Yahoo Lifestyle ‘Menendez Brothers’ Netflix Doc Reveals Erik’s Drawings of His Abuse and Lyle Saying ‘I Would Much Rather Lose the Murder Trial Than Talk About Our Past’
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “The Menendez Brothers,” now streaming on Netflix.
Weeks after the smash hit Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” debuted, the streamer has released a new feature-length documentary on the brothers, crime and trial that shocked the world.
More from Variety
“The Menendez Brothers,” directed by Alejandro Hartmann, recounts the 1989 murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez by telling the story of their sons, Lyle and Erik. The brothers spoke with the filmmakers from prison, and numerous other family members and people who appeared in the trial also participated in the doc.
The biggest moments and revelations from the documentary are detailed below.
*Hearing the actual 911 call — The real-life source material from the investigation and the trial — including the initial 911 call, crime scene photos, interrogation tapes, and video and courtroom footage — is essential for people now obsessed with the case, as well as showing the impressive scope of research that went into “Monsters.”
*In their own words — While the performances in “Monsters” are powerful, there’s nothing like hearing Lyle and Erik talk about the murders in their voices. Hartmann has plenty of tape with both brothers individually, walking through the crime and the aftermath.
*Beverly Hills PD — It’s interesting to consider the bias initially applied by the Beverly Hills police department that answered the 911 call. Pamela Bozanich, the prosecutor in the first trial, said, “They found the two brothers in front of the house. They were hysterical, they were overacting. But the police were very nice to them. They were not treated as suspects by the investigators at the beginning,” adding, “Beverly Hills is a different kind of police department. They have much better customer service for their citizens.” Ultimately, police were skeptical the brothers had anything to do with the murders given the neighborhood, but Bozanich said pointedly, “Statistically, if you have a domestic homicide, you would be an idiot police officer to not consider other family members.”
*Erik agreed — “There should have been a police response. We would have been arrested. We had no alibi. Gunpowder residue was all over our hands. Under normal circumstances, they give you a gunpowder residue test. We would have been arrested immediately.”
*Erik says his shopping spree after killing his parents was to combat suicidal ideations — “The idea that I was having a good time is absurd. Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive,” he said.
*Kathy Griffin’s cringe jokes — When the brothers were arrested, the media frenzy over the case began. One awkward clip included comedian Kathy Griffin doing a talking head segment on a show, saying, “Oh, c’mon, they’re so adorable. They are too fine to go to prison! Woo! I know they don’t exactly have an airtight case, OK — Lyle went on a little bit of a spending spree the week after the murders. He got a couple of Rolexes and a $70,000 Porsche. But you know what? Sometimes you just have to treat yourself.”
*The jury might have known too much going into the trial — Betty Oldfield, a juror in the first trial, said, “I was already well aware of the details, of having read everything in newspapers and in magazines, even though they preferred that you did not.”
*Media coverage of defense attorney Leslie Abramson was sexist — She was described on news segments captured in the documentary as the “tiny, brash, brainy woman with the in-your-face style” and a “4’11” Little Orphan Annie look-alike [that] is 104 pounds of pure dynamite.”
*O. J. Simpson connections — At one point, Lyle mentions that Jose was the head of Hertz rental cars and hired Simpson as a spokesperson in their commercials. Later, Lyle reconnected with Simpson at the county jail after the latter’s arrest for murder, and some consider Simpson’s acquittal to start the cultural firestorm that caused the brothers to lose their second trial.
*This chilling quote from Lyle — Regarding discussing his childhood abuse in court: “I would much rather lose the murder trial than talk about our past, and what had happened.”
*Extended family members knew about Jose’s abuse — The patriarch’s violent behavior towards his boys was not limited to private moments. Diane Vander Molen, Lyle and Erik’s cousin, said: “One time, Jose put Lyle on a kitchen counter and prompted Lyle to jump off, and he was going to catch him. As Lyle did so, Jose backed off, and let him fall to the ground, telling him that you can never trust anybody.”
*Jose’s reputation as a bad man preceded him — “I couldn’t find anyone to say anything nice about Jose Menendez except for his secretary,” Bozanich said. “And everybody else had just these awful stories about him and what a monster he was. The loss of Jose Menendez in my mind was an actual plus for mankind.”
*Erik’s drawings about the abuse and murder — In one of the most harrowing sections of the documentary, defense expert Dr. Ann Burgess shows illustrations she had Erik make to process his abuse at the hands of his father and the murders. “I spent most of my time interviewing Erik,” she said. “Loved his parents. He said, ‘Ten seconds after this, I regretted what we did.’ One of the techniques that I use, certainly with children but also with persons that have committed a crime, is I ask them to draw it. It’s a non-leading way of getting some information. That’s what I did with Erik, I said, ‘Let’s start with that week before.’ He did about 12 or 14 frames. It was a mini-Rorschach to have him draw it out, and I think it was helpful for him to be able to put it on paper, because he hadn’t really talked about this.” The drawings are then shown, which include phrases like “Get back here you bastard” and “I’m not going to let you touch my little brother ever again.”
*Media cruelty during the trial — The documentary shows a montage of talk show appearances and late-night spots mocking the brothers, including frequent ribbing from Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show.” The Menendez family was distressed by the segments, with Kitty’s sister Joan Vander Molen saying, “I called Jay Leno’s show one time to protest them making fun of them. And that’s all they did — they just made fun of them. I was told that we were public property now, and they could do what they wanted.”
*The first jury turned into a battle of the sexes — Hazel Thornton, a juror in the first trial, said she had a feeling they might not be able to come to a verdict early on, saying, “My worst fear came to pass when we made the mistake of taking a show of hands. All of the men raised their hands in favor of first-degree murder, and none of the women raised their hands. So I knew we had a battle on our hands, a battle of the sexes.” She added, “I think the men had a really hard time accepting the fact that a young man could be abused by his father, and the women were more empathetic in terms of understanding issues of abuse.”
*Hearing from other childhood sexual abuse survivors — Lyle has spent much of his time in jail receiving letters from other victims of abuse and sexual assault. “I began to receive a lot of letters from other victims, and I began to connect with their own experiences because they were similar to mine. There were a lot of people, professional people. I mean, I was getting letters from police officers, citizens, educated people, international people who had gone through this. They were just kind of giving me courage because they were basically saying that they never, a lot of them never talked about it, never had a voice to talk about it, always felt like shame and secrecy. The prisoners were coming to me with their own stories, because they saw me as a safe place to sort of vomit up all that pain. I was sort of Father Confessor in that way, and it’s kind of ironic that I would be the one who ended up devoting my life in prison to sex abuse survivor issues. I would have never have predicted any of that.”
*The brothers are appreciative of the scores of TikTokers who believe their story… — “The followers who are younger that are in that TikTok generation, they really have tremendous hope,” Lyle said. “Young people have taken the time to figure out what happened, and they understand it in ways that older people don’t. I feel more hope when society seems to be understanding of sex abuse even better.”
*…but not everyone is a fan — Bozanich minces no words near the documentary’s end, delivering this meta message: “The only reason we’re doing this special is because of the TikTok movement to free the Menendi. If that’s how we’re gonna try cases now, why don’t we just, like, have a poll? You present the facts, everybody gets to vote on TikTok, and then we decide who gets to go home. Your beliefs are not facts. They’re just beliefs. And by the way, all you TikTok people, I’m armed. We got guns all over the house. So don’t mess with me.”
Watch the trailer for “The Menendez Brothers” documentary below.
Best of Variety
From Taylor and Travis to Oasis: The Best Couples Costumes to Wear This Halloween
The Best Pop Culture Halloween Costumes for 2024: From Chappell Roan to Moo Deng
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
