Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Crime, Menendez Brothers, Netflix, Entertainment, News
Britt Jones
Topics: Crime, Menendez Brothers, Netflix, Entertainment, News
Since the release of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, fans online have been quick to jump on and correct what they believe are factual inaccuracies, but there’s one key fact that was totally wrong.
From the way the characters are dressed, to how the characters are portrayed, die-hard followers of the Menendez brothers have expressed their disappointment of the Ryan Murphy show.
But it’s not only the fans, one of the brothers involved in the killing of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez has also hit out.
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Erik, the younger brother of Lyle has lashed out at the Netflix show just one day after its release to share how he believes that Murphy was ‘naïve and dishonest’ in his portrayal of his brother.
The series follows the Menendez family, who live a lavish life in Beverly Hills.
They seem like the ideal family, but suddenly, Lyle calls the police one night in 1989 to report that he and his brother have stumbled onto a horrific scene: his parents dead in their home from gunshot wounds.
But who killed the high-standing couple?
As it turns out, it was their own children who later went on to become sensationalised for their claims that their father had molested them for years of their lives, with their mother knowing about it.
The brothers, who were 18 and 21 respectively at the time carried out the murders and claimed that it was because their father threatened to kill them if they exposed his abuse.
What followed was a high-profile trial with explosive claims, a terrible debate about whether men can in fact be sexually assaulted and if the two brothers simply murdered their parents to gain their inheritance pay out.
But what everyone is talking about is this major detail that appears to have been rushed in the series.
A confession from Erik to his psychologist.
In Murphy’s depiction, the police wiretap his friend, Craig Cignarelli, in the hopes that he can make Erik slip up and confess to murder.
However, in real life it was a little different.
Erik began talking to psychologist, Jerome Oziel, after his meeting with Cignarelli, not before, which essentially triggered a chain of events that led to the brothers' arrest.
In 1989, Erik rang Dr Oziel and requested an urgent appointment and he admitted his guilt in a recorded session, which was found and heard by Judalon Smyth, Oziel's patient and mistress at the time, who then contacted police.
The recording was also heavily debated at court about whether or not it could be used as evidence of a genuine confession, but was ultimately allowed to be submitted into evidence.
Their first trial was declared a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict, but their second trial in 1995 found them guilty of first-degree murder, saw the brothers sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
The pair remain in prison, with droves of supporters still believing that they should be released
On October 7, the brothers will tell all in a new Netflix documentary, which fans can’t wait to see.