The Murder of Matthew Shepard

Today marks the 24th anniversary of one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history. Beaten, tortured, and left for dead, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was found tied to a fence in a remote field near Laramie, Wyoming. Irreparable damage to his brain stem left Matthew in a coma, and he never regained consciousness.  Shepard's case sparked a national and international conversation about sexual orientation as a motive for murder, and inspired hate crime legislation at the state and federal level, but somehow Matthew’s story got lost in the headlines. 
 
Writing and research by Aurora Cady.

Original music and audio production by Louis Levesque.
For inquiries: louis14levesque@gmail.com

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LINKS + SOURCES:

Film:
Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine (2014)

Book:
'The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed' by Judy Shepard

https://www.matthewshepard.org/

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1999/13/matthew-shepard-199903

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J041v13n01_02?journalCode=wgls20

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/07/13/honor-thy-son/b193b7c9-2a2e-4fa7-bf5c-2f1e6edc6b12/

http://shorturl.at/cyLPZ

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/who-we-are/lgbtq/history/

https://indexarticles.com/reference/advocate-the/the-lost-brother-murder-of-matthew-shepard-2/

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/murder-matthew-shepard

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/21/us/witnesses-trace-brutal-killing-of-gay-student.html

https://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=277685&page=1

https://worldqueerstory.org/tag/aaron-kreifels/ 

https://web.archive.org/web/20110606223846/http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/1999/11/06/witness/index.html

Headlines:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/moors-murders-keith-bennett-ian-brady-myra-hindley-b2190185.html

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/who-russell-edwards-amateur-detect