r/UnchainedMelancholy • u/metalnxrd • May 22 '25
Graphic The house where Brandon Teena was murdered.
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u/Mummyto4 May 22 '25
The movie Boy's Don't Cry satrring Hilary Swank was based on this.
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u/soggyballsack May 23 '25
I know I remembered something about this. This was so heartbreaking seeing the movie and realizing it was based on truth.
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u/metalnxrd May 22 '25 edited May 22 '25
‼️‼️TRIGGER WARNING: LGBTQ+PHOBIA, HATE CRIME, TORTURE, MURDER, ASSAULT‼️‼️
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Around 1am on December 31st, 1993, Tom Nissen and John Lotter 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. Tom searched and found Brandon hiding under a blanket at the foot of the bed. The men asked Lisa if there was anyone else in the house, and she replied that Phillip DeVine, who at the time was dating Lisa's sister, was staying with her. The duo then shot Brandon in the stomach. Tom testified in court that he had noticed that Brandon was twitching, and asked John for a knife, with which Tom stabbed Brandon in the chest, to ensure that he was dead. Tom later testified that he shot Lambert in the stomach. After leaving the room to find Phillip, and then returning with him, Tom shot Lisa a second time. The two men then took Phillip into the living room, sat him on the couch, and shot him twice. Tom then returned to the bedroom where he shot Lisa a few more times. The two men then left, threw their weapons and gloves onto a frozen river, and returned to Falls City. They were arrested that afternoon, after which Tom told deputies that he had witnessed John shoot three people to death in Humboldt. Police went to the river, where they retrieved the gloves and weapons, including the knife's sheath marked with John's name, tying them to the crime.
Brandon is buried in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska. His headstone is inscribed with his deadname/birth name and the epitaph "daughter, sister, & friend."
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u/thatqueerdo May 22 '25
forgot to mention why they murdered him in the first place: they raped him when they found out he was trans, after a christmas party, and brandon reported them. the police brought them in for questioning, chose not to charge them and told them a rape had been reported. then they hunted brandon down and murdered him alongside lisa and phillip.
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u/RanaMisteria May 24 '25
The police also “lost” the rape kit after they took the forensic evidence.
IMO the police bear some of the responsibility for the deaths of these three people.
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u/lizardpeaches May 22 '25
His family couldn’t even respect him in death :( thought the same way as his murderers
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u/malphonso May 22 '25
Is he the person with the friends who keep putting a cover over the headstone with his preferred name?
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u/sharksfan707 May 23 '25
A person I used to play in a band with took her own life in 2012 as she was transitioning because her family and several friends were unsupportive of her decision. Her chosen name was Carina and her deadname was David. At her memorial service, her family - including her ex-wife - refused to call her anything but David. It even appeared that way in her obituary.
I was completely and utterly disgusted and haven’t been in contact with any of them since then.
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u/Bitxhsmak806 Jun 09 '25
Ugh, this is so horrific. The way they treated him was beyond disgusting. He tried to tell the police! If that jackass cop that interviewed Brandon would have DONE HIS JOB none of these people would be dead. This didn't have to happen. It was 10000000% avoidable. The final slap in the face coming from his own mother marking his grave the way she did infuriates me to no end. RIP BRANDON🖤
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u/Pod_people May 23 '25
One particular thing that infuriates me is that when he was raped, the hospital or police used a "rape kit", then somebody simply lost it. There are apparently unprocessed rape kits in some police jurisdictions that sit for years because of inadequate funding or incompetence or because of some other excuse.
The wealthiest country the world has ever known can't be bothered to spend the money and effort to provide justice to rape victims. That's morally wrong.