By Zack Sharf
According To The variety Erik and Lyle Menendez speak out for the first time in decades in the official trailer for “The Menendez Brothers,” a new documentary feature streaming on Netflix in October. The brothers were convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1996 in a trial that captivated the nation and which is currently the subject of Netflix’s narrative series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
“Everyone asks why we killed our parents,” Lyle says in an audio interview from prison. “Maybe now people can understand the truth.”
“What happened that night is very well known but so much hasn’t been told,” adds Erik. “We were not the ones who told the story about our lives. Two kids don’t commit this crime for money.”
The official synopsis for “The Menendez Brothers” documentary from Netflix reads: “In 1996, Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted for the murders of their parents in what became one of the most famous criminal cases of the late 20th century. For the first time in 30 years, and in their own words, both brothers revisit the trial that shocked the nation. Through extensive audio interviews with Lyle and Erik, lawyers involved in the trial, journalists who covered it, jurors, family and other informed observers, acclaimed Argentinian director Alejandro Hartmann offers new insight and a fresh perspective on a case that people only think they know.” Erik Menendez recently made headlines for slamming Netflix’s “Monsters,” which debuted Sept. 19 on the streaming platform. The show is backed by Ryan Murphy and is the second installment in the “Monster” anthology series, which kicked off in 2022 with a season about Jeffery Dahmer (played by Evan Peters). Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch star in “Monsters” as Lyle and Erik Menendez, with Javier Bardem as their father Jose and Chloe Sevigny as their mother Kitty.
In an online statement posted via his wife Tammi Menendez’s X account, Erik said that the drama series perpetuated “ruinous character portrayals” of him and his brother. The statement also accused Murphy of having bad intent due to the nature of the narrative that the showrunner created.
“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show. I can only believe they were done so on purpose,” Erik wrote. “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.”
