Are we products of nature or nurture?

That’s the age-old question at the heart of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s new Netflix release Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story, which centers on the 1989 murders of José and Kitty Menéndez by their sons Erik and Lyle.

The prosecution convinced the jury that the two brothers were cold-blooded killers, driven by a desire to get their hands on their parents’ fortune. The brothers themselves claim to have been victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents – and say the murders were therefore self-defense.

What is the truth? Maybe both.

Creating the image of a “monster”

The details of the case are well known. In fact, I taught this case to my own criminology students as an example of the intersection of victim and perpetrator, since these brothers obviously came from a very dysfunctional family.

On August 20, 1989, brothers Lyle (then 21) and Erik (then 18) shot and killed their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. They faced two trials. In the first trial, in 1993, the brothers were tried separately and ended with two juries that could not agree and subsequent mistrials.

In the second trial, which began in 1995, the two were tried together. In 1996, they were found guilty of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Interestingly, in the second trial, the prosecution raised new objections to the admission of a large amount of defense evidence, so the judge subsequently excluded much of the evidence of abuse.

This destroyed the brothers’ entire defense, which was based on the fact that they had killed their parents out of fear after their parents had threatened to sue their father for severe and prolonged physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

The Netflix series has generated considerable controversy, documenting one version of the events leading up to the murders, including detailed accounts of the sexual abuse of Lyle and Erik, as well as the crimes themselves and the subsequent trials.

In the series, the brothers are portrayed in a homoerotic and incestuous manner. For context: Lyle testified in 1995 that he had sexually abused Erik, but against the backdrop of the alleged sexual abuse by their father.

In Monsters, however, the brothers are shown to have an incestuous relationship as adults. The brothers deny this and there is little evidence to support it.

While the couple is sometimes portrayed in a sympathetic light, at other times the viewer is led to wonder if their true motive was greed.

Erik Menéndez has sharply criticized the series, claiming it contradicts decades of understanding of the devastating impact of sexual abuse on male victims.

I have to agree with that.

The brothers did not simply kill their parents and call it a day. These murders were incredibly brutal. As a criminologist, it looked to me as if they wanted to wipe out their parents.

José was shot in the back of the head, execution style, while Kitty was shot ten times in total, including once directly in the face. Such crimes are generally not motivated by money; they are usually motivated by something much deeper.

Murder porn at its worst

This case can be viewed through the macabre eyes of “murder porn.” The first trial, televised in 1993, went viral on TikTok in 2021, captivating a new generation of fans.

When we watch the footage from the 1990s, some of us will remember the legions of screaming girls greeting the handsome brothers in court. It was more like a scene from a boy band concert than a brutal double murder trial.

Whether you believe the brothers were cold-blooded and opportunistic killers or victims of severe child abuse will influence your opinion of the continued interest in the case and its portrayal in Monsters.

“Monsters” is not the first example of how Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan trivialize real-life tragedies by turning them into voyeuristic and fictionalized television series.

The first part of the series of the same name was about Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer and sex offender who killed 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Dahmer was also a necrophiliac and cannibalistic, so his brutal crimes made for rich material for Netflix.

Dahmer’s victims openly expressed their criticism, saying that retelling the perpetrator’s story lessened the suffering of their relatives and made them victims again by reopening old wounds.

Regardless, Dahmer received critical acclaim and was nominated 13 times at the 2023 Emmy Awards, which undoubtedly spurred the creators’ enthusiasm for continuing to develop the franchise.

The way forward

The path to an ethical portrayal of true crime is to establish facts and to refrain from whitewashing or glorifying the criminal or his crimes.

Ideally, true crime should be victim-centered and have a purpose beyond entertainment. We can learn a lot from crime history, but these stories should be told in an educational way that respects and honors the lives of the victims.

We all have a responsibility to consume ethically produced true crime stories. Whether it’s TV series, films, podcasts or books, we vote for what we want through our engagement. My maxim is to select content that reflects how I would want my story told if I were ever at the centre of a true crime production.

If you’re curious to learn more about the Menéndez brothers’ story, check out the new Netflix documentary “The Menéndez Brothers” on October 7. Both Erik and Lyle contributed through phone interviews they conducted from prison – and they say there’s a lot that hasn’t been told.