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