All the factors to Matthew Shepherds murder (Final Draft)

All the factors to Matthew Shepherds Murder

Willi Miller

Matthew Shepard was murdered. There are several theories surrounding the motive of his murder. The press focused primarily on Matthew Shepard’s murder as simply a hate crime.  There is evidence the murder may have been fueled by drugs as well.  Was this horrible crime committed out of hate, out of anger, out of a drug induced rage or all of the above?  In fact, the motives behind this crime were complicated and variable.         

Life is completely random. There is no rhyme or rhythm to it. Sometimes it slows down, sometimes it speeds up, but in Mr. Shepherd’s case it stops. The book and play, The Laramie Project argues that his murder was a hate crime against gays.  There are several statements throughout The Laramie Project that support this, “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) McKinney was homophobic, “He (Mr. Shepherd) was grabbing my leg and my genitals.” (Mckinney pg. 90) and “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)  McKinney seems proud of himself and he acts if he does not have a drop of remorse.  He 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, he comments, “I’d say I hit him about 2 or 3 times with my fists and about 6 times with the pistol.” (Mckinney pg. 92)  The judge asked McKinney, “Did Mr. Shepherd tell you to stop?” (Debree pg 92)  McKinney answered, “Well yeah, he was getting the shit kicked out of him.” (Mckinney pg 92)  From these statements, it seems pretty obvious he was hateful towards Matthew Shepard as a gay man.

There is more evidence that says the murder of Mr. Shepherd is not just a hate crime.

The Book of Matt is a controversial book about the case of Matthew Shepard. This book brings up many other factors that may have contributed to the murder of Matthew.  So if not a hate crime, what was it?  One can not get an answer to that question without looking at all of the possibilities. The author of the 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.  Mr. Jimenez could surely be wrong, in fact, he says himself “My background is really in film and television.” (Jimenez Book TV interview) So this may give Mr. Jimenez a little less authority.  However, Mr. Jimenez is not the only one to have evidence that Mr. Mckinney is bisexual. In the 20/20 interview, Doc O'Connor, a Limo driver  who knew both McKinney and Shepherd 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 McKinney was bisexual.  Why would Mr. McKinney want to kill Mr. Shepard simple because he was gay, if he was gay himself?  Something else Mr. Jimenez figured out from his research for his book is that Henderson and McKinney could have both 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.” Jimenez (book tv interview) Could this really be true? Matthew Shepard, a meth addict? There are many sources including Steven Jimenez that say yes. In the original story, the news made Mr. Shepherd out to be a perfect young man, but he actually may have been very troubled, and using drugs to deal with his troubles.  

Matthew Shepard’s death was the sad result of many complicated factors. First of all, he was, in fact, involved with drugs.  There is speculation that Aaron McKinney was actually going to rob Matthew Shepherd for money to buy drugs. According to the 20/20 special Aaron Mckinney’s girlfriend stated, “His real motive was to beat him up and rob him.” However, because McKinney was on a week long meth binge, he was most likely feeling the full affects of it. Two emotions that meth causes are anger and paranoia, according to a video on how to quit meth.  Some brain functions are amplified, while others are reduced on meth.  The part of the brain that controls judgement is reduced, and aggression is amplified when one is on meth. Complete lack of judgement and serious aggression are two major factors that drove McKinney to murder Matthew Shepard.  There were also deep feelings of hatred involved in the murder.  Perhaps, Mr. McKinney hated not only Matthew Shepard for being gay, but also hated himself for being bisexual.  One of Shepherd’s closest friends says in the 20/20 special, “I feel comfortable in my own heart that they did what they did to Matt because they had hatred towards him for being gay.”  Indeed this is true, there was most definitely hate involved, but there is no denying the facts about meth.  Truly this is a crime, started by hatred and fueled by drugs.  

The sad case of Matthew Shepard’s murder, illustrates the prejudices of sexual orientation.  It also shows just how dangerous drugs can be.  When drugs fuel hatred, anger and aggression, disaster is the only thing that could come from it.