If you’ve watched the second season of Netflix anthology series Monster, titled The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, then you must have noticed that Erik Menendez mentions this movie called Billionaire Boys Club, and brings up taking inspiration from it when it comes to killing his parents, Jose and Kitty. The movie gets mentioned in the first episode itself when Erik goes to his psychiatrist, Dr. Oziel, to talk about what he and his brother did. Dr. Oziel gets understandably surprised at someone deciding to kill their parents after watching a movie. Quite naturally, it’s bound to make y’all curious, so I did a little digging, and in this article I am going to share my findings with you.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens in the “Billionaire Boys Club” Movie?
Before going into that, here’s an interesting piece of trivia for you. There’s a 2018 movie called Billionaire Boys Club, which is based on the same thing. That film has nothing to do with Monster, but it happens to star none other than Kevin Spacey. Do I need to tell you the eerie similarities the disgraced actor shares with Jose Menendez (if we go by the allegations against him)? Anyway, let us get into the original 1987 TV movie. It kicks off with the ongoing trial of Joe Hunt, a young man who’s the creator and mastermind behind the ‘Billionaire Boys Club,’ aka the BBC. Hunt is under scrutiny for his (alleged) wrongdoings, and we get to see them in detail over the next three hours, through flashbacks.
We see Joe founding the BBC after coming across some of his rich school friends. They look and talk and act like professional businessmen, even though they’re not really doing anything—other than running a Ponzi scheme—in the name of making rich people invest in the BBC. However, Joe Hunt receives the shock of his life when he gets played by one of his investors, businessman Ron Levin, who basically uses him to secure a loan for himself. But Hunt gets back at Levin by making him give away the money that was promised before murdering him. This leads to a lengthy investigation of Levin’s abrupt disappearance (and later of his murder) as Hunt tries his best to cover things up. But he refuses to put a full stop to his shady activities as he (and the BBC) soon abducts an Iranian businessman and makes him sign over all his assets to them, before murdering him. Obviously, such crimes can’t go unpunished, and the rest of Billionaire Boys Club is all about Joe Hunt getting caught and then convicted for what he has done.
Is This Based on a True Story?
Billionaire Boys Club happens to be based on a true story, indeed. Joseph Henry Hunt is actually a real person who did run the BBC from the year 1983 to 1989, around Southern California. The name ‘Billionaire Boys Club’ actually came from the fact that the members of BBC were all young men coming from filthy-rich families. Interestingly though, Joe Hunt actually comes from a humble household, and he got into Harvard University on the back of a scholarship. Just like in the movie, the real-life Joe Hunt was also arrested for running a Ponzi scheme and the murder of Ron Levin in the year 1984. Hunt was also under trial for the other murder, although the court didn’t find him guilty. That didn’t matter, as he got convicted for the murder of Levin and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The Controversies and the Wild Theories
Real-life Joe Hunt was not at all happy with the fact that a movie was being made about him when he was under trial. He thought the movie could affect his trial (the one for the other murder) and ended up suing NBC Network with the demand they stop the film from airing. Sadly, for Hunt, he lost the legal battle, and NBC went ahead with airing Billionaires Boys Club. Then NBC head Brandon Tartikoff even went on saying he didn’t regret airing the film. After the release, a lot of Hunt supporters, including his family members, accused the film of showing Hunt in a bad light. Well, from what I saw, I’ve got to say they were not particularly wrong. Although, if we consider the fact that Hunt did get a life sentence for Levin’s murder already, those claims were irrelevant. Making a film about someone who’s still being prosecuted is a questionable decision, though, but the entertainment business used to work much differently back in those days.
There’s a wild theory that Levin actually survived and wasn’t killed by Hunt. In fact, Hunt always kept claiming he hadn’t murdered Levin. Further, Levin himself was in fact tied up in shady business, and as per the said theory, he fled the country in order to avoid getting caught and investigated by the FBI. Even after the court found Hunt guilty, as many as eight witnesses came forward with claims of having seen Levin in multiple locations. Come to think of it, Ryan Murphy should consider making something out of this story as well; just saying.
What Are The Similarities Between ‘Billionaires Boys Club’ and ‘Monsters 2’?
There’s no similarities as such between the film and Ryan Murphy’s show other than Erik Menendez getting the idea of killing his parents after watching the film—like how Hunt murdered Levin in the film. It was all for money in the film, while in Monster, there’s this whole angle of sexual abuse. Sure, that was never proven, and the brothers were ultimately sentenced to life without parole for murdering their parents for money. So if we go by the court verdict given to Lyle and Erik Menendez, then it does resemble Billionaires Boys Club, at least thematically. I would not exactly recommend the film to you, but if you’re still curious after reading this article, you’re welcome to give it a try.
