Washington [US], September 21 : Erik Menendez has voiced his disappointment with Netflix's latest true-crime series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, directed by Ryan Murphy.
The show focuses on the infamous case of the Menendez brothers, who were convicted in 1996 for murdering their parents, Jose and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez.
Erik shared his frustrations through a statement posted by his wife, Tammi Menendez, on 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 likes 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," read the statement.
Pointing out on how the show distorts painful truths, particularly about their claims of suffering years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father, he wrote, "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."
https://x.com/TammiMenendez1/status/1836967482013229168
"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," the statement continued.
Expressing his gratitude to those who continue to support him, he concluded, "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 glamor 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."