Deeper into the Laramie Project

         This past week we got an in depth look at the Matthew's Shepard killers Russel Henderson and Aaron Mckinney. Learning more about them allows you to understand why this murder happened in the first place. Mckinney is ruthless, even to this day he's not the least bit sympathetic nor sorry for what he did to Matthew and the Shepard family. In the 20/20 film Mckinney shows his sociopathic mentality and its pretty disturbing to the viewer. It's also disturbing to know that Mckinney could be lying about his sexual orientation and the murder still. There's evidence in The Book Of Matt that Mckinney was in fact bisexual and even had a sexual threesome with Doc O'connor that Doc says was in fact true. In the film Mckinney denies that he's ever had any kind of sexual interaction with a man which i believe is a lie and he's still lying to this day. Mckinney knows the beating he put on Matthew was savage and brutal and yet has never apologized because he's a ruthless human being. He had the opportunity to apologize to the world in his 20/20 interview and im sure the thought never even crossed his mind which is so disturbing. Mckinney deserves the punishment hes received and he's lucky that he isn't dead. Usually people like Mckinney don't survive in prison.

     This week we also got a new view of Russel Henderson and how the sentence he received could of been unfair. Just in the picture above you can see the scar that Aaron Mckinney left on Henderson's face when he struck him in the face but the butt of a .357 magnum the same weapon his used to beat Matthew with. Henderson tried to intervene when Mckinney was beating Matthew and thats why Mckinney struck him with the pistol. Henderson knew what Mckinney was doing was wrong and tried to stop it but ultimately returned to the car because he didn't want to try and stop Mckinney again. Henderson coud of stopped the murder and he knows that, he states that in the 20/20 film and you can see the regret on his face which is something you didn't see with Mckinney. Henderson was a eagle scout, a overall good kid who took a couple wrong turns along his path but deep down he was a good person. In the 20/20 interview Henderson apologized to the world and the Shepard family which is something most people didn't see coming. Henderson never struck Matthew, he tied him up to the fence  which wil never be okay and ultimately is why he's serving his double life sentence but he didn't want Matthew dead like Mckinney did. It's unfortunate what happened to Henderson but he could of stopped this murder and thats why he is in prison. At least he knows that what he did was wrong and feels sympathetic and wishes he could take that day on October 12th, 1998 back more than anything.