Days after Erik Menendez criticized Netflix’s “Monsters,” his and Lyle’s family have called the show “repulsive” and accused it of “character assassination.”
If you haven’t already heard about “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” here’s a brief summary of why the brothers are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.
In 1989, the shotgun-wielding brothers burst into their living room where their parents, 45-year-old José and 47-year-old Kitty Menendez, were watching TV, and shot them 15 times.
During the trial, Lyle and Erik claimed they had suffered years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by their parents, which they said drove them to commit the murders. Prosecutors argued that the motive was to gain access to their parents’ $14.5 million estate, as reported by Forbes.
Ryan Murphy, the director of the series who also created “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” has faced backlash for his depiction of the events, particularly for creating a scene involving incest.
Erik Menendez has already voiced his disapproval of the true crime series through his wife, Tammi Saccoman, whom he married in the waiting room at Folsom State Prison in 1999.
Now, his and Lyle’s extended family is also speaking out.
They released the following statement: “We are virtually the entire extended family of Erik and Lyle Menéndez. We are 24 strong and today we want the world to know we support Erik and Lyle.
“We individually and collectively pray for their release after being imprisoned for 35 years. We know them, love them, and want them home with us.
“Ryan Murphy’s Monsters, the Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story is a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations.”
The statement continued: “Our family has been victimized by this grotesque shockadrama. Murphy claims he spent years researching the case but in the end relied on debunked Dominick Dunne, the pro-prosecution hack, to justify his slander against us and never spoke to us.
“The character assassination of Erik and Lyle, who are our nephews and cousins, under the guise of a ‘story telling narrative’ is repulsive. We know these men. We grew up with them since they were boys. We love them and to this very day we are close to them.”
They added: “We also know what went on in their home and the unimaginably turbulent lives they have endured. Several of us were eyewitnesses to many atrocities one should never have to bear witness to.
“It is sad that Ryan Murphy, Netflix, and all others involved in this series, do not have an understanding of the impact of years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Perhaps, after all, Monsters is all about Ryan Murphy.”