Ryan Murphy is responding to Erik Menendez’s criticism of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
In the wake of Murphy’s new series debuting on Netflix, Menendez has spoken out about how he and his brother, who are serving life sentences for killing their parents after years of alleged sexual abuse, are portrayed.
Even though Menendez doesn’t have Netflix in prison, it’s believed by Menendez trial expert Robert Rand that he was given a description of the miniseries by his wife, Tammi, leading him to speak out.
What Ryan Murphy says about Erik Menendez’s criticism
“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,” said Menendez via a social media post shared by his wife, Tammi. “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.”
Menendez also wrote how it is “sad” for him “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 expeirenced rape trauma differently than women.”
“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,” he continued. “So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and me and disheartening slander. Is the truth not enough?”
While speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Murphy said, according to The Hollywood Reporter, “The thing that I find interesting that [Erik] doesn’t mention in his quote is, if you watch the show, I would say 60 to 65 percent of our show in the scripts, and in the film form, center around the abuse and what they claim happened to them. And we do it very carefully, and we give them their day in court, and they talk about it openly.”
“In this age, where people can really talk about sexual abuse, talking about it and writing about all points of view can be controversial,” he added.
Menendez and his brother Lyle were sentenced to life without parole after being convicted for premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1993. The two brothers say they shot and killed their parents due to suffering years of sexual abuse from their father with the full knowledge of their mother, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Murphy series, however, insinuates that the brothers as possibly had an incestuous relationship, which Rand told The Hollywood Reporter is a false allegation. He also said that in the 1995 retrial, in which Erik admits to Lyle sexually abusing him when they were children, Lyle’s actions, which were the actions his father had inflicted upon him, are that of someone responding to the sexual trauma.