Lana Tisdel

Lana M. Tisdel (born May 28, 1975)^[2] is an American woman whose early life and involvement with a series of murders in December 1993. The victims were Brandon Teena, Lisa Lambert, and Phillip DeVine at the hands of John Lotter and Tom Nissen. It is chronicled in the 1998 documentary The Brandon Teena Story and the 1999 film Boys Don't Cry (which left out DeVine).^[3] She was portrayed in the film by Chloë Sevigny, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance.

Lana Tisdel
Born	(1975-05-28) May 28, 1975 (age 50) Falls City, Nebraska, U.S.
Spouse	Josh Bachman ​ (m. 2001)​ [1]

Background

In the fall of 1993, Tisdel, aged 18, met Brandon Teena, 20, through their mutual friends. Teena was new to the close-knit area, from Lincoln, Nebraska, and the local crowd was curious about him. Teena and Tisdel began seeing each other, with Tisdel believing that Teena was a cisgender man.^[3] Tisdel said her relationship with Teena was brief and did not include sex, only lasting about two months from their first meeting until the murder. However, their two-month relationship is described as very intense. Her mother, Linda, testified that Tisdel would be with Brandon all day, had trouble sleeping, and their relationship was all she cared about during that time.^[4]

In 1993, after some legal trouble, Teena moved to the Falls City region of Richardson County, Nebraska, where he presented as a man. He became friends with several residents.^[5] After moving into the home of Lisa Lambert,^[6][5] Teena began dating 19-year-old Tisdel, who was Lambert's friend.^[6][5][7]

On December 19, 1993, Teena was arrested for forging checks; Tisdel used money from her father to pay his bail.^[8] Because Teena was in the female section of the jail, Tisdel learned that he was transgender. When Tisdel later questioned him about his gender, he told her he was a hermaphrodite pursuing a sex change operation, and they continued dating.^[9][10] In a lawsuit regarding the film adaptation Boys Don't Cry, this was disputed by Tisdel.^[11][12] Teena's arrest was posted in the local paper under his birth name⁣, and thereupon his acquaintances learned that he was assigned female at birth.^[13]

During this time, Teena began associating with ex-convicts John L. Lotter (born May 31, 1971) and Marvin Thomas "Tom" Nissen (born October 22, 1971);^[6][5] Teena had been staying with Nissen at the time.^[14] Initially friendly, Lotter and Nissen soon began to harass Teena and Tisdel and scrutinize their relationship. During a Christmas Eve party, Lotter and Nissen forced Teena to strip and show his genitals to everyone, including Tisdel.^[3][15][14]

The two then kidnapped Brandon and took him to a rural area, where they raped and beat him.^[15][14] Afterward, Teena came to Tisdel's house, and Tisdel and her mother convinced him to speak to the police and go to the hospital. Lotter and Nissen had told Teena that if he told anyone what they did, they would kill him.^[14]

Murders

Main article: Brandon Teena § Rape and Murder

A few days later, on New Year's Eve 1993, Lotter and Nissen came to the Tisdel residence drunk and looking for Brandon, and threatened the Tisdel sisters. They drove to the house of Lisa Lambert, where Teena had been hiding out. Also in the house was Phillip DeVine, a friend of theirs who was dating Tisdel's sister Leslie.^[14] Lambert was a single mother from Pawnee City, Nebraska, who often let friends stay with her in exchange for their help and company, because she lived outside of town.^[14]

Lotter and Nissen shot and killed Teena, Lambert, and DeVine. Lambert's son. Tanner, was in the house at the time and was unharmed. Tisdel was not present at the time of the murder, as it took place inside Lambert's home in Humboldt, Nebraska, a 30-minute drive away from Falls City, where Tisdel lived with her mother and sister. The bodies were discovered the next day by Lambert's mother, Anna Mae.^[16][17]

Aftermath

Lana Tisdel, her sister Leslie, and mother Linda were all involved in the criminal trial and later lawsuits that followed the murder and later, movie development. The Tisdel family appeared on the TV shows Maury and A Current Affair, to discuss Teena and the trial proceedings.^[18] The Tisdel family did not get along well with Teena's mother, Jo Ann Brandon, and his sister, Tammy, who accused Tisdel of being responsible for the murders.

Lana Tisdel sued the creators of the film Boys Don't Cry for using her name and likeness without permission; the suit was settled out of court.^[19][20] Leslie Tisdel was vocal about the film's script changes and upset that her boyfriend who was murdered, Phillip DeVine, was not included in the film, nor was she; instead, the film focused on Brandon Teena.^[21] There has been scrutiny that the lack of information about DeVine, who was from Iowa, was because he was African American, and Leslie stated she believed he had been left out of the story because of racism.^[22][21] When Boys Don't Cry was released, she petitioned Nebraska movie theatre owners not to show the film. Lisa Lambert's name was changed to Candace in the movie. Tisdel's mother, Linda Gutierres, who died on December 2, 2003,^[23] at age 54, was portrayed in the film by Jeannetta Arnette.

Tanner Lambert graduated from Humboldt High School in 2011 and was raised by his aunt. John Lotter and Tom Nissen are currently in prison, with Nissen serving life imprisonment and Lotter facing execution.^[24]

Tisdel graduated from Falls City High School in 1992.^[25] She married Josh Bachman in 2001 and lives in Kansas with their children.^[26]

On August 29, 2020, Tisdel was injured in a car accident when she struck Glenn D. Aston, 66, head-on. Aston was killed in the crash. Tisdel was taken to Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka, Kansas, with serious injuries.^[27][28]