Forgotten gay true crime: Brandi West… 80’s Texas drag queen murderer!
Brandi West (aka Cliff Youens) was a popular drag Queen from Houston in the 1980’s, known for entertaining audiences with her vicious and poison-tongued humor at gay bars nationally.
In 1986, the body of 20 year old female Patrice LeBlanc was found when her badly mutilated body surfaced from the depths of a lake in Louisiana. Patrice was know by many to be a close friend of Cliff’s, and after the news hit, Cliff (and Brandi) disappeared.
The evolving story rocked the Texas gay and some national press, with Cliff going into hiding and sending secret letters to gay papers to profess his innocence. “Thank you for all the letters of support from my fans!”
Cliff was eventually apprehended and charged, but maintained his innocence for years. He eventually confessed, but claimed that it was Brandi who killed Patrice, not him.
Seems like a forgotten case. Sad too. This series of news clippings are interesting (and sordid) to read if you like true crime. And remember a different gay era. The drama!
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | February 20, 2023 4:59 PM
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Almost seems like something out of an early John Waters film
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 17, 2023 11:07 PM
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I’m honestly surprised more drag queens aren’t serial killers to match their appearance and on stage personas
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 17, 2023 11:09 PM
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[quote]poison-tongued humor at gay bars nationally.
Maybe she said the wrong thing to the wrong twink.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 17, 2023 11:10 PM
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A mentally ill drag queen? Now I've heard of everything!
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 17, 2023 11:10 PM
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This letter she wrote to the press with blood on her hands says it all.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | February 17, 2023 11:20 PM
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I’ll say this: the gal knew her way around an eyeliner pencil.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | February 17, 2023 11:34 PM
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I’ve known drag queens who insult people from the stage as part of their act and none of them ever murdered anyone. I don’t think.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | February 17, 2023 11:50 PM
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I’ve known drag queens who insult people from the stage as part of their act and none of them ever murdered anyone. I don’t think.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | February 17, 2023 11:52 PM
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[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | February 17, 2023 11:53 PM
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I lived in Dallas all through the 80’s (had a giant stack of TWTs in my apartment!) I remember hearing about this case as it happened but didn’t pay close attention. Mainly I read about it through TWT magazine.
I may have seen Brandi perform in Dallas, I’m not sure.
My memory is foggy but I remember getting the impression at the time Brandi was the victim of a frame-up or something. Like it was homophobic injustice or something. I remember seeing flyers on Cedar Springs saying “Justice for Brandi” or something similar.
Strange to revisit this now, here, and learn all the details.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | February 17, 2023 11:55 PM
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I’ll bet some of the other queens in Houston worked all this into their act during that time. Mee-ow!
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | February 17, 2023 11:56 PM
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Murdering your fag hag is so tacky.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | February 18, 2023 12:07 AM
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[quote]or something.
[quote]or something.
[quote] or something similar.
[quote]My memory is foggy
It sure is.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | February 18, 2023 12:08 AM
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[quote]r12 French former drag queen arrested over murders of 18 men
She looks so merry and welcoming, tho!
I can’t believe it.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | February 18, 2023 12:21 AM
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[quote] Brandi West is back in Texas after opening for Wayland Flowers & Madame for three weeks in Provincetown. She will also open for him at the Backlot at Studio One in Hollywood during October. Congratulations, girl. (Watch those roots!)
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | February 18, 2023 11:55 AM
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Wasn’t Divine in one of the productions of Women Behind Bars in the 70’s?
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | February 18, 2023 11:59 AM
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More like watch your back!
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | February 18, 2023 12:01 PM
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R10 Thankfully none of them have performed in front of Will Smith.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | February 18, 2023 12:15 PM
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Interesting. Thanks OP.
I wish the video of him talking in prison linked on the webpage still worked.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | February 20, 2023 12:41 PM
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In the small rust belt town/region I came out in, the drag queens were among the roughest folks around. You had to be in order to do your thing and fight off attackers and homophobes.
One drag queen I know has a long rap sheet, and cut out someone's eye once.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | February 20, 2023 2:09 PM
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So much of these eras of gay life have been forgotten.
I love the Houston-based site that collection of clippings comes from. Most of the clippings on that webpage are from TWT magazine (‘This Week in Texas’). They have almost the entire run of the magazine from 1975 to now, in PDF format. Fascinating to browse through…
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | February 20, 2023 3:58 PM
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The drag queen was sexually involved with the victim and stabbed her to death because he was jealous that she was going to go off with another man. That adds a whole 'nother layer to the WTF factor of the Brandi West case for me...
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | February 20, 2023 4:24 PM
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[quote]A real life Margot!
Or Carol Marlowe!
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | February 20, 2023 4:59 PM
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