Ryan Murphy‘s Monsters received backlash for a multitude of inaccuracies about Lyle Menéndez and Erik Menéndez‘s murder case — but what did the show actually get right?
Season 2 of the hit Netflix series, which was released on September 19, featured a star-studded cast including Nicholas Chavez, Cooper Koch, Javier Bardem, Chloë Sevigny, Nathan Lane, Ari Graynor, Dallas Roberts and Leslie Grossman.
Monsters focused on Lyle (Chavez) and Erik (Koch), who were convicted for the 1989 murders of their parents. During their high-profile trial, the brothers accused their parents, José and Kitty, of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse, which led to them killing their parents.
One day after the show started streaming, Erik slammed the production. “I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant likes rampant in the show,” read a statement from Erik that was shared on Lyle’s Facebook page. “I can only believe they were done so on purpose. 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.”
Murphy, for his part, defended how Monsters offered multiple perspectives.
“I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show. It’s really, really hard — if it’s your life — to see your life up on screen,” he told Entertainment Tonight that same month. “If you watch the show, I would say 60 to 65 percent [of the content centers] around the abuse and what they claim happened to them. And we do it very carefully and we give them their day in court and they talk openly about it.”
While viewers continue to pick apart which of the scripted details didn’t happen, keep scrolling for a breakdown of which scenes actually took place in real life:
The Surprising Funeral Detail
Just like most Murphy shows, Monsters enjoyed a needle drop or two. Milli Vanilli was the standout when fictional Lyle chose “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” to play at his parents’ funeral because they properly expressed his feelings.
Lyle, who was responsible for providing the eulogy in real life, did play the track after arriving at a service for his mother and father.
Lyle Being Bald
A dramatic scene in the show’s premiere featured Kitty fighting with Lyle before ripping off a toupée off the top of his head. Lyle’s hair loss continued to be an issue when he was arrested, and he fixated on ways to keep his toupée on his head.
Rand’s 2018 book cited the real moment as one of the reasons why Lyle and Erik were pushed to their limit before killing their parents.
“It was his toupée, and it came off like a savage scalping,” Rand wrote. “Removing it, carefully, took a special solvent. When Kitty tore it off, Lyle felt immense pain.”
Lyle started to lose his hair as a teenager and José even took him to get fitted for the toupée. It was argued during the trial that José’s alleged abuse caused Lyle to be so stressed out that the hair loss was a side effect of that.
“The defense further claimed that the sight of his older brother’s baldness and the sudden awareness of his brother’s vulnerability and embarrassment freed Erik to confess to Lyle his own deep secret,” a Vanity Fair article stated at the time of the trial. “That their father had been sexually molesting him for 12 years.”
Their Confession to Erik’s Therapist
Erik and Lyle were arrested after their therapist Dr. L. Jerome Oziel (Dallas Roberts) recorded their conversations where they discussed the murders. At the time, Oziel was having an affair with Judalon Smyth (Leslie Grossman) and told her about his sessions with the Menéndez brothers. Smyth was the only one to report what she knew to the police after Oziel ended their relationship. (Oziel subsequently lost his license to practice in 1997 for violating patient confidentiality.)
Monsters depicted the events leading to the arrest — and even offered a glimpse at Oziel and Smyth’s dynamic. She ultimately testified for the defense at the trial after her relationship with Oziel ended.
Their Case Resulting in Multiple Trials
Lyle and Erik were arrested in 1990 on two counts of first-degree murder each. Three years later, the brothers were tried separately as they alleged that years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse caused them to shoot their mother and father.
The case ended in a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision. A retrial began in 1995, but most of the evidence surrounding the abuse couldn’t be used as a defense. Erik and Lyle — who were now being tried together — were ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole in 1996. They continue to appeal the decision but have been denied.
Monsters features scenes inspired by both trials.
Erik and Lyle’s Connection to O.J. Simpson
As the brothers awaited their trial, their case was overshadowed by O.J. Simpson being named as the primary suspect after his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were fatally stabbed in 1994. In a scene from the Netflix show, Erik is seen speaking with O.J. and even offers him legal advice.
While Erik and Simpson’s conversation on Monsters gave scripted energy, the Menéndez brothers knew the athlete before they all ended up behind bars. In the 1970s, Lyle and Erik’s father helped secure an endorsement deal for Simpson during his time as the running back for the Buffalo Bills. Simpson subsequently became a regular guest at the Menéndez household.
According to Robert Rand’s 2018 book The Menéndez Murders, Erik and Lyle spoke with Simpson about his legal strategy. Erik allegedly connected Simpson with his attorney Johnnie Cochran while Lyle advised Simpson to plead guilty to accept a plea bargain.
Lyle Getting Catfished in Prison
After being arrested on the show, the fictional Lyle was seen having multiple phone calls with an unknown woman. A time jump revealed that Lyle was speaking with an undercover journalist who recorded their phone calls and published a tell-all. Erik’s attorney Leslie Abramson (Ari Graynor) cited the book as the reason why Lyle shouldn’t take the stand during the second trial to prevent cross examination.
Norma Novelli did contact the real Lyle, and he thought they were writing a book about his life together. Novelli, however, sold the recordings she had of Lyle without his written or verbal consent. The book featured some of Lyle’s more negative statements, which painted him in a bad light for jurors amid his retrial. Novelli later claimed Lyle knew she was keeping a record of their conversations, which his legal team denied in court.
“The older of the Beverly Hills brothers charged with murder boasts in the book that he beat District Attorney Gil Garcetti once and will do it again,” read an article from the Los Angeles Times about the book in 1995. “While his first trial is in progress, he acknowledges that he might have to make up testimony about sessions with his psychologist. And he worries — often — about his wardrobe and his image.”
Erik and Lyle’s Separation
The last present-day scene on Monsters shows Erik and Lyle being moved to separate prisons. Initially, they think they are heading to the same location, but Lyle was taken to Mule Creek State Prison. Erik, meanwhile, moved around from Folsom State Prison to Pleasant Valley State Prison.
They reunited in 2018 — which wasn’t featured on the show — when they were moved into the same housing unit at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility. That was their first reunion since they began serving their sentences nearly two decades prior.
Erik’s ‘Friends’ Screenplay
One of the smoking guns in the case against Erik was a play he wrote with his former childhood friend Craig Cignarelli about a man who kills his wealthy parents for inheritance. This served as evidence for the prosecution that Erik and Lyle’s attack on their mother and father was a premeditated ploy to get their money.
Monsters leaned into the humor by having Lyle make multiple digs that no one would watch something called Friends. (The hit sitcom titled Friends ran on NBC from 1994 to 2004.) Off screen, Lyle and Erik have denied that money was a motivation behind the murder.
“Two kids don’t commit this crime for money,” one of the Menéndez brothers said in footage from an upcoming Netflix documentary.
Dominick Dunne’s Coverage of the Case — and His Daughter’s Death
During the seventh episode of Monsters, the audience learns about why writer Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane) was personally affected by Lyle and Erik murdering their parents. Dominick covered the Menéndez murder trial seven years after his daughter Dominique Dunne was strangled by her ex-boyfriend John Sweeney. She fell into a coma and died five days later. Sweeney was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served three and a half years in prison.
Before his death in 2009, Dominick wrote about Dominique’s murder trial for Vanity Fair based on diaries he kept throughout the ordeal. He was originally a Hollywood producer known for films such as 1970’s The Boys in the Band and 1971’s The Panic in Needle Park. In addition to covering the Menéndez trial, Dominick wrote about the Simpson trials in 1995 and Phil Spector‘s trial in 2007.
A Juror’s Heart Attack Affecting Their Sentencing
In a pivotal moment on Monsters, the jurors are trying to decide whether Erik and Lyle should be sentenced to life without parole or the death penalty. A juror gets so emotional about voting for the death penalty that she suffered a heart attack and was replaced. The new juror argued that Erik and Lyle should not be sent to their deaths, which is how they got a life without parole sentence instead.
The sequence was based on Lesley Hillings, who was a juror in the second Menéndez murder trial. She later spoke out about the experience in an interview with reporter Mary Jane Stevenson.
“Lyle was definitely closer to getting the death penalty than Erik and many jurors made speeches such as Bruce Seitz, both in favor of Lyle and against him. After the case, when I spoke with the juror who had the heart attack, we discussed the death penalty,” she recalled. “I explained to her some of the judge’s instructions and what we could and could not consider, and she then questioned whether or not she too would have been able to vote for the death penalty under those circumstances.”