Menendez Family Slams ‘Monsters,’ Ryan Murphy in Statement: ‘Grotesque Shockadrama’

The family of Erik and Lyle Menendez issued a statement Thursday slamming Netflix’s Monsters series about the brothers, as well as the show’s creator Ryan Murphy, claiming the miniseries is filled with “mistruths and outright falsehoods,” and that family members were never even contacted by the production.

The statement, penned by the brothers’ aunt Joan VanderMolen, on behalf of the family’s 24 members, said that the family continues to support Erik and Lyle despite the infamous murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989.

“We individually and collectively pray for their release after being imprisoned for 35 years. We know them, love them, and want them home with us,” the statement said.

Following Monsters’ arrival on Netflix, Erik issued a statement (through his wife Tammi) saying the show gave a “dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime.” Most controversially, the miniseries posits that the brothers had an incestuous relationship — a theory pushed forward by late author Dominick Dunne in his true-crime book about the murders — in addition to the alleged sexual abuse the brothers faced from their parents.

The family called Monsters “a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations. Our family has been victimized by this grotesque shockadrama. Murphy claims he spent years researching the case but in the end relied on debunked Dominick Dunne, the pro-prosecution hack, to justify his slander against us and never spoke to us.”

“The character assassination of Erik and Lyle, who are our nephews and cousins, under the guise of a ‘story telling narrative,’ is repulsive. We know these men,” the family continued. “We also know what went on in their home and the unimaginably turbulent lives they have endured. Several of us were eyewitnesses to many atrocities one should never have to bear witness to.”

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Following the statements criticizing the series, Murphy defended Monsters, saying, “Our view, and what we wanted to do, was present you all the facts and at the end of it, have you do two things: Make up your own mind about who’s innocent, who’s guilty, and who’s the monster; and also have a conversation about something that’s never talked about it our culture, which is male sexual abuse.” Murphy also stated of Erik Menendez’ complaints, “I know he hasn’t watched the show.”

The family’s statement concluded Thursday, “It is sad that Ryan Murphy, Netflix, and all others involved in this series do not have an understanding of the impact of years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Perhaps, after all, Monsters is about Ryan Murphy.”