What we learned from the The Book of Matt
The Book of Matt–Journalist Stephen Jimenez’s 2013 exposé on the goings-on in and around Matthew Shepard’s murder–problematizes the narrative and calls into question many major plot points presented on news networks and on stages in The Laramie Project for the last 25 years. With careful research that spanned nearly a decade, Jimenez approached the topic with journalistic rigor and a determination to uncover what the media firestorm missed in 1998.
Here’s what we learned from The Book of Matt:
The gay panic defense employed by Matthew Shepard’s murderers is rendered a total falsehood, with confessions and plenty of evidence to back up Jimenez’s claims. Matthew Shepard’s murder was the result of a drug deal gone wrong in a community where meth rules supreme. One of Matt’s murderers, Aaron McKinney, was bisexual. Matthew and Aaron were known for having consensual sex together for months prior to the attack. They were also both pimped by the same older man.
Matthew developed a life-long drug dependency early on, and self-medicated on and off throughout his life. During his final years, he was heavily involved in using and distributing methamphetamine in Laramie.
Aaron McKinney was also a methamphetamine user and dealer. Aaron and Matthew were parts of rival drug trafficking factions, and Aaron knew Matthew was expecting a shipment of goods to Laramie the evening of the beating. Aaron was short on cash, and Matthew seemed like an easy target.
The idea of the “gay hate crime” became the national news story due to an assumption made by two friends of Matthew who were gay. It also was a beneficial angle for the assailants to pursue, hoping that a “gay panic defense” could perhaps lighten their sentences. It also aided a White House embroiled in the Clinton-Lewinksy scandal to embrace the gay rights movement galvanized in the aftermath of Shepard’s death, diverting attention from the President’s impeachment proceedings and providing cover for an legacy tainted by anti-queer legislation like the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
The Book of Matt is not without controversy. The Tectonic Theatre Project has disavowed it and addressed their distaste for Jimenez’s narrative in their follow-up documentary theatre piece about Laramie titled Ten Years Later. Gay rights organizations like GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) have decried Jimenez’s work. Many of the Laramie law enforcement officials involved in the case also stand by the original narrative. The Shepards have not commented publicly on The Book of Matt or any of Stephen Jimenez’s other journalism.
More can be found on this matter in with the author Stephen Jimenez discussing The Book of Matt and its controversy. Below is a selection from the interview:
“I wrote the book so that I could examine the complex set of circumstances, the entanglements that existed behind this crime . . . Could there have been some form of hatred that was in play that night? Absolutely. But the point of the book is to say, what was the web of factors that played out here? In my opinion, and based on all the research and investigation I've done, it's that Aaron McKinney wanted the drugs and the money that he believed that Matthew Shepard was in possession of that night. And Aaron assaulted four males in a 24-hour period. One of them was against a gay male, and the other three were against straight males but somehow, we can isolate this and say this was an anti-gay hate crime.”
Published April 2025