Matthew Shepard Murder Explained: 1998 Hate Crime That Changed U.S. Law

Mathew Shepard was a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten to death by two men in October 1998. The two men targeted him because of his s----- orientation. The incident is widely regarded as one of the most infamous hate crimes in the United States against the LGBTQIA+ community. Matthew Shepard’s murder helped push federal legislation more than a decade after his death.

On October 6, 1998, Mathew Shepard, was lured from a Laramie bar by two men, identified as Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. McKinney and Henderson drove Shepard to a remote area, where they robbed, tortured and brutally beat him. They drove about 1 mile out of town along a dirt path leading to a rocky prairie of sagebrush and ryegrass, where they tied him to a fence and left him to die.

On October 6, 1998, Shepard walked alone into a bar in Laramie. Shepard, who was openly gay, had earlier met friends to plan LGBTQ awareness week on campus. However, he was unable to persuade them to join him at the bar. At the bar, Shepard spoke with McKinney and Henderson, roofing workers who were around the same age. The pair saw him as an easy target.

According to Albany County Sheriff Dave O’Malley, the lead investigator in the case, “McKinney’s own statement said he and Henderson went to the bathroom and planned to act like they were gay to try and gain the confidence of Shepard. So the sexual orientation issue started right at the beginning of the contact,” O’Malley said.

The defendants told police that they planned to lure him into the pickup truck to rob him. Once inside the vehicle, McKinney pulled a gun, beat Shepard and took his wallet, which contained $20.

They drove about a mile out of town down a dirt path. Henderso used a cloth to tie Shepard to a wooden log and McKinney repeatedly struck him in the head with a pistol. Sheriff O’Malley said the victim was hit between 19 and 21 times with the butt of a Smith & Wesson revolver.

“The only time I’ve seen those dramatic injuries was in high-speed traffic crashes, you know, where there was just extremely violent compression fracture to the skull,” O'Malley said.

McKinney and Henderson stole Shepard’s shoes and left him tied to the fence. He remained there for about 18 hours until the next day, when a passerby initially mistook him for a scarecrow before realizing he was alive.

Matthew Shepard’s parents, Judy Shepard and Dennis Shepard, identified him in the hospital. "There were bandages and stitches all over his face," Judy Shepard said. "There were bandages around his head where the final blow had crushed his brain stem. Tubes were everywhere, keeping his body alive. One of his eyes was partially open," she said.

Both McKinney and Henderson were sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Henderson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and McKinney’s attorney tried to pursue the “gay panic defense”, which the judge rejected in court.

The incident had a profound impact on American civil rights and law. It contributed to the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2009.

Shepard’s parents later established the Matthew Shepard Foundation, an organization dedicated to education, advocacy and combating hate crimes.