How accurate is the Menendez Murders?

If you have been watching Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders you might be wondering how accurate the show is in reflecting history.

Shelley Ross, who was the lead producer on ABC News coverage of the case has penned a piece for Variety.

Here are 2 of the 7 “inaccuracies” she has highlighted (please note the series has not concluded on Nine):

1. The fatal shot
Starting with the first frame of the first episode, I knew there was a giant truth problem. Dark shadowy figures come into the den of the Beverly Hills mansion, holding shotguns. José Menendez is seen standing up to confront the intruders and is shot directly in the forehead. There are many rounds of gunfire which also kill his wife, Kitty. We soon learn the killers are their sons, Erik, 18, and Lyle, 21.

A later episode includes sworn testimony enforcing the lie that the fatal wound was a point blank shot to the forehead. Noooo!!! There is zero question the fatal blow to José Menendez was fired at point blank range to the back of the head, causing “explosive decapitation.” Why does this matter? The lie goes to the heart of the defense: that the brothers shot their parents in self-defense because, after years of sexual abuse, they falsely believed their parents were going to kill them. The image of a large, hectoring father coming towards you might support that defense more than a Dad relaxing in front of the television across from Mom, each with a bowl of berries and ice cream on the coffee table.

2. The key witness gets slut shamed
One of the greatest sins of the series is Heather Graham’s portrayal of Judalon Smyth, who cracked the case when she informed the cops she’d overheard Lyle and Erik’s murder confessions. Graham plays Judalon as a campy nymphomaniacal “mistress” of the Menendez brothers’ therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel. We see Judalon put her head in the oven and manipulate her way into the Oziels’ marital home, where she tells his young children she’s going to be their new mommy.

The real Judalon was a sexually exploited patient in the middle of her own nightmare which worsened when Dr. Oziel had her listen in on the Mendendez brothers’ murder confessions and convinced her that her life was in danger so he could move her into his house with his wife. When Judalon first told Diane Sawyer and me her full story, she ran a couple of small businesses and had a productive life. She was not crazy and never stuck her head in an oven. She knew she had been “gaslighted,” saying Oziel forced her to take medication and threatened to put her in a mental hospital. California State Board investigators verified her story and quickly revoked his psychology license mid-trial. What’s more, she knew of two other women Oziel had abused in similar ways; strangling one with a telephone cord, and forcing another to stand in bare feet on a plate she had broken until it cut through the bottom of her feet.

You can read more at Variety.