all the factors to Matthew Shepherd murder pt. 1

life is completely random. There is no rhyme or rhythm to it. sometimes it slows down, sometimes it speeds up, but in Mr. Shepherds case it stops. No one really knows for sure as to why except for the fact that 2 people murdered him. The book and play The Laramie Project argues that it was a hate crime against gays. There are several cumulitive statments throughout that bring it up, and this is one of them, “Uh, I really dont hate them but you know, when they start coming on to me and stuff like that I get pretty aggravated.” (McKinney pg. 93) This is one of the things Mckinney originally brought up in the trial. but it is not very believable for one specific reason. He kept changing up alot of the thing he said in court, for example. after saying “He (Mr. Shepherd) was grabbing my leg and my genatals.” (Mckinney pg. 90) then suddenly changed his story to “Well he put his hand on my leg, slid his hand down like as if he was going to grab my balls.” (Mckinney pg 91) Although he was shifty about his story. He seems proud of what he does. As if he does not have a drop of remorse. It almost seems phony, like he is trying to keep something hidden. Mckinney is so open with the fact that he beat Shepherd because he was gay for example These several quotes help support this. “Id say I hit him about 2 or 3 times with my fits and about 6 times with the pistol.” (Mckinney pg. 92) “Did Mr. Shepherd tell you to stop?” (debree pg 92) “Well yeah, he was getting the shit kicked out of him.” (Mckinney pg 92) These things actually make sense, but one has to really read between the lines. There is more evidence that says the murder of Mr. Shepherd is not a hate crime.

There is a controversial book about the case of Matthew Shepard concerning if it was really a hate crime or not, but if not a hate crime, what was it? one can not get an answer to that question without ruled out all possibilities.The author of this book, The book of Matt, Steven Jimenez says “The prosecutor of the Aaron Mckinney trial got an anonymous letter that said that Aaron Mckinney was bisexual and the gay panic defence was bogus.” (Jimenez pg. 5) Obviously this is pretty far fetched from the story that people have come to know, and Mr. Jimenez could surely be wrong infact he says himself “My background is really in film and television.” (Jimenez Book TV interview) So this may give him a little less authority and knowledge to do what he did, however Mr. Jimenez is not the only one to have evidence that Mr. Mckinney is bisexual. In the 20/20 interview with doc O'Connor, who knew both Mckinney and Shepherd he stated “I know for a fact that Aaron Mckinney was gay because there was an instance where he wanted to have a 3 way and he wanted me to be the 3rd guy” (Doc O’Connor 20/20 interview) Now there is not only one but 2 people saying this. This may not be the answer to the question of why Mr. Mckinney killed Mr. Shepherd but it is getting closer. Something else Mr. Jimenez figured out fro his research is that Henderson and Mckinney could have been on meth. He says “I talked to several drug dealers that knew Aaron Mckinney, then later came to realize as I started to explore the drug world that Matthew Shepard was also involved as a user.” Could this really be true? Matthew Shepard, A meth addict? there are many sources other than Steven Jimenez that say yes. In the original story, the news made Mr. Shepherd out to be a perfect young man, but everyone has problems.