LOS ANGELES—It was a case made for the Hollywood treatment: Two handsome brothers, Erik and Lyle Menendez , had loaded shotguns and shot their parents dead in their Beverly Hills mansion. They were sentenced to life without parole in 1996 and largely forgotten.
Then TV hitmaker Ryan Murphy stepped in. His show “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” which premiered on Netflix in September and dramatized the slayings of Jose and Kitty Menendez, has opened a strange new chapter, prompting calls for a re-examination of the case that may lead to a surprising twist.
Could a Ryan Murphy show on Netflix get them out of prison?
An unexpected coalition of teenage TikTok users, Menendez family members and Los Angeles officials think so, urging a reconsideration of the murder trial that sent the brothers to prison for life. They say Murphy’s “Monsters” shines a light on sexual-abuse allegations that should have been more fully addressed during the trial and taken into account during sentencing.
The off-screen campaign highlights Murphy’s continued ability to generate buzz and attention even as the media landscape fragments, particularly when it comes to re-examining the rigid morality of the nation’s recent past. The show’s popularity echoes other hit true-crime stories—such as the podcast “Serial” or the HBO series “The Jinx”—that have challenged verdicts and led to releases or convictions.
Yet few megaphones have the reach of Netflix, which this week said it had 282.7 million subscribers globally as of this most-recent quarter . The platform’s ubiquity trounces the competition, and a hit on its home page can permeate the cultural conversation in a way few other distributors can.
Another Netflix documentary, “Surviving R. Kelly,” detailed allegations of sexual abuse by the rapper, and its 2019 debut was credited with leading to Kelly’s arrest and eventual conviction ; he is serving a 31-year sentence.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said this week it is reviewing the evidence for a possible resentencing in the Menendez case and signaled acknowledgment for what the brothers’ advocates have said: that their abuse should be considered in more contemporary terms.
“Our office has developed a more modern understanding of sexual violence since the Menendez brothers first faced prosecution,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement. “Today, our office acknowledges that sexual violence is a pervasive issue affecting countless individuals—of all gender identities.”
The Los Angeles district attorney, George Gascón , is locked in a tight race for re-election. His primary opponent, Nathan Hochman , said in a debate earlier this month that Gascón’s interest in the case was “incredibly suspicious” and timed to direct voters’ attention to the buzz of the show instead of his failing performance.
Other Menendez defenders have included Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell, who said in an interview conducted outside of Los Angeles airport that the brothers, now in their 50s, have “the audacity of hope” since seeing the response.
The grislier the better
Murphy, who rose to fame as a TV hit whisperer with shows like “Glee,” has entered a phase of his career that focuses on topics that aren’t gleeful: murder and horror, the grislier the better. In a media landscape where algorithms disperse recommendations to each user individually, he has remained one of the few producers capable of creating shows that it seems everyone is watching.
“Monsters” follows other Murphy treatments of major 20th century crimes, including the O.J. Simpson trial and the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace . As part of his Netflix deal, he has developed the “Monster” franchise, which has also told the story of Jeffrey Dahmer , the cannibalistic serial killer, and will soon feature Ed Gein, the so-called Butcher of Plainfield said to have inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.”
“Monsters” has been a hit on Netflix since it first aired, and its success has been complemented by a documentary about the case, titled “The Menendez Brothers.” The documentary and the scripted series were in the top 10 most-watched programs on Netflix this past week, and “Monsters” has been among the service’s most-viewed shows since it made its debut.
Both productions focus on the repeated sexual abuse that the brothers say drove them to murder their mother and father, a music executive.
The details of the Menendez case—a wealthy family with secrets, two brothers who looked like matinee idols—made it a perfect candidate for the Murphy treatment. The first trial ended in a hung jury unable to agree on whether the self-defense argument warranted first-degree murder charges or manslaughter.
A second trial gave less airtime to the abuse claims, and the brothers were both convicted of first-degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Last month, Erik Menendez criticized what he saw as the show’s sensationalist portrayal of his case, which includes suggestions of incest. Murphy’s depiction had taken “the painful truths several steps backward,” he said in a statement shared on X by his wife.
Murphy recently defended his show from such criticism, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “The Menendez brothers should be sending me flowers.”
“They haven’t had so much attention in 30 years,” he added.
Murphy has said he sees his shows as a chance to explore famous cases from several perspectives.
Evolving views on abuse
The initial trial and the reinterpretation of it now serve as markers in a shifting understanding of how public thinks about child abuse, said Marcia Clark , the former Los Angeles prosecutor best known for leading the case against Simpson. She was a city prosecutor during the Menendez trial but didn’t work on the case.
At the time of the Menendez trial, there was a limited understanding of child-abuse trauma and incest, she said, “and even whether children should be believed.”
The case was further complicated by the fact that the Menendez brothers were young adults in the courtroom whom the public saw as “rich spoiled brats,” she said. Juries today, she said, are “shading the culpability more finely than I’ve ever seen before,” and not as frequently interpreting their decisions as so black-and-white.
Clark knows well how a highly publicized retelling of a true story can force a new look at it. She was a central figure in Murphy’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
“Like being eulogized while I’m still alive,” she said of the experience. Her latest book, “Trial by Ambush” revisits the story of Barbara Graham, who in 1955 was executed in a gas chamber for her role in a robbery that resulted in a murder, a story later re-examined when it was dramatized in a film.
At a news conference in recent days, the Menendez brothers’ aunt, Joan VanderMolen , said her nephews’ case also warrants a re-evaluation. She now sees that her nephews’ actions, “while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable [cruelty] of their father,” she said.
Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez, looks on as family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the Beverly Hills brothers convicted of killing their parents, hold a press conference at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, California, U.S., October 16, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
Hollywood has a history of galvanizing a new appraisal of justice.
Adnan Syed , whose murder conviction was the subject of the hit podcast “Serial,” was freed from prison in 2022. Robert Durst died in jail after the 2015 documentary “The Jinx” prompted a conviction in the murder of his friend Susan Berman. (“The Jinx” featured footage of Durst mumbling to himself, “killed them all, of course.”)
Other documentaries that aren’t true crime have instigated broad reconsiderations of how the general public has treated a popular figure, like Britney Spears .
On the streets outside of the Beverly Hills mansion where the Menendez murders occurred, social-media influencers have congregated to show their followers the home.
“People said they saw things in the windows. How creepy would that be?” asked Instagram user Michael Pavano as he zoomed in on the house’s facade in one video.
Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez, attends a news conference to announce a decision in the case of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, who have spent 34 years in prison for the shotgun murder of their parents, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., October 24, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com
