So You’re Curious About Lyle Menendez’s ‘Monsters’ Toupee?

By now you’ve probably heard the names Lyle and Erik Menendez. The brothers killed their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989 after reportedly enduring years of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. But do you know what made them snap?

In episode 1 of Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, we see a dramatization of the events that led to the massacre. It starts with a fight between Lyle and his mother. Lyle desperately wants to marry his girlfriend, but Kitty won’t allow it because he’s twenty years old. Lyle calls Kitty a hypocrite because she and Jose married at that age—and in a fit of rage, Kitty rips the toupee off his head.

That night, Lyle tells Erik he lost his hair due to stress. Jose bought him a toupee to cover up the damage. Later on, Erik tells his therapist about the incident. “I just saw him, and I suddenly saw how cruel it was, what was going on in that house.”

Apparently, the scene is based on actual events. Robert Rand’s book, The Menendez Murders, includes a section about the toupee. However, the real story differs from the one presented on the Netflix show. After Lyle and Kitty’s fight, Lyle ran off. Afterward, Erik found him and said, “I’m sad we’re not a family. I never knew about your hair. We have so many secrets.” Then he opened up about being molested. Lyle offered to have Erik live with him at Princeton, but he was suspended before that could happen. The brothers were both living at home when they killed their parents.

On the show, Erik grows despondent after learning about Lyle’s toupee. One day, he sees a movie about kids who kill their parents—and it inspires him to do the same. At first, it’s just a morbid idea, but as time progresses, he and Lyle realize the severity of their abuse and decide to strike back.