This month marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard. Here’s what we know to be true: on the night of October 6, 1998, Shepard, 21 years old, was pistol-whipped, tortured, and tied to a fence, left to die, in a field outside of Laramie, Wyoming.
His attackers were Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, who Shepard had met that night at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie. While the pair confessed to the murder and are currently serving life sentences in prison, the motives have always been unclear: was it robbery, as they said, or did they beat and murder Shepard because he was gay? Stories have changed pretty frequently, but one outcome of Shepard’s murder was the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (commonly known as the Matthew Shepard Act), signed into law by President Barack Obama in October 2009.
A new book, however, claims that Shepard’s death was the result of different motivations, and that his beating wasn’t a hate crime at all. … Read More
His attackers were Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, who Shepard had met that night at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie. While the pair confessed to the murder and are currently serving life sentences in prison, the motives have always been unclear: was it robbery, as they said, or did they beat and murder Shepard because he was gay? Stories have changed pretty frequently, but one outcome of Shepard’s murder was the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (commonly known as the Matthew Shepard Act), signed into law by President Barack Obama in October 2009.
A new book, however, claims that Shepard’s death was the result of different motivations, and that his beating wasn’t a hate crime at all. … Read More
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