Netflix set to release Menendez brothers documentary to tell their true story ‘in their own words’

The Menendez brothers have agreed to take part in their own Netflix documentary after their family criticized the streaming service for the series that dramatized the brutal murders of their parents.

Netflix’s documentary features phone interviews with Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were sentenced to life without parole for the shooting deaths of their mother and father, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez.

It is the first time that the brothers, who were 22 and 19 at the time of the murders in 1989, have told their story together outside a courtroom.

They will be calling from Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, 150 miles south of where the killings took place at their parents’ $5 million home in Beverly Hills.

“What happened that night is very well known, but there is still so much that has not been told,” says one of the brothers in the documentary’s trailer.

Created by Ryan Murphy, Monsters tells the chilling story of the Menendez brothers Erik (played by Cooper Koch, right) and Lyle (played by Nicholas Chavez, left) who murdered their parents in 1989.

In the new documentary, Erik (left) and Lyle (right) call from prison, where they have been since they were convicted in 1996

At their divisive retrial in 1996 — they were tried separately for the first time in trials that both ended with hung juries — the brothers alleged that their parents were abusive, especially their father, who they said sexually assaulted them throughout their childhood abused.

Older brother Lyle also testified that their father had abused Erik when they were children.

While many believe justice has been served for the cold-blooded murder of their parents – with prosecutors claiming the motive was money – others are sympathetic to the brothers’ claims of lifelong abuse.

This comes as Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monsters,’ the Netflix drama that revisited the Menendez case, received harsh reviews from the family after its release on September 19.

It stars Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny as the Menendez parents, and Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch as their sons.

Extended members of the Menendez family released a scathing statement criticizing the new series – which is number one on Netflix’s global top ten.

Co-signed and shared on X by Erik’s wife, Tammi Menendez, the brothers’ aunt, Joan VanderMolen, summed up the family’s feelings.

In this family photo, Lyle flanks Kitty Menendez, while Erik stands behind José Menendez

VanderMolen’s statement read: “We are virtually the entire extended family of Erik and Lyle Menendez. We are 24 strong and today we want the world to know that we support Erik and Lyle. We know them, love them and want them in our homes.”

She then accused the series of painting a false narrative, calling it a “phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare” that ignores recent revelations that the family claims would exonerate the brothers.

Contrary to Murphy’s claim that extensive research was done, VanderMolen claims the family was never consulted during the show’s production.

What possibly angered the family most were scenes showing the brothers in an incestuous homoerotic relationship.

‘The character assassination of Erik and Lyle, under the guise of ‘storytelling’, is disgusting. We know what happened in their home and the unimaginably turbulent lives they lived through,” VanderMolen wrote.

Erik himself also released a statement condemning Murphy for the show’s “horrible and blatant lies.”

“I believed we had moved beyond Lyle’s lies and ruinous character portrayals and created a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies that were rampant on the show. I can only believe they did this on purpose.

“It is with a heavy heart that I say: I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives that he can do this without bad intentions,” he wrote.

Murphy was criticized for having brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez kiss in the series

The shocking moment unfolds in the show’s second episode, titled Spree

Murphy (pictured) fired back at critics of the show, saying he felt it was important to ‘present the views and theories of so many people involved in the case’

Murphy shot back this week, saying, “I find it interesting that he made a statement without having seen the show.”

“It’s really, really hard – when it’s your life – to see your life on screen,” he said.

The showrunner also dismissed viewers’ claims that he overlooked the brothers’ alleged abuse in favor of a forbidden romance plot.

“What I find interesting that he doesn’t mention in his quote is that if you look at the show, I would say 60 to 65 percent of our show in the scripts and in the film form revolves around the abuse and what they allege. happened to them,” he said.

Netflix’s documentary premieres on October 7 and is just the latest retelling of the infamous case that captured the nation’s attention for much of the 1990s.

Fox and CBS aired TV movies about the murders in 1994, Lifetime released “Menendez: Blood Brothers” in 2017 and NBC’s “Law & Order: True Crime” also focused on the case.

Peacock’s 2023 documentary “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” featured Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, who alleged that José Menendez sexually assaulted him as a teenager.