This is a student-made episode from the Cultural and Creative Criminology class of 2025 at the University of Stirling. It discusses the differences between two recent portrayals of the criminal case of Lyle and Erik Menendez: the documentary The Menendez Brothers (2024) and the drama series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024) in relation to the themes of victimisation and guilt, the ethics of documentary and true crime, and their real world impacts.
Episode Credits: Flora Kirkpatrick (presenter), Jane Shanks (presenter), Emma Buchanan (researcher), Lyndsay Brown (researcher), Charlotte Conaghan (editor), Samuel Wilson (composer).
References:
Brown, M. and Carrabine, E. (2017) ‘Introducing Visual Criminology’, in E. Carrabine et al. (eds) Routledge International Handbook of Visual Criminology. London: Routledge.
Hughes, S. (2016) ‘American Monsters: Tabloid Media and the satanic panic, 1970–2000’, Journal of American Studies, 51(3), pp. 691–719. doi:10.1017/s0021875816001298.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024), Monsters, series 2 [Television series]. Available at: Netflix.
The Menendez Brothers (2024) Directed by A. Hartmann. [Documentary]. Campfire Studios, Netflix, October 7, 2024.
Wiltenburg, J. (2004) ‘True crime: The origins of modern sensationalism’, The American Historical Review, 109(5), pp. 1377–1404. doi:10.1086/530930.
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