Ryan Murphy defends himself from Erik Menendez’s Monsters criticism

‘I know he hasn’t seen the show in prison,’ the director said

Ryan Murphy has responded to Erik Menendez’s accusation that his Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is “dishonest”.

The Menendez brothers were convicted of the 1989 murders of their parents, José and Kitty. They were arrested for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder outside their home in March 1990 and sentenced to life in prison in 1996. In 2024, new evidence emerged that has the potential to set them free.

Erik Menendez, who is serving a life sentence at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in California alongside Lyle, has claimed Murphy’s series, starring Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch, does not accurately portray their crime, and accused the creator of releasing “disheartening slander”.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Murphy defended the Netflix series, saying: “I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show. I know he hasn’t seen the show in prison. I hope he does see the show.”

Monsters includes the harrowing sexual abuse that Lyle and Erik alleged to have been perpetrated by their father José (Javier Bardem) but Erik Menendez has accused Murphy of distorting the truth.

Murphy responded: “Listen, I think it’s really, really hard if it’s your life to see your life up on screen. I think it’s been 30 years since that case - that’s hard.”

He added that “if you watch the show, I would say 60 to 65 per cent” of the scripted narrative centres “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 openly about it.”

‘Monster’ creator Ryan Murphy at the Golden Globes in 2023 (Getty Images)

“We present the facts from their point of view,” the Dahmer director said. “We spent three years researching it - all of that is true.”

In his statement, shared to X/Twitter, Menendez said: “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. 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.

Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez in ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ (Getty/Netflix)

“Those awful lies have been disputed 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.

He continued: “Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma. Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic.

“As such, I hope it is never forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrendous and silent crime scenes darkly shadowed behind glitter and glamour and rarely exposed until tragedy penetrates everyone involved. To all those who have reached out and supported me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”