The Matthew Shepard Story: An American Hate Crime

A University of Wyoming student

was out riding his mountain bike

and he falls down,

looks up,

sees what he thinks is a scarecrow

or a prank, just because of Halloween

just around the corner, which, of course,

this was early October,

and goes over to investigate,

and, of course, was horrified by what he found.

I can still see the description of him,

the biker who found him

and thought he was a scarecrow...

of the deer,

that was keeping him company all night,

and when he was found,

the deer got up and ran away.

There's just a...

A feeling of divinity around him.

There's a feeling of an angelic presence.

This is a child who was loved and adored,

and in every way, kind of, the boy next door.

This is a sign of rage, something very personal,

something very terrifying about that.

How cold he had to have been tied to that fence

and not found for 18 hours,

and still be alive.

They then took him to Ivinson Memorial Hospital,

which is the local Laramie hospital

to try and see what they could possibly do.

It was a mystery to the officers,

okay, "Who is this person?

Who is Matthew Shepard?"

"Hey, Mom, I'm writing to say hello.

How is everything?

I've been okay, kinda homesick.

Having trouble with getting into the swing of things,

but it won't last long, I hope.

I've been real depressed and I think it's let-down.

I came back and the weather was crummy,

and I miss home.

Miss you.

Love, Matt."

Matthew Wayne Shepard was born on December 1st, 1976.

And even though he was a little guy,

he had a huge personality.

Matthew was a very emotional kid, very empathetic.

My name is Jim Osborn,

and I was a friend of Matthew Shepard.

The first thing that I noticed about Matt

is his smile.

He just had this incredible beaming smile.

My name is Romaine Patterson,

and I was friends with Matthew Shepard.

Oh, I loved his laugh.

I loved his smile more.

He had a great smile.

It beamed.

He was young.

Looked like a sweet innocent guy.

Just looked like a nice kid.

It wasn't just his mouth.

His eyes would kinda light up

and twinkle or sparkle at you,

and it was like his whole body smiled at you.

Wyoming is like a sleepy little town.

The whole state is one sleep little town.

We're the least populated state in the union.

We're sort of our own little galaxy here.

We are geographically enormous.

We're the 10th largest state in the country,

but we have the smallest population.

In 1998, even though we're watching Will and Grace,

we are the most conservative state in America.

Growing up in the '70s and '80s,

you couldn't be different.

It was a kind of place where,

if you were a stereotypical cowboy,

working on an oil rig, you'd fit in.

But it wasn't like growing up in New York City

or any of the major cities in the country.

Unfortunately, the word "faggot"

was sort of a go-to

whether or not that had anything to do

with your sexuality or not, that was just a word

that was used to describe you as like a loser

or you as a different.

I am from Nebraska,

and I graduated in high school in 1987.

Even though we were...

You know, Matthew and I lived in very different cities

but it seemed like he was a kid that I very easily

would have been friends with, could have friends with.

He seemed like somebody a lot of us knew.

He seemed like your friend in high school

that probably was gay.

There's no denying

that Matthew was gay and he knew that.

Like, if you looked at Matthew,

you saw a gay man.

There was not a...

There was not even an ounce of straight there.

In 1993, as Matthew was finishing

his sophomore year of high school,

his dad got a job with an oil company

in Saudi Arabia.

As Matthew's family began to move to Saudi Arabia,

Matthew settled on an American school in Switzerland.

So, in the second semester of his senior year,

he went with some friends to Morocco.

Morocco at the time, wasn't perhaps

the tourist destination that it is today

and it wasn't known for being particularly safe.

My understanding of what happened in Morocco

was that on one particular evening,

Matthew wanted to go out and see things.

He didn't think, "Oh, I should go out

with a group of people in a place that I'm unfamiliar with."

He just decided, "I'm gonna go out.

I'm gonna leave the hotel.

I'm gonna wander around. I'm gonna look at the shops."

Things like that. That's something he totally would have done.

And while he was out, he was snatched.

In Morocco, a couple of men took Matthew

to a isolated place and raped him.

At that time, the idea that a young gay guy

is raped by a group of adult men,

people couldn't even fathom that kind of stuff.

And so, Matthew came back to the hotel,

you know, immediately told people.

His parents were contacted,

the police were notified

but they never found the attackers.

It was a random attack.

They had no idea who did it.

After the attack, Matthew changed.

He wasn't himself.

I think what happened is he lost his sense

of safety in the world.

Being assaulted is a traumatizing experience.

Trauma has deep, lasting impacts

on someone's development,

their social development, their emotional development,

their spiritual development,

and people who experienced trauma

are at risk of feeling suicidal,

having poor mental health like depression and anxiety.

In 1995, Matthew graduated from high school,

returned to the US,

and he decided to come out to his mom.

I definitely think that Matt felt comfortable

in his skin and was comfortable being out.

By the early '90s,

you have good things happening in the cultural world,

with more representation with gay people.

How many lawyers did you go to before you called me?

Nine.

You're trying to get rid of her because she's gay.

I hadn't really come to terms with my sexuality until like 1984, '95.

And then, yes,

Ellen DeGeneres is a thing.

I'm gay.

In the late '90s, there was a great kind of boom for gay people.

There was more representation on television.

Ellen had come out.

People fell in love with Jack on Will and Grace,

an overtly, outwardly gay character.

A question of sexual orientation?

The doctor is in.

I think middle America was becoming more comfortable,

you know, with the thought that there are gay people

out there and that they are just regular people.

And I think that gave Matthew the sense of security

that he wasn't alone and that he was in fact safe.

Matthew later bounced around

to a few different places.

He eventually wound up back in Casper, Wyoming,

his hometown.

I went to my first year of college

at Casper College in Casper, Wyoming.

I got to know one of the instructors on campus.

She called me one day and she said,

"I got this weird call today from a therapist.

And he's got a client, and he would like to introduce his client

to other young gay people.

Can I send him your way?"

And I said, "Okay. Sure. Why not?"

And it's this awkward young man named Matthew.

He's like, "I'm trying to meet some new people

here in Casper who are gay too,"

and he was super cute, but we took him under our wing

and we were like, "Listen, you're one of us now."

I think depression was a real issue for Matthew.

I think he was a manic depressive

so sometimes he was super, super high

and things were awesome.

"February 23, 1998.

I put the Cherry Creek to shame tonight.

Walked around in my humble cute self.

It was fun.