series, the brothers discuss this as adults with their attorney, Leslie Abramson, played by Ari Graynor, as they recount the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father.

Erik's statement did not directly address the show's insinuation that the brothers were lovers. But Rand said THR this week, that account is false, and is more concerned with what others involved in the trial thought at the time, mentioning that it was a “fantasy in the mind of Dominick Dunne,” the reporter the Menendez family mentioned in their statement and who is portrayed in the series by Nathan Lane. “During the trial, rumors circulated that there may have been some strange relationship between Erik and Lyle themselves,” Rand said, adding, “I don't believe Erik and Lyle Menendez were ever lovers.”

Murphy addressed the series directly and showed Dunne’s point of view by saying: Monster takes a “Rashomon-like approach” to telling the story over the course of the nine episodes.

“Four people were involved in the film – two of them are dead,” Murphy said of José and Kitty Menendez, who are played in the series by Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny. “What about the parents? As storytellers, we had an obligation to include their perspective as well, based on our research, which we did.”

When asked directly about the allegation that the brothers had a sexual relationship, Murphy said, “If you watch the show, it presents the viewpoints and theories of so many people who were involved in the case. Dominick Dunne has written several articles where he talks about this theory. We present his viewpoint, just like we present Leslie Abramson's viewpoint. And we were obligated to show all of that, and that's what we did.”

The series deals with Erik and Lyle's claims that RCA executive José Menendez abused his sons since they were children, although his wife knew about it and never intervened. At one point in the series, during a Lyle introduction episode, “The Hurt Man,” Graynor's Abramson heartbreakingly summarizes to Lyle (Chavez) that he was raped hundreds of times by his father over the course of his life after Lyle details the years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse he suffered. The episode follows Erik's (Koch) confessions about the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. According to the series, José transferred the abuse to Lyle when he stopped abusing Erik.

That was the defense argument made by Lyle and Erik Menendez's lawyers in court after the brothers shot and killed their parents in the study of their Beverly Hills mansion on August 20, 1989. But the idea that the killing was self-defense because the two sons feared for their lives was rejected by half of the two juries in the separate trials, which could not agree, and the issue was not raised in a second joint retrial in which they were found guilty. After being convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, both boys were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

For more than a decade, appeals were rejected by California courts, but before Murphy's show and before the Menendez brothers' exoneration became a TikTok case, a habeas corpus petition was filed in 2023 in hopes of overturning their sentences and releasing them from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, where they have been housed in separate cells since 2018. Rand, who uncovered new evidence in the case, is also committed to continuing the fight for their freedom.

In the upcoming Netflix documentary, the brothers will tell their stories in their own words for the first time in 30 years, in the form of audio interviews from prison. The Menendez BrothersStreaming on October 7. The project was released shortly after Monster released and Netflix promises: “Through extensive audio interviews with Lyle and Erik, the lawyers involved in the trial, the journalists who covered it, the jury, the family and other informed observers, acclaimed Argentine director Alejandro Hartmann offers new insights and a fresh perspective on a case people only think they know.”

Netflix has not yet commented on Menendez’s comments about the series; THR reported back on Thursday.

Kevin Dolak contributed to this story.