2008 Woodie Awards
Motive doesn't validate '98 murder
Erin Joyce
Issue date: 12/7/04 Section: Forum
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Previously characterized as a hate crime, Matthew Shepard?s murder is now being viewed under a new light.
In an interview on Nov. 26 with "20/20"?s Elizabeth Vargas, convicted murderers Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson talked about that fateful October night in 1998 when the pair murdered the 21-year-old gay college student. Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in bitter cold temperatures.
For the very first time, McKinney and Henderson revealed what they claim to be their true motive that night, and it wasn?t hatred for gays, according to them.
"All I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him," McKinney told Vargas.
Henderson and McKinney had originally set out that night to rob a drug dealer of $10,000 worth of methamphetamine, a drug that McKinney, at the time, was just coming off a one-week bingefrom. Henderson had tried to get McKinney so drunk that he?d forgettwn about the plan, but Henderson failed to do so. When the plan fell through, McKinney saw another window of opportunity in Shepard, who had asked McKinney for a ride home.
While in McKinney?s pick-up truck, Shepard allegedly reached for McKinney?s leg; McKinney then proceeded to pistol-whip Shepard and demanded money. Even though Shepard handed over his wallet, McKinney continued to beat him.
This behavior, says Dr. Rick Rawson of UCLA, is a clear indication that the motive was robbery, not hatred for gays.
"In the first weeks after you?ve stopped using [methamphetamine], the kinds of triggers that can set off an episode are completely unpredictable," Rawson said.
"If Aaron McKinney had not become involved with methamphetamine, Matthew Shepard would be alive today," said Cal Rerucha, a prosecutor in McKinney?s case.
The main revelation that struck me as detrimental to the legacy that Shepard?s mother is trying to uphold is the fact that Shepard is said by many to have known his killers because he, too, was involved in the drug scene.
In an interview on Nov. 26 with "20/20"?s Elizabeth Vargas, convicted murderers Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson talked about that fateful October night in 1998 when the pair murdered the 21-year-old gay college student. Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in bitter cold temperatures.
For the very first time, McKinney and Henderson revealed what they claim to be their true motive that night, and it wasn?t hatred for gays, according to them.
"All I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him," McKinney told Vargas.
Henderson and McKinney had originally set out that night to rob a drug dealer of $10,000 worth of methamphetamine, a drug that McKinney, at the time, was just coming off a one-week bingefrom. Henderson had tried to get McKinney so drunk that he?d forgettwn about the plan, but Henderson failed to do so. When the plan fell through, McKinney saw another window of opportunity in Shepard, who had asked McKinney for a ride home.
While in McKinney?s pick-up truck, Shepard allegedly reached for McKinney?s leg; McKinney then proceeded to pistol-whip Shepard and demanded money. Even though Shepard handed over his wallet, McKinney continued to beat him.
This behavior, says Dr. Rick Rawson of UCLA, is a clear indication that the motive was robbery, not hatred for gays.
"In the first weeks after you?ve stopped using [methamphetamine], the kinds of triggers that can set off an episode are completely unpredictable," Rawson said.
"If Aaron McKinney had not become involved with methamphetamine, Matthew Shepard would be alive today," said Cal Rerucha, a prosecutor in McKinney?s case.
The main revelation that struck me as detrimental to the legacy that Shepard?s mother is trying to uphold is the fact that Shepard is said by many to have known his killers because he, too, was involved in the drug scene.
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