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Erik Menendez: ‘Monster’ full of ‘blatant lies’ about murders
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Erik Menendez: ‘Monster’ full of ‘blatant lies’ about murders

Convicted murderer Erik Menéndez has criticized the new Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” claiming the true-crime-inspired series is based “on horrific and brazen lies” about the events leading up to the murder of his parents in 1989.

In a statement posted last week on his wife Tammi Menéndez’s X-account, Menéndez called the series a “dishonest portrayal” of his life and the life of his brother Lyle Menéndez. He accused the show’s co-creator, television producer Ryan Murphy, of creating “Monsters” with “evil intent.”

Erik and Lyle Menéndez are both serving life sentences for the murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menéndez. They are accused of killing the couple in self-defense after years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Family members have confirmed that the brothers had made allegations of abuse before the murders, while prosecutors have argued that the brothers killed their parents for financial gain.

“I thought we had moved beyond the lies and devastating character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle based on horrific and obvious lies that were rampant on the show,” Menéndez wrote in his statement. “I can only believe they were done that way on purpose.”

“It is with a heavy heart that I must say that I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives as to do this without malicious intent.”

Erik Menéndez sits with his brother Lyle Menéndez during their trial for double murder in 1994. He criticized the new true crime series "Monster" in a statement last week.
Erik Menéndez sits with his brother Lyle Menéndez during their trial for a double murder in 1994. In a statement last week, he criticized the new true crime series “Monsters.”

Ted Soqui via Getty Images

Menéndez called “Monsters” a “disheartening slander” and accused Murphy of misrepresenting the impact of trauma and sexual abuse on male victims.

“It saddens me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has pushed the painful truths back several steps – back to an era when prosecutors built their narrative on a belief system that said men were not sexually assaulted and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women,” he wrote.

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At the end, Menéndez thanked “everyone who has reached out to me and supported me.”

The series is the second part of Murphy’s already controversial true crime anthology “Monster”.

The first part was about the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The families of Dahmer’s victims criticized the series for “glorifying” Dahmer’s crimes and capitalizing on their personal tragedy.

Read Menendez’s full statement here.

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