HHow much does doctor-patient confidentiality matter in a murder case? The answer can be complicated.

Ryan Murphys Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendezwhich debuts on Netflix September 19, addresses this question in a dramatization of the true story of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on August 20, 1989, in their Beverly Hills mansion.

The central question in the murders was not whether the Menendez brothers shot their parents, but Why they shot their parents to death. Prosecutors argued the men wanted their inheritance, pointing to their lavish spending in the months after their arrests. The defense argued the men had abusive fathers and acted in self-defense. Americans followed along on Court TV, which was only two years old but helped popularize true crime as a genre by airing the trial.

The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez begins with Jose and Kitty’s funeral service, before fast-forwarding several months to when the police are still investigating the murders. Lyle (Nicholas Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch) live in the same Beverly Hills house, and Erik becomes increasingly anxious about their circumstances. He calls his therapist, Jerome Oziel (Dallas Roberts), and asks to visit him. Erik reveals that he’s been plagued by nightmares and is suicidal. They go for a walk, and eventually Erik breaks down into sobs and confesses that he and his brother shot their parents. Oziel accompanies Erik back to his office, where Erik recounts everything that led up to him and Lyle killing their parents. In flashbacks, we see how Jose was a domineering and abusive father—he yelled at Erik on the tennis court, threw plates while drunk—while Kitty only intervened to help stop the abuse. After witnessing a particularly bad incident, in which Kitty became so angry at Lyle that she ripped his hair replacements out of his scalp, Erik tells Oziel that he felt motivated to protect his brother above all else. The idea to actually kill his parents, he says, came from a movie.

As Erik becomes increasingly upset, an alarmed Oziel calls Lyle over and Lyle threatens to kill Oziel. Oziel repeatedly assures the duo that their conversations will remain confidential.

What happened to Erik’s confession to the therapist?

In reality, the conversation became crucial evidence in the Menendez brothers’ case. Five months after Lyle and Erik met with Oziel in his office, the therapist’s mistress, Judalon Smyth, tipped off police to Erik’s confession.

In the show, Oziel runs out of the therapy session to a pay phone and begs Smyth (Leslie Grossman) to come in so he can have a witness when Lyle arrives. She is seen in his waiting room and then has her ear pressed against Oziel’s office door as Erik confesses to the murder. In the second episode, Oziel explains to Smyth that he will put Erik’s confession in a safe deposit box and give her the key. Smyth tells Oziel to go to the police because the boys threatened his life and begins to have a panic attack because she fears the boys will come after her as well.

In real life, Smyth went to the police in March 1990, after she and Oziel had broken up, reporting that she had overheard the brothers confessing to the murders to the therapist.

On Aug. 7, 1990, a California judge ruled that conversations between the therapist and the Menendez brothers, Erik, 19, and Lyle, 22, could be used as evidence in their murder trial because the brothers were accused of threatening the therapist. The threat, the judge said, was an exception to the court’s rule that conversations between therapists and patients are privileged. Authorities seized tapes of counseling sessions as part of a warrant to search Oziel’s home. A legal battle over the tapes raged for the next two years, but a 1992 California Supreme Court ruling found most of them admissible.

In 1993, Smyth added further drama to the case when she recanted her testimony, claiming she had been brainwashed. She eventually testified for the defense, determined to do everything she could to discredit Oziel.

In 1996, the Menendez brothers were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They are now serving life sentences.

Where is Jerome Oziel now?

Jerome Oziel has not been licensed to practice psychology since 1997.

The California Board of Psychology found that he had improperly shared information about the Menendez brothers’ case with Smyth, and Oziel surrendered his license rather than challenge it in court.

The board also accused him of sexual misconduct with female patients, which Oziel denied. He continued to give seminars to help women have more fulfilling personal relationships.

Ryan Murphys Monsters is not the first dramatization of Oziel on the small screen. He was depicted in the 2017 show Law and order true crime and called the portrayal of him “completely fiction”, in an interview with Rushdismissing the show as a “trash soap opera.”