Brandon was a female-bodied twenty-year-old who passed as a man, because of his "difference" he was kidnapped, raped, assaulted, and murdered. On December 31, 1993, 2 men, John Lotter and Marvin Thomas Nissen murdered Brandon, Lisa Lambert, and Philip De Vine in a farmhouse in rural Richardson County, Nebraska. These murders occurred one week after Lotter and Nissen forcibly removed Brandon's pants and made Lana Tisdel, whom Brandon had been dating since moving to Falls City from Lincoln three weeks earlier, look to prove that her boyfriend was “really a woman.” Later in the evening of the assault, Lotter and Nissen kidnapped, raped, and assaulted Brandon. Brandon filed charges with the Falls City Police Department and the Richardson County Sheriff, however, Lotter and Nissen remained free. Lotter and Nissen have both been convicted; Lotter is currenlty on death row and Nissen, who testified against Lotter, was sentenced to life without parole.
Brandon was a female-bodied twenty-year-old who passed, to some extent, as a man, without hormonal or surgical intervention. Given the name "Teena Renae Brandon" at birth, Brandon used a number of different gender-neutral and masculine names. Upon first arriving in Richardson County, Teena Ray Brandon sait it would be easier to be called "Brandon". Although "Brandon Teena" has become the well known name with which to refer to Brandon, there is little evidence for Brandon's own use of this name. Brandon passed easily as a man in Humboldt, but was discovered to be biologically and legally female by local police who arrested him on a misdemeanor check forgery charge two weeks prior to his death. Police then publicly released this information to the local newspaper, the Falls City Journal. One week later, on Christmas Day 1993, Brandon was raped and assaulted at a Christmas party by two men, whom he identified to local police as Nissen and Lotter, despite the fact that they had threatened to kill him if he reported the incident to the police.
Marvin Thomas Nissen was tried first, in February, 1995. His attorney's principal problem was Tom himself. Eager for publicity, Tom had given an interview to Playboy magazine in which he confessed to both the rape and his part in helping kill Teena Brandon. The prosecutor lost no time in adding the journalist to his list of witnesses, because this was an even greater find than the jailhouse snitch to whom Tom had also confessed. Even so, the jury had trouble finding him guilty of first-degree murder in all the deaths. They deliberated for eighteen hours, and finally convicted him on March 3rd of first-degree murder in the death of Teena Brandon, but second-degree murder in the deaths of Lambert and DeVine. His sentence was delayed until after John Lotter's trial, which meant he could still face the death penalty. John Lotter's trial began on Monday, May 15, 1995. The ten women and two men serving on the jury were brought in from Omaha and sequestered in Falls City. Prosecutor James Elworth told jurors that there was no doubt that Lotter had been involved, and in part it was because he feared that Teena Brandon would testify against him and send him to prison for rape. Marvin Thomas Nissen, 22, has been convicted of one count of first degree murder in the death of Brandon Teena and two counts of second degree murder in the deaths of Lisa Lambert, whom Brandon was living with at the time, and Phillip DeVine, a friend who was visiting them on the night of the murder. Nissen was also convicted on one count of first degree burglary.
The Murder of Brandon was a huge tradgedy for the mid 1990's trans activism, especially for the rise of Transexual Menace to national recognition in the United States. "In Nebraska this week, a man was sentenced to death for attempting to kill a female crossdresser who accused him of raping her. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but in my opinion, everybody in this case deserved to die."(Norm MacDonald, Saturday Night Live). This quote said by Norm MacDonald was very disterbing and shocked everyone. Here, in this quote MacDoanld speaks the wrong information about the Teena case and then proceeds to say that it was ok and that everyone involved with this case should die, because it is pointless. In Humbodlt, Nebraska on December 31, 1993 Brandon Teena was shot to death, then stabbed by John Lotter and Marvin Thomas Nissen.

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