True Crime and Famous Graves: The Story Of Brandon Teena | Nebraska Locations | Boys Don’t Cry

In this video I visit the grave of Brandon Teena, a transgender man who was brutally murdered with two others, 25 years ago. As well, I take you to the location of the farmhouse where the crime occurred, and then to Falls City Nebraska where Brandon met his killers. This is heavy subject matter and I wanted to treat it with the respect it deserves.

Brandon Teena (December 12, 1972 – December 31, 1993) was an American trans man who was raped and later, along with Phillip DeVine and Lisa Lambert, murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska. His life and death were the subject of the films The Brandon Teena Story and Boys Don't Cry.

Brandon was raised, along with a sister, by a single mother who lived off of disability payments. His father had been killed in an accident before he was born. It was later determined that he and his sister had suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of an uncle. Brandon rejected traditional female gender roles at an early age, adopting male dress and habits and dating women beginning in adolescence. He was expelled from high school and, from his late teen years, largely supported himself with menial jobs and petty crime, usually presenting as male. He had a number of romantic relationships with biological females, many of whom were not aware of his biological sex due to his use of male aliases and his masculine physical appearance. Following a number of convictions for check fraud that resulted in sentences of probation, Teena moved to Falls City, Nebraska, in November 1993.

There, identifying as a male, he found shelter with a young single mother, Lisa Lambert, with whom, by some accounts, he also had a romantic relationship. He fell in with a group of young people that included John Lotter and Marvin T. Nissen, both of whom had criminal records. Teena also began dating a young woman named Lana Tisdel. However, by December 1993, he had again been arrested for check fraud. A court appearance and subsequent notice in the local newspaper revealed his birth name and thus his biological sex.

This revelation infuriated Lotter and Nissen, who had viewed Teena as biologically male. On the night of December 24, the two men attacked Teena at a Christmas Eve party at Nissen’s home, forcibly disrobing him to reveal his biological sex to guests of the party, including Tisdel. In the early hours of the next morning they kidnapped Teena and raped him before bringing him back to Nissen’s home. Teena reported the rapes to local police and was subjected to a degrading interrogation. Ultimately no charges were filed against the men. However, incensed by Teena’s report of their actions, on December 31, they traveled to Lambert’s house and shot and stabbed Teena to death. They also murdered Lambert and a friend, Phillip Devine, leaving only Lambert’s child unharmed.

Nissen was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1995. Lotter was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996.

Teena’s story has been told through a number of media, including documentary and mainstream filmmaking, biography, music (Pet Shop Boys’ “Girls Don’t Cry”), and numerous academic articles and books. Teena was the subject of the film Boys Don’t Cry (1999), directed by Kimberly Peirce and starring Hilary Swank in an Academy Award-winning turn as Teena and Chloë Sevigny as Lana Tisdel.