Monsters: The One Question Netflix’s Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Can’t Answer

Rightly or wrongly, audiences flock to true crime stories in search of answers. The human mind abhors a mystery, after all. That is particularly the case with Netflix’s latest hit Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

Despite being one of the most famous criminal court cases of the ’90s, if not the entire 20th century, CA v. Menendez (1993) offered little in the way of actual resolution. There are things we know for sure about the wealthy young brothers, Lyle and Erik Menendez. They absolutely did kill their parents, José and Kitty, with shotguns. They then absolutely did go on a lavish spending spree (which generated one of pop culture’s strangest true crime artifacts). And they absolutely were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

There is still one aspect of the Menendez story that remains unknown and likely always will. Why did Lyle and Erik kill their parents in the first place? Was it a base desire to get rid of their rich father before he could write them out of the family will? Or did the murder manifest after years of sexual abuse from José, as the brothers claimed?

For years following the Menendez story, the prevailing popular sentiment was that Lyle and Erik were simply liars, as evidenced by most media coverage of the case. The brothers’ privileged behavior was understandingly off-putting to people. Additionally, societal understanding of sexual assault was limited enough that many couldn’t imagine a circumstance in which a father would abuse his sons. As time goes on and the Menendez Brothers maintain their version of events, however, some sources have begun to reconsider. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is one such source.

This Netflix miniseries from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan does not definitively conclude that Lyle and Erik were abused but it does lend some real credence to their claims. Murphy himself told Entertainment Tonight that “if you watch the show, I would say 60-65% of our show center around the abuse, and what they claim happened to them. We do it very carefully and we give them their day in court, and they talk openly about it.”

While Monsters can’t offer up a final answer on the topic of the Menendez’ motive, it does at least raise the question again in a compelling way. With that in mind, we thought it might be time to take a look at that question ourselves. With Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story as a jumping off point, here is everything we know about the Menendez Brothers’ true motive and whether their claims have merit.

Other sources consulted for this piece include: This Reddit thread compiled by u/kimiashn, CNN’s Court TV archives, and trial footage.

Lyle Menendez’ Hair Loss Could Be Evidence of Abuse

Younger viewers experiencing the Lyle and Erik Menendez story for the first time have been captivated by one element in particular: Lyle’s hair loss. As depicted by Monsters‘ Lyle actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez, the real life Lyle Menendez wore a hairpiece so expensive and realistic that his brother supposedly didn’t even realize it was a wig until his mother snatched it off Lyle’s head five days before the murders.

No definitive explanation has ever been offered up as to why Lyle began to lose his hair at an unusually young age (reportedly around age 16). None of the other men in the Menendez family appear to have experienced premature balding, suggesting that it wasn’t a hereditary condition. It’s been well-documented, however, that stress can contribute to hair loss at any age, including stress related to sexual trauma.

Lyle’s hair loss as a symptom of abuse was brought up by the defense during his trial. Expert witnesses, including Dr. Ann Tyler, also pointed to behaviors like hypersexualization, sensitivity to touch, and acting out as evidence of Lyle having been abused. Expert testimony is not first-hand evidence and should be weighed appropriately. Additionally, it was thoroughly established that both Menendez boys experienced significant levels of stress due to their overbearing father in general, so Lyle’s hair loss could be attributed to that and not sexual abuse.

Still, Lyle’s bald pate is something tangible to point to when discussing the potential physical outcomes that support the brothers’ abuse claims.

The Menendez Family Largely Stuck By Lyle and Erik

Lyle and Erik Menendez have steadfastly stood by their story since their first trial began in 1993 and have continued to do so through to the present as they serve life sentences in prison. On its own, that’s not particularly compelling evidence as the guilty have plenty of motivation to keep up a lie, even without the possibility of parole. Any prayer of a new trial rests on them maintaining innocence. An interesting wrinkle, however, is that none of the family members or friends who testified on the Menendez brothers’ behalf have since recanted their statements supporting their claims.

During the first trial, cousin Diane Vandermolen claimed that Lyle told her that “he and his dad had been touching each other down there” when he was nine years old. In 2017, Vanermolen told ABC News that she maintained her belief that Lyle and Erik were sexually abused.

Cousin Andy Cano said that Erik told him that José had massaged his penis when he was 12. Cano died at age 30 in 2003 from an overdose to sleeping pills. Per the 2022 documentary Menendez Brothers: Misjudged?, Cano’s mother discovered a letter Erik had written to Andy when he was 17 containing additional details about the abuse. Another cousin, Kathleen, testified that she heard groans coming from the boys’ bedrooms and that she was forbidden from going down the hall when José entered the boys’ rooms.

Some have theorized that the Menendez extended family had an incentive to lie on Lyle and Erik’s behalf as, if found not guilty, they would be the executors of their parents’ estate and be able to financially support those who testified. This is somewhat supported by Lyle’s pressuring friend Amir Eslaminia to lie about purchasing a handgun on their behalf. Other family friends with little-to-no financial incentive, however, supported the Menendez’ story. This includes Donovan Goodreau, who says he discussed the abuse with Lyle four months before the homicides. Additionally, the Menendez estate was mostly tapped by the conclusion of Lyle and Erik’s expensive trials.

New Allegations From Menudo Member Roy Rosselló

What’s real and what’s imagined can be hard to keep track of in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. That’s because the series visually presents all sides of the case as dramatized events, without always acknowledging whether there is real world evidence to back it up. One moment that springs to mind is an episode 6 scene in which José Menendez (Javier Bardem) hires a young male sex worker at a hotel.

There is no real world documentation that describes this particular incident involving José Menendez, though the series is likely drawing from some less-than-reputable sources that discussed José Menendez’ purported sexual appetites. Infamous Hollywood brothel madame Cheri Woods told the New York Post in 1993 that José was one of her clients and that he was a sexual sadist with an expressed interest in petite women. The Menendez defense team never called on Woods as a witness.

While Wood’s story was probably wisely discarded as being too salacious and lacking evidence, fresh sexual assault claims against José Menendez were introduced in 2023 via the Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed. In that doc, Roy Rosselló, former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, alleged that José Menendez drugged, molested, and raped him when Rosselló was a teen and Menendez was the powerful RCA executive overseeing the group.

Though still not constituting tangible, physical evidence, these claims from a reputable source with proven close contact to José Menendez represent the most intriguing new bit of corroborating information to come out since the Menendez trials wrapped.

What Happened to Lyle and Erik Menendez?

So what really happened to Lyle and Erik Menendez? Is their motive credible? Was their sentence justified? Get ready for the cop out to end all cop outs because it’s really impossible to know. The one thing that can be said with certainty about these two cases is both juries came to reasonable conclusions.

When presented with a mountain of circumstantial evidence that suggested the boys endured a lifetime of psychological and potentially even sexual abuse, the first jury was not able to reach a decision. In the second trial, in which Judge Weisberg limited the amount of evidence unrelated to the actual murder, the jury found the defendants guilty. It’s clear that the evidence presented about sexual abuse was effective, but was it the truth? It’s really impossible to say without access to more physical evidence.

The first trial did include some physical evidence, including medical records of an injury to Erik’s throat and photographs of the boys’ naked bodies at age 6 and 8, purported to be taken by José. Understandably and thankfully, the public will never see those photos and therefore cannot judge whether they are prurient in nature or not.

Still, if nothing else, the familial witnesses maintaining their testimony all these years later adds credibility to the Menendez Brothers’ version of events. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is wise for leaving the door cracked for innocence and even wiser for not swinging it open all the way.

All nine episodes of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story are available to stream on Netflix now.