Ari Graynor is the MVP of Ryan Murphy’s “Monsters” Netflix series as Leslie Abramson, the chain-smoking defense lawyer who was vilified at the time for defending the Menendez brothers in the brutal 1989 shotgun killings of their parents.
It’s a great, meaty character for any actress: When Edie Falco played Abramson in 2017’s “Law & Order True Crime,” she was nominated for an Emmy, which could be the next accolade for Graynor.
Viewers naturally want to know more about the real Abramson, who is now 80 and retired, but the former lawyer has rebuffed outreach efforts from the press, including from TheWrap.
The media typecast her as a “raging harpy” for representing the Menendez brothers
“Leslie Abramson was typecast by the media as this foulmouthed, raging harpy, defending these horrible monsters. She was tenacious. She didn’t back down from anybody,” “Law & Order True Crime” showrunner René Balcer told EW in 2017. “I think she largely got a bad rap.”
She was like a surrogate mother to Erik Menendez
As we see in “Monsters,” Abramson was very protective of Erik. She became something of a “surrogate mother” to the younger brother, as TheWrap’s own Sharon Waxman wrote in The Washington Post in 1996. She had previously secured a lesser sentence of voluntary manslaughter for the 17-year-old boy who also killed his father over alleged abuse. The defense nearly worked. The first trial ended in a hung jury, but the second trial threw out most of the abuse testimony, leading to both brothers receiving life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In the series, we see her and then-husband Tim Rutten, a Los Angeles Times columnist, trying to adopt their second child. They later divorced, but remained friends through his death in 2022.
She chose not to participate in “Law & Order True Crime” or discuss it publicly
Edie Falco played the hard-hitting attorney in 2017’s “Law & Order: True Crime,” which also focused on the infamous murders. Falco, a multi-Emmy winner for projects like “The Sopranos” and “Nurse Jackie,” was nominated again for the role.
Abramson told TheWrap in 2017 that she would not be watching Falco play her in the project. “Oh boy. I have nothing to say. Absolutely nothing. Goodbye,” she said at the time.
Both Falco and Sam Jaeger, who played Det. Les Zoeller in the 2017 production, said that Abramson had served as a consultant to the show, but ultimately decided to step away.
“Leslie came in with such gusto, and she did it because she didn’t want it to be a traditional ‘Law & Order,’” Jaeger told TheWrap at the time. “I don’t know if she felt like it became too formulaic for her, or if it steered too far from what she had intended.”
Falco told EW that Abramson “opted out” of participation in the process early in production.
Based on her research, Falco described the real Abramson as “an incredibly hard worker, kind of a type-A personality.” The actress added, “Her work was really her priority. That’s something I thought was interesting and important to note. You’re going to find more pushback from the general public about women in regards to how they work, and that being their priority.”
The Menendez conviction “broke her heart”
Falco said she spoke with someone who worked with Abramson through the Menendez trials. “This kind of broke her heart. She’s not doing this anymore. She now works in a toy store, apparently,” she said in 2017.
Abramson was an ABC legal commentator on the O.J. Simpson case
Abramson was an ABC legal commentator on the O.J. Simpson case, the other “trial of the century.” In this 1995 clip, in which she breaks down the testimony of LAPD Det. Mark Fuhrman, she argues that the conspiracy theory of planting the infamous bloodstained glove doesn’t hold up. “You have to be willing to believe that this enormous number of officers wanted to frame … who? Were they framing Jack the Ripper? No. Beloved O.J. Simpson. That’s where the logic on that end falls apart.”
She briefly represented music producer Phil Spector in his murder trial
In 2007, she replaced Simpson “Dream Team” lawyer Robert Shapiro to defend music producer Phil Spector, who was accused of fatally shooting actress Lana Clarkson at his home. She later resigned and, with new counsel, the megaproducer was ultimately convicted of Clarkson’s murder in his second trial in 2009.
She’s retired today
“She’s having a nice life, a nice retirement,” “Law & Order: True Crime” showrunner René Balcer told EW of where Abramson was in 2017. She now lives in Monrovia, a city about 25 miles east of Los Angeles. TheWrap reached to her via her most recent email address and did not hear back.
You can still find copies of her 1997 book, “The Defense Is Ready: Life in the Trenches of Criminal Law,” but it is sadly out of print. It’s described as “a stunning firsthand account of the criminal justice system” by publisher Simon & Schuster.
