‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’: What The Show Got Right (& Wrong) - Fact vs. Fiction

Ryan Murphy's Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story brought one of the most infamous criminal cases of the 1990s back into the spotlight, but not all the dramatizations accurately reflect reality. The series explores the motivations behind Erik (Cooper Koch) and Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) murdering their parents, José (Javier Bardem) and Kitty (Chloe Sevigny)—including the brothers' allegations in court that they were victims of emotional and sexual abuse at their parents' hands. Following its release, Erik criticized the show for what he deemed "horrible and blatant lies," particularly regarding its portrayal of Lyle.

Photo: Netflix

"I can only believe they were done so on purpose," Erik stated in a message shared on social media by his wife, Tammi Menendez. "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." In response to the criticism, Murphy told Entertainment Tonight that he doubted Erik or Lyle had seen the series and that his goal was to showcase various perspectives, allowing viewers to form their own opinions about the crime and its underlying causes.

"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," Murphy remarked, estimating that "60 to 65%" of the show focuses on the abuse the brothers claimed to have endured.

Here’s a closer look at the facts versus the fiction in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

Photo: Netflix

In episode 2 ("Spree") of Monsters, Lyle and Erik kiss on the lips, and in episode 6 ("Don't Dream It's Over"), Kitty finds the two showering together (though this scene is portrayed as a fantasy). While some viewers interpreted the Netflix series as implying that Erik and Lyle murdered their parents partly because José and Kitty discovered an incestuous relationship, there is no evidence to support this claim. Both Lyle and Erik testified in court that they did not engage in a sexual relationship. Lyle mentioned on the stand that he had once sexually abused Erik in the woods when he was 8 years old.

"Rumors were going around the trial that maybe there was some sort of weird relationship between Erik and Lyle themselves, but I believe the only physical contact they might have had is what Lyle testified, that when Lyle was 8 years old, he took Erik out in the woods and played with him with a toothbrush—which is what [their father] José had done with him," Robert Rand, author of The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menéndez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation, told The Hollywood Reporter. "I certainly wouldn’t call that a sexual relationship of any sort. It's a response to trauma."

Photo: Miles Crist/Netflix

Journalist Dominick Dunne, played by Nathan Lane in Monsters, did cover the Menendez brothers' trials for Vanity Fair. However, Dunne never implied that Erik and Lyle had an incestuous relationship.

In his later reporting, Dunne expressed skepticism regarding the brothers’ claims of sexual abuse and even commended their "acting" during their testimony.

Photo: Miles Crist/Netflix

The storyline in Monsters that shows Lyle wearing a toupee and dealing with early baldness is accurate. Lyle began losing his hair at a young age and kept this a secret from Erik, donning a high-quality hairpiece he purchased in 1988 for $1,450, according to one of Vanity Fair's 1994 articles about the brothers.

Additionally, Rand's book states that Kitty did, in fact, rip Lyle's toupee off in a fit of rage, causing him significant pain, as the hairpiece was designed to be removed only with a special solvent.

In reality, the defense asserted that Erik realized he was safe enough to disclose his own secret—enduring sexual abuse at the hands of their father—when he saw Lyle without his toupee.

Photo: Netflix

In Monsters, Erik and Lyle enter the living room with shotguns while their parents watch TV. José spots them and asks what they are doing before they shoot him and Kitty. However, in reality, José likely did not see his sons before he was killed, as he was shot from behind at point-blank range, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Photo: Netflix

Kitty, on the other hand, was aware that her sons were the shooters; she witnessed the first shots, survived the initial assault, and attempted to escape before the fatal shots were fired.

Were Erik and Lyle Menendez at the same prison?

The show depicts the brothers incarcerated in the same prison for narrative purposes, but in truth, they were housed in separate state prisons across California for many years. They were only reunited in 2018 at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility, where they reportedly burst into tears upon seeing each other.

Photo: Netflix

Both in the series and in real life, Erik and Lyle claimed they went to the movies and were not home during the murders. However, they did not actually leave the family home on the night they killed their parents.

"Twelve shots in the middle of Beverly Hills on a Sunday night, and no one calls the police. We're waiting at the house, and no one shows up," Erik told ABC News in 1996. "I still can't believe it. We didn't have an alibi; all we did was say we were at the movies."

Did the Menendez brothers play Milli Vanilli at their parents' funeral?

According to Rand, Lyle played Milli Vanilli's "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" at a memorial service for his parents.

The author also stated on X (formerly Twitter) that several Milli Vanilli songs were played at a memorial service for José and Kitty at the Directors Guild of America on August 25, 1989.

Photo: Netflix

Yes, and the true story is just as dramatic as portrayed in Monsters. In the show, L. Jerome Oziel (played by Dallas Roberts) invites his mistress, Judalon Smyth (Leslie Grossman), to his office to witness after Lyle threatens him. She listens from behind a door as Lyle confesses to the murder of his parents. Oziel later informs Smyth that he intended to place the recorded confessions in a safe deposit box and would provide her with the key. Fearing for their lives, Smyth urges Oziel to go to the police.

What actually happened is somewhat different: In October 1989, Smyth claimed she overheard Lyle and Erik confessing to Oziel that they killed their parents. However, Vanity Fair reported that it wasn’t until March 1990, after her split from Oziel, that Smyth notified police about the audio recordings of their admission, which ultimately led to their arrest.

Weeks later, Smyth sued Oziel, alleging he drugged and sexually assaulted her and physically abused her during their relationship, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. The case was eventually settled. For more than two years, prosecutors and the Menendez brothers' defense team contested the admissibility of the tapes in court until the California Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that the majority of the recordings could be used as evidence.

When Smyth testified in Lyle and Erik's 1993 trial, she recanted her original testimony and accused Oziel of "brainwashing" her into believing she had heard more details than she actually did. In a 2015 episode of Murder Made Me Famous, Smyth claimed she only overheard snippets of the brothers' conversation but did indeed hear them confess to the killings.

Another moment portrayed in the series that reflects reality: Smyth really did remark, "I would not want children that looked like Dr. Oziel."

Photo: Netflix

While individual details within the Menendez brothers' trials differed from those depicted in Monsters, they indeed had multiple criminal trials before ultimately being convicted.

During the first trial in 1993, Lyle and Erik were tried separately with two different juries. After several weeks of deliberation, both juries remained divided over whether Erik and Lyle should be convicted of murder or manslaughter, leading to mistrials, as reported by CBS News. The brothers faced the potential of the death penalty had they been convicted of first-degree murder in the initial trial.

The second trial for Lyle and Erik in 1995 unfolded differently from the first: Lyle did not testify, and virtually no testimony regarding the alleged sexual abuse they suffered was permitted in court.

Were there really earthquakes during the Menendez trials?

In episode 8 of Monsters, titled "Seismic Shifts," an earthquake strikes Los Angeles, delaying jury deliberations in the first trial. This wasn’t just added for dramatic effect: In January 1994, a 6.7-magnitude earthquake indeed struck L.A., causing damage in the Van Nuys area where the courthouse was located, according to the Associated Press.

This event delayed jury deliberations in Lyle's first trial; Erik's initial trial had already ended in a mistrial a week prior.

Photo: Miles Crist/Netflix

In Monsters, Lyle forms a relationship with a woman named Norma over the phone and intends to collaborate with her on a book. It's revealed that she records their conversations, which ultimately prevents Lyle from testifying in his second murder trial due to concerns about his credibility.

In reality, a woman named Norma Novelli testified that she met Lyle in person when visiting him in prison and that their friendship continued through phone calls, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. She claimed Lyle consented to the recording of their conversations because she struggled to take notes quickly.

Novelli also stated that after Lyle's first trial, she learned she could profit from the tapes, ultimately selling the audio to Dove Books for $12,500.

Photo: Miles Crist/Netflix

In Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Erik's defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, reprimands the brothers during their second trial for fundraising to cover her fees, claiming it damages their reputation.

However, Abramson actually assisted Erik in fundraising for his second trial rather than discouraging it. According to the Los Angeles Times, in March 1996, she sent letters from her firm soliciting donations for Erik's defense fund totaling $1 million. In her letter, she stated, "If I were rich I would gladly represent Erik again for free. But the harsh reality is that I support a family and am already seriously in debt because of the inadequacy of the fee I received to represent Erik in the first trial."

By the time of the second trial, the family’s estate funds had been exhausted, and Abramson agreed to represent Erik pro bono, while a public defender represented Lyle.

Photo: Miles Crist/Netflix

Psychiatrist William Vicary (portrayed in Monsters by Gil Ozeri) accused Abramson of requesting him to remove incriminating sections from his examination notes of Erik during the second trial.

Vicary did make this allegation in real life, which Abramson denied. She was exonerated in a misconduct investigation that concluded in 1999, according to the Los Angeles Times. Abramson clarified that she merely requested Vicary to redact portions of the notes deemed inadmissible by the court. Her attorney stated that she had already provided prosecutors with complete versions of Vicary's original notes.

Photo: Miles Crist/Netflix

In episode 9 of Monsters, titled "Hang Men," Erik and defense attorney Abramson are depicted playing hangman in court.

This event did take place during the closing arguments of the 1996 trial, as reported by the Los Angeles Times: Abramson noted it was her "custom" to play games with adjectives to describe the prosecutors.

Did Erik and Lyle Menendez really befriend O.J. Simpson in prison?

In the penultimate episode of Monsters, viewers see Erik speaking with O.J. Simpson in the next cell (though Simpson's face is never shown). The NFL star, who was later acquitted of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, actually had known the Menendez family for years.

Lyle told PEOPLE that Simpson visited their home "several times" during his childhood, adding, "I certainly never thought that we'd be later meeting in prison, facing murder charges. That's for sure."

The brothers first met Simpson when José signed him to star in Hertz commercials, and Lyle recalled Simpson throwing footballs with him and Erik and gifting them signed footballs. Lyle also mentioned running into Simpson at a restaurant in L.A. a few months before he and Erik murdered their parents. They re-encountered each other in jail while awaiting their respective trials.

"We were able to talk quite a bit," Lyle said. "We shared the same attorney [meeting] room and we were housed in the same area. My brother was in the cell next to him for most of his trial, so we had a lot of conversations."

According to Rand, one detail the show gets wrong is that it wasn’t Erik who suggested a plea deal to Simpson; it was Lyle.

"For 100 hours of contact between the two inmates, the two high-profile prisoners talked openly and exchanged dozens of letters," Rand wrote in The Menéndez Murders. "Lyle advised O.J. he should consider taking a plea deal, and O.J. briefly considered that option—but later told [Lyle] he couldn't do that because it would ruin his reputation and he would never work again."

What did you think of Ryan Murphy's latest ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’, do you agree with the portrayal of the narrative and characters in the show? Was it really necessary to allude to a possible incestuous relationship between the brothers? 

Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!