Did Erik really tell therapist about murder and how were Menendez brothers actually caught?

During Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix, we see Erik and Lyle Menendez eventually get caught after Erik confided in his therapist what the pair had done to their parents.

Immediately following the murder neither Erik nor Lyle Menendez were suspects as they were never swabbed for gunshot residue or detained by police for questioning. It was a full two months from their parent’s murder before the police started to investigate them, which was initially triggered by their lavish spending spree.

Via Netflix

In the Netflix series, the brothers use their inheritance money to buy cars, personal trainers and expensive watches and this is exactly what happened in real life. The police started viewing them as potential suspects and per CNN the prosecution later used the money they spent as evidence to support the theory that they had killed their parents for money.

However, in real life, it wasn’t until Erik Menendez confessed to his therapist, Dr Jerome Oziel that he and Lyle had killed their parents that police took action. In real life, two months after the murders took place Erik requested to meet his therapist at his office and asked to be the last patient of the day.

After arriving Erik asked if they could go for a walk, and later explained in a documentary series: “I had huge, huge waves of guilt and remorse and I just broke down and I told him what I had done.”

Via Netflix

Whilst Erik had requested that no one else but he and Dr Oziel be in that day, that wasn’t actually the case. A woman called Judalon Smyth had arrived in the office whilst they were out on their walk, and she was having an affair with Dr Oziel. Following their return from their walk, the therapist convinced Erik that Lyle Menendez also needed to come into the office immediately.

Judalon was in the waiting room when Lyle walked in and she pretended to be a patient at the time. She listened to the brothers confess to the murder of their parents whilst they were in Dr Oziel’s office, saying later: “I never thought I believed in evil, but when I heard those boys speak, I did.” Three weeks later she went to the Beverly Hills police station and told them what she’d heard.

Via Netflix

In real life she told the police she’d overheard the brothers say they had “shot their mother” but later testified that she hadn’t actually heard them say that. She later clarified she’d never actually heard them say they’d killed their parents “from their own mouths.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Dr Oziel was stripped of his psychology license in 1997 after being accused by a state panel of breaking confidentiality rules,” and engaging in inappropriate relationships with his female patients.

In the Netflix series, Lyle is dramatically arrested at the gates of his family home, whilst Erik is detained immediately after stepping into the Los Angeles airport. In reality, Lyle was arrested outside his family home but Erik handed himself in voluntarily three days after returning from his tennis trip.