Erik Menendez, the focus of Netflix’s newest hit season of Monsters, is one of the most controversial men in American culture.
The man who, alongside his brother, killed his parents, is currently in prison for life, having been sentenced in 1996.
His brother Lyle received the same sentencing.
Despite having been behind bars since then, Erik has managed to find love and married his wife Tammi in 1999.
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Tammi was a point of prominence in the ongoing backlash to the Netflix true crime series due to her being the one to release Erik’s statement slamming the show as ‘blatant lies’.
She released the statement on Twitter on his behalf, where he said:
"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.”
While many have rallied in support of Erik, this has led to discussion of how he met Tammi, who has been a supporter and campaigner of his from outside prison for over 25 years.
As is often the case with prison weddings and high profile cases, the love affair started when Tammi sent Erik a letter.
At the time, Tammi was married to a man named Chuck Saccoman with a teenage daughter.
She told People magazine: “I told [her husband Chuck] that I was going to write to Erik. He said to go ahead.”
Erik went on to tell People: “I saw Tammi’s letter and I felt something. I received thousands of letters, but I set this one aside. I got a feeling. And I wrote her back. Tammi and I continued to correspond. I enjoyed writing to her. It was a slow friendship."
He went on to state that it was special due to the fact that it was ‘not associated with the trial and the media' and that 'Tammi was someone not in the craziness’.
Tammi’s husband Chuck took his own life in 1996, allegedly after she found out he was abusing their 15-year-old daughter.
Erik comforted her through the experiencing, before meeting her in late 1997.
He would later refer to it as ‘the most beautiful experience of his life’.
In 1998, she moved closer to his prison, began visiting four times a week, and then he proposed that year.
While Erik and Tammi do not have a biological child together, Tammi's daughter Talia considers him her father, and runs the Instagram account @Seterikmenendezfree.
Topics: Netflix, TV and Film, True Crime, Prison, Menendez Brothers
Michael Slavin