June 4, 2026 • 35 mins
This week, Georgia covers the life, death, and legacy of Matthew Shepard.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
That's sure, it's a heart start that's getting kill gera.
This is podcasting one oh one. It is real basic.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
This is community college podcasting, brought to you by this
donors in the back of the room. That's right, we'll
see at the Smoking Tree, we were like extra credit at.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
My favorite place, the Smoking Tree. We were like, we'll
take this class. We're going to audit this class, right, sure,
they might try to give us a grade, right, I.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Heard the tea shirt is like really chill, Like the
final is bowling. You go bowling.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The final is you have to tell the same story
twenty five times.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
For ten years. What a gift? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Pick the wrong color foundation again, you're.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Going to say shirt because you're sure, like that'll looks
blackt it?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I bet I look like kind of like a floating
head over this table.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
You do look like a mime? Yeah, there she goes.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Don't make me put my biggy little hands up in
the air.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Folks, you can see those hands on Netflix listeners get
up to date. Yeah, you can also watch us and
be watchers. Put it on the background. So Netflix thinks
we're killing it. I don't even have to look at us.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Put it on the background.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Mute it, mute it for sure. You know we should do.
Let's start pushing for the way I give cookie reggae.
Let's start having people put this on for their pets
when they leave them alone at the house. That's right,
let's game the system. We fucking love animals so much.
If you put this on while you're gone, it'll make
your animals feel better.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Good for your animals, it's good for numbers your children,
want to leave your children at home?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, we're very soothing.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
We only say the F word every once.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
In a while. Basically babysitters at least at the top
of the show. What are you up to? Nothing? But
when this comes out, I'll have watched and known what
happens in the last episode of Euphoria. So I'm really
jealous of my future.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Oh okay, because you're just hanging on by thread and.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I just want to I just want to see what happens.
I'm hooked.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I think I stopped watching you for it, and I'm sorry,
because you know I love Martha Kelly the most. Of course,
I stopped watching after it. There was like some party
that they all went to and things happened at it,
and then the anxiety that I felt during that entire scene.
I was just like, Oh, I don't have to live
through this.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You're not in high school anymore. It's very stressful, it's
very flawed and imperfect, but there's something about it and
I'm totally not there, like demographic as an old lady.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
But but it's Zandaya, right.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, So it's like she's just incredible. I mean everyone,
they're incredible. Yeah, shout out to Murderino fucking mod aptoo.
Oh that's right, she's right up on that thing. I know,
she's so good at it.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Hi, congratulations, you're doing great.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Iris. We love you too. Iris.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
See hey we met you once. That's so funny. I
had actually a true crime update for you.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Oh it's okay, that's what this is. It is what
we're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Sure, but we were talking about Murdoch murders and that
update and basically saying to each other, we wish we
knew what things meant. And what's exciting about that is
because we have this podcast network. We have podcasts on
here with people who do know what things mean. Okay,
most recently Brief Recess, hosted by Michael Foot and Melissa Malabranch,
and they went over all of this on their show,
(03:26):
so I was like, oh, I'll just go get the
information from them and tell you. So the source of
this is Michael Foot, Melissa Malabranch, and the Brief Recess podcast,
which if you haven't listened to, its sood. Michael is
currently an immigration attorney fighting for people being kidnapped by
ice in New York City. You can follow him on TikTok.
(03:47):
He talks about all the different things he and he's
still li likes through all and like so entertaining. So farers,
you're like, oh, lawyers whatever, but no, he's like, he
has a joyous he's an amazing man. And then he
also started explaining things about this case where when I
heard him talk about it, it's that thing of like, oh,
it's so much better when somebody who knows what they're
talking about is breaking the news because they do things
(04:10):
like you know. He immediately said, this does not mean
that Alec Murdoch walks free.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Okay, so what does it mean?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So the South Carolina Supreme Court vacated his double murder conviction.
He's currently serving a sentence of forty years in prison
for embezzling money, many accounts of embezzling money.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
But their appeals were made by.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Murdoch's lawyer, and it found that a county clerk improperly
influenced jurors, and so they basically said he didn't get
a fair trial for those murders.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The jury interference centered on comments that this county clerk
made to the jurors telling them to watch Alec Murdoch's
body language in court.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So kind of a clerk shouldn't be saying anything to
the jurors, right think, So okay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I mean clearly not if what they do can vacate
a guilty verdict, that's insane. Of course, when they were
discussing it, Michael and Melissa talked about how baffling that
behavior was, and that, of course now other legitimate convictions
can be overturned because of it, or because of a
county clerk that's interfering. Right, So apparently there will be
(05:19):
a retrial, the stakes will be higher, prosecution could recommend
the death penalty this time around, and Alec Murdoch is
suing the county clerk in federal court for this influence
personally issuing her. Yeah, I wonder what is her story?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Is this an overactive true crime fan that's like, Hey,
this is what needs to be happening here. Or is
it a person that's just like, Hey, I've watched this
person in this courtroom for my whole career. Here's the
thing he does when he's lying.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Or he is just a nosy neighbor who's like likes
to chit chat.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It kind of doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
It doesn't matter. It doesn't sound curious now.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's like, how could you have
something this important?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I want to see Martha Kelly play her like that's
who I'm picturing Martha Kelly character.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
That's so funny.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
All right, well should we get into it?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
The Highlights?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, we have a high Highlight now. We don't have
a highlight network. This isn't Highlights Magazine. We have a
podcast network called Exactly Right Media.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
We should do a podcast about Highlights Magazine now.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
It would be so cute.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I could read that thing forever.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Nineties magazines podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Hell yeah, I think it started in this fifties or sixties,
didn't it. Okay, goofhis and Gallant is not a nineties creation.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
There's no way this is exactly right in media, that's correct.
We have podcasts on our network, like the one I
was just talking about exactly Here are some more highlights.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, this week it's the three hundredth episode of I
Said No Gifts.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
On this episode, Bridger does everything he can to avoid
fighting with Ellie Kemper. You know her from Jimme Schmidt
the Office. She does arrive with the gift, so a
battle ensues and then they talk about everything from sun
burns to the latest Hona Star's suspicious death.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I missed her in the office. I was so bummed.
I was like there that day, but we didn't cross paths.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So were you on the office.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
In the office, our office?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I was like, how did I tell you Elvis?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I missed her in our I get that, didn't yep,
I hear what you're saying. I was in our exactly
right media offices. Not on the TV show The Office,
Oh my God. And then over on Dear Movies, I
Love You, Milli and Casey kickoff their month long celebration
of Video Nasties, a famous collection of VHS tapes that
were banned from the UK in the nineteen eighties and
(07:43):
they're calling it June nasty. Yeah, as in June and nasty.
That's right. First up is the nineteen sixty three horror
classic Blood Feast. You gotta love a band movie.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yes, it's so good. Also, Millie is such a what
do you call it?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Conness?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, but she's it's more than that. She's an archivist.
She's an expert in movies. So she talks about it
from every perspective, which is like the fan perspective, the
production perspective, the time, the place, the history.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It's so great.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Also this week over on Hollywood Land, Jake covers Lucille
Ball's Red Scare scandal, from the news report that exposed
her former ties to a communist party to the government
surveillance that continued on her long after America had moved
on from McCarthyism.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I love when Desi said the only thing read about
her is her hair and even that's fake. Ha. What
a time macarthyism feels familiar. And lastly, a reminder from
our merch department. Yes that is an el caps. If
you don't have anything nice to say, you can always
wear it with our fuck politeness merch. That's right, Grab
the fuck politeness script unisex T shirt, koozy or whistle
(08:50):
now at exactly right store dot com. The end, the end,
All right, it's a solo week, and I'm going.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You're going to first and only, first and only and alone?
Good luck?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Are you leaving? Good luck?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Layers?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Goodbye? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And then I just put a weird balloon with my
head on it here, like what was my face on it?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
The blacksweater? Okay, one's heavy. So it's Pride month, yes,
And today I'm going to cover a story about a
horrific hate crime that would become one of the most
notorious in American history. And I do think it's surprising
to some people that you and I have only discussed
this in a minisod. It's only been told in a minisod.
And I think part of the reason we haven't covered
(09:34):
it is because, despite it being a hugely important story,
is because you and I were of age and young
women when it happened in the nineties, and it was
so horrific that even twenty more than twenty five years later,
it almost feels too awful to talk about. And it's
such a shameful part of our US history that you
and I just haven't been able to go there.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
There are definitely cases that we have talked about where
the actual violence of the case is so extreme and
just repetitive and whatever that we're just like, we don't
know how to handle this correctly, right, And especially after
years of like hearing back when we don't handle things correctly,
I think more and more we got more and more
careful with and we couldn't not handle something correctly right.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And so I've been really nervous about doing this. Thank
you to ali Elk and my researcher because this also
bet a lock to her as well. So I think
we'll handle it.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It's important to do it. It's important to talk about
it right.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So this story is tragic, but it's also an event
that completely changed the conversation around gay people in America,
particularly young gay people. It led to hate crime legislation
being passed, and it led to communities around the country
realizing they must become safe places for their LGBTQ young
people to live their lives truthfully and without fear. But
(10:51):
even though it's been close to thirty years, this is
still an issue obviously that LGBTQIA plus people face daily,
so it's important for us to cover the story, I think,
and this is the story of Matthew Shepherd. Yeah. The
main sources for the story is a nineteen and nine
article from Vanity Fair by Melanie Thurnstrom, as well as
Matthew Shepherd dot org and a BBC article called Matthew
(11:12):
Shepherd The Murder That Changed America by Jude Sharon, and
the rest of the sources can be found in the
show notes. So it's the evening of October seventh, nineteen
ninety eight, and we are just outside of Laramie, Wyoming.
We're just east of the city. Laramie is home to
the University of Wyoming, and like most college towns, it's
considered to be pretty liberal for what is not a
(11:33):
liberal state. A Mountain biker and University of Washington freshman
named Aaron has just fallen off his bike just riding
on some paths when he notices leaning up against a
wooden fence. What he thinks at first is a scarecrow.
Aaron then realizes, to his horror that he is looking
at a person who has been beaten nearly to death.
(11:54):
He runs to a nearby residence to use the phone
to call police. The victim is male, about five foot
to and really slight, so at first, responding officers think
that it's a young teenager. He is unrecognizable and his
face is covered in blood except for the places where
the tears have made tracks down his face, which is
just a heart benching detail, But he is alive. The
(12:17):
boys rushed to the nearest hospital, where coincidentally, two other
young men from town are being treated from injuries that
they sustained in a street fight the night before, and
so police are aware of that, and these men had
been driving a truck in which police had found blood,
a gun, and a wallet with an ID belonging to
a twenty one year old named Matthew Shepherd. And so
(12:39):
it doesn't take long for the police to realize that
this is the identity of the young man who is
now in the same hospital, very tenuously holding on to life,
and that the boys who were taken in the night
before are part of this. So let me tell you
a little bit about Matthew Shepherd. He's born on December first,
nineteen seventy six, to Judy and Dennis Shepherd in Casper, Wyoming.
He is a friendly child, though he is bullied by
(13:01):
his peers, sometimes for being small and relatively unathletic, and
also because as he gets older, he doesn't go to
great links to hide the fact that he's gay. From
an early age, he's fascinated by politics. His mom's hairdresser
recounts a story about Matthew when he's seven or eight
years old, ahead of a local election, saying, quote, he
came into our shop and told us all how to vote,
(13:22):
and he knew he knew the issues. We all thought
he was going to grow up to be the president.
When Matthew is a teenager, his father, who works for
the oil industry, takes a job in Saudi Arabia. Matthew
goes to the American School in Switzerland. In high school,
he's elected by his peers to be a peer counselor,
and by all accounts, he's easy to talk to and
(13:44):
makes friends easily. When Matthew is a senior on a
school trip in Morocco, he is violently sexually assaulted by
a group of locals. His mother, Judy, says that she
felt that his trauma made him more prone to further trauma,
and people could sense his own ability. After Matthew graduates
high school, he officially comes out to his family, who
(14:04):
are supportive, especially his mother, who's very close to When
he's twenty one, he enrolls at the University of Wyoming
and Laramie, majoring in political science with a minor in languages.
And it seems like he starts to thrive in the
college setting. And he's actually chosen as a student representative
for the Wyoming Environmental Council, and it's his dream to
(14:26):
work as a diplomat for the Department of State. And
so let's look at a picture of him. I mean,
you and I know it's so well, it's just steered
into our memories. But here's the picture of him, his
braces and just like such a sweet looking kiss. So
back to the night of October sixth, the night of
the attack, Matthew had gone to a meeting of the
college's LGBT Association where he helps plan events for the
(14:49):
upcoming Gay Awareness Week, which is set to begin the
following Monday. And after the meeting, Matthew says he plans
to go to a bar called The Fireside, but no
one else seems up for it, so he goes a
and arrives around ten pm, has a few drinks at
the bar, and it seems like he's also hanging out
with two regulars named Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Both
are around Matthew's age, but they are not students at
(15:11):
the university. They're actually locals known to be currently having
issues with meth addiction and are possibly dealing meth. And
they're known to frequently get in fights and get in trouble,
so they're more local troublemakers. The detail that gets debated
is whether or not Matthew had also been a user
of math or possibly involved in the math trade, and
whether he knew Aaron and Russell prior to this evening,
(15:34):
And it's this whole controversial conversation around it, But I
don't think it's important to the story. And also we
don't need him to be a perfect victim or have
this in any way means he deserved something like this
to happen to him, So I don't even want to.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Talk about the Well also there I do think there is,
and this is you see it online all the time,
but it is this kind of need that some people
have to be like I don't have to empathize with
this because and then they find their reason. It's a
very sad kind of human denial of like I can't
handle this or I can't be made to think more
(16:11):
than one way about this.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Topic, right, right, one hundred percent. But the story that
most people, including the police and Matthew's family, believes that
Matthew did not have any significant prior interactions with Aaron
and Russell, and whether or not he had a drug problem,
which is unclear, is pretty immaterial to the rest of
the story. So witnesses at the bar see the three
men leave together around midnight, and at one thirty in
(16:34):
the morning, according to Aaron's girlfriend, Aaron returns home covered
in blood, saying he has done something horrible, that he
may have killed someone. Aaron says that he and Russell
had made plans to pose as being gay so that
they could rob Matthew and that was the whole point,
and they drove him to a remote area. But even
(16:55):
though Matthew gave them his wallet, which by the way,
only had twenty dollars in it, it's just so fucking senseless.
They tied him to the fence, beat him brutally, and
repeatedly with the handgun and took his shoes so he
would not be able to walk and get help. And
so then Aaron and Russell head towards Matthew's home with
it seems like plans to rob it because they had
(17:16):
Matthew's key and had taken it from him, but they
get sidetracked in that street fight on the way, and oh,
the street fight was real. It's real. On the way,
they get in a street fight, which seems like they
were the.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I think it's probably pretty safe to say that Matthew
Shepard was not like friends or associates with these people exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
You're right. It's just people wanting to not have to
care as much about other people. So Russell is caught
and taken to the hospital. Aaron escapes and runs off
and goes home tells his girlfriend what happened, but then
he goes to the hospital where the police catch up
with him and they find that evidence in his truck.
So in his official confession to the police, Aaron says
the motive was robbery and that they had tried to
(17:58):
kill Matthew because they believed he could identify them, but
his girlfriend says that the fact that Matthew was gay.
It was a key reason they wanted to hurt him.
And this is like something that's just debated since then
and to this day. And he doesn't admit it on
the official record at the time, but later in two
thousand and nine, Aaron tells a journalist quote the night
I did it, I did have hatred for homosexuals end quote.
(18:21):
So it's from the actual perpetrator who says that. So
what's the debate?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Sorry are people saying? The debate is it just was
that they were trying to rob him and it was not.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Associated with that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, that then they would have just robbed him, right, right.
It's so frustrating when you hear all of that, and
you know where it's just like, sure, if you want
to entertain every possibility in the world so that there
is no actual accountability, then you can introduce ideas like
that all day long.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, you know, you're bullshit. If you're the one introducing
these reasons why you shouldn't have to feel bad for
someone who was murdered, then you need to look at
your own self. It's like it's about you. It's fully
about you.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Look, there's a thing called projection and you need to
look it up at the library.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah. So in the background of all of this, let's
talk about this, there is already a lot of big
conversations going on in the country about the visibility of
gay people. I think that the nineties is kind of
when it started to be accepted in mainstream culture a
little bit more. There was like a tipping point when
(19:28):
gay people and gay stories are being fully integrated into
mainstream culture and into the media. In nineteen ninety four,
Wilson Cruz is the first openly gay actor playing an
openly gay character in My So called Life, So that's
nineteen ninety four. Of course, Ellen Degenerous in nineteen ninety
seven comes out both as her character on the huge
(19:48):
sitcom Ellen and in real life on the cover of
Time magazine. So if you're not old enough to remember it,
that's a good indication of what the culture was like.
It was such a big deal that someone was coming
out both in show in person, that it was in
the cover of a magazine and front page news, And
there were plenty of people who were outraged and advertisers
who pulled out from that episode of Ellen because it
(20:11):
was so different.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Now I know, and it's beautiful how different it is now.
But to think about that time is so bizarre. Whereas
like when you started talking about like there was representation
a little bit here and there, it's like, right, you
get like one funny, over the top pay guy who
had to be mocked the whole time. Like the representation
was so skewed and weird and bigoted in a weird way.
(20:38):
Although Wilson Cruz really that was a watershed moment.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah. So I was a teenager at the time, and
like we use the we called people gay as a insult.
That was like, oh yeah, but I feel like people don't.
The F word was used all the time, just casually.
And I'm from a really conservative town and the only
like out gay people were like the goths, so it
was already them being like totally ostracized was the only
(21:05):
way you could come out. So yeah, and I had
some cousins and friends who were, but it was not
mainstream at all.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
No, it was no. Everybody had to go find their
niche to go be in and be out of the mainstream,
right because you weren't going to be a quarterback and
you weren't going to be the head cheerleader. So go
find the other people who are outcasts. And I'm talking
about the theater department.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So slurs were regularly and casually used in society and
in the media. The AIDS crisis stigmatized gay people as
it was thought of as a gay quote gay disease.
The quote gay panic defense was a real fucking legal
strategy that was frequently used, and it would allow the
perpetrators to claim temporary insanity or extreme fright upon discovering
(21:52):
a person's sexual orientation, which often resulted in lenient sentences
or acquittals for assaulting or murdering LGBT plus individuals. So
if you say, yes, I violently murdered someone because they
put their hand on my leg and I realized they
were gay and hitting on me and I went crazy,
that was a legitimate defense that worked.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, and now we know that actually that's just admission
that you probably harbor a lot of feelings that you're
conflicted and worried about. So that's actually what was going
on there. I mean, like there has been progress culturally
in terms of just people's understanding, but I think it's
because more and more people have the ability, Like there's
so many more people that are able to have a
(22:34):
voice these days.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
And represent Yeah. Yeah, so obviously we're not saying everything
is great right now and that doesn't need so much
more work. But from where we're coming from in the nineties,
in this era, like it was just fucking disgusting.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Also, here are point because women are constantly explaining why
but we're not covering this and we're not but we
do mean this in it. It's just like you know
what we mean.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, well not the people who don't want to the
people that we talk to to go to the library
and look up this. Most people don't want to know.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
No, no, they're not here for this though those people
are always they're just online.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
This is your show. There's so many true crime shows.
It's just int yours.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Go go find Have you been in the comments recently?
Is this what's happening for me?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
No, it has stuck with me. Yes. So that's what's
going on. In the background. With the news of Matthew
Shepherd's horrific injuries comes out. Matthew was transferred to a
more resourced hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. His parents have
to fly back from Saudi Arabia. I mean, imagine them
on that flight home, how fucking terrified they were. The
(23:38):
sheriff O'Malley. He says that Matthew was quote struck in
the head and face between nineteen and twenty one times
with the butt of a very large Smith and Wesson revolver.
The only time I've ever seen those dramatic of injuries
were in high speed traffic crashes, you know, where there
was just extremely violent compression fractures to the skull end quote.
(24:00):
And in fact, his parents only recognized him when they
come into the hospital room at first because they saw
his braces, like he just was unrecognizable. Ultimately, Matthew Shepherd
had been tied to a split rail fence, beaten with
the butt of a gun, and left to die in
the cold of the night until he was found almost
eighteen hours later, and only because that kid fell off
(24:22):
of his bike while his parents are at Matthew's bedside.
The story gets bigger and bigger. It's on the cover
of Time. President Bill Clinton calls them Elton, John Madonna,
Barbara streisand they are all getting involved, and the hospital
is so overwhelmed by calls to check on his condition
that it begins posting updates on its nascent website in
nineteen ninety eight, which wasn't really a thing back then.
(24:45):
So the Shepherds and the nation are devastated when Matthew
succumbs to his injuries on October twelfth, nineteen ninety eight,
and just hoeveryone knows how hateful it all was. At
his funeral service in the family's hometown of Casper, Wyoming
a week later, is picketed by anti gay preacher Reverend
Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, along with his followers,
(25:08):
including children. They held placards with homophobic slurs and shouted
to the mourners that the dead student was burning in hell.
And in fact, this is so horrific. Dennis Shepherd, Matthew's
father was made to wear a bulletproof vest to his
son's funeral, and the church had been checked by bomb
sniffing dogs, and there were swat teams at the front
(25:28):
and back of the building and police snipers on rooftops.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
For the funeral A victim of this horrible attack, The
story immediately sparks national outrage.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Writer Andrew Sullivan says, quote, I think a lot of
gay people when they first heard of that horrifying event,
felt sort of punched in the stomach. I mean it
kind of encapsulated all our fears of being victimized. End quote.
So Aaron and Russell are both charged with first degree murder, kidnapping,
and robbery, and their girlfriends are charged as accessories since
(25:59):
both tried to dis bows of the clothes Russell had
been wearing. Russell pleads guilty and Aaron goes to trial
and is found guilty and each are given two life sentences.
And the story there is a lot bigger. I definitely
think people should go look it up. So in the
wake of Matthew's death, his parents form the Matthew Shepherd Foundation,
which has online and offline resources for creating safe schools
(26:21):
and communities. They also lobby for years for federal hate
crime legislation to be expanded to include crimes based on
sexuality and gender identity. This is a long story, and
there's a documentary called The Matthew Shepherd Story and American
Hate Crime, but essentially, the Matthew Shepherd and James Bird
Junior Hate Crimes Prevention Act finally passes and is signed
(26:44):
by President Barack Obama in October of two thousand and nine.
Eleven years after Matthew's death. And just note James Beard
is a black man who was murdered by white supremacists
in Texas in nineteen ninety eight. Matthew's parents hold on
to his ashes for twenty years because they're so afraid
that if they inter him in a public place, his
(27:06):
grave will be vandalized. They don't want to see that happen, obviously.
And then in twenty eighteen, the Right Reverend Mary An
Buddy invites the Shepherd family to inter Matthew in the
National Cathedral. So on October twenty sixth, twenty eighteen, Matthew
is laid to rest in the National Cathedral's tomb, alongside
the likes of former President Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Holy shit, yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And not even Harvey Milk, you know, another prominent gay
man who was murdered was buried there.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, that was so long before, whereas like.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Tyler, Yeah, twenty eighteen, it took to allow it. During
the ceremony, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, the
Right Reverend Jean Robinson, says, quote gently, rest in this place.
You are safe now, Matthew. Welcome home, so a collection
of personal effects were donated by his family in twenty
(28:01):
eighteen for display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of
American History in the US Capital, which I didn't know
about his school work, Some of his theater scripts and
items from his everyday life as a reminder that he
was a normal American boy, were donated by his family,
as well as condolence cards and correspondents that the Shepherd's
(28:22):
received following his death, which must be so powerful. Judy Shepherd,
his mother, who frequently speaks out against Trump administration policies
that have rolled back or undermined the protection she's fought
for in the wake of her son's death, said about
the Smithsonian donation quote, for twenty years, we have tried
to share the meaning of our son's life, as well
as his dreams for a kinder, more accepting, and loving world.
(28:45):
It is deeply comforting to know the Smithsonian will preserve
his story and meaning for future generations. We cannot think
of a better way to honor Matt's life and legacy.
It ends with this quote. The life and death of
Matthew Shepherd changed a way we talk about and deal
with hate in America. Since his death, Matt's legacy has
challenge and inspired millions of individuals to erase hate in
(29:08):
all its forms. Although Matt's life was short, his story
continues to have great impact on young and old alike.
His legacy lives on in thousands of people who actively
fight to replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance. And
that is the story of the life, death, and legacy
of Matthew Shepherd.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Wow, the worst possible story, I know, but with real
life impact.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I mean when you first were talking about it and
then you said something about his mother, I immediately was like,
Judy Shepherd, his parents have been working for so long
to make change and to make sure that this isn't
something that is I don't know, there's something about it that, like,
as you tell it in retrospect, it feels like there
(29:53):
was a conscious decision culturally by a majority of people.
Of course, never everyone, and certainly there's always going to
be people with serious issues and serious problems of their
own that are going to stand in the way of this.
But it was almost like people going, how can we
be letting things like this happen and be okay with it?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
It was shameful as a country that we allowed this
to happen. It was nineteen ninety eight. We think we're
so you know, past all of that, yeah, I mean,
or like we're yeah, we're evolved, and we're so evolved,
and then this horrific thing happens and everyone is like,
this cannot be swept under the rug. We have to
be held accountable, not just the murderers, but us as
(30:37):
a society who allows us to happen and thinks this
is kind of.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Normal, and then things get turned into like, oh, it's pc,
it's woe right, you're being that. It's like, no, no, no,
these are the moments where the reality punctures through of
how people are really being treated that are not white
men with money, yeah, and so any story of things
happening black people, and suddenly it's like, uh, don't be political,
(31:02):
don't be woke, don't be this and it's like no, no, no,
these are things you need to know about the facts
of people's real lives.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And then there's so many people who are like no,
that actually, things like this happen to us all the.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Time constantly, and you ignore it and don't listen in
these rationales and then it's like something puncturing through that
way because it's like it's Wyoming, it's out in the
middle of nowhere, and it's just like there's so many
people at risk, Yeah, because they live in the wrong place, right,
they're surrounded by the wrong people as opposed to that
they're wrong.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Right. It does seem like lar at me. Wyoming has tried.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Really hard to but can you imagine your name has
become synonymous with like gay murder.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Yeah. Yeah, it seems like they've tried to change their
ways and show that they're not, you know, like that,
and hopefully we get some emails from hometowns of people
from there. Yeah, there are a lot of emails of
people being like, I'm from here, and we just want
you to know that it's not like that anymore. And
we've changed and we accept it.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
And people have tried to memorialize it and really learn
from it. And I don't know, it's so tough. It's
just so big, that's what it is. I think that
discussion is just like you can't put a silver lining
on a thing that continues.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
To just be this fight.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
This is just one marginalized group, This is just one
of the many in this country that this happens too constantly.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, totally. I do think it is this funny thing
of like us older people, like when I see a
gay couple or have you know my friends who are gay,
I'm just so happy for them because we think about
how did it used to be, how it used to be,
and how oh dom.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
And I watch Tricksay and Katia videos and them laughing
my ass off, and they're like doing live shows with
gigantic audiences and stuff, and I'm like, this is the
dream of me and my high school friends in the
in the theater department, all the nerds and weirdos where
it was like but but all these nerds and weirdos
are the funniest and most talented in the best ones,
(32:59):
and like we're the ones that should have a say,
And it's like, hopefully we're clawing toward a world. The
worst things get the more people know and understand how
much they have to fight and fight for each other
in whatever way you are marginalized or you are separate
or different. It's just like, then that's how you have
(33:20):
to bring the fight, yeah for everybody else?
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, should we end it by doing a donation to
the Matthew Shepherd Foundation.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yes we should.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Okay, it's Matthew Shepherd dot org and we're gonna donate
ten thousand.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Dollars and you go donate whatever you can. If you
don't have money, you can volunteer, you can get involved. Well,
great job, and you're right, it's an important story to
tell and a good way to kick off Pride months.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Right, totally. I wore my Pride dress on purpose.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Hey, I didn't notice those little rainbows.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I can't believe it still fit me.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I know that is the most eighties dress of all time.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I know, isn't it so good? Look at my tiny
little heart necklace.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Oh you have so many things.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I have so many things. Well, thank you guys for listening.
Email us your memories about this time, if you need
to get it off your chest, or how it affected you.
I mean, I'm sure we have listeners that it affected
them personally as well. Yes, so email us at gmail
for sure, at gmail at my favorite murder a jail.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Just just call Gmail and tell them you need to
send au semessage. That's right, Yes, write in anything you
think you'd like us to know. Yeah, and stay sexy.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
And don't get murdered. Go Bye, Elvis, Do you want
a cookie?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
This has been an exactly right production.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer
is Tessa Hughes.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Our editor is Aristotle Ascevedo.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
This episode was mixed by Leona Squalocci.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Our researchers are Mayor McGlashan and Ali Elkin.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Dot com and follow the show on Instagram at my
Favorite Murder.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
And now you can watch My Favorite Murder on Netflix.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
When you're there, hit the double thumbs up and the
remind Me buttons. That's the best way you can support
our show. Goodbye,
Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
That's sure, it's a heart start that's getting kill gera.
This is podcasting one oh one. It is real basic.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
This is community college podcasting, brought to you by this
donors in the back of the room. That's right, we'll
see at the Smoking Tree, we were like extra credit at.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
My favorite place, the Smoking Tree. We were like, we'll
take this class. We're going to audit this class, right, sure,
they might try to give us a grade, right, I.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Heard the tea shirt is like really chill, Like the
final is bowling. You go bowling.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The final is you have to tell the same story
twenty five times.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
For ten years. What a gift? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Pick the wrong color foundation again, you're.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Going to say shirt because you're sure, like that'll looks
blackt it?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I bet I look like kind of like a floating
head over this table.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
You do look like a mime? Yeah, there she goes.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Don't make me put my biggy little hands up in
the air.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Folks, you can see those hands on Netflix listeners get
up to date. Yeah, you can also watch us and
be watchers. Put it on the background. So Netflix thinks
we're killing it. I don't even have to look at us.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Put it on the background.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Mute it, mute it for sure. You know we should do.
Let's start pushing for the way I give cookie reggae.
Let's start having people put this on for their pets
when they leave them alone at the house. That's right,
let's game the system. We fucking love animals so much.
If you put this on while you're gone, it'll make
your animals feel better.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Good for your animals, it's good for numbers your children,
want to leave your children at home?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, we're very soothing.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
We only say the F word every once.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
In a while. Basically babysitters at least at the top
of the show. What are you up to? Nothing? But
when this comes out, I'll have watched and known what
happens in the last episode of Euphoria. So I'm really
jealous of my future.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Oh okay, because you're just hanging on by thread and.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I just want to I just want to see what happens.
I'm hooked.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I think I stopped watching you for it, and I'm sorry,
because you know I love Martha Kelly the most. Of course,
I stopped watching after it. There was like some party
that they all went to and things happened at it,
and then the anxiety that I felt during that entire scene.
I was just like, Oh, I don't have to live
through this.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You're not in high school anymore. It's very stressful, it's
very flawed and imperfect, but there's something about it and
I'm totally not there, like demographic as an old lady.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
But but it's Zandaya, right.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, So it's like she's just incredible. I mean everyone,
they're incredible. Yeah, shout out to Murderino fucking mod aptoo.
Oh that's right, she's right up on that thing. I know,
she's so good at it.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Hi, congratulations, you're doing great.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Iris. We love you too. Iris.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
See hey we met you once. That's so funny. I
had actually a true crime update for you.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Oh it's okay, that's what this is. It is what
we're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Sure, but we were talking about Murdoch murders and that
update and basically saying to each other, we wish we
knew what things meant. And what's exciting about that is
because we have this podcast network. We have podcasts on
here with people who do know what things mean. Okay,
most recently Brief Recess, hosted by Michael Foot and Melissa Malabranch,
and they went over all of this on their show,
(03:26):
so I was like, oh, I'll just go get the
information from them and tell you. So the source of
this is Michael Foot, Melissa Malabranch, and the Brief Recess podcast,
which if you haven't listened to, its sood. Michael is
currently an immigration attorney fighting for people being kidnapped by
ice in New York City. You can follow him on TikTok.
(03:47):
He talks about all the different things he and he's
still li likes through all and like so entertaining. So farers,
you're like, oh, lawyers whatever, but no, he's like, he
has a joyous he's an amazing man. And then he
also started explaining things about this case where when I
heard him talk about it, it's that thing of like, oh,
it's so much better when somebody who knows what they're
talking about is breaking the news because they do things
(04:10):
like you know. He immediately said, this does not mean
that Alec Murdoch walks free.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Okay, so what does it mean?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So the South Carolina Supreme Court vacated his double murder conviction.
He's currently serving a sentence of forty years in prison
for embezzling money, many accounts of embezzling money.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
But their appeals were made by.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Murdoch's lawyer, and it found that a county clerk improperly
influenced jurors, and so they basically said he didn't get
a fair trial for those murders.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The jury interference centered on comments that this county clerk
made to the jurors telling them to watch Alec Murdoch's
body language in court.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So kind of a clerk shouldn't be saying anything to
the jurors, right think, So okay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I mean clearly not if what they do can vacate
a guilty verdict, that's insane. Of course, when they were
discussing it, Michael and Melissa talked about how baffling that
behavior was, and that, of course now other legitimate convictions
can be overturned because of it, or because of a
county clerk that's interfering. Right, So apparently there will be
(05:19):
a retrial, the stakes will be higher, prosecution could recommend
the death penalty this time around, and Alec Murdoch is
suing the county clerk in federal court for this influence
personally issuing her. Yeah, I wonder what is her story?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Is this an overactive true crime fan that's like, Hey,
this is what needs to be happening here. Or is
it a person that's just like, Hey, I've watched this
person in this courtroom for my whole career. Here's the
thing he does when he's lying.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Or he is just a nosy neighbor who's like likes
to chit chat.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It kind of doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
It doesn't matter. It doesn't sound curious now.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's like, how could you have
something this important?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I want to see Martha Kelly play her like that's
who I'm picturing Martha Kelly character.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
That's so funny.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
All right, well should we get into it?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
The Highlights?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, we have a high Highlight now. We don't have
a highlight network. This isn't Highlights Magazine. We have a
podcast network called Exactly Right Media.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
We should do a podcast about Highlights Magazine now.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
It would be so cute.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I could read that thing forever.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Nineties magazines podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Hell yeah, I think it started in this fifties or sixties,
didn't it. Okay, goofhis and Gallant is not a nineties creation.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
There's no way this is exactly right in media, that's correct.
We have podcasts on our network, like the one I
was just talking about exactly Here are some more highlights.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, this week it's the three hundredth episode of I
Said No Gifts.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
On this episode, Bridger does everything he can to avoid
fighting with Ellie Kemper. You know her from Jimme Schmidt
the Office. She does arrive with the gift, so a
battle ensues and then they talk about everything from sun
burns to the latest Hona Star's suspicious death.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I missed her in the office. I was so bummed.
I was like there that day, but we didn't cross paths.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So were you on the office.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
In the office, our office?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I was like, how did I tell you Elvis?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I missed her in our I get that, didn't yep,
I hear what you're saying. I was in our exactly
right media offices. Not on the TV show The Office,
Oh my God. And then over on Dear Movies, I
Love You, Milli and Casey kickoff their month long celebration
of Video Nasties, a famous collection of VHS tapes that
were banned from the UK in the nineteen eighties and
(07:43):
they're calling it June nasty. Yeah, as in June and nasty.
That's right. First up is the nineteen sixty three horror
classic Blood Feast. You gotta love a band movie.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yes, it's so good. Also, Millie is such a what
do you call it?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Conness?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, but she's it's more than that. She's an archivist.
She's an expert in movies. So she talks about it
from every perspective, which is like the fan perspective, the
production perspective, the time, the place, the history.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It's so great.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Also this week over on Hollywood Land, Jake covers Lucille
Ball's Red Scare scandal, from the news report that exposed
her former ties to a communist party to the government
surveillance that continued on her long after America had moved
on from McCarthyism.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I love when Desi said the only thing read about
her is her hair and even that's fake. Ha. What
a time macarthyism feels familiar. And lastly, a reminder from
our merch department. Yes that is an el caps. If
you don't have anything nice to say, you can always
wear it with our fuck politeness merch. That's right, Grab
the fuck politeness script unisex T shirt, koozy or whistle
(08:50):
now at exactly right store dot com. The end, the end,
All right, it's a solo week, and I'm going.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You're going to first and only, first and only and alone?
Good luck?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Are you leaving? Good luck?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Layers?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Goodbye? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And then I just put a weird balloon with my
head on it here, like what was my face on it?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
The blacksweater? Okay, one's heavy. So it's Pride month, yes,
And today I'm going to cover a story about a
horrific hate crime that would become one of the most
notorious in American history. And I do think it's surprising
to some people that you and I have only discussed
this in a minisod. It's only been told in a minisod.
And I think part of the reason we haven't covered
(09:34):
it is because, despite it being a hugely important story,
is because you and I were of age and young
women when it happened in the nineties, and it was
so horrific that even twenty more than twenty five years later,
it almost feels too awful to talk about. And it's
such a shameful part of our US history that you
and I just haven't been able to go there.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
There are definitely cases that we have talked about where
the actual violence of the case is so extreme and
just repetitive and whatever that we're just like, we don't
know how to handle this correctly, right, And especially after
years of like hearing back when we don't handle things correctly,
I think more and more we got more and more
careful with and we couldn't not handle something correctly right.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And so I've been really nervous about doing this. Thank
you to ali Elk and my researcher because this also
bet a lock to her as well. So I think
we'll handle it.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It's important to do it. It's important to talk about
it right.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So this story is tragic, but it's also an event
that completely changed the conversation around gay people in America,
particularly young gay people. It led to hate crime legislation
being passed, and it led to communities around the country
realizing they must become safe places for their LGBTQ young
people to live their lives truthfully and without fear. But
(10:51):
even though it's been close to thirty years, this is
still an issue obviously that LGBTQIA plus people face daily,
so it's important for us to cover the story, I think,
and this is the story of Matthew Shepherd. Yeah. The
main sources for the story is a nineteen and nine
article from Vanity Fair by Melanie Thurnstrom, as well as
Matthew Shepherd dot org and a BBC article called Matthew
(11:12):
Shepherd The Murder That Changed America by Jude Sharon, and
the rest of the sources can be found in the
show notes. So it's the evening of October seventh, nineteen
ninety eight, and we are just outside of Laramie, Wyoming.
We're just east of the city. Laramie is home to
the University of Wyoming, and like most college towns, it's
considered to be pretty liberal for what is not a
(11:33):
liberal state. A Mountain biker and University of Washington freshman
named Aaron has just fallen off his bike just riding
on some paths when he notices leaning up against a
wooden fence. What he thinks at first is a scarecrow.
Aaron then realizes, to his horror that he is looking
at a person who has been beaten nearly to death.
(11:54):
He runs to a nearby residence to use the phone
to call police. The victim is male, about five foot
to and really slight, so at first, responding officers think
that it's a young teenager. He is unrecognizable and his
face is covered in blood except for the places where
the tears have made tracks down his face, which is
just a heart benching detail, But he is alive. The
(12:17):
boys rushed to the nearest hospital, where coincidentally, two other
young men from town are being treated from injuries that
they sustained in a street fight the night before, and
so police are aware of that, and these men had
been driving a truck in which police had found blood,
a gun, and a wallet with an ID belonging to
a twenty one year old named Matthew Shepherd. And so
(12:39):
it doesn't take long for the police to realize that
this is the identity of the young man who is
now in the same hospital, very tenuously holding on to life,
and that the boys who were taken in the night
before are part of this. So let me tell you
a little bit about Matthew Shepherd. He's born on December first,
nineteen seventy six, to Judy and Dennis Shepherd in Casper, Wyoming.
He is a friendly child, though he is bullied by
(13:01):
his peers, sometimes for being small and relatively unathletic, and
also because as he gets older, he doesn't go to
great links to hide the fact that he's gay. From
an early age, he's fascinated by politics. His mom's hairdresser
recounts a story about Matthew when he's seven or eight
years old, ahead of a local election, saying, quote, he
came into our shop and told us all how to vote,
(13:22):
and he knew he knew the issues. We all thought
he was going to grow up to be the president.
When Matthew is a teenager, his father, who works for
the oil industry, takes a job in Saudi Arabia. Matthew
goes to the American School in Switzerland. In high school,
he's elected by his peers to be a peer counselor,
and by all accounts, he's easy to talk to and
(13:44):
makes friends easily. When Matthew is a senior on a
school trip in Morocco, he is violently sexually assaulted by
a group of locals. His mother, Judy, says that she
felt that his trauma made him more prone to further trauma,
and people could sense his own ability. After Matthew graduates
high school, he officially comes out to his family, who
(14:04):
are supportive, especially his mother, who's very close to When
he's twenty one, he enrolls at the University of Wyoming
and Laramie, majoring in political science with a minor in languages.
And it seems like he starts to thrive in the
college setting. And he's actually chosen as a student representative
for the Wyoming Environmental Council, and it's his dream to
(14:26):
work as a diplomat for the Department of State. And
so let's look at a picture of him. I mean,
you and I know it's so well, it's just steered
into our memories. But here's the picture of him, his
braces and just like such a sweet looking kiss. So
back to the night of October sixth, the night of
the attack, Matthew had gone to a meeting of the
college's LGBT Association where he helps plan events for the
(14:49):
upcoming Gay Awareness Week, which is set to begin the
following Monday. And after the meeting, Matthew says he plans
to go to a bar called The Fireside, but no
one else seems up for it, so he goes a
and arrives around ten pm, has a few drinks at
the bar, and it seems like he's also hanging out
with two regulars named Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Both
are around Matthew's age, but they are not students at
(15:11):
the university. They're actually locals known to be currently having
issues with meth addiction and are possibly dealing meth. And
they're known to frequently get in fights and get in trouble,
so they're more local troublemakers. The detail that gets debated
is whether or not Matthew had also been a user
of math or possibly involved in the math trade, and
whether he knew Aaron and Russell prior to this evening,
(15:34):
And it's this whole controversial conversation around it, But I
don't think it's important to the story. And also we
don't need him to be a perfect victim or have
this in any way means he deserved something like this
to happen to him, So I don't even want to.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Talk about the Well also there I do think there is,
and this is you see it online all the time,
but it is this kind of need that some people
have to be like I don't have to empathize with
this because and then they find their reason. It's a
very sad kind of human denial of like I can't
handle this or I can't be made to think more
(16:11):
than one way about this.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Topic, right, right, one hundred percent. But the story that
most people, including the police and Matthew's family, believes that
Matthew did not have any significant prior interactions with Aaron
and Russell, and whether or not he had a drug problem,
which is unclear, is pretty immaterial to the rest of
the story. So witnesses at the bar see the three
men leave together around midnight, and at one thirty in
(16:34):
the morning, according to Aaron's girlfriend, Aaron returns home covered
in blood, saying he has done something horrible, that he
may have killed someone. Aaron says that he and Russell
had made plans to pose as being gay so that
they could rob Matthew and that was the whole point,
and they drove him to a remote area. But even
(16:55):
though Matthew gave them his wallet, which by the way,
only had twenty dollars in it, it's just so fucking senseless.
They tied him to the fence, beat him brutally, and
repeatedly with the handgun and took his shoes so he
would not be able to walk and get help. And
so then Aaron and Russell head towards Matthew's home with
it seems like plans to rob it because they had
(17:16):
Matthew's key and had taken it from him, but they
get sidetracked in that street fight on the way, and oh,
the street fight was real. It's real. On the way,
they get in a street fight, which seems like they
were the.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I think it's probably pretty safe to say that Matthew
Shepard was not like friends or associates with these people exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
You're right. It's just people wanting to not have to
care as much about other people. So Russell is caught
and taken to the hospital. Aaron escapes and runs off
and goes home tells his girlfriend what happened, but then
he goes to the hospital where the police catch up
with him and they find that evidence in his truck.
So in his official confession to the police, Aaron says
the motive was robbery and that they had tried to
(17:58):
kill Matthew because they believed he could identify them, but
his girlfriend says that the fact that Matthew was gay.
It was a key reason they wanted to hurt him.
And this is like something that's just debated since then
and to this day. And he doesn't admit it on
the official record at the time, but later in two
thousand and nine, Aaron tells a journalist quote the night
I did it, I did have hatred for homosexuals end quote.
(18:21):
So it's from the actual perpetrator who says that. So
what's the debate?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Sorry are people saying? The debate is it just was
that they were trying to rob him and it was not.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Associated with that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, that then they would have just robbed him, right, right.
It's so frustrating when you hear all of that, and
you know where it's just like, sure, if you want
to entertain every possibility in the world so that there
is no actual accountability, then you can introduce ideas like
that all day long.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, you know, you're bullshit. If you're the one introducing
these reasons why you shouldn't have to feel bad for
someone who was murdered, then you need to look at
your own self. It's like it's about you. It's fully
about you.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Look, there's a thing called projection and you need to
look it up at the library.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah. So in the background of all of this, let's
talk about this, there is already a lot of big
conversations going on in the country about the visibility of
gay people. I think that the nineties is kind of
when it started to be accepted in mainstream culture a
little bit more. There was like a tipping point when
(19:28):
gay people and gay stories are being fully integrated into
mainstream culture and into the media. In nineteen ninety four,
Wilson Cruz is the first openly gay actor playing an
openly gay character in My So called Life, So that's
nineteen ninety four. Of course, Ellen Degenerous in nineteen ninety
seven comes out both as her character on the huge
(19:48):
sitcom Ellen and in real life on the cover of
Time magazine. So if you're not old enough to remember it,
that's a good indication of what the culture was like.
It was such a big deal that someone was coming
out both in show in person, that it was in
the cover of a magazine and front page news, And
there were plenty of people who were outraged and advertisers
who pulled out from that episode of Ellen because it
(20:11):
was so different.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Now I know, and it's beautiful how different it is now.
But to think about that time is so bizarre. Whereas
like when you started talking about like there was representation
a little bit here and there, it's like, right, you
get like one funny, over the top pay guy who
had to be mocked the whole time. Like the representation
was so skewed and weird and bigoted in a weird way.
(20:38):
Although Wilson Cruz really that was a watershed moment.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah. So I was a teenager at the time, and
like we use the we called people gay as a insult.
That was like, oh yeah, but I feel like people don't.
The F word was used all the time, just casually.
And I'm from a really conservative town and the only
like out gay people were like the goths, so it
was already them being like totally ostracized was the only
(21:05):
way you could come out. So yeah, and I had
some cousins and friends who were, but it was not
mainstream at all.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
No, it was no. Everybody had to go find their
niche to go be in and be out of the mainstream,
right because you weren't going to be a quarterback and
you weren't going to be the head cheerleader. So go
find the other people who are outcasts. And I'm talking
about the theater department.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So slurs were regularly and casually used in society and
in the media. The AIDS crisis stigmatized gay people as
it was thought of as a gay quote gay disease.
The quote gay panic defense was a real fucking legal
strategy that was frequently used, and it would allow the
perpetrators to claim temporary insanity or extreme fright upon discovering
(21:52):
a person's sexual orientation, which often resulted in lenient sentences
or acquittals for assaulting or murdering LGBT plus individuals. So
if you say, yes, I violently murdered someone because they
put their hand on my leg and I realized they
were gay and hitting on me and I went crazy,
that was a legitimate defense that worked.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, and now we know that actually that's just admission
that you probably harbor a lot of feelings that you're
conflicted and worried about. So that's actually what was going
on there. I mean, like there has been progress culturally
in terms of just people's understanding, but I think it's
because more and more people have the ability, Like there's
so many more people that are able to have a
(22:34):
voice these days.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
And represent Yeah. Yeah, so obviously we're not saying everything
is great right now and that doesn't need so much
more work. But from where we're coming from in the nineties,
in this era, like it was just fucking disgusting.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Also, here are point because women are constantly explaining why
but we're not covering this and we're not but we
do mean this in it. It's just like you know
what we mean.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, well not the people who don't want to the
people that we talk to to go to the library
and look up this. Most people don't want to know.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
No, no, they're not here for this though those people
are always they're just online.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
This is your show. There's so many true crime shows.
It's just int yours.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Go go find Have you been in the comments recently?
Is this what's happening for me?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
No, it has stuck with me. Yes. So that's what's
going on. In the background. With the news of Matthew
Shepherd's horrific injuries comes out. Matthew was transferred to a
more resourced hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. His parents have
to fly back from Saudi Arabia. I mean, imagine them
on that flight home, how fucking terrified they were. The
(23:38):
sheriff O'Malley. He says that Matthew was quote struck in
the head and face between nineteen and twenty one times
with the butt of a very large Smith and Wesson revolver.
The only time I've ever seen those dramatic of injuries
were in high speed traffic crashes, you know, where there
was just extremely violent compression fractures to the skull end quote.
(24:00):
And in fact, his parents only recognized him when they
come into the hospital room at first because they saw
his braces, like he just was unrecognizable. Ultimately, Matthew Shepherd
had been tied to a split rail fence, beaten with
the butt of a gun, and left to die in
the cold of the night until he was found almost
eighteen hours later, and only because that kid fell off
(24:22):
of his bike while his parents are at Matthew's bedside.
The story gets bigger and bigger. It's on the cover
of Time. President Bill Clinton calls them Elton, John Madonna,
Barbara streisand they are all getting involved, and the hospital
is so overwhelmed by calls to check on his condition
that it begins posting updates on its nascent website in
nineteen ninety eight, which wasn't really a thing back then.
(24:45):
So the Shepherds and the nation are devastated when Matthew
succumbs to his injuries on October twelfth, nineteen ninety eight,
and just hoeveryone knows how hateful it all was. At
his funeral service in the family's hometown of Casper, Wyoming
a week later, is picketed by anti gay preacher Reverend
Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, along with his followers,
(25:08):
including children. They held placards with homophobic slurs and shouted
to the mourners that the dead student was burning in hell.
And in fact, this is so horrific. Dennis Shepherd, Matthew's
father was made to wear a bulletproof vest to his
son's funeral, and the church had been checked by bomb
sniffing dogs, and there were swat teams at the front
(25:28):
and back of the building and police snipers on rooftops.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
For the funeral A victim of this horrible attack, The
story immediately sparks national outrage.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Writer Andrew Sullivan says, quote, I think a lot of
gay people when they first heard of that horrifying event,
felt sort of punched in the stomach. I mean it
kind of encapsulated all our fears of being victimized. End quote.
So Aaron and Russell are both charged with first degree murder, kidnapping,
and robbery, and their girlfriends are charged as accessories since
(25:59):
both tried to dis bows of the clothes Russell had
been wearing. Russell pleads guilty and Aaron goes to trial
and is found guilty and each are given two life sentences.
And the story there is a lot bigger. I definitely
think people should go look it up. So in the
wake of Matthew's death, his parents form the Matthew Shepherd Foundation,
which has online and offline resources for creating safe schools
(26:21):
and communities. They also lobby for years for federal hate
crime legislation to be expanded to include crimes based on
sexuality and gender identity. This is a long story, and
there's a documentary called The Matthew Shepherd Story and American
Hate Crime, but essentially, the Matthew Shepherd and James Bird
Junior Hate Crimes Prevention Act finally passes and is signed
(26:44):
by President Barack Obama in October of two thousand and nine.
Eleven years after Matthew's death. And just note James Beard
is a black man who was murdered by white supremacists
in Texas in nineteen ninety eight. Matthew's parents hold on
to his ashes for twenty years because they're so afraid
that if they inter him in a public place, his
(27:06):
grave will be vandalized. They don't want to see that happen, obviously.
And then in twenty eighteen, the Right Reverend Mary An
Buddy invites the Shepherd family to inter Matthew in the
National Cathedral. So on October twenty sixth, twenty eighteen, Matthew
is laid to rest in the National Cathedral's tomb, alongside
the likes of former President Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Holy shit, yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And not even Harvey Milk, you know, another prominent gay
man who was murdered was buried there.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, that was so long before, whereas like.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Tyler, Yeah, twenty eighteen, it took to allow it. During
the ceremony, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, the
Right Reverend Jean Robinson, says, quote gently, rest in this place.
You are safe now, Matthew. Welcome home, so a collection
of personal effects were donated by his family in twenty
(28:01):
eighteen for display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of
American History in the US Capital, which I didn't know
about his school work, Some of his theater scripts and
items from his everyday life as a reminder that he
was a normal American boy, were donated by his family,
as well as condolence cards and correspondents that the Shepherd's
(28:22):
received following his death, which must be so powerful. Judy Shepherd,
his mother, who frequently speaks out against Trump administration policies
that have rolled back or undermined the protection she's fought
for in the wake of her son's death, said about
the Smithsonian donation quote, for twenty years, we have tried
to share the meaning of our son's life, as well
as his dreams for a kinder, more accepting, and loving world.
(28:45):
It is deeply comforting to know the Smithsonian will preserve
his story and meaning for future generations. We cannot think
of a better way to honor Matt's life and legacy.
It ends with this quote. The life and death of
Matthew Shepherd changed a way we talk about and deal
with hate in America. Since his death, Matt's legacy has
challenge and inspired millions of individuals to erase hate in
(29:08):
all its forms. Although Matt's life was short, his story
continues to have great impact on young and old alike.
His legacy lives on in thousands of people who actively
fight to replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance. And
that is the story of the life, death, and legacy
of Matthew Shepherd.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Wow, the worst possible story, I know, but with real
life impact.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I mean when you first were talking about it and
then you said something about his mother, I immediately was like,
Judy Shepherd, his parents have been working for so long
to make change and to make sure that this isn't
something that is I don't know, there's something about it that, like,
as you tell it in retrospect, it feels like there
(29:53):
was a conscious decision culturally by a majority of people.
Of course, never everyone, and certainly there's always going to
be people with serious issues and serious problems of their
own that are going to stand in the way of this.
But it was almost like people going, how can we
be letting things like this happen and be okay with it?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
It was shameful as a country that we allowed this
to happen. It was nineteen ninety eight. We think we're
so you know, past all of that, yeah, I mean,
or like we're yeah, we're evolved, and we're so evolved,
and then this horrific thing happens and everyone is like,
this cannot be swept under the rug. We have to
be held accountable, not just the murderers, but us as
(30:37):
a society who allows us to happen and thinks this
is kind of.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Normal, and then things get turned into like, oh, it's pc,
it's woe right, you're being that. It's like, no, no, no,
these are the moments where the reality punctures through of
how people are really being treated that are not white
men with money, yeah, and so any story of things
happening black people, and suddenly it's like, uh, don't be political,
(31:02):
don't be woke, don't be this and it's like no, no, no,
these are things you need to know about the facts
of people's real lives.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And then there's so many people who are like no,
that actually, things like this happen to us all the.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Time constantly, and you ignore it and don't listen in
these rationales and then it's like something puncturing through that
way because it's like it's Wyoming, it's out in the
middle of nowhere, and it's just like there's so many
people at risk, Yeah, because they live in the wrong place, right,
they're surrounded by the wrong people as opposed to that
they're wrong.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Right. It does seem like lar at me. Wyoming has tried.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Really hard to but can you imagine your name has
become synonymous with like gay murder.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Yeah. Yeah, it seems like they've tried to change their
ways and show that they're not, you know, like that,
and hopefully we get some emails from hometowns of people
from there. Yeah, there are a lot of emails of
people being like, I'm from here, and we just want
you to know that it's not like that anymore. And
we've changed and we accept it.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
And people have tried to memorialize it and really learn
from it. And I don't know, it's so tough. It's
just so big, that's what it is. I think that
discussion is just like you can't put a silver lining
on a thing that continues.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
To just be this fight.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
This is just one marginalized group, This is just one
of the many in this country that this happens too constantly.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, totally. I do think it is this funny thing
of like us older people, like when I see a
gay couple or have you know my friends who are gay,
I'm just so happy for them because we think about
how did it used to be, how it used to be,
and how oh dom.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
And I watch Tricksay and Katia videos and them laughing
my ass off, and they're like doing live shows with
gigantic audiences and stuff, and I'm like, this is the
dream of me and my high school friends in the
in the theater department, all the nerds and weirdos where
it was like but but all these nerds and weirdos
are the funniest and most talented in the best ones,
(32:59):
and like we're the ones that should have a say,
And it's like, hopefully we're clawing toward a world. The
worst things get the more people know and understand how
much they have to fight and fight for each other
in whatever way you are marginalized or you are separate
or different. It's just like, then that's how you have
(33:20):
to bring the fight, yeah for everybody else?
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, should we end it by doing a donation to
the Matthew Shepherd Foundation.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yes we should.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Okay, it's Matthew Shepherd dot org and we're gonna donate
ten thousand.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Dollars and you go donate whatever you can. If you
don't have money, you can volunteer, you can get involved. Well,
great job, and you're right, it's an important story to
tell and a good way to kick off Pride months.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Right, totally. I wore my Pride dress on purpose.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Hey, I didn't notice those little rainbows.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I can't believe it still fit me.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I know that is the most eighties dress of all time.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I know, isn't it so good? Look at my tiny
little heart necklace.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Oh you have so many things.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I have so many things. Well, thank you guys for listening.
Email us your memories about this time, if you need
to get it off your chest, or how it affected you.
I mean, I'm sure we have listeners that it affected
them personally as well. Yes, so email us at gmail
for sure, at gmail at my favorite murder a jail.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Just just call Gmail and tell them you need to
send au semessage. That's right, Yes, write in anything you
think you'd like us to know. Yeah, and stay sexy.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
And don't get murdered. Go Bye, Elvis, Do you want
a cookie?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
This has been an exactly right production.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer
is Tessa Hughes.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Our editor is Aristotle Ascevedo.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
This episode was mixed by Leona Squalocci.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Our researchers are Mayor McGlashan and Ali Elkin.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Dot com and follow the show on Instagram at my
Favorite Murder.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
And now you can watch My Favorite Murder on Netflix.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
When you're there, hit the double thumbs up and the
remind Me buttons. That's the best way you can support
our show. Goodbye,
Hosts And Creators
Georgia Hardstark
Karen Kilgariff
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