Warning! This article contains spoilers for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
This article contains mentions of sexual assault, murder, and abuse surrounding the real Lyle and Erik Menendez trial.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story‘s portrayal of the titular brothers’ arrest raises several questions about therapist Jerome Oziel’s role in the real-life murder trial. In one of its opening arcs, the second installment of the Netflix true-crime show highlights how Erik Menendez’s guilt gets the best of him, and he eventually confesses to his therapist, Jerome Oziel, that he and his brother killed their parents. His confession triggers a chain reaction of events that ultimately leads to the show’s central murder trial.
In the show, the law enforcers investigating the case use Jerome Oziel’s recordings as evidence to prove the brothers killed their parents. The introduction of these recordings in the trial later paves the way for new twists and turns that even taint Oziel’s credibility as a therapist. Since Jerome Oziel’s recordings are one of the most crucial drivers of early story developments in the Ryan Murphy show, it is hard not to wonder whether they played a similar role in the real-life case the series is based on.
Erik Menendez Confessed The Brothers’ Crimes To Therapist Jerome Oziel
The Therapist Was The First Person To Learn About The Crime
As seen in the Netflix show, Erik Menendez confessed the crime to his therapist, Jerome Oziel. Oziel even managed to get a recorded confession from both brothers, which was later presented as evidence in court. Although the brothers defended themselves in court, claiming that killing their parents was an act of self-defense and a consequence of abuse they had suffered throughout their childhoods, there was no mention of these factors in Jerome Oziel’s recorded confessions.
Since the brothers did not mention self-defense or abuse for reasons in the recordings, the prosecution tried to establish that the murder was premeditated.
The recordings suggest that the brothers killed their father because his extra-marital affair brought misery to their mother, and their mother had to die because she had to be put “out of her misery.” Since the brothers did not mention self-defense or abuse for reasons in the recordings, the prosecution tried to establish that the murder was premeditated. However, as Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story portrays, the case took another complex turn when Jerome Oziel’s former lover, Judalon Smyth, also testified in court.
Jerome Oziel’s Mistress Damaged Jerome Oziel’s Credibility In The Erik & Lyle Menendez Trial
She Revealed The Truth About Her Relationship With Jerome Oziel
Although Judalon Smyth had initially informed the police that Lyle and Erik Menendez had confessed to killing their parents to Jerome Oziel, she later claimed that Oziel had ulterior motives when he recorded the confessions. She said that Oziel wanted to establish “control” over the siblings and intentionally pressured them into saying incriminating things so that he could use the tape to protect them. Smyth also revealed that Oziel convinced the brothers to confess on tape by telling them they could use it to “prove to a jury that, you know, they were remorseful or whatever.”
Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story Cast | Role |
|---|---|
Nicholas Alexander Chavez | Lyle Menéndez |
Cooper Koch | Erik Menéndez |
Javier Bardem | José Menéndez |
Chloë Sevigny | Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez |
Nathan Lane | Dominick Dunne |
Ari Graynor | Leslie Abramson |
Dallas Roberts | Dr. Jerome Oziel |
Leslie Grossman | Judalon Smyth |
According to Smyth’s account (via LA Times), Oziel called the tapes a “blessing” because he wished to use them to divorce his wife, Laurel. He planned to “tell Laurel’s family and his family that it was for her (Laurel’s) safety that they were getting a divorce.” She further added that Oziel did not keep his end of the promise of leaving his wife and marrying her. Instead, he kept her in his home while his wife and kids were still around and even “raped” and “isolated” her.
As portrayed in the show, she also disclosed that the therapist forced drugs down her throat and used hypnosis on her with the word “thorns” as a trigger. Oziel denied the wrongdoings, but Erik and Lyle Menendez’s defense took things further by presenting call recordings between Oziel and Smyth. To their dismay, however, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg ultimately said that the tapes had “virtually nonexistent value.“
Where Is Jerome Oziel Now?
He Is Reportedly In Albuquerque
The trial significantly tainted Jerome Oziel’s reputation, leading to the Consumer Affairs Board of Psychology charging him with multiple offenses. Instead of going to court, Oziel surrendered his license as a therapist. According to his lawyer (via CNN), he even denied that “he engaged in any improprieties.” Speaking about Ozeil’s career as a psychologist, the lawyer also revealed that “he is not practicing psychology anymore and hasn’t been for several years” because “it wasn’t worth the expense and interference with his life.”
According to several reports, he now goes by the name Jerry Oziel and works at the Marital Mediation Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When reached through email (via Vanity Fair), Oziel said he moved on from the case a few months after the trial and is living a satisfying life. According to several reports, he now goes by the name Jerry Oziel and works at the Marital Mediation Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While other details surrounding his whereabouts remain unknown, it is interesting how Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has again brought the limelight to all the players involved in the Erik and Lyle Menendez murder case.
