Murray Seidman’s Brother: John Joe Thomas Didn’t Stone Him Over Sexual Advances, But Ugly Greed

The murder of 70-year-old Murray Seidman, allegedly at the hands of his 28-year-old “friend” John Joe Thomas, was because Murray, who had the mental capacity of a second grader, made sexual advances toward the young man, he claimed to police. But it wasn’t a gay bashing … at least according to Murray’s 69-year-old brother Lenny Seidman. See, the murderous attack in January — where John admitted to filling a sock with stones and beating Murray to death with it — wasn’t about gay sex, but money. Lenny theorizes that John is “cleverly framing his defense,” of the gay panic variety. He was “a manipulative coward who wanted to cash in on Murray’s retirement funds.” Oh, and Murray wasn’t gay either.

“The story is [that a] predator murdered a vulnerable and mentally-challenged person out of greed,” says Lenny. “I have many gay friends; Murray wasn’t gay. If anything, my brother was asexual. He didn’t have the capacity to have deep feelings in a sexual way.” But Murray, who met John when he was a patient at the psychiatric hospital where Murray worked, did have the capacity for certain feelings: “Murray was very empathetic and very social with all people. He made contact with people on the simplest levels and even more than the simplest level.”