The latest installment in Ryan Murphy’s Monster series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, shot immediately to the top of the streamer’s most watched list after its release last week. Yet the true-crime series also swiftly faced criticism over innuendo made in the show that the two convicted murderers had more than a brotherly bond, and developed a sexual relationship.
via: People
Following backlash for the portrayal of Erik and Lyle Menendez in Netflix's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, an expert on the case is speaking out.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter following the Sept. 19 release of the newest of Ryan Murphy’s Monsters series, Robert Rand set the record straight on the differences between the show and reality. As the author of 2018’s The Menendez Murders book, Rand said there were several falsities in the show.
“I don’t believe that Erik and Lyle Menendez were ever lovers,” he said. “I think that’s a fantasy that was in the mind of Dominick Dunne [the reporter in the series portrayed by Nathan Lane]."
"Rumors were going around the trial that maybe there was some sort of weird relationship between Erik and Lyle themselves, but I believe the only physical contact they might have had is what Lyle testified, that when Lyle was 8 years old, he took Erik out in the woods and played with him with a toothbrush — which is what [their father] José had done with him," he continued.
He added: “I certainly wouldn’t call that a sexual relationship of any sort. It’s a response to trauma.”
Representatives for Murphy and Netflix did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
In the nine-episode limited series, episode 2 shows Erik and Lyle sharing a kiss, while episode 6 features their mother finding them showering together. The brothers had testified in their trial that they never had a sexual relationship with one another.
Erik released a statement slamming the series after it premiered, which was also posted on Lyle's social media.
“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,” it read. “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.”
“It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward — back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women,” Erik continued. “Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out. So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.”
"Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth," he concluded. "How demoralizing is it to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma."
Lyle and Erik, then 21 and 18, killed their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, with 12-gauge shotguns at their Beverly Hills home in 1989, claiming self-defense. They were later prosecuted and accused of doing it for their family’s over $14 million fortune, but the brothers have maintained that it was due to mental, physical and sexual abuse that had been occurring.
"I’m not saying what I did was right or justifiable. I needed to go to prison. But place another child in my life and see what happens," Erik told PEOPLE in 2005. "I felt it was either my life or my parents’ life. ... Being arrested was such a relief. My life was over and I was glad. I didn’t want the money."
Though many have criticized the series for its false portrayals, others have defended the project, including the brother of Cooper Koch, who plays Erik in the series.
"I won't speak for Cooper but I will say that he cares immensely for the boys and stands with them and all victims of abuse," Payton wrote on Instagram on Sept. 20. "He did everything he could to ensure their stories of abuse were seen on screen and I think in episode 5, it is abundantly clear where he stands."
Payton, who is a film editor who has worked on Only Murders in the Building, added that actors are "only vessels for the writers/producers of the show. Any true story portrayal is going to be tough, but please trust me when I say he does care about them and their story ❤️🩹."
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is now streaming on Netflix.
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