An Unfinished Story: The Menendez Brothers
Unlike Ryan Murphy’s Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story where viewers watch how the serial killer’s acts play out, in the second installation of the anthology series, the director covers the controversial and seemingly unfinished story of Erik and Lyle Menendez. Convicted in 1996 for brutally murdering their parents José and Marie Louise “Kitty” Menendez with shotguns in 1989, the brothers have always been believed to have committed the crime for money. However, both the series and court records show that there were a lot more disturbing acts happening behind closed doors at the Menendez home than anyone had realized.
First, Let’s Talk About What We Know About The Menendez Family
Born and raised in Cuba, José Menendez was reportedly a bit of a troublemaker when he was a boy. His father played soccer but also owned an accounting firm while his mother was a famed swimmer. When the revolution was taking over the country, José’s parents moved him and his two sisters to the United States where they would later settle in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
While attending college at Southern Illinois University, José met the woman who would later become his wife and the mother of their two children, Kitty. After Erik and Lyle were born, José took fatherhood and being able to provide for his family very seriously. By age 35, he had worked his way up from being an employee at an accounting firm to the executive vice president of car rental company Hertz, a subsidiary of consumer electronics corporation RCA. Some time later, José was transferred to the company’s record department, taking him and his family to Beverly Hills for work as an entertainment executive.
Throughout Erik and Lyle’s life, it was reported that their father was very competitive and at times, very tough on them. Despite coming in first place in swimming competitions or while playing tennis, both boys would receive their fair share of screams on how they could do better or still were not good enough. Their father’s helicopter style of parenting didn’t stop there, either. As the boys grew older and found themselves in trouble with the law or with administrators in college, José was there to bail them out and ensure that they wouldn’t face reputation-shattering consequences.
Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle and Cooper Koch as Erik in Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menedez Story, image via IMDb
Although some might see José and Kitty as parents who loved and cared for their boys—even if it was under an iron fist—it wouldn’t be until Erik and Lyle’s testimony that folks would learn of the much darker acts happening behind closed doors.
Given the boys’ upbringing and fear for their livelihood, neither son ever spoke of the abuse they endured from their father until after being convicted of murdering their parents. Both adults at the time of the double murder, many questions continue to surround what happened, and most of all, what was the true reason behind it? Could it have been that the boys just wanted their inheritance and to be free of their still ever-strict parents? Or, had they feared for their lives—the abuse still occurring just days before the slaying?
Dramatized On Screen
Although Murphy is unable to provide us with any real truths in his second anthology, I believe he does an incredible job of leaving it up to the viewer to decide for themself. Going into this, I hadn’t seen the documentary or had known much about the case to have any opinion. To be honest, I had no idea who the Menendez brothers were.
As I watched it play out though, I could appreciate how, in the beginning, I was encouraged to believe that our “monsters” were going to be Erik and Lyle. While we don’t get many details in the first episode, we can piece together what has happened, the strange behavior, and eventually, the moment when Erik and Lyle enter their own home with loaded shotguns. However, as the story continues to unfold, so do the layers of this complex and ultimately, highly controversial story of its time.
How details about the story appear real or fade away like in a memory, or perhaps a made-up tale, is intoxicating. In this dramatized retelling, even if we are not sure if something happened or if it’s the defense creating the only argument that has a fighting chance, we are almost like a member of the jury—we never see what happened behind closed doors. We only see the facts of the case and nothing more which in this type of retelling, should be celebrated in the realm of true crime.
Whether Murphy knew that this resurfacing of the case’s details would cause others to investigate further, it amplifies the fact that at the time of the murders, the child abuse of boys was practically unheard of. Factor in the AIDS epidemic and rumors of the boys’ sexuality and there is practically no sympathy for the men who stood before the jury. What they were told and how they were treated then, we would like to think that there would be no comparison to how their trial may have played out today. Would the public believe them, or like victims of the “Me Too” movement, would the Menendez brothers still be scrutinized? These are the types of questions this series forces you to ask yourself and what will ultimately test your empathy and your scale of less or greater evils.
What’s Happening Now
Contrary to the beliefs that the latest anthology reopened the case, over a year before the release of Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story, the Menendez brothers’ attorneys submitted a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that the murders were in “imperfect self-defense.” However, that’s not to say that the Netflix series hasn’t brought more attention to it.
“Ian [Brennan] and I are in absolute amazement and shock that this has happened, to be quite honest,” Murphy told Variety in an interview. “When we were writing the ‘Menendez Story’ — we’ve been working on this for two years — nobody was talking about the Menendez brothers. We never thought anybody ever would again.”
At the beginning of October, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced a renewed interest in the case. Since then, a court hearing has been set for November to consider new evidence proving that the brothers were molested by their father. While this would be a step in the right direction for the brothers’ sake, there is continued controversy surrounding this decision as well, as Gascón is up for reelection.
Article by Destiny King
Destiny is a supporting member of the Horror Writers Association who’s been working in B2B publishing for nearly a decade. Her favorite horror subgenres are true crime, found footage, and psychological thrillers. Find her on Letterboxd.
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