Ryan Murphy Weighs In on Possible Menendez Brothers Prison Release

Ryan Murphy isn’t publicly calling for Erik Menéndez and Lyle Menéndez to be released from prison after receiving backlash for how his show Monsters portrays their infamous murder case.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say they should be freed, but I think that their case should be reexamined, and I think new evidence should be presented,” Murphy, 58, told People on Friday, September 27. “If that case was tried and all of the evidence was allowed in today, I think they probably would’ve been charged and found guilty of manslaughter and they would be out of jail now.”

Murphy is hopeful that Monsters “ultimately leads to something positive” for Erik, 53, and Lyle, 56.

“Did they go too far? Yes. Were they out of their minds at the time? Yes. But they’ve been model prisoners,” he noted. “I’ve talked to people in the prison who claim they are totally rehabilitated and can actually do good for society in some capacity now, and I think that deserves to be looked at.”

The executive producer went on to explain why his take on the case was “so controversial,” adding, “People aren’t comfortable with the idea that two things can be possible at the same time. They want good guys and bad guys. They don’t want complicated guys.”

Murphy specifically pointed to Erik and Lyle’s past legal issues. Erik and Lyle became prime suspects in the murders of their parents — José and Kitty Menéndez — in 1989. They were subsequently arrested in 1990 before being found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole in 1996 after two high-profile trials.

“I think Eric and Lyle did monstrous things — not just the murders, but the other crimes they committed. I think they were morally corrupt at a young age. If you believe the testimony and if you believe the evidence, I think the parents were also monsters,” he continued. “But the family says I’m a monster because I dared to discuss it, and that’s OK. I don’t mind being complicated. I know that my intentions were good. We just really wanted people to talk about this topic and it’s an uncomfortable topic, which I get.”

In Netflix’s Monsters, which was released earlier this month, Nicholas Alexander Chavez portrayed Lyle and Cooper Koch played Erik. José and Kitty, meanwhile, were portrayed by Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, respectively.

The real-life Erik spoke out against the show one day after it was released after viewers took issue with scenes alluding to an incestuous relationship between the siblings.

“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,” read Erik’s statement, which was shared via Lyle’s Facebook page. “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.”

Murphy, for his part, stood by how the show chose to cover the murder case — including the rumors that were spread at the time of the trial.

“I feel like that’s faux outrage,” Murphy told People. “Because if you look at what we do, we give those boys so much airtime to talk about what they claim as their physical abuse. We live in a sort of culture of outrage that a lot of things are knee-jerk, and that’s fine. I’m used to being controversial. It’s not new to me.”

It was important for Murphy that Monsters not pick a side.

“I don’t know what story they would want to be told. How do you assassinate the character of two people who killed their own parents? I find that an interesting choice of words, and I don’t agree with it. Also, I think maybe they don’t even think it’s true,” he continued. “And 65 percent of the show is dedicated to [Erik and Lyle’s] point of view that, ‘We were sexually abused and that’s why we did what we did.’ We say that over and over and over, so I don’t understand what the family can claim didn’t happen because we’re presenting everything that happened as an opinion of other people.”

Murphy went on to point out that the Monsters team wasn’t “doing a documentary” on the Menéndez brothers. (Netflix announced an upcoming documentary titled The Menéndez Brothers, which will feature new interviews with Erik and Lyle, days after Monsters was released.)

“I was interested in doing something about everybody involved in this case, including the parents and their perspectives,” Murphy explained. “We’re not presenting any [of the incest speculation] as truth. We’re presenting it as someone’s opinion. All of that stuff is woven into a narrative that [Vanity Fair author] Dominick Dunne talked about in articles. It was also thrown up in court several times. I’m not saying that it happened. I’m not saying that it didn’t happen. I’m saying that it was a part of the big folkloric tapestry of that case that might have swayed juries in a certain way or not.”

Monsters is currently streaming on Netflix.