Natalie Oganesyan
Kim Kardashian and Monsters actor Cooper Koch have reportedly visited Erik and Lyle Menéndez in prison, a day after the former brother released a statement via his wife slamming the new Ryan Murphy installment as a “dishonest portrayal.”
Per TMZ, Kardashian — who has positioned herself as a criminal justice advocate and now counts Murphy as a colleague, having starred in his American Horror Story: Delicate — stopped by San Diego County’s Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility to speak to a group of some 40 inmates, including the Menéndez brothers, about prison reform.
The reality TV star and business mogul — who will continue her collaboration with Murphy through the upcoming Hulu legal drama All’s Fair, set at an all-female law firm and starring heavy-hitters like Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson, Teyana Taylor and Niecy Nash alongside Kardashian — was joined by sister Khloé Kardashian and mother Kris Jenner, along with film producer and Anti-Recidivism Coalition founder Scott Budnick. Koch, who portrays Erik alongside Nicholas Alexander Chavez’s Lyle, was also in attendance.
One of the reported topics of discussion was Greenspace, a reform strategy aimed at improving prison yards to aid inmate rehabilitation, led by both Lyle and Erik Menéndez.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story, which premiered Sept. 19 on Netflix, is the second installment to Murphy’s docudrama true crime anthology, which initially premiered this time two years ago with Evan Peters’ portrayal of the grizzly serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Season 2 also stars Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny as the Menéndez parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty,” who were killed by their children in 1989.
Upon its release, Erik denounced the series in a lengthy statement, writing: “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. 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.”
The statement continued: “It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward — back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women. Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out. So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.”
In concluding his remarks, Erik said, “Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma.” As noted in the statement, Erik took issue with the series’ lack of engagement with the abuse that colored most of his and his brother’s lives at the hands of their parents, including sexual trauma from their father, which they cited as context for the murder committed out of fear.
After being arrested in 1990 following Erik’s confession to his psychologist, the two brothers were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, their attorney Mark Geragos recently told People he’s “cautiously optimistic” that new family testimonies will help get the case reduced to voluntary manslaughter.
The backlash to Murphy’s latest Monster entry is somewhat unsurprising. Upon the release of Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, its creator and Netflix faced backlash, with victims’ families coming forward to say the series “retraumatized” them and that they were not contacted prior to release. At the time, the show became the third series on the streamer to cross the 1 billion hours viewed threshold within 60 days, prompting the platform to renew the show for another two seasons.
Online, chatter regarding the ethics of Dahmer, in view of Erik’s statement, have resurfaced, with the topic trending on X as some watchers proclaim they will not be tuning in to the new installment.