Why Matthew Shepard's Murder Wasn't A Hate Crime

Jack Atteridg

Ms. Menough P.2

November 18th, 2014

                  The actions of human beings will never be sure and the media, as well as literature has attempted to understand these actions through The Laramie Project, The Book Of Matt, and the ABC News 20/20 Report. The Matthew Shepard case has the ability to draw different viewpoints and everyone has different views on morality and this case allows them to express there own view and there own opinion on what happened the night of October 12th, 1998. Shepard’s murder being a hate crime is heavily questioned in Stephen Jimenez book The Book Of Matt and there’s a lot of evidence showing Shepard’s murder was not because he was gay. The murder of Matthew Shepard was not a hate crime because of the Evidence in The Book Of Matt, the biases in the Laramie community, and the cultural media explosion that occurred in Laramie after Shepard’s Death.

           In Stephen Jimenez The Book Of Matt, is endless accounts and witnesses that prove Shepard wasn’t killed because he was gay. Shepard and his killer Aaron McKinney were not strangers, they knew each other. Shepard and McKinney had been seen numerous times together around town. They weren’t best friends but certainly not strangers. Laramie is such a small town almost everybody knows of everybody or has seen them around town. Shepard and McKinney being in the same places a lot of the time isn’t a coincidence. “Aaron had been to gay bars and, you know, had been around gay guys and was very comfortable with that”(Jimenez). McKinney had been seen numerous times at several gay bars, not in Laramie though because there are no gay bars in Laramie. McKinney and Shepard were both into the the rapidly growing drug scene in Laramie at the time. The main drug being Methamphetamine. “ Well, first of all, i learned that Matthew had become a user of meth(Jimenez). Knowing both McKinney and Shepard were involved in drugs brings up more suspicion and probability that they weren’t strangers. During the time of Shepard’s murder McKinney had been up for days on meth. “ Well, Aaron McKinney had been a meth dealer for three years prior to the crime”(Jimenez). Not only was Aaron using but he was also dealing and Matthew knew that. When Matthew moved from Denver to Laramie he wanted to leave the drug scene behind but when he got involved he probably got introduced to McKinney. The drug has the ability to take over the mind and take away one’s judgement. That night on October 12th, 1998 McKinney was craving the drug more than ever and clearly would of done anything to maintain his high. McKinney knew Shepard could of had drugs on him from previous knowledge and chose to rob Shepard because of that. There’s also a ton of proof that McKinney could of in fact been bisexual. Doc O’connor a limousine driver in the Laramie area has driven both McKinney and Shepard and knows them both fairly well. O’connor said that he and McKinney had a sexual threesome with another woman. McKinney being so willing shows he’s not that homophobic at all. O’connor has even said that McKinney could very likely be bisexual from all the encounters he had or heard about with McKinney. The Book Of Matt is filled with proof that McKinney and Shepard knew each other and were into a lot of the same things including sex.

          The Laramie community is one of the most biased and single-minded communities this country had in 1998. Laramie is such a secluded town that the views and the people don’t change. “ And they brought me into their room and told me that if i did that scene, that they would not come to see me in the competition. Because they believed that it is wrong-that homosexuality is wrong”(Jedediah Schultz, pg 10). Jedediah’s parents wouldn’t come to his theater competition because they believe the theater crowd and culture comes off as homosexual. The people are brought up in a very old culture. Skin color, sexuality, race, etc. is so important to these people and the majority of the community is beyond judgemental. When the Laramie community found out about Shepard’s murder they jumped right to a hate crime because discrimination and violence against gays isn’t something out of the ordinary in Laramie, Wyoming. “ President Bill Clinton condemned it as a hate crime”(Rachel Martin, Host). Even the President of the United States believed this murder was a hate crime. McKinney had a bad boy reputation too and easily made sense to the Laramie community that McKinney would beat and rob someone who was gay. Most people didn’t know the truth about McKinney and Shepard though. It was the perfect scenario for a hate crime; two thugs with bad reputation in Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson singling out a gay person to abuse and rob in Matthew Shepard. It’s the ideal hate crime in one of the most probable place for someone to be singled out because they were gay in Laramie. “ As far as the gay issue, i don’t give a damn one way or the other as long as they don’t bother me”(Marge Murray, pg 15). Even the people who don’t mind the gay community in Laramie like Marge want them to keep there distance. It’s extremely hard to be gay in Laramie. It’s especially hard to argue when the killer himself McKinney reported that he killed him because he was gay and even told his girlfriend at the time to tell the police the same thing. He wanted everyone to know that he killed Shepard because he was gay. Right of the bat is extremely suspicious. At the time of the murder everybody was too afraid to step out and say anything about the case. Nobody wanted to be the person to say that maybe this wasn’t because he was gay but something else. It was a hectic time and you had to just listen in and follow along.

        The explosion of the media in in Laramie is one of the most monumental news explosions to ever occur in this country. There had never been anything like this before in Wyoming history let alone Laramie. “ So i was talking to my sister on the phone and thats when the whole story came up on channel 5 news and it was just like ba-boom”(Trish Stegar, pg 40). The community was shocked and didn’t know how to respond. The attraction this story got is what allowed people to start exploring into other conclusions about why Matthew was really killed. If Matthew wasn’t gay this media explosion wouldn’t have occurred and that’s one thing that really drew the Westboro Baptist Church to Laramie. “ But this murder is different, because the fags are bringing us out here trying to make Matthew Shepard into a poster boy for the gay lifestyle”(Reverend Fred Phelps, pg 76). All the attention was both positive and negative. Without the attention the case got things like The Book Of Matt would of never been created. The attention and the media allowed people to gather their own theories and opinions on why Shepard was killed. People started to realize that this murder could very likely not be a hate crime. “ In my opinion, and based on all the research and investigation i’ve done, it’s that Aaron McKinney wanted the drugs and the money that he believed that Matthew Shepard was in possession of that night. And Aaron assaulted four males in a 24-hour period. One of them was against a gay male, and the other three were against straight males but somehow, we can isolate this and say it was an anti-gay hate crime”(Jimenez). McKinney had nothing against gays, Shepard and McKinney knew each other, the meth induced rage McKinney was in during the murder, all these things show you that this murder was not a hate crime.

       With all the evidence provided it’s easy to see that Shepard’s murder wasn’t a hate crime. Once the story got more attention and people began opening up to other scenarios people began to understand the deeper truth in this case. Matthew Shepard was into drugs and the Laramie drug scene, so was Aaron McKinney and that’s how they knew each other. This murder was drug related and had nothing to do with Shepard being gay. How can a murder be a hate crime when the murderer himself had nothing against gays? A robbery gone wrong influenced by McKinney’s meth-induced rage and craving for the drug is why Matthew Shepard was murdered.

Works Cited

'Book Of Matt': An Alternative Motive Behind The Infamous Murder."NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

Kaufman, Moisés. The Laramie Project. New York: Vintage, 2001. Print.

Abc News 20/20 Special Matthew Shepard. N.d.

"Npr 10 Years Later Matthew Shepard." Interview. n.d.: n. pag. Print.

Jimenez, Stephen. The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.