Two years after Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story was all that anybody was watching, Ryan Murphy and Netflix have released a new true crime dramatisation, in the shape of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. In it, two brothers, Lyle and Erik Menendez, are convicted of murdering their parents, with one vital piece of evidence coming from Dr. Jerome Oziel. But who is he, and where is he now?
Released yesterday [19th September 2024], the nine part series follows the 1989 crime which saw two brothers – aged 21 and 18 – fatally shoot their parents in their Beverly Hills home. Their mother, Kitty was shot 10 times, while their father José was shot six times.
Initially, the brothers were not seen as suspects, with police believing that they had been out in LA all evening and had come back to find their parents’ bodies. But after six months, the brothers were arrested, with one vital piece of evidence coming from Erik’s psychologist Dr. Jerome Oziel.
What role did Dr. Jerome Oziel play in the Lyle and Erik Menendez case?
While police had initially wired up one of Erik’s friends in an attempt to record him confessing to the crimes, it was actually his therapist who he confessed the murders to.
Two months after the killings of Kitty and José Menendez, Erik left Dr. Oziel a concerning voice message, and the pair had a follow up therapy session on 31st October. During the meeting, which took place over an hour, Erik shared that he was having nightmares about his parents and was feeling depressed, and confessed to the killings, in tapes that Dr. Oziel had recorded.
Dr Oziel was having an affair with a woman named Judalon Smyth at the time, and told her that Erik had confessed to the crimes, and that there were audiotapes of the confession.
Four months later, when he called off their relationship, Smyth went to the police about Erik’s confession, which eventually led to the arrest of the brothers.
During the trial, Dr. Oziel’s testimony became key, but due to the challenges of doctor-patient confidentiality, it took over two years for the evidence to be admissible. It was only when he shared that the brothers had threatened his life that he could share what Erik had told him in court.
During the trial, Erik’s defence attorney, Leslie Abramson, worked to discredit Dr. Oziel by accusing him of having inappropriate relationships with patients – something which Smyth echoed, but Dr. Oziel denied.
Where is Dr. Jerome Oziel now?
According to the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Oziel was stripped of his license to practice as a psychologist in 1997. In response, his lawyer told the outlet that he had moved out of the state and was no longer practising: “It just made no sense to come back to California and spend many thousands of dollars defending a license he doesn’t use in a state he doesn’t reside in.”
Dr. Oziel later clarified that he didn’t give up his license because of the accusations, telling Bustle, “I did not surrender my license due to the accusation, which implies I gave up my practice because I did things alleged in the original accusation. That is flatly and completely false.
“I had phased out my practice because I had a major business offer that was highly lucrative and moved to be the CEO of a large business in another state a year and a half prior to the surrender… No agency ever found I did a thing that was improper or wrong.”
According to Hollywood Life, he’s now living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and working at the Marital Mediation Center.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is now streaming on Netflix
Dusty Baxter-Wright is an award-winning journalist and the Entertainment and Lifestyle Director at Cosmopolitan, having previously worked at Sugarscape. She was named one of PPA’s 30 Under 30 for her work covering pop culture, careers, interiors and travel, and oversees the site’s Entertainment and Lifestyle strategy across print, digital and video. As a journalist for the best part of a decade, she has interviewed everyone from Louis Theroux and Channing Tatum to Margot Robbie and Ncuti Gatwa, while she has also spoken on Times Radio and BBC Radio. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram here.
