MONSTERS The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Real-Life VS Netflix | ENDING EXPLAINED

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers Show, I’m your host Paul and in this video we’re breaking down Monsters.

The Lyle and Erik Menendez story has just dropped on Netflix and it chronicles the crime committed by the brothers.

But how did it go down in real life and does the title Monsters refer to the brothers or the parents?

Well, that’s something we aim to go through in this video and throughout it we’ll be discussing all the facts. This will also go over what happened at the end and some of the things Netflix changed for the show. I’ve also watched the Barbara Walters interview in full and will be talking about both sides of the case.

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With that out of the way, thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into Monsters.

MONSTERS: THE LYLE AND ERIK MENENDEZ STORY BREAKDOWN

Ok, so the series centres around the murders of Kitty and Jose Menendez. Carried out by their two sons Lyle and Erik, the show gives us several points of the characters’ lives.

Initially, the brothers blamed it on the mafia but over time the story soon fell apart. The pair then said their parents abused them and this has made some sympathetic towards them.

Now this is the first major point of contention in the show and Ryan Murphy’s already received some criticism for it. Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer story had similar issues and Murphy was behind that show as well. There he expressed that he wasn’t so much interested in the killer’s eventual outcome, he was more interested in the factors that made him.

That definitely feels like it’s the case here as well with them going through lots of potential factors with the killers.

Viewers have already made it known that the abuse story was highly contested. It’s also said that it felt like a last-ditch attempt to defend themselves against two people whose lives they’d already destroyed.

But what do we know?

Well, the brothers murdered their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez on the 20th of August 1989.

From what forensics could gather, the pair shot Kitty 10 times and Jose six. Kitty was still alive during the first round and then Lyle returned to the car to reload. After both the pair were slain, we get a bit of a discrepancy as some reports say the brothers remained home. There they were waiting for the police to arrive, with the plan being that they’d say they were at Batman. This is something we see in the show with them also claiming to have been at The Taste Of LA.

It’s believed that the pair thought people in the neighbourhood would hear the shots and they’d then return home to the scene of the crime to police. This is something they discuss in the episode; however, things didn’t go that way.

Like we see, they ended up calling the police with a play on the call being in the series.

DID THE MAFIA KILL LYLE AND ERIK’S PARENTS?

Initially, the brothers blamed the mafia and police thought this could be the case. It seemed implausible that two well-off young men would kill their parents and thus initially the investigation looked elsewhere.

However, things seemed off about the crime scene and several details just didn’t seem to fit. To add to this, the brothers acted strangely and went on a spending spree. According to the reports, they spent over $700,000 in just a few months. As we see, they hire expensive tennis coaches with Erik completing a series of tournaments in Israel. They pick up bottles of champagne, buy Porsches and Lyle also invested in several businesses. This included The Chuck Springs Street Cafe and a wing restaurant in New Jersey. He also picked up a Rolex watch and the pair attended several basketball games.

This included getting front-row seats at a New York Knicks game with them appearing in the background of Mark Jackson’s trading card.

However, it was the confession to a therapist that was the main thing that sealed their fate. Erik confessed to his therapist which is what we see happening in episode one. His girlfriend is who tipped off the police and they were then charged with murder in March the year after.

Things would then begin with their trial in 1993. This was a nationwide talking point with the trial being broadcast every single day.

However, the brothers had separate juries even though they were tried together. Due to them not being able to reach a unanimous decision, it was classed as a mistrial and a second trial was held.

This takes us to 1995 and the trial that we see happening in episode 9. Their defence was to put their parents on trial and neither denied killing their parents.

However, the allegations weren’t admissible in the second trial which led to their conviction. They go with the story we see in episode 9 in which Erik says he told Lyle about the abuse. After confronting Jose, they claimed he said he’d kill them if it ever got out. This then led to the murders which they classed as self-defence.

Now the brothers apparently had the feeling that they might be able to get off due to the OJ Simpson verdict. This is what starts episode 9 and we hear OJ and Erik discussing their cases in episode 8. This is something that happened in real life as well, with the pair having hundreds of conversations when incarcerated. Apparently, Erik even told OJ to plead guilty at one point and go with the same strategy as him.

However, as we see, the book and the recordings lead into it basically being a confession. This is because it would lead to a cross-examination in which the book could be used to question him. Titled The Private Diary Of Lyle Menendez: In His Own Words!, it’s something that could completely sink the case.

Now here we also see the people who testified to talk about their relationship with their parents. This includes a car salesman, a pool repairman, and the captain of the boat for the shark fishing trip.

This basically plays off the real-life trial in which several witnesses came to the parents’ defence.

On top of this, Erik’s friend Craig discussed how the pair wrote a play about a character that murdered his parents in cold blood. This, on top of being fans of The Billionaire Boys Club, painted out a fantasy of how Erik was fascinated with killing his parents.

On top of this, we know that Erik was aware of the storyline before its release because it was based on elements of their friend’s life. That is Brian, whose parents were killed for money, and he takes the stand to reveal the truth.

Turns out that Lyle wrote him a letter asking him to testify in their favour.

Now another element we see is that the jury is given one of two options. That is life without parole or the death penalty.

The jury apparently viewed them as spoilt brats and several of them were adamant the pair should be killed. As we see, one gets so worked up about this she has a heart attack and thus ends up being replaced.

This replacement was then more sympathetic and felt like the pair weren’t violent people.

Ultimately, this is what saved them as he thought if there was a chance they told the truth, their deaths aren’t something he wanted on his shoulders.

Now in the end, the pair were devastated because they were sent to different prisons.

Yeah, check out that interview ‘cos it’s crazy. Now later on in the episode, they also mention the wedding bells that Lyle could be hearing soon.

Now as the realisation dawns on them, we hear Milli Vanilli’s I’m Gonna Miss You. The group have appeared throughout the seasons and I wondered if that was intentional. Both were exposed for lip-syncing and not singing their songs after winning several accolades. This could be akin to the fake façade the pair put into the world, but yeah, I might be looking too deeply into that.

It turns out the lyrics were the last thing Lyle said to his mother and it brings things full circle from the memorial in episode 1. Huge shoutouts to Brain Pilot for pointing out that they also had Lyle wearing Jose’s shoes.

He pointed out that Lyle said he’d finally filled his father’s shoes, which again was something that seemed like a red flag.

Now the final scene of episode 9 replays things on the boat but this time we see things from Jose and Kitty’s perspective.

This leads things far more ambiguous and shows the parents in a really good light. They’re working on their marriage after the affair and Jose wants to run for Senate. Kitty could go back to working as a journalist and it seems more optimistic.

NEW EVIDENCE IN THE LYLE AND ERIK CASE SUPPORTS THEIR CLAIMS OF ABUSE BY THEIR FATHER

Kitty calls over the kids but Jose says to leave them when they don’t respond. As we see, they’re talking about the murder which is when we cut to black.

Now to complicate things further, we know how the real-life events developed beyond the show. Their cousin Andy Cano stated that he received a letter which supported their side of the story.

Saying that things were happening and that it was worse now, it painted out a scared boy who worried every night his dad would come in. It said:

Every night I stay up thinking he might come in. I need to put it out of my mind. I know what you said before but I’m afraid. You just don’t know Dad like I do. He’s crazy! He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone.

Though Cano testified, the letter wasn’t admitted, but it still stands as one of the key things that sways opinion. There were also the allegations from Roy Rossello who claimed that Jose also assaulted him.

He said he was drugged and assaulted when he was 14, and during a docuseries, pointed to a photo of Jose and labelled him as the one who did it.

Now after the events of the show, we know the brothers were reunited in 2018. This marked a reunion after 22 years. Allowed to serve their sentences at the same prison, they were moved into the same housing unit.

Since then they’ve filed numerous appeals, including one that has the testimony of Roy Rossello.

However, the pair still remain in prison and it’s unlikely that they’ll ever get out.

Either way, that wraps up the video and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the show.

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