00:00:04
[MUSIC PLAYING] Matt was our first baby. When he was young, he always
cared about the other kids.
00:00:13
He was very empathetic. You could tell when
somebody was down, he was always there to
make them feel better.
00:00:21
Matt had this incredible
smile that would just light up when you talk to him. And it was like his whole
body was smiling at you.
00:00:32
DENNIS SHEPARD: We
received a phone call from the
hospital in Laramie saying there'd been an incident.
00:00:39
And Matt had severe
head injuries and that his prognosis
was not good. DAVE O'MALLEY: Everybody
knew that a kid was found.
00:00:52
Everybody knew he's beaten. Everybody knew he's
likely not going to live. JIM OSBORN: Matt's been gone
now longer than he was alive.
00:01:03
He was 21 when he died. Matt had never
met his attackers. They were total
strangers to him.
00:01:11
JUDY SHEPARD: I'm never going
to hear from Matt again. I'm never going to get
those late night calls.
00:01:14
I'm never going to
get a text message. Christmas is never the same. Nothing is ever the same.
00:01:43
The last time I spoke
to Matt, he was having trouble with a phone bill. There was an argument.
00:01:51
And then, there was another call
where he apologized for yelling at me and me yelling at him.
00:01:56
Not really clear. But the last thing that we said
to each other was I love you. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02:05
DENNIS SHEPARD: Last thing I
said to him was I love you, son. He said, Dad, I love you too.
00:02:10
And then, we said goodbye. JIM OSBORN: Matt was new to
the university here in Laramie
00:02:26
and was just starting
out as a student. He was studying
political science and wanted to do something
with his life that would
00:02:34
make a difference in the world. So in 1998, I was also
a student at the time. And I became a member of
a student organization
00:02:45
on campus, the Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual Transgender Association, or LGBTA. I met Matt there when a
mutual friend introduced us.
00:02:58
On October 6, 1998, the day
was fairly warm that day. It was a nice, sunny day. We were discussing our plans
for Gay Awareness Week.
00:03:09
So the room hasn't
really changed much. And so we were all sitting
around the tables here.
00:03:14
Matt would have been sitting
at one of these seats. After the meeting, we went
down to a local restaurant,
00:03:21
The Village Inn, to hang
out, and discuss things, to laugh, to joke, and
get something to eat,
00:03:29
and just have a good time,
to have some social time with one another. After we left the Village Inn,
Matt got a ride from a friend.
00:03:38
And I later learned
that she took him and dropped him
off at one of the bars downtown, The Fireside.
00:03:44
[HEART BEATING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Our combined
communication center received a call at, somewhere
around, 6 o'clock PM on October
00:04:00
the 7, 1998. It reported that a
person was in need of serious medical
attention, tied to a fence
00:04:11
East of Laramie. There was a young man riding
his mountain bike in the area. And as he came down one of the
hills, he crashed his bike.
00:04:22
And he started to get back up. And he looked. And he initially
thought that there
00:04:27
was a scarecrow on a fence. It was getting close
to Halloween time. It was October.
00:04:36
And then he realized
that it was a person, and that they were
breathing, and that they
00:04:42
were breathing very hard. The mountain biker
eventually went over to and found the young
man tied to the fence,
00:04:56
obviously, in dire
medical state and in need of emergency services. He ran to a house
in Sherman Hills
00:05:06
Estates, which is
also East of Laramie, and had someone call 911. The Albany County
Sheriff's Office deputy
00:05:18
responded and found,
who they thought was, a young boy tied to a
fence in severe need
00:05:29
of medical attention. The deputy indicated that
breathing was extremely labored, that it was shallow.
00:05:39
They tried to cut the ropes. But the ropes were tied so tight
around the young man's wrists
00:05:48
that couldn't get a knife
in between the ropes and the wrists. The young man's face and
head was absolutely covered
00:05:58
in blood, covered in
blood, except for one spot where a tear had run
down out of the eye.
00:06:06
And there was a clean
streak from that tear. The first officer on the scene
saw a University of Wyoming ID
00:06:18
card laying on the ground
next to the young man tied to the fence. And it was in the name
of Matthew Shepard.
00:06:26
[MUSIC PLAYING] JUDY SHEPARD: When Matt was
a sophomore in high school, my husband took a
job in Saudi Arabia.
00:06:38
Time zones for Matt were kind
of a tricky mathematical thing. So whenever he
would call, it would
00:06:42
be in the middle of the night. DENNIS SHEPARD: We received
a phone call about 5 o'clock
00:06:47
in the morning, Saudi time,
from the hospital in Laramie. JUDY SHEPARD: When
the phone first rang,
00:06:53
I expected it to be Matt. When it wasn't, when I knew on
the other end it wasn't Matt,
00:06:58
it was, oh, no. What has happened to Matt? DENNIS SHEPARD: There'd
been an incident.
00:07:04
And Matt had severe
head injuries and that his prognosis
was not good. And we needed to make plans
to come back to the States.
00:07:17
JUDY SHEPARD: He was
unsure how it had happened. He knew no details. I asked him if Matt had
been severely injured,
00:07:24
if he was going to make it. And he said you just
need to come home. DENNIS SHEPARD: We
assumed, at that time,
00:07:29
there was some kind
of a vehicle accident. We didn't know anything else. JUDY SHEPARD: We just wanted
to be able to see him.
00:07:38
Our hope, of course, was that
he was going to recover, fully. Then, it was like, can he just
hold on until we get there?
00:07:44
Or are we going to
find that he's already passed before we get there? All of those things went through
your mind, all those things.
00:07:52
DENNIS SHEPARD: All we could
do was just hope and pray that Matt was
surviving and improving
00:08:01
and that when we got there he
would be smiling, and laughing, and talking to us.
00:08:14
JUDY SHEPARD: In the phone call
from the hospital in Laramie, Matt had been severely
injured is what they told us.
00:08:21
The injuries were so severe that
they were unable to treat him in Laramie, that they were
going to transport him
00:08:28
to the hospital in Fort Collins. They did not specify his
injuries because they didn't
00:08:32
know how they'd happened. Nobody knew. But they did tell us they were
going to move him because they
00:08:37
couldn't treat the injuries. They couldn't tell
us anything more. So we flew-- oh, was
33, 36 hour trip.
00:08:47
We knew nothing more than
until we got to Fort Collins. When we got to Denver, we
were escorted off the plane,
00:08:58
down the stairway. Not going through the
airport because the press was waiting for us even though
they had no idea what we look
00:09:07
like. So that they were there. DENNIS SHEPARD: Matt's story
was all over the internet,
00:09:14
newspaper, radio, TV. And I said, why? It's a vehicle accident. And Judy's sister said, no,
it was not a vehicle accident.
00:09:26
JUDY SHEPARD: The
hospital staff escorted us through the staff door so
we wouldn't be greeted--
00:09:31
we wouldn't have to
worry about the press that was in the main lobby. And they took us
up to Matt's room.
00:09:41
When we first walked in, it
could have been any person. It was a young man, small, head
completely swathed in bandages.
00:09:52
His fingers were already
curled in a coma, stitches all over his face,
tubes everywhere, around him.
00:10:04
I think he was unconscious,
machines helping him breathe. We could see his-- the bandages were
around his head.
00:10:13
We see his face,
and the stitches, and the bruises,
and the swelling, which had already
subsided quite a bit
00:10:19
because he'd been there a while. But they told us he had
never regained consciousness.
00:10:26
And after we spent some
time with him in the room, just us, then they told us
the extent of his injuries.
00:10:38
DENNIS SHEPARD: To see somebody
who is so active, and so lively, and laying
in a bed like that,
00:10:48
unresponsive, I
can't tell you how heartbreaking and devastating
it was and still is to this day.
00:11:04
DAVE O'MALLEY: There was
no change in his condition. He remained unconscious. Oftentimes, when people
are unconscious or in comas
00:11:12
and things, you can pinch. And you'll get a reaction to
pain, even though a person
00:11:17
might be unconscious. And there was none of that. It was just strange
that Matt could
00:11:22
hold on long enough for them
to get back from Saudi Arabia and get there to see.
00:11:29
JUDY SHEPARD: When
we got closer, there were markings
on his face that you knew definitely were Matt's.
00:11:35
Little scars on his
face from chickenpox, and he had a funny little
thing under one of his ears.
00:11:41
I could see it
definitely was Matt. He had suffered 18 blows to
the head, four skull fractures.
00:11:57
One of the fractures had
crushed his brain stem. So his chances for
recovery were very slim.
00:12:04
And if he did recover, the
chances he would be the Matt we knew were highly unlikely.
00:12:16
[MUSIC PLAYING] Matt was our first baby,
born in December of '76. He was four weeks premature.
00:12:29
It was real hard. I was in labor 36 hours before
they decided to do a c-section.
00:12:37
DENNIS SHEPARD:
I was out of town driving up to North
Dakota in a blizzard. And I happened to stop in the
Northwest corner of Wyoming.
00:12:49
And I was having breakfast
and received a call. Get your butt home. Your wife is in the
hospital in labor.
00:13:00
So I pull up to leave. And wouldn't you know it, a
car comes around the corner and hits me.
00:13:08
So I call the police. I said, I have to get to Casper. My wife's having a baby. Here comes a police car.
00:13:17
Here comes an
ambulance because they thought my wife was with me
and having a baby in the car.
00:13:23
But we got that
straightened out. And I was here
when Matt was born. And it was a thrill.
00:13:33
JUDY SHEPARD: When he was
young, as a preschooler and elementary grade, always
cared about the other kids,
00:13:40
worried about them
if they felt bad, worried about them if they were
being bullied, extraordinarily
00:13:47
kind and polite. DENNIS SHEPARD: He
was always trying to make it better
around the neighborhood,
00:13:54
in the school, wherever he was. Growing up, he was a handful. He liked to argue.
00:14:04
And he was good at it. He liked politics. After we moved to Saudi Arabia
and he saw how other people
00:14:14
were being treated
from other countries, he was really indignant. Because he'd always
been raised--
00:14:20
we raised him that
everybody is your equal. JUDY SHEPARD: My first
thoughts of Matt being gay
00:14:26
were when he was quite
young, still in grade school, elementary school. There was no particular reason
why I thought that other
00:14:34
than he was just different. But the one thing, my friends
tease me when I say this,
00:14:39
I don't think this
was a trigger for me. But his favorite Halloween
costume was Dolly Parton
00:14:44
for three years in a row. And he got quite good
at it by the third year. His teachers loved it.
00:14:49
The other kids loved it. Matt had this incredible
smile that would just light up when you talk to him.
00:15:00
And you just knew that he was
listening and paying attention to what you had to say.
00:15:14
DAVE O'MALLEY: I recall
a morning very well. I normally get into
work around 7:00,
00:15:19
some time around that time. And this particular
morning, I remember one of the midnight patrol
sergeants bringing in a Smith
00:15:27
and Wesson 0.357 magnum. It was a big gun. It had an 8-inch barrel on it. And it was literally
covered in blood.
00:15:39
And we had information
that that gun had been used to strike a person
in the head the night before.
00:15:52
BRYANNA FOX: On October
7, 1998 around 12:45 AM, the Laramie Police were
notified of a disturbance
00:15:58
in a residential neighborhood. When they responded
to this call, they saw there were two
men standing near a truck.
00:16:04
And when they tried
to approach them, the men ran in
different directions. At that point, an officer
was able to catch up
00:16:11
with one of the men. DAVE O'MALLEY: After
he apprehended him, he identified the person
that he chased and caught
00:16:18
as Russell Henderson. And he transported him to
Ivanson Memorial Hospital because he had a cut
on his lip, transferred
00:16:26
him there for treatment. He issued him a
citation at that time for interference with
the police officer
00:16:32
and left him at the hospital. Then, the obvious
investigative procedure is to look at the truck.
00:16:41
They didn't go into the truck. They secured it. BRYANNA FOX: Russell
Henderson mentioned
00:16:45
to police that the
person he was with was his friend, Aaron
McKinney, and that the truck
00:16:51
that they were using
belonged to Aaron's father. DAVE O'MALLEY: And the
rest of the officers
00:16:57
had then come into
the scene and start looking through the windows
of the pickup truck.
00:17:02
And there was a coat in
the back of the truck. And they could see
bloodstains and transfer.
00:17:08
And they could see a pair
of really nice black shoes laying inside the truck. And looking through
the windows, they
00:17:18
were able to see a card on
the dashboard of the truck from Hilltop National
Bank in Casper, Wyoming
00:17:27
in the name of Matthew Shepard. And at that point,
we had no indication of who Matthew Shepard was.
00:17:37
We ended up searching the truck
by use of a search warrant and eventually found
the 0.357 magnum
00:17:45
in the bed of the pickup truck. The officers were finishing
up their investigation,
00:17:51
as far as getting a report work
and things like that completed. At that point in time, what
our agency knew had occurred
00:17:59
was the fight and the
assault. The officers were concentrating their
efforts around evidence that
00:18:05
was associated with
the truck, also trying to find the
other subject that had run away from the truck.
00:18:13
But it was obvious,
to me, that something had occurred beyond the fight. Because that information,
again, was that someone had been
00:18:21
struck in the head one time. And it was obvious by looking
at the condition of the firearm
00:18:27
and the blood that
contained on it, there were hairs
actually sticking out of the wooden butt of the gun.
00:18:35
That takes a lot of force. And the hairs could
have been there from one blow to somebody.
00:18:40
But that amount of blood was
not indicative of that at all. I mean, something
else had happened.
00:18:47
What? At that point, we didn't know. It wasn't until later that
night that I got a call at home.
00:18:59
And this was after
they'd discovered someone tied to a
fence barely alive on the East end of Laramie.
00:19:12
BRYANNA FOX: When police
discovered Matthew Shepard, they knew that he was the
victim of a serious crime.
00:19:18
They'd also come to find
out that his credit card was in the truck that was
being used by Aaron
00:19:24
McKinney and Russell Henderson. DAVE O'MALLEY: It was
an immediate association between everybody.
00:19:30
That's when everything just
started to flood together. All of the information
started to make sense.
00:19:37
The gun, with the amount
of blood that was on it, made sense. BRYANNA FOX: At this
point, it became very clear
00:19:42
that Russell Henderson and
Aaron McKinney had some contact or may have been
involved with what
00:19:48
happened to Matthew Shepard
the day he was assaulted. DAVE O'MALLEY: It was important
to gather as much information
00:19:56
as possible from anyone
that was intimately involved in the assault
on Matthew Shepard.
00:20:02
And the investigative
team attempted to conduct an
information-gathering interview
00:20:10
with Russell Henderson. And as I recall,
Russell Henderson invoked his right
to remain silent,
00:20:17
and refused to speak
with our investigators, and requested that an
attorney be appointed for him.
00:20:29
BRYANNA FOX: In the early hours
of the morning on October 8, police were able to establish
that the black shoes
00:20:34
found in the truck actually
belonged to Matthew Shepard. And this is incredibly
damning evidence
00:20:41
because Matthew
Shepard was found without shoes on that night
when police discovered him.
00:20:46
So there's a great reason to
believe that, now, there's evidence linking
McKinney and Henderson,
00:20:53
through that forensic
evidence, to the assault of Matthew Shepard. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:21:02
JIM OSBORN: Matt was
happy here in Laramie. He had a group of friends
he was connecting to,
00:21:07
both in and outside
of our social group, and the student organization. I think classes were going well.
00:21:14
He liked his instructors. And they liked him. As far as I know, he
was very happy here.
00:21:19
There wasn't really a reason
for Matt or anybody else to not feel safe, specifically.
00:21:24
But we always knew that
there was a possibility for violence at that time. It was always something
that we lived with
00:21:30
and we knew had to be careful. [MUSIC PLAYING] On Thursday, October
8, 1998, I got an email
00:21:50
when I was at work telling
me that Matt had been hurt, that he'd been attacked,
and was in the hospital.
00:21:55
I learned in that email that
his injuries were pretty severe. I then called the friend
who sent me the email.
00:22:04
And her husband told
me that they weren't supposed to discuss the case. But I knew where Matt had
been and that I needed
00:22:11
to speak with law
enforcement so that they had that information too. BRYANNA FOX: As police are
trying to unravel what occurred
00:22:21
to Matthew, they
start investigating his whereabouts the night before
he was found on October 6.
00:22:28
They learned that
he was initially at a LGBTQ meeting on campus
at the University of Wyoming.
00:22:35
Afterwards, he hoped that
he would get his friends to come with him out to a bar.
00:22:39
They had to go home. But he went by himself. And the barman states
that Matthew Shepard
00:22:45
ended up not being alone. And there are two men
that actually fits the profiles of
McKinney and Henderson
00:22:52
that were there with him. JIM OSBORN: When I was
able to call Dave O'Malley and talk to him on the
phone, I asked how Matt was.
00:23:03
He let me know that Matt's
injuries were very severe and that he was not
likely to wake up.
00:23:10
DAVE O'MALLEY: We had
arrested and incarcerated Russell Henderson. Aaron McKinney had not been
arrested at that point.
00:23:17
KERRY DAYNES: The police
weren't able to speak to McKinney immediately because,
actually, he was in hospital.
00:23:22
And that's because,
of course, he'd been out fighting that night. And he'd received
injuries himself.
00:23:28
And he was being
treated for them. [MUSIC PLAYING] DAVE O'MALLEY: It was sometime
during the morning of October
00:23:34
the 8, 1998. Police department
investigators interviewed the girlfriends of Russell
Henderson and Aaron McKinney.
00:23:47
Kristen was Aaron
McKinney's girlfriend. And one of the investigators
was interviewing her
00:23:55
in an interview room. And he had come out
and said that she was standing by an alibi.
00:24:02
BRYANNA FOX: The girlfriends of
Henderson and McKinney provide, what seems like, a shaky alibi
that their boyfriends were
00:24:09
with them that night and
that they never left. While police receive this
alibi, they don't buy it.
00:24:14
They think that
these girlfriends may lie on their behalf to make
sure that they're not arrested
00:24:19
for these very serious crimes. DAVE O'MALLEY: The
two girlfriends were arrested the same day.
00:24:26
I remember going in
and talking to Kristen and just basically let her
know that she was an accessory
00:24:33
after the fact of aggravated
assault, and attempted murder, and, potentially, murder
if Matthew Shepard died.
00:24:41
KERRY DAYNES: After a while
and more concerted questioning, she begins to crack.
00:24:45
And she decides
to tell the truth. And the truth is that McKinney
had come home that evening.
00:24:52
And he was covered in blood. And he actually said to her,
I think I've killed somebody.
00:24:59
DAVE O'MALLEY: Kristen
had told the investigator during the interview that
Russell Henderson's tennis
00:25:05
shoes had been hidden
in a storage unit next to a trailer in a
local mobile home park.
00:25:11
And the shoes were
in the storage unit just exactly like
she had indicated. They did contain blood, very
apparent blood stains on them.
00:25:23
And those blood
stains, again, were tied back to Matthew Shepard. KERRY DAYNES: Bearing in mind
that Kristen had obviously
00:25:30
lied to the police,
at some point, the police have got
to prove that this is actually reliable evidence.
00:25:37
And she provides
them with a key fact. And that key fact is that
if they look in her home,
00:25:43
they will find Matt's wallet. And it's hidden in a used
diaper in a Walmart bag.
00:25:50
DAVE O'MALLEY: It was amazing
when we did the search warrant on McKinney's apartment.
00:25:54
There were two or three Walmart
bags with garbage in them on the floor in the kitchen.
00:25:58
And the one in front is
the one where the diaper was that the wallet was in. And the wallet was in there.
00:26:04
And it opens up
dramatically almost. It kind of took our breath away. And then, when the wallet
unfolds and there's
00:26:11
two IDs for Matthew Shepard
facing up just looking at you, and you're going-- it gives me goose bumps today.
00:26:20
And it did back then. We searched the trailer
that Russell Henderson and his girlfriend lived in.
00:26:31
McKinney's truck was searched. The vehicle itself
was a crime scene. There was blood spatter on
the interior of the vehicle.
00:26:40
There was blood spatter on
the exterior of the vehicle. There was blood transference
on the silver coat
00:26:48
in the back of the truck. The Smith and
Wesson 0.357 magnum was preserved as evidence.
00:26:56
And subsequently, the Federal
Bureau of Investigations crime laboratory did
an analysis of it.
00:27:05
They determined that there was
DNA contained on that gun that was identified as that
of Matthew Shepard
00:27:15
and of Russell Henderson. And there was a
patent fingerprint and blood on the gun that was
identified as Aaron McKinney's.
00:27:25
The hair that was sticking
out of the butt of the gun was consistent with the
hairs of Matthew Shepard.
00:27:33
Russell Henderson was charged
with attempted first degree murder. And the girlfriends
were charged with being
00:27:41
accessories after the fact. JIM OSBORN: There was a
tsunami of news reporters that appeared in town.
00:27:54
We had camera trucks
parked on peoples' lawns. You couldn't walk across campus
without somebody with a camera,
00:28:04
shoving their camera or
microphone in your face, and asking how you were feeling.
00:28:11
One of the things
that I struggled with was making sure that I talked
about Matt in the first person
00:28:18
and in the present tense. Because in my brain, he
was gone already to me. Because I knew that he
wasn't expected to wake up.
00:28:32
BRYANNA FOX: On
October 8, McKinney was arrested by police. And later on the
9th, he initially
00:28:39
began his confession
for his involvement in the assault of
Matthew Shepard. DAVE O'MALLEY: I can tell
you that the investigators
00:28:47
were excited to speak
with Aaron McKinney. That was one of the missing
links or keys at that point.
00:28:53
Everybody else had been
talked to except for Aaron. BRYANNA FOX: McKinney
finally confesses
00:28:58
to his involvement in the
assault of Matthew Shepard. However, all the
details that he gives
00:29:04
are clearly distorted or untrue. [MUSIC PLAYING] DAVE O'MALLEY: He had
indicated that they
00:29:13
had gone into the bathroom. They had hatched a
plan in order to act as if they were
gay to get Matthew
00:29:20
isolated so they could rob him. DENNIS SHEPARD: Matt
was sitting there having a drink when two young men
came up, pretended to be
00:29:26
gay, befriended him. Said we're going to a party. Would you like to go along? He said sure.
00:29:37
BRYANNA FOX: And
then Matthew Shepard had made a move on
them indicating that he
00:29:41
some romantic interest in them. And therefore, they decided
to assault him, almost
00:29:47
in the self-defense capacity. Of course, none
of this was true. DAVE O'MALLEY: It
was an excuse, almost
00:29:54
to the point of
trying to justify, in his mind, why
he did what he did. I also truly believe
that he was setting up
00:30:07
what's known as a gay
panic defense early on and victim-blame somebody
else for what happened.
00:30:16
DENNIS SHEPARD: He got
into their pickup truck. They took off. And as they were driving out
of town, one of the young men
00:30:23
said we're not going to a party. You're jacked. Give us all your money. And he hit him.
00:30:31
And at that time, Matt
gave him his wallet, which had $20 in it. KERRY DAYNES: They drove
Matt to a remote location,
00:30:39
very, very rural. And they stopped in
front of a book fence. Matt was taken out of the truck.
00:30:47
And he was beaten
over and over again. He continued to
be pistol whipped. DENNIS SHEPARD: They
hit him some more.
00:31:01
They tied his hands behind
him, tied him to the fence. And then proceeded
to use the butt
00:31:09
end of a 0.357 Smith and Wesson
revolver, and they beat him. DAVE O'MALLEY: You
see the overkill.
00:31:20
It was focused on his
face and his head. That's a blatant attack
on the soul of that kid.
00:31:31
Aaron McKinney
interview indicated that he was responsible one
for beating Matthew Shepard,
00:31:41
that Henderson had helped
tie him up to the fence. JIM OSBORN: To think about what
Matt must have been thinking,
00:31:52
what must have been
going through his mind, it's hard not to fixate on that
and to dwell on that, when you
00:32:01
hear about that kind of
violence and about someone begging to just to live. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:32:19
DENNIS SHEPARD: It's the
most brutal thing I have ever heard of for no reason. Absolutely no reason,
he gave them his money.
00:32:28
BRYANNA FOX: He was so
trusting and genuine while he was in that bar. They, on the other hand, had
every intention to attack him
00:32:37
and, seemingly, to kill him. He'd done nothing
wrong to them at all. And they acted out
against him in such
00:32:43
a brutal and horrific way. JUDY SHEPARD: Matt's
condition got steadily worse. And on October 12,
his fever became very
00:33:00
unsteady and blood pressure. And we knew the end
was approaching. And we wanted to make
it easier for him.
00:33:11
So they took out the ventilator. And we were around his
bed, friends and family.
00:33:18
And he just passed. We all had something
to say to him before. And then, it was just over.
00:33:35
JIM OSBORN: I remember
getting the phone call the morning of October
12 when Matt passed away.
00:33:43
My phone rang at 5
o'clock in the morning. The tears started streaming down
my face just like they are now.
00:33:56
And I remember thinking,
how am I going to call everybody and tell them this? JUDY SHEPARD: You don't want
your children to suffer at all.
00:34:12
But our hopes, at the same
time, were dashed that we wouldn't have him anymore. So this is very mixed emotions.
00:34:22
But now, he was at peace. DENNIS SHEPARD: We
had Matt cremated. And Matt, our son, is
in this little box.
00:34:36
That's our son. For 21 years, he's laughing,
and smiling, and doing things, eating with us, and hugging us,
telling us he loves u-- now,
00:34:47
he's in a box. That's it. [MUSIC PLAYING] JIM OSBORN: The University
allows people to dedicate
00:35:10
benches on campus to
those who have been students or employees
here, as well as those who have passed away.
00:35:17
So this bench was
dedicated in Matt's honor. I walk by the bench
often on campus on my way
00:35:23
to and from meetings. It makes me think
of Matt's smile and helps me remember him.
00:35:33
[MUSIC PLAYING] DAVE O'MALLEY: When Henderson
and McKinney were incarcerated at the Albany County
Detention Center,
00:35:41
the deputies that work
in detention intercepted a letter that Aaron McKinney had
written to Russell Henderson.
00:35:49
What it does is it provides
Aaron McKinney's own words in writing that
he was the person
00:35:55
responsible for the beating that
was given to Matthew Shepard. Russ, Hey, homeboy.
00:36:04
What's popping over there? When we go to court, if they
try us together or separate,
00:36:09
I want you to blame
everything on me. You did what I said
because you were scared.
00:36:13
I made you, at gunpoint,
drive me to the fence. Then, I tied him up. After that, he mouthed off.
00:36:19
So I hit him a few more times. And this fag ass died. BRYANNA FOX: It's
very common for one
00:36:27
to be the instigator, the
ringleader, and another one to be the one that goes
along with it, perhaps
00:36:32
out of peer pressure or because
they just don't want to say, no. And in this case, it seems that
that was exactly what happened.
00:36:40
DAVE O'MALLEY: Russ, I
don't think you could begin to understand how sorry I am.
00:36:44
You are the best
friend I've ever had and the only one who never
turned on me or ratted me out.
00:36:49
That means a lot to me. If you hate me for
this, I understand. But if there's anything I
can say or do, let me know.
00:36:57
I'll do anything for you, bro. Later, homie. Aaron [MUSIC PLAYING] We were getting ready to
start trial on Henderson when
00:37:16
the prosecutor's office
and attorneys that represented Russell Henderson
came to an agreement
00:37:26
to forego the trial. And he'd change his plea
to guilty as charged. So on Henderson's side,
the death penalty portion
00:37:34
was vacated. And he pled guilty
to the charges as filed with an agreement
to a life sentence
00:37:44
with no possibility of parole. DENNIS SHEPARD: I
was always worried that the two killers might
go free on a technicality.
00:37:56
But when Henderson
pled guilty, I knew that there
was little chance that they would go free because
Henderson was the stooge.
00:38:07
McKinney was one who used
the gun and beat Matt. So if Henderson got two
consecutive without parole,
00:38:16
there's guaranteed that McKinney
would get that or worse. JUDY SHEPARD: We
both read victim
00:38:27
impact statements at the trial. DENNIS SHEPARD: When
I gave my statement, I looked at the judge and
the jury the whole time.
00:38:38
I never looked at McKinney. I didn't care to
look at McKinney. I still don't care
to look at McKinney.
00:38:49
JUDY SHEPARD: He looked evil. I don't know how else to say it. I actually came pretty
close to him in person.
00:38:56
And his eyes were just empty. But he was, definitely,
a far worse, scarier character than Mr. Henderson.
00:39:08
DAVE O'MALLEY: Aaron
McKinney went to trial. Aaron McKinney was convicted. Would spend a year preparing
to go to war in a death penalty
00:39:16
case, presenting the evidence,
getting the evidence together. And so we were ready to
start the next morning.
00:39:23
And Dennis and Judy had
information that they'd spoken with McKinney's attorneys.
00:39:29
And the next morning, I
remember, specifically, standing in the hallway and
Judy making the statement
00:39:36
that the hate stops here. Let's move on. And what ended up
occurring was Aaron McKinney took exactly
the same agreement
00:39:49
that Russell Henderson did. DENNIS SHEPARD: We decided
to accept the prison terms
00:40:00
for McKinney instead
of the death penalty because my wife is a lot
smarter than her husband.
00:40:07
My desire then and my
desire now is to fry him. I wanted it to be over. I didn't want to
ever see him in court
00:40:21
again or, on some outside
chance, some technicality, we'd have to do another trial.
00:40:26
Or he would even get off. I just wanted the
whole thing to be over. I wanted him gone.
00:40:31
I didn't want our
younger son to ever have to think about seeing him
in court again or going
00:40:35
through this
nightmare ever again. I just wanted it done. [MUSIC PLAYING] Matt's goal was to change
the world, have an impact.
00:40:46
I'm sure he didn't think he was
going to do it by his death. When Matt was
murdered in '98, there
00:40:53
were existing federal hate
crime laws and some in states. Not all the state laws
covered the gay community.
00:41:01
And none of the federal laws
covered the gay community. So the next logical step was to
include it in new federal hate
00:41:07
crime legislation. When President
Obama was elected, we knew that this was
a man who understood
00:41:14
everything about social
justice and injustice. So we felt we had a chance. And indeed, we did.
00:41:20
In 2009, President
Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard
and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act.
00:41:31
JIM OSBORN: One of the things
that we all understood, all too clearly, was that
if this could happen here
00:41:39
in our community and
to someone like Matt, this could happen anywhere
and could happen to anyone.
00:41:45
I think that that's
one of the reasons that Matt's story resonated
with so many people.
00:41:50
Because people looked
at Matt's picture and heard about Matt's story. And they pictured
their own son or nephew
00:41:59
and thought what if
that happened to the kid that I know and love? BRYANNA FOX: This is the
watershed in the United States
00:42:11
where we realize that there
is no acceptable reason for violence or hatred
against anybody.
00:42:17
For me being a young
person in the United States and hearing about this case, it
was the first time I realized
00:42:22
how horrible people could be. And I had no idea the level
that people could be awful.
00:42:28
And that changed
everything for me. We started
receiving money, cards and letters with money in it,
from people all over the world.
00:42:41
And we thought that money
should be used for something that benefits everybody. So we talked about
it and decided
00:42:49
to start the Matthew Shepard
Foundation on December 1, which was Matt's birthday.
00:42:57
JUDY SHEPARD: The idea
was raising awareness, to encourage people
to embrace diversity,
00:43:03
to understand the issues
facing the gay community. Compassion, understanding,
and acceptance, those
00:43:12
were our watchwords. Understanding, compassion,
and acceptance. When we started the foundation,
we thought maybe two or three
00:43:18
years, people would move on
to the next horrible thing that happened. But they didn't.
00:43:24
Matt's story still
resonates among even the younger
generation that wasn't even born when Matt was killed.
00:43:29
So Matt's story will be around. And people will learn from it. They will continue
to learn from it.
00:43:38
[MUSIC PLAYING] DENNIS SHEPARD: I'll
never be at ease with what happened to
Matt because it shouldn't
00:43:48
have happened to start with. It's just a waste of somebody
who has such potential to help
00:43:54
make the world a better place. And I will always regret
that I wasn't here and had the chance of possibly
stopping that from happening.
00:44:12
What I hope people remember
most is that Matt was a person. He wasn't just an event
or some piece of history.
00:44:20
He was a living, breathing
individual, someone with brothers,
someone with parents,
00:44:26
with friends, with
classmates, people who knew and cared about him. That's what I hope
people remember,
00:44:33
is the person not the story. [MUSIC PLAYING]