Her story is brought into Monsters because her father Dominick was a Vanity Fair journalist who covered the Menendez trial.
In the series he's played by Nathan Lane as Monsters touches on the tragic story of his own daughter's murder and how it affected him and the coverage of the trial.
Dominique Dunne (right) in horror movie Poltergeist. (Warner Bros)Dominique Dunne had started her on-screen acting career in 1979 with the film Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker before appearing in a number of other TV shows and films.
In 1982 she appeared in classic horror movie Poltergeist, with the Steven Spielberg-directed film being released just a few months before she was killed by her ex.
Sweeney had already been violent with her, he had been physically abusive towards Dominique, having pulled some of her hair out in August 1982.
In September of that same year, just a few weeks before her murder, he grabbed her by the throat and started strangling her.
A friend who was staying with them walked in and Dunne later escaped from the house through a bathroom window before getting in her car and driving away, though not before Sweeney jumped onto it.
She would later call him and tell him the relationship was over, and once he moved out she had the locks changed.
Tragically, on 30 October she was at her home in West Hollywood with fellow actor David Packer rehearsing for a part when Sweeney arrived.
She played Dana Freeling in the horror film, but just a few months after it was released she was strangled to death by her ex. (Warner Bros)Dunne went outside and they began arguing, Packer would later say he heard smacking sounds, two screams and then a thud.
The actor called the police, then called a friend and said if he was found dead then Sweeney was his killer.
He went out of the house to find Sweeney kneeling over Dominique's body, when police did arrive he said: "I killed my girlfriend and I tried to kill myself."
Sweeney later testified that he could remember being on top of Dunne with hands on her neck.
She was rushed to hospital and placed on life support but never regained consciousness and doctors found that she had no brain activity.
Dunne's life support was switched off on 4 November, and a funeral held for her two days later.
Sweeney would be convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison, at the trial the judge criticised the jury for returning a manslaughter verdict saying it was 'a case, pure and simple, of murder'.
The jury foreman said if they'd been able to hear all of the evidence they would have convicted Sweeney of murder.Featured Image Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Netflix
Topics: Netflix, Crime, True Crime, US News, Celebrity, TV and Film, TV
Joe Harker
Updated 18:14 20 Sep 2024 GMT+1Published 17:30 20 Sep 2024 GMT+1
Erik Menendez calls out Monsters creator for ‘blatant lies’ as he slams Netflix in new statement
Convicted murderer Erik Menendez has hit out at Netflix and the show's creator
Michael Slavin
Erik Menendez has released a statement in which he has slammed the new series of Monsters portraying him and his brother's murder of their parents.
The Netflix show covers the pair's murder of their parents, a story which captivated America through the 1990s.
Erik and Lyle did not dispute while on trial that they killed their parents, but disputed the reasoning for their murders.
The Menendez Brothers (Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)While prosecutors claimed Erik and Lyle killed their parents to pocket their inheritance, they pointed to different reasons.
The pair claimed that their father, Jose, had sexually abused them for years and therefore had killed him in self defence.
This was due to his reported threats to them if they exposed his abuse.
This claim was rejected in court, but has been maintained by the brothers ever since.
Erik is played in the show by Cooper Koch (Netflix)Speaking of the Netflix show, Erik released the following statement: "I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies 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."
Ryan Murphy created the show, which covered the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer in the first season.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story trailer
Credit: Netflix
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“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.
Tammi Menendez
@TammiMenendez1
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Erik's response to the Netflix's series. #NetflixMonsters #Netflix #RyanMurphy
12:15 AM · Sep 20, 2024
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"So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.
“Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as truth. How demoralising to know one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma. Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic.
"As such, I hope it is never forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrendous and silent crime scenes darkly shadowed behind glitter and glamour and rarely exposed until tragedy penetrates everyone involved.
"To all those who have reached out and supported me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
LADbible has reached out to Netflix for comment.Featured Image Credit: MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images/The LA Times
Topics: True Crime, Netflix, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin
Published 12:19 14 Sep 2024 GMT+1
Harrowing true story behind 'tragic' new Netflix true crime documentary which left viewers divided
The new Netflix documentary follows a woman's 10-year search
Jess Battison
I know we’re only halfway through but what a month of bangers on Netflix September has been.
From everyone getting obsessed with The Perfect Couple to the addition of 2023’s ‘creepiest film', we’ve had plenty of things to watch.
Others might be scratching their true crime itch with one of the latest documentaries.
And a ‘tragic’ new one in particular has a harrowing story behind it, leaving some viewers divided.
'Tragic' new Netflix true crime documentary
Credit: Netflix
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Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter landed on Netflix on Thursday (12 September) and is co-produced by star Charlize Theron.
The documentary follows Cathy Terkanian who, 35 years after giving her daughter up for adoption, receives the devastating news that she is ‘missing and feared dead’.
“With the support of an amateur detective and local authorities, Cathy begins an exhaustive ten-year mission to uncover the truth about her daughter's fate, delving deep into the shadowy realm of missing persons,” the synopsis explains.
In 2010, the woman was told that her daughter had disappeared from her adoptive home back in 1989 and she goes onto a 10-year search to find out what happened.
She spent 10 years searching for answers (Netflix)During the documentary, Terkanian learns her daughter was renamed Aundria Michelle Bowman and was adopted by Dennis and Brenda Bowman.
She connects with a woman who believes the man looked like the same person who kidnapped her as a child (which can never be proven) and also with people who were friends with Aundria growing up. One claimed that her adoptive father would hit her.
In 2019, Dennis was arrested and confessed to the murder of a local woman in 1980 and footage from his meeting with his wife is included in the doc.
He tells her: “Aundria’s dead. She’s been dead from the start.”
The man reveals he got into an argument with the daughter and when she tried to run away, he hit her and she fell backwards down the stairs.
The daughter had been tragically murdered (Netflix)Dennis says he cut her legs off and stuffed the remains in a barrel which he put out with his neighbour’s rubbish. But he changes this story in letters while in prison and it is revealed the barrel with the remains was buried in their back garden.
In February 2022, Dennis was sentenced to second degree murder.
With all of this playing out in the documentary, viewers called Terkanian a ‘incredible titan of a human’ and say: “A mother’s intuition is like no other.”
Many said it’s the ‘most riveting documentaries’ and is ‘guaranteed to make you want to throw bricks through a few windows’.
However, there has been the odd complaint that Terkanian ‘repeats herself’ a lot.
One user on Reddit wrote: “The facts of the case are sad, the story quite riveting. I did have a couple of moments where I realised why editors say ‘less is more. U said that already. U don’t have to keep hitting the readers over the head w a hammer again and again’ when the bio mom kept repeating how mad she was… I get that her tenacity is what 1. Probably solved the case and 2. Was the arc for the movie but had they trimmed about 20-30 min of her talking, I think it would have been stronger.”
You can watch Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter on Netflix.Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Netflix, Documentaries, True Crime
Jess Battison
Updated 12:10 19 Sep 2024 GMT+1Published 11:21 19 Sep 2024 GMT+1
Menendez brothers gave chilling reason behind why they murdered parents during harrowing confession
Brothers Lyle, now 56, and Erik, now 53, have been behind bars for nearly three decades
Olivia Burke
An audiotape secretly recorded during a therapy session captured the Menendez brothers revealing the chilling reason behind their motivations for murdering their parents.
The infamous siblings were the subject of one of the highest-profile trials of the 90s after shooting José, 45, and Mary Louise 'Kitty' Menendez, 47, at their lavish Beverly Hills home on 20 August, 1989.
And now, the extraordinary case is being thrust back into the spotlight by Netflix, as it will be the subject of the second series of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's Monster.
Lyle, now 56, and Erik, now 53, walked into the California property with shotguns before firing six shots at their father, a wealthy entertainment executive, and then delivering a fatal shot to the back of his head.
Their mother, Kitty, was shot ten times in total, leaving police presuming it might have been a mob hit.
The Menendez murders will be retold in Netflix's new series of Monster (VINCE BUCCI/AFP via Getty Images)This leading line of inquiry worked out well for Lyle and Erik, as they played the grieving sons in front of authorities and had called 911 saying: "Somebody killed my parents!"
The brothers were sticking to the story that they had been to watch Batman at the cinema before returning home and discovering the grisly crime scene, as they had dumped the guns and bought movie tickets to corroborate this.
This seemed to be enough to throw police off the scent, for a short time - but the siblings soon raised suspicions when they headed on an extravagant spending spree while supposedly grieving their parents brutal deaths.
The pair are believed to have spent a whopping $700,000 by splashing cash on luxury cars, clothes and watches, while Lyle even bought a buffalo wing restaurant in Princeton, and this raised red flags for investigators.
Cops got one of Erik's pals to grill him about the murders while wearing a wire, but he denied it.
José and Kitty were gunned down at their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989 (Bob Riha Jr/Getty Images)However, during a therapy session with Dr Jerome Oziel, the then-18-year-old ended up confessing to killing José and Kitty on tape - and he spilled the beans to his mistress, Judalon Smyth.
And when the secret lovers later split up, Smyth told the police all about the information she had been entrusted with.
In the recording, which was taped on 11 December, 1989, the Menendez brothers told the therapist that they had killed their mother to put her 'out of her misery', while José deserved to die because his infidelity is what caused her despair, the LA Times reported.
This bolstered the prosecution's theory that the pair had committed the slayings to get their hands on their huge inheritance, rather than supporting the siblings claim that they had acted in self-defence.
During the murder trial, Lyle and Erik alleged that their father had molested them throughout their childhoods, with each of them sharing extremely graphic descriptions of the horrors which they claimed had taken place.
The brothers told Dr Jerome Oziel they wanted to put their mother 'out of her misery' (Getty Images/The LA Times)But prosecutors honed in on the fact that they had made no mention of these allegations while talking to Dr Oziel - and even testimony from two of their cousins which supported their claims didn't convince the jury.
Despite being the person who alerted police to their crimes, in a surprise turn of events, Smyth also ended up speaking for the defence, claiming that the therapist had 'brainwashed' her into saying she overheard the brothers confession.
Her change of heart didn't help the Menendez brothers case though and ultimately, they were both convicted of killing their parents in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.
They were spared the death penalty because they had no criminal record or history of violence.
Some people have renewed hope that the Menendez brothers might be released after Monster drops, due to it bringing the controversial case back into the spotlight.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available to stream on Netflix from today (19 September).Featured Image Credit: VINCE BUCCI/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images/The LA Times
Topics: True Crime, Crime, US News, Parenting, Netflix, TV and Film
Olivia Burke
Published 12:21 17 Sep 2024 GMT+1
Chilling true story behind Netflix's Monster season three killer confirmed to be played by Charlie Hunnam
Ryan Murphy has revealed some details about the third season of the popular true crime
Lucy Devine
The third season of Ryan Murphy's popular series Monster has been confirmed by Netflix, with Charlie Hunnam at the helm.
The news was announced by Murphy on Monday (16 September) at a promotional event in Los Angeles.
While the first season of the show told the story of serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, the second season - which will be released on Netflix this week - focuses on the Menendez brothers, who killed their parents in 1989 and received life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Hunnam will star in the third season (Pablo Cuadra/WireImage)At the event on Monday, Murphy also revealed some information about the third season of Monster which will star Charlie Hunnam as serial killer Ed Gein.
Gein brutally murdered two women and created a 'house of horrors' in his home after robbing graves and dismembering bodies.
His heinous crimes - which went on to inspire several terrifying horror movie characters - were discovered when a woman named Bernice Worden went missing in 1957.
When police went to Gein's home to investigate, they found her decapitated and hanging from the ceiling.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story trailer
Credit: Netflix
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After further investigations, they found Gein had been turning body parts into clothes made from human skin, meanwhile he also had organs in jars and skulls used as bowls, in his possession.
When arrested, he not only admitted to the murder of Worden, but a host of other crimes.
He had also taken the life of Mary Hogan, as well as digging up bodies to cut off body parts.
Police tried to link him to other recent murders in the area, but were ultimately unable to do so.
Gein ended up being institutionalised after he was deemed insane at the time of the murders.
He later died of cancer at the age of 77.
Gein was institutionalised (Bettmann/Getty Images)While it's not clear when the third season will arrive on Netflix, the second season, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, drops this week.
Brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez shot and killed their parents at their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
During their trial, they argued that they had been sexually abused by their parents for years and that was the reason, while prosecutors argued that they'd been motivated by money.
On the night their parents were killed, the brothers had claimed that they'd gone to see a movie, later finding the bodies of 45-year-old father Jose and 47-year-old mother Kitty.
The couple had been shot multiple times by shotguns, with Lyle having returned to his car to reload.
