Following the release of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, viewers want to know more about the murder of 80s star Dominique Dunne.
However, after watching the show, many fans want to know more about the death of Dominique Dunne, whose murder is mentioned throughout the series.
In the third episode Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? viewers were introduced to a character named Dominick Dunne (played by Nathan Lane) who was discussing the Menendez brother’s case over lunch.
During the lunch, the Vanity Fair reporter Dominick saw Defence Attorney Leslie Abromson across the room and spoke about a real-life murder case involving his daughter.
‘Do you know she tried to help make a plea deal for the man who murdered my daughter?’ he said over lunch.
Dominick is a recurring character as the journalist ends up in court reporting on the case for Vanity Fair, and the audience is fed pieces of information regarding his own daughter’s murder. But what really happened to Dominique Dunne?
Dominique Dunne was an actress in the 80s who was murdered when she was just 22 years old.
The star was killed in 1982 by her ex-boyfriend John Thomas Sweeney who strangled her to death during an argument.
The pair had had an on-again-off-again relationship with Sweeney showing controlling and possessive behaviours on several occasions.
Before her death, they had several physical arguments, one of which led Dunne to crawl out of a bathroom window to jump to her car, only for Sweeney to jump on top of her car.
On the day she died, the actress was running lines with a co-star for an upcoming series called V. Sweeney showed up at her home and convinced her to talk with him on the porch.
Her co-star heard the altercation from inside and called the police after finding Sweeney kneeling over Dunne in some bushes. When the police arrived it was reported that Sweeney immediately confessed: ‘I killed my girlfriend, and I tried to kill myself.’
The young actresses had a promising career and notably appeared in Speilberg’s Poltergeist (1982) as Dana Freeling, alongside several other roles in shows including The Day The Loving Stopped, The Shadow Riders, CHiPs, and Breaking Away.
The real Dominick Dunne died in 2009 and during his lifetime reported on several high-profile cases, including the trials of: O.J. Simpson, William Kennedy Smith, and Claus von Bülow.
Sweeney was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison but got out after two and a half years automatically.
In a lengthy article in Vanity Fair titled A Father’s Account of the Trial of his Daughter’s Killer, Dunne said he didn’t regret going to trial, even though it could have meant Sweeney had more jail time.
‘Not one of us regrets having gone through the trial, or wishes that we had accepted a plea bargain, even though Sweeney would then have had to serve seven and a half years rather than two and a half.
‘We chose to go to trial, and we did, and we saw into one another’s souls in the process. We loved her, and we knew that she loved us back. Knowing that we did everything we could has been for us the beginning of the release from pain.
‘We thought of revenge, the boys and I, but it was just a thought, no more than that, momentarily comforting.
‘We believe in God and in ultimate justice, and the time came to let go of our obsession with the murder and proceed with life.’
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available to watch now on Netflix.
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