The Misery Machine - Brandon Teena Hate Crime | Boys Don't Cry True Story

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

In honor of Pride Month, this week, Drewby and Yergy take a trip to Nebraska to discuss the 1993 killing of Brandon Teena, a young transman and subject of the 1999 film "Boys Don't Cry," and mother Lisa Lambert, and Philip DeVine, a 22 year old black man that was completely erased from the movie. In addition, we discuss how the film didn't age well to the point of being considered transphobic by some folks.  Thank you to Bailey and Floss/Pugsunset1 for your episode suggestion. Thank you to our Patrons for reviewing this episode and providing invaluable feedback. A very special thank you to Levi for supporting our show as our highest tier patron! Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine Buy Us A Coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/miserymachine Join Our Street Team! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HfRUPQhB6LOqVupZm92OdV5rLDQcIMpHudmUZwt0C24/edit?usp=sharing Levi's Adoption Fundraising Page: https://gofund.me/d658a3a7 Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Teena https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/12/two-decades-after-brandon-teenas-murder-a-look-back-at-falls-city/282738/ https://www.piusx.net/   Film: Boys Don't Cry The Brandon Teena Story  

Hi, with the Miser Machine. I'm Erie. And I'm Drewby. And this week we're doing a case that has been requested many times over the lifetime of our podcast. And that's the Brandon Tina case. Most recently, our patron Bailey requested this. So thank you so much, Bailey. And also YouTube user Floss slash Pug Sunset 1.

So thank you so much. Yes, thank you for the recommendations. And obviously, in light of Pride Month, this last week of Pride Month, we felt it important to do this case. And if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe. It's my birthday. at the end of the week. Can you get us to 10,000 subscribers? We're almost at 10,000 subscribers. So this would be the best birthday present to me. I would love that so much. Without further ado, Brandon Tina. Brandon Tina was born on December 12th, 1972. So he's a Sagittarius. A Sagittarius.

In Lincoln, Nebraska. Sadly, his father died in a car accident in Lancaster County eight months before he was born. Brandon and his older sister Tammy lived with their maternal grandmother in Lincoln before they were reclaimed by their mother when Brandon was three years old and Tammy was six. The family resided in the Pine Acre Mobile Home Park in northeast Lincoln. His mother, Joanne, received disability checks and worked as a clerk in a women's retail store in Lincoln to support the family. As young children, Brandon and Tammy were sexually abused by their uncle for several years,

and Brandon sought counseling for this in 1991. Joanne remarried once from 1975 to 1980. Brandon began identifying as male during his adolescence and dated a female student during this period. His mother rejected his gender identity and continued referring to him as her daughter. Brandon and his sister attended Catholic school in Lincoln, where Brandon was remembered by some as being socially awkward. During his second year, Brandon rejected Christianity. after he protested to a priest regarding Christian views on abstinence and homosexuality. He also began rebelling at school by violating the school dress code policy to dress in a more

masculine fashion. During the first semester of his senior year, a U.S. Army recruiter visited the high school encouraging students to enlist in the armed forces. Brandon enlisted in the Army shortly after his 18th birthday and hoped to serve a tour of duty in Operation Desert Shield. However, he failed the written entrance exam by listing his sex as male. So I actually looked into that high school. We didn't list it in here originally because I couldn't figure out how we were supposed to say it. But I gave up and actually called the high school over the weekend so I could get their answering machine. Brandon went to Pius the 10th High School. And it's usually listed as just Pius X. Some people call it Pius X. When we were

watching their local sports games for pronunciation, they would just call it Pious. In December 1990, Brandon went to Holiday Skate Park with his friends, binding his breasts in order to pass as male. In the months nearing his high school graduation, Brandon became unusually outgoing and was remembered by classmates as a class clown. Brandon also began skipping school and receiving failing grades and was expelled from Pius the 10th High School in June 1991, three days before the high school graduation. In the summer of 91, Brandon began his first major relationship with a girl named Heather. Shortly after, Brandon became employed as a gas station attendant to purchase a trailer home for himself and his girlfriend.

Brandon's mother, Joanne, however, did not approve of the relationship and convinced Brandon's sister Tammy to follow Brandon in order to find out whether Brandon's relationship with Heather was platonic or not. So in January of 1992, Brandon underwent a psychiatric evaluation, which concluded that Brandon was suffering from gender dysphoria. He was later taken to Lancaster County Crisis Center to ensure that he was not suicidal. He was released from the center three days later and began attending therapy sessions, sometimes accompanied by his mother or sister.

He was reluctant to discuss his sexuality during these sessions, but eventually revealed that he had been raped by his uncle. In 1993, after some legal trouble, which the movie Boys Don't Cry defines as Grand Theft Auto. The movie is very exaggerated. So if you're coming here only knowing this case through Boys Don't Cry, you're going to notice some differing of information. Yes. Brandon moved to the Fall City region of Richardson County, Nebraska, where he presented as a man.

He became friends with several different residents. After moving into the home of Lisa Lambert, who you'd know in Boys Don't Cry as the character Candice, Brandon began dating Lambert's friend, 18-year-old Lana Tisdell, and began associating with ex-convicts John Lodder and Marvin Thomas Nissen, which they referred to as Tom. On December 19, 1993, Brandon was arrested for forging checks. Lana used money from her father to pay Brandon's bail. In the documentary, the Brandon Tina's story, it stated that Lana's father gave her a blank check to go get a haircut. And instead of going to get the haircut, she went and wrote out money for cash for the bail over at a local, I believe it was a convenience or grocery store. And then went and bailed Brandon out.

Because Brandon was in the female section of the jail, Lana learned that he was transgender. transgender. Brandon's arrest was posted in the local paper under his dead name, and thereupon his acquaintances learned that he was assigned female at birth. So if you're unaware with what a dead name is, it is the name that a transgender person would have been born with that no longer is used. And for those that struggle with that, the way I look at it as in a free country like we're in, we can legally change our names. If you get married, you can change your name. And just like in general, if somebody were to introduce themselves to me by a certain name, then that's the name I call them. Just like some people are born with a name that they don't like so they go by their middle name.

It's a real easy thing to do. So during a Christmas Eve party, Nissen and Lader grabbed Brandon and forced him to remove his pants, proving to Lanna that Brandon had a vulva. Lanna looked only when forced to and said nothing. Lader and Nissen later assaulted Brandon and forced him into a car. They drove to an area by a meatpacking plant in Richardson County, where they assaulted and gang raped him. They then returned to Nissen's home where Brandon was ordered to take a shower. Brandon escaped from Nissen's bathroom by climbing out the window and went to Lanna's house. He was convinced by Lanna to file a police report, though Nissen and Lodder had warned Brandon not to tell the police about the gang rape or they would, quote, silence him permanently.

Brandon also went to the emergency room where a standard rape kit was assembled but later lost. Sheriff Charles B. Law questioned Brandon about the rape and he seemed especially interested in the fact that Brandon was transgender to the point that Brandon found his questions rude and unnecessary and refused to answer. And I mean, you can be the judge for yourself because we have the audio of most of the exchange right here. He pulled your pants out far. What'd you have in your underpants? Nothing in your underpants? You didn't have a sock, but he, uh, run around once in a lot of the sock and your pants make you look like a boy? Did he ponder you any?

He didn't find any, huh? Doesn't that kind of amaze you? After he pulled your pants, get your attention somehow? So when they got ready to pull him, he was on your back. And when he tried to strike in the first half? They tried to stay in your head, and you say you never had sex before, that's correct? Which one tried to do this first? Tom.

And Tom couldn't get it in you? Huh? He said he couldn't get you. He couldn't get it in. Well, I know I've heard it. I don't tell him. And then when John got the vaccine, what do you do? After he got his pants down, he got a spread of you, or had you spread out, and he got a spread of you then, then what happened?

Let's back up here for a second. First of all, you didn't say that anybody getting it up. Did he have a heart on what he got back there or what? I don't know. I didn't look. Did he take it a little time? Did he take a little time working it up or what? Did you work it up for him?

No, I didn't. You didn't work it up for it? No. Then do you think he had to work up on his own or what? I guess I don't know. And you've never had any sex before. Did they do it one time to you and did the other guy do one time and quit? Or did one guy do it, then the other guy do it, then the other guy come back to do it again and the other guy come back to it again?

He's good at once. You want to file charges against these guys? You're going to complain against them? You're a sign a complaint against me? Yeah. Will you testify in court against you? Yes. Why do you run around with girls instead of guys being you're a girl yourself?

Why do you make girls think you're a guy? Again, the slightest idea. You go around kissing other girls? I just think you're a guy. Do you kiss them? What's going to assume what happened last night? Because I'm trying to get some answers so I know exactly what's going on. You want to answer that question?

That answer is going to come up for it before it goes to do. for it before it goes to court. See what I'm saying? Because I have a sexual identity circuit. You're what? I have a sexual identity a person.

Would I explain that? And some people might argue that it's normal police procedure to ask very specific questions about what happened in case it goes to court. But in my opinion of listening to this, I think he was very...

Out of line. Very out of line. Now, in the movie, Boys Don't Cry, you'd notice that they get a call from the sheriff's office that they have to be down there the next morning to give a statement on what happened. However, what really happened is they were taken in, and they were both questioned, and while John Lodder denied it all, Tom Nissen admitted to all of it, despite their conflicting stories and from Tom Nissen, an admission of guilt,

the sheriff still let them both go for whatever reason. So, because of the shepherds, sheriffs in action, these later events that you might already know from the movie follow. So around 1 a.m. on December 31st, 1993, Nissen and Lodder drove to Lisa Lambert's house and broke in. They found Lisa in bed and demanded to know where Brandon was. Lisa refused to tell them. Nissen searched and found Brandon hiding under the bed. The men then asked Lisa if there was anyone else in the house, and she replied that Philip Devine, who with the time was dating Lana Tisdale's sister, was staying with her. They then shot and killed Divine, Lisa, and Brandon in front of Lisa's young child.

Nissen later testified in court that he noticed that Brandon was twitching and asked Lodder for a knife, with which Nissen stabbed Brandon in the chest to ensure he was dead. Nissen and Lodder then left, later being arrested and charged with murder. So again, and boys don't cry. they claimed that Lana was there. She was not there when this happens. That's not how it went down. They also claimed that her mother

went to go find her there and that's when the bodies of the deceased were found. That's not what happened. What ended up happened was Lisa Lambert's mother eventually went over to her house because she had not been picking up her phone and went in and realized something was amiss, found

her toddler there, noticed that there was a man sitting dead in the living room and just kind of a spaced out and followed the task at hand to get the baby out of there. And we'll get into how Boys Don't Cry portrays this because I think it's disgusting in retrospect. So Nissen accused Loddor of committing the murders. And in exchange for reduced sentence, Nissen admitted to being an accessory to the rape and murder and later testified against Lutter. He was sentenced to life in prison and spared the death penalty in exchange for his cooperation.

Lader denied the veracity of Nissen's testimony and his testimony was discredited. The jury found Latter guilty of murder and he received the death penalty. Latter and Nissen both appealed their convictions, all of which have been denied. In September of 2007, Tom Nissen recanted his testimony against Latter. He claimed that he was the only one to shoot Brandon and that Latter had not committed the murders, which I don't understand. I think I can understand it. If he's already been convicted of murder, life in prison, no death penalty, they can't get you on double jeopardy.

So you could go ahead and then try to take it back to get the other person a retrial. That does make sense. And if you remember in the documentary, Lader wasn't at all like how they portray him and boys don't cry. No. Not at all. Nissen, however, is disgusting. Yeah. I mean, they're both disgusting people, but like Nissen is just evil.

It was strange. Lader talked about everything that he did as if it happened, which is different because he denied ever doing anything, whereas Tom Nissen, who admitted everything at first, now says the documentary people who were doing it, yeah, I can't talk about this because of my appeal process. And I told you about that. And I told you about that ahead of time. And just so smug acting the entire time. Like, I wanted to just slap him, whereas Loddard just seems like a just trashy, jolly person. Yeah. So Joanne Brandon, Brandon's mother, sued Richardson County and sheriff law for failing to prevent Brandon's death, as she should have, as well as being an indirect cause of murder. She won the case, which was heard in September 1999 in Fall City, and she was awarded

$80,000. District court judge Orville Cody reduced that amount by 85% based on the responsibility of Nissen and Lodder, and by 1% for Brandon's alleged contributory negligence. The judge felt that Brandon contributed to his own death, if you want to know what that basically means. This led to a remaining judgment of responsibility against Richardson County and sheriff law of $17,360.97. In 2001, the Nebraska Supreme Court reversed the reductions of the earlier award reinstating the full $80,000 award for mental suffering plus $6,223.20 for funeral costs. In October 2001, the same judge awarded Brandon's mother an additional $12,000, which was split up as $5,000 for wrongful death and $7,000 for the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Good on them.

Yes. So Sheriff Law was also criticized after the murder for his attitude towards Brandon. At one point, Law referred to Brandon as it. After the case was over, Law served as commissioner of Richardson County and later as part of his community. counsel before retiring as a school bus driver. He has refused to the stay to speak about his actions in the case and swore at one reporter who had contacted him for a story on the murder's 20th anniversary. He did die recently this past year.

Yes. Yes, he did. Bye. In 1999, Brandon became the subject of a biographical film entitled Boys Don't Cry, directed by Kimberly Pierce and starring Hillary Swank as Brandon and Chloe Seven Yeh as Lana Tisdell. for their performances Swank won an Academy Award, whereas Seven Ye was nominated for one. Lana Tisdell sued the producers of the film for unauthorized use of her name and likeness before the film's release. She claimed the film depicted her as, quote, lazy white trash and a skanky snake, end quote. Lana also claimed the film falsely portrayed that she continued a relationship with Brandon after she discovered that Brandon was transgender.

So if you remember from the film in the prison scene, it depicted Lanna and Brandon being totally still lovie-dovey. I guess that really wasn't the case. I guess the relationship allegedly ended according to Lanna at that point. But they depict a continued relationship with sex scenes even further on in the movie. So she was not okay with this. And she eventually settled her lawsuit against the movie's distributor for an undisclosome, which I find really strange. So they left Lanna as Lanna.

They left her as her person, but they made Lisa Lambert into Candace. It's strange to me. It's strange how they decided to do this. I mean, a lot of people retroactively have a lot of problems with this movie. My problem, I guess we can get into this now, my biggest problem with this movie is the fact that they don't even mention Philip Divine. Yeah, that's gross. It is total erasure of a senseless. murder of a person of color.

Like, there's just no need of that. Like, oh, it just doesn't fit in the script. It doesn't fit in the movie. Well, if this is based on real events, portray them as they actually happened. And that was my issue watching the movie. Because you had never watched it until I showed it to you. Right. And I thought it was, I thought, honestly, I thought it was terrible.

I thought it was bad. It obviously didn't age well, but I thought that the representation was in poor taste. So I had a lot of problems with it. And I have to admit, when I was in my late teens, early 20s, I loved this movie because I loved any movie that Chloe 7ye was in. She was one of my favorite actresses. She still is. But like Drewby just said, they completely erased Philip Divine from the movie altogether. And it had that 90s feel that I guess a lot of 90s movies have.

I don't know about you. And I've seen other people levy this criticism too. But it felt like the way brandy. was portrayed, that they portrayed Brandon not as a transgender man, but as a woman masquerading as a man. Yes. That's how it felt like to me. And I understand that between the 90s and now, it's come a long way.

There's a lot more awareness and understanding of this. In the 90s, we didn't have the language we have now. Right. But still, like, how they went about it. Like, they understood what transgender people were. They just had different language for it. I mean, Brandon even said in the movie, I'm a man. I'm a man.

So it's not as if the director didn't know, but still the way in which Brandon was framed, and I think the only way you'd be able to understand it is seeing the movie itself. And honestly, I don't really recommend the movie at all. I'd recommend seeing the documentary. If you are interested in this case, I don't recommend seeing Boys Don't Cry. I just, it's not a good movie if looked at as, like, film as an art form, and it's just not historically accurate. and I don't feel like it did brand injustice at all. Or Philip Divine.

Or clearly not Philip Divine. So another thing I found really interesting, Drewby and I found a YouTuber that did an analysis of Boys Don't Cry as far as how accurate it was or just, you know, how well it aged. And this YouTuber really felt that the director used this as an art form to express their own coming of age as someone who thought initially that they were a lesbian, but came out as someone who was non-binary and kind of use the movie to express that and use liberties,

I guess. And rather than telling the story of Brandon Tina really just infuse their own coming of age story into it, if that makes any sense. Well, that coming of age story was not brought up in subject until decades later, if I'm remembering correctly. So I'm wondering if this kind of personal story was now retroactively infused into the movie

based on the rampant criticisms towards the director that in retrospect, Boys Don't Cry is framed a bit transphobically. I don't know. I just thought it was a really interesting take. It should be noted that in previous interviews to the ones that were referencing, the director referred to Brandon as a woman

and talked about Brandon as a woman trying to be a man. So take that for what it is. Whereas the entire time, and I'll give credit to Hillary Swank, Hillary Swank seemed to be ahead of her time in her verbiage in this. Always referred to Brandon as a man, understood that what she was doing was playing a transgender man and not a woman trying to be a man, where the director was not properly speaking about that at the time. And if you think I'm grasping at straws, I mean, one of the big criticisms and the more obvious criticisms, against the director is putting Brandon's dead name at the end of the movie, which even if everything was done right in the movie, it just, it almost felt like a slap in the face. Yeah, it's like, what did you just make this whole movie for then if you're just going to have that be right at the ending? I don't understand it. I don't either. So speaking of pronouns, Joanne Brandon, who was Brendan's mother, publicly objected to the media referring to her child as he and Brandon.

Following Hillary Swank's Oscar acceptance speech, Joanne Brandon took offense at Swank thanking Brandon Tina and for referring to him as a man. However, in 2013, Joanne told a reporter that she accepted Brandon being referred to as a transgender man in the media. Although she was unhappy with the way Boys Don't Cry portrayed the situation, she said about the film, quote,

It gave gay and transgender advocates a platform to voice their opinions, and I'm glad of that. There were a lot of people who didn't understand what it was Brandon was going through. We've come a long way. End quote. When asked how the murder affects her life today, Joanne replied, quote, I wonder about how my life would be different if Brandon was still here with me. Brandon would be such a joy to have around.

Brandon was always such a happy kid. I imagine Brandon being a happy adult. And if being happy meant Brandon living as a man, I would be fine with that. that, end quote. Brandon was buried at the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska. His headstone is inscribed with his dead name, with the epitaph, and I quote, daughter, sister, and friends, end quote. So if you're listening on YouTube, me appreciate the episode.

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