"Tina Brown and the United Killers of Benetton" copyright 2000 Lee Boyd - All Rights Reserved
Last year my wife received a letter from publishing titan and British titmouse Tina Brown. Tina - always looking to make a few new friends - asked if we would like to be inaugural subscribers to her wonderful new venture: Talk Magazine. She said it would only cost us $12.00 to receive a dozen issues over the next year (one per month, if my math is correct). Well, I figured I could spare a buck a month to keep the wife happy. That's just the kinda guy I am. Besides, how many times am I likely to have the word inaugural attached to my name?
True to her word, once the check was received, Tina began to send us copies of an oversized rag with articles, features, pictures and ads (mostly ads) that would sicken, disgust and confuse even the most ardent left-wing hairdresser - and I ain't an ardent left-wing hairdresser.
No big deal. I've certainly wasted more than twelve bucks on crap in my time. This Gateway computer alone cost me over 1,800 bucks and it crashes more than a Kennedy. Besides, at least I could make use of the magazine if we ever got a parakeet or ran out of toilet paper. Both unlikely events, but you never know.
Then came last month's issue. The issue itself was the usual semi-offensive tripe, sprinkled with anorexic models hawking $200 bell-bottoms and fly spray perfume. Leonardo DiCaprio's on the cover. Now there's a scoop.
But it came shrink wrapped with a Talk Magazine sized ad/opinion spouting insert by The United Colors of Benetton. This clothing manufacturer's AD / OP-ED was preaching to me about how wrong the death penalty is. Once again:
Fine. No problem. Say what'cha like, that's my motto.
The problem was that they actually went to several prisons, dressed convicted murderers up in colorful Benetton T-shirts, and took pictures. Then they interviewed each of these poor, tortured souls about what it was like to live on death row. Next, they took their pitiful stories and photos, slapped them on slick magazine pages, and asked Tina the Tulip to send them out to her new paying friends (like me).
No thanks.
So I searched around to find what the murderers/models had done to get into such a fine mess. Surely it couldn't have been much. Surely they were just a bunch of poor guys who didn't have O.J.'s kind of money to defend themselves for what must have amounted to self-defense.
I found out differently.
Here are a few of the folks they interviewed and photographed. Most of the guys had on their best innocent faces and UCB gave no details of their crimes.
I, however, will.
Leroy Orange:
UCB: "You maintain your innocence."
Orange: "Yes, I do."
UCB: "Why did they convict you?"
Orange: "Because I made a confession..."
What did good 'ole Leroy do?
"Leroy Orange and his half brother Leonard Kidd were convicted of fatally stabbing four people. The victims were Orange's former girlfriend, Renee Coleman, 27; her son Anthony Coleman, 10; Michelle Jointers, 30 and Ricardo Pedro, 25."
John Lotter: "I think people like seeing other people suffer and killed."
John must like that as well. Of course, in his quote, he wasn't talking about the three people whose deaths he either watched or caused. He was talking about himself. Here's what he did to get hired as a fashion model and mouthpiece for The United Colors of Benetton:
"On December 24, 1993, Teena Brandon was attending a party at Thomas Nissen's home. Teena was a female masquerading as a male. Nissen entered the bathroom with Teena Brandon, Lana Tisdel, and John Lotter and pulled Teena's pants down to show she was a female. Later Nissen kidnaped Teena and anally and vaginally raped her. He then repeatedly kicked and beat her.
According to Nissen, he was accompanied by John Lotter. Teena reported the assault to the police and on December 28, 1993, both Nissen and Lotter were interviewed by police officer and then let go. On December 31, 1993, Teena was staying at the home of Lisa Lambert in Humbolt as was Phillip Devine.
All three were found shot twice in the head at close range. The front door of the Lambert resident was forced open. Nissen admitted participating in the killings, but claimed that Lotter fired all the shots and Nissen only stabbed Brandon. At trial, Nissen was convicted by the jury of one count of first degree murder and two counts of second degree murder. Before sentencing, Nissen entered into a deal for life in exchange for his testimony against Lotter."
James Edward Thomas: "We invest a lot of money in the penal system, but it seems they don't want to use that money to habilitate. I say habilitate because you can't rehabilitate people if they never got there in the first place."
Maybe he should look up the word "resuscitate". That's what they were unable to do to 32 year old Teresa Ann West after the jail house dictionary choked her to death while raping her.
Cesar Barone:
UCB: "What does this prison sound like at night?"
Barone: "Desolate. There's none of that comfy feeling that you would feel at home or around a neighborhood or anything like that. There's just nothing there, there's no togetherness."
Awwww. Here's what happened to a few women in their own comfy homes in Oregon.
"Portland area serial killer Cesar Barone was sentenced to death in a total of three cases and faces a prison term for a fourth murder conviction, all involving attacks on women in the early 1990s. Barone received death sentences and aggravated murder convictions in the slayings of Chantee Woodman, 23 and Margaret Schmidt, 61. Woodman was abducted in Portland, beaten, sexually assaulted and then shot in December 1992. Her body was found along U.S. route 26 near Vernonia. Schmidt was sexually assaulted and strangled in her Hillsboro home in April 1991. Barone was also convicted in the slaying of Betty Williams, 51, who police said died of a heart attack as Barone began sexually assaulting her at her Portland area apartment in January 1993. He received an 89 year sentence in that killing. Barone's 1st death sentence resulted from his aggravated murder conviction in the October 1992 abduction and slaying of nurse midwife Martha Bryant as she drove home from her job at Tuality Hospital in Hillsboro. Barone peppered her car with gunfire, tried to rape the wounded woman and then dragged her onto the road, where he shot her in the head. He is suspected of an additional murder, committed when he was nineteen, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. In that case, his 73-year-old neighbor was raped and strangled in her bed. Barone also attacked a female corrections officer while he was in jail."
I wonder if female corrections officers are for or against the death penalty.
Do I think the death penalty is a deterrent? I think it deters them from doing it again. However, my main objection to this slick little ad campaign is not strictly about the death penalty. It's about these convicted murderers getting to express their feelings and pour their hearts out to people, begging for sympathy. I'm sure sixty-one-year-old Margaret Schmidt begged Cesar Barone for sympathy as he raped her. Instead of sympathy, she got strangled to death.
Well, Mr. Barone, it's time to pay the price.
Next time I'll take a pass on anything I get in the mail from Tina Brown.
If you are interested, You can read some of these interviews here: http://www.benetton.com/deathrow/index.html
You can find out the murderers' crimes here: http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/benetton.htm