Menendez Brothers documentary left out 7 “staggering” details

The Menendez Brothers is a new Netflix documentary following on from Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Story, and while it features interviews with the brothers themselves, there are some “staggering” details from the first trials that were left out. 

Don’t get us wrong – many consider the new true crime documentary to have ‘fixed’ some of the contentious elements of Monster Season 2, notably by incorporating input from Erik and Lyle as they fight for freedom from prison. 

But after landing on the streaming service on Monday (October 7), followers of the case – involving the 1989 murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez – have been discussing the details from the original trials that they wish the documentary had included. 

A collection of these were highlighted by TikTok user @boundless.millennial, who shared a video highlighting a number of damning allegations and testimony supporting the Menendez brothers’ ongoing claims of abuse.

“So that Menendez documentary is just another rehash of the same facts that we all already know about,” he says. “There’s so many details that were in that trial that none of these shows ever bring up.” 

He starts with the allegation that Jose Menendez drilled a hole in the ceiling or the wall of Erik’s bedroom at their Calabasas house “so he could spy on him.” 

Then there’s the fact that Kitty Menendez was discovered to have been recording Erik’s phone calls, which the brothers didn’t find out until after the police uncovered it. 

“Kitty made a copy of the key to Lyle’s apartment and gave it to Carlos Baralt so that he could go in and inspect his apartment to make sure the ‘gold digging hoes’ weren’t in there,” he continued. 

The testimony of the Menendez brothers’ cousins, though touched upon in the documentary and Monsters, sheds further light on what it was allegedly like at their house. 

Many of them claimed that while they were initially excited to stay at the Menendez’s home due to their money and success, most of them cut their trips short because of the “stress, fear, and discomfort that existed in that household.”

“And it wasn’t just Jose – it was Kitty that was unpredictable and could fly off the handle at any moment too,” the TikToker adds. 

Netflix

This brings us to the next detail, which starts with the testimony that was included in Monsters: according to her psychologist, Kitty wanted to die by suicide due to Jose’s infidelity. 

However, @boundless.millennial elaborates on this, and how she allegedly didn’t care about the impact on her sons. “Kitty Menendez hated Lyle since he was born,” he continues. 

“At six weeks old, she wanted to drop him off at the in-laws and just visit him on weekends. When he had bedwetting problems, she would rub his face in it, refuse to change the sheets, and he would sleep on the floor. 

“At two years old, she was telling family members he could take care of himself, refusing to feed Lyle, and he would climb on the counter and eat out of the cereal boxes.

“She didn’t call them honey or pumpkin or sweetie. She didn’t coddle them. She didn’t hug them. She didn’t show them affection. Nobody ever saw her showing affection to those boys. 

“Kitty told family members they’re not allowed to hug Erik because he’s too much of a baby… when he was a baby. She would say things in front of them to family members. ‘Oh, I wish I never had kids. I’m stuck with these two idiots,’ when they were like five and seven.”

A sixth detail that “a lot of people testified to” is that Jose Menendez would allegedly lock himself alone in the room with the boys for 45 minutes at a time. 

Finally, a psychologist suggested that the Menendez brothers had the emotional maturity of an eight to ten year old boy due to “severe trauma” and being placed under “such control.”

The TikToker points out that “being a bad parent” doesn’t justify being murdered. But he’s raising these points to show that “everything that was told during that trial, all of the small things, all lead up to there is abuse going on in the house.”

“It was still awful and a horrific crime,” he finishes. “But I think at most it’s second degree or manslaughter. But I don’t think they pose a threat to society. I think they deserve to experience freedom. It’s been 35 years. It’s time.”

The video from @boundless.millennial has been shared on the Menendez brothers subreddit, where one user said, “I really think this should’ve been the focus of the documentary.”

One of the biggest criticisms surrounding the Netflix doc (other than Pamela Bozanich’s appearance) has been why it didn’t discuss the new evidence supporting the claims of abuse, which was shared alongside a habeas petition filed last year. 

This is a legal request to a court to determine if a person’s detention is lawful, with the intention in this case to have the first-degree murder conviction vacated and replaced with manslaughter. 

Among the new evidence is a letter written by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano in December 1988, approximately eight months before the murders, in which he describes his fear over what his dad might do. 

Another is the affidavit of Roy Rossello, a former member of the popular Puerto Rican boy band group Menudo, who has accused then-head of RCA Records Jose of raping him in the ‘80s. 

Taking this evidence into consideration, one Redditor wrote, “Yeah I feel like this new documentary is really only a little intro into the case. I have a feeling they maybe didn’t mention Andy and Menudo because those are linked to their current habeas.

“But this guy also misses out on how Kitty actively abused them too and also SA’d Lyle, and the nude photos, the verbal and mental batterings, I could go on and on.

“I’m going through the testimonies from the first trial slowly at the moment and the amount of details and things that happened to the brothers is staggering. I don’t know if any documentary can fully capture them.”

The Menendez Brothers and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Story are streaming on Netflix now. You can read more about the petition to set the brothers free, where Dr. Jerome Oziel is now, and what legal experts say about their current situation.