New Book Claims Matthew Shepard was a Meth Dealer and Addict. WTF?

Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was an American student at the University of Wyoming
who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming in October 1998. He was attacked on the night of
October 6–7, and died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 12 from severe head injuries.

During the trial, it was widely reported that Shepard was targeted because he was gay; a Laramie police officer testified at
a pretrial hearing that the violence against Shepard was due to how the attacker "[felt] about gays", per an interview of the
attacker's girlfriend who said she received that explanation.[1] Shepard's murder brought national and international
attention to hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels.[2]

In 2009, his mother Judy Shepard authored a book The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed.
In October 2009, the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
(commonly the "Matthew Shepard Act" or "Shepard/Byrd Act" for short), and on October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed
the legislation into law...[3]

Source = Wikipedia

This book should be burned. Not banned, but burned. The author (a gay journalist that is pissed off because Matthew's mother refused to help him write a big Hollywood screenplay about her son's torture and murder), has decided to write a third rate conspiracy book about the true Matthew Shepard story.

This new (dubious) book: THE BOOK of MATT (by Stephen Jimenez) claims that Matt Shepard not only used and sold Meth, but also slept with one of his killers (more than once).

This sorry ass book is riddled with he said/she said stories (never naming the actual sources), and the bottom line is the bitter author is now claiming the LGBTQ community used Matthew's murder to further its cause for equal rights, and the legal importance of identifying and prosecuting Hate Crimes.

I call bullshit. Stephen Jimenez is a bitter opportunist (and a vindictive journalist out to make a few bucks at the expense of Matthew and his family).

The fact that he is gay makes his book all the more reprehensible.

Judy Shepard has stated that she knew Matthew had a Meth problem. But he was trying his best to overcome it. That's why he left Denver (and moved to Laramie).

Stephen Jimenez seems to have conveniently overlooked this fact. Also, torture and murder are illegal in this country. As far as morals and ethics are concerned? Something the author clearly lacks big time.

QP

 

well this part is obvious bullshit. there was no universal plot or conspiracy along those lines. the gay community did further its cause maybe somewhat thanks to that murder, but that's just the way things work out when someone is killed and the murder gets a lot of publicity.

so what that he used meth? or slept with whomever. that doesn't undo the fact that those guys murdered him. certain people like to exaggerate truth which is what the author is doing. just to create a sensation and draw attention to himself. not a bad move, since before this book i'm sure no-one had even heard of this guy. he lacked imagination to do it better though. facts already speak against him and now all the attention he gets is in the negative form as a sensationalist and a liar. he's undermining himself himself. moreover, if he has no credible/reliable sources no person with a brain is going to take it seriously. plenty of idiots have done what he's doing. i wouldn't get worked up on this one.

every person who is a public figure gets both, negative and positive interpretations on what they do/did. Shepard is no different in that one. and try as you may you can't eradicate the negative or false interpretations and inventions. you get rid of one person advocating nonsense, another pops up. it goes on forever.

let the facts speak for themselves.

 

Hey, MW -
thanks for the totally insightful response.

I agree with you for the most part. I really do hope that the facts will speak for themselves.

However, quite a few right-wingers are having a field day with this totally trashy book. I'd list all the links (and there are many), but I think this article pretty much sums up how Matt's life and death are being put through the wringer. And after 15 years?

Leave his family in peace. And let Matthew rest in peace. We don't need some starving vulture to remind us of all the pain and suffering of this hate crime. And that's exactly what it was: a hate crime. Sex and drugs only played a role in this in the twisted mind of the author. That's the only way he could get his wretched book published. Period.

All one need do is read this (by Luke Brinker):


Right-Wing Media And The Return Of Matthew Shepard Trutherism

Right-wing media outlets are already celebrating a forthcoming book that claims that brutal 1998 murder of gay Wyoming student Matthew Shepard - which became a rallying cry for LGBT activists - was actually fueled more by drug use than anti-gay bias.

In The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths about the Murder of Matthew Shepard, journalist Stephen Jimenez argues that Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson bludgeoned Shepard in a meth-fueled rage. Jimenez minimizes the role of anti-gay bias in the murder, writing that Shepard and McKinney had previously had sex and done meth together (an assertion that McKinney himself denies).

Although his report of a sexual history between Shepard and McKinney is new, Jimenez's central thesis - that drugs were the motivating factor in Shepard's murder - has been called into question before.

In November 2004, Jimenez co-produced a piece on the Shepard murder for ABC News' 20/20. GLAAD highlighted key shortcomings in 20/20's report, including the lack of hard evidence that drugs were a factor and its failure to point out that McKinney himself had cited ant-gay bias as a central element in the case, even attempting to employ a "gay panic" defense at trial. Shepard's mother also condemned the report, criticizing its selective reading of evidence and accusing ABC of taking her comments out of context.

The 20/20 report neglected to mention another crucial detail: that Jimenez was a friend of Tim Newcomb, Henderson's defense attorney.

Most disturbingly, email correspondence revealed that the Jimenez had already decided that Shepard's murder wasn't an anti-gay hate crime before 20/20 even started its reporting. As Gay City News reported in December 2004:

Roughly two months before reporting began for a "20/20" piece on the Matthew Shepard killing, [Stephen Jimenez,] the freelance producer who sold the story to the ABC program had decided that methamphetamine motivated the murder and not anti-gay bias.

And barely two months into a six-month span of reporting on the piece, a "20/20" producer wrote in an e-mail that the "'hate crime' motivation of Shepard's death" was a "flawed theory."

Sean Maloney, a senior attorney at Willkie, Farr and Gallagher who represents the Matthew Shepard Foundation, said of "20/20"'s apparent prejudgment of the story, "This strikes us as bad journalism. There is a significant body of evidence that says that anti-gay bias played a role in Matt's death."

The November 26 story said that Aaron McKinney who, along with Russell Henderson, murdered Shepard on October 6, 1998 was fueled by meth.

Ten years after he'd already made up his mind, Jimenez is publishing his book.

The Matthew Shepard Foundation has already condemned Jimenez's theory, telling the Huffington Post:


Attempts now to rewrite the story of this hate crime appear to be based on untrustworthy sources, factual errors, rumors and innuendo rather than the actual evidence gathered by law enforcement and presented in a court of law. We do not respond to innuendo, rumor or conspiracy theories. Instead we recommit ourselves to honoring Matthew's memory, and refuse to be intimidated by those who seek to tarnish it.

Nevertheless, right-wing media outlets have already jumped on Jimenez's theory to claim that the problem of anti-LGBT hate crimes has been exaggerated.

WND columnist Jack Cashill gloated that the book undermines the efforts of the "gay grievance industry" to draw attention to hate crimes. The Shepard case, Cashill wrote, highlights how the LGBT movement's "coordination and ... duplicity" have promoted the false narrative that anti-LGBT violence is actually a problem.

Austin Ruse - who in July celebrated Russia's brutal crackdown on LGBT people - took to Breitbart.com to blast "Matthew Shepard Inc." for promoting the "lie" that homophobia had anything to do with Shepard's murder. PJ Media's Ed Driscoll touted Ruse's report on the book, asserting that Shepard's death had been "politicize[d]" by a "paranoid" left desperate to advance the hate crime narrative. A guest blogger on Gateway Pundit echoed Driscoll's argument, writing that Jimenez's book "cast a terrible light on a media that has long been anxious to build a narrative hostile to mainstream America."

Even sources outside the right-wing media have been taken by Jimenez and his argument. Writing for The Jewish Daily Forward, Kenneth S. Stern - an attorney and gay rights supporter who discloses that he and Jimenez went to high school together - calls the theory promoted by The Book of Matt "compelling." Stern made no note of the problems that plagued Jimenez's earlier work for 20/20.

Amid the debate sparked by Jimenez's book, it's critical not to lose sight of the reality of anti-LGBT hate crimes. According to FBI figures, there were an estimated 1,300 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation in 2011, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Even in parts of the country considered LGBT-friendly, anti-LGBT violence is a pervasive - even worsening - problem. New York City, for instance, is on track to see a doubling of anti-LGBT hate crimes by the end of 2013. These are figures that hate crime denialists and Matthew Shepard truthers can't dispute.

Yeah, there are plenty of facts - with a dash of conjecture. Amazing how far a little sensational conjecture can go. Totally sad. You are right, MW. Let's hope truth will ultimately prevail. Let's us not rewrite history. Let us not forget Matt Shepard beaten and tied to a fence - left alone to die. Because nobody cares about a dead faggot (his killers' actual words).

Let us remember that Matthew Shepard was once alive. And he was murdered because he was vulnerable and gay. And let's hope that LGBTQ people will one day be able to live their lives to the fullest -and not die a young and violent death - just because they were born.

QP

 

How dare anyone question the official narrative....

 

Indeed. But money is money. Even when it is blood money. Sad.

QP

 

Sucks when a poster child may not have been worthy of being on that poster, huh?

 

Matt was no saint (his own mother stated as much in her book about her son's murder). What really sucks is when some bigot has not done the proper research. And only hopes to gain money. Death and torture - now that totally sucks.

QP

 

how come LGBT's dont know how to do ARSON ?

 

Honestly, QP, I think you and so many others in the LGBT community are too close to this to be able to look at it objectively. Shepard has been held up as a martyr for so long that any evidence and research that points to another possible picture is immediately discounted as wrong and bigoted. Someone comes to a different conclusion? Surely that person hasn't done proper research because proper research could only point to one thing. Probably a bigot on top of it. I think that outlook is sad.

Jimenez never tried to diminish the viciousness of the crime, QP. Not once.

 

Really? So I guess it's okay to state that Matt had sex (more than once) with one of his killers'? Where's the proof? And how does that justify torture and murder? I'm just curious? I think the author is way too fixated on LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR. Except he lacked the imagination to write a best-selling novel. So he took the easy way out.

QP

 

He never tried to justify torture and murder, QP. Never. All he is saying is that Matt may not have been killed for the reason we are all told he was.

Previously sealed court documents point to Matt having sexual relations with one of his killers, and points to them being known to each other for quite some time prior to the night Matt was attacked and left for dead. There were also interviews conducted with multiple people who knew all parties involved who said sex between Matt and one of his killers was a regular thing. Hell, one of Matt's former boyfriends even recalls going to gay bars with Matt and one of the men who murdered him.

 

So, he was gay and smoked meth. Where's the connection between those facts and his torture/murder? I don't get it. The amazing discovery that he may have "deserved to die" because of his being gay and smoking meth? Quite the remedy. I say we dig him up and beat on him some more. Never let the motherfuckers rest.

 

The author of the book is suggesting, through evidence, that Matthew Shepard may not have been killed because he was gay, and thus the crime that was used to pass hate crime legislation my not have been a hate crime at all. The other is, in no way, saying Matthew Shepard deserved to die.

Matthew Shepard was a known meth user and, as people who knew in WY state, may have been a dealer. The men who killed him were also known users and dealers and, if eye witness statements are to be believed, one of them had an on and off again sexual relationship with Matthew.

 

I live in Shepherd's hometown, and it's pretty common to be told the main motive for his murder was a drug deal gone sour. It's also no secret that he had relations with one of his murderers. I know people want to think he was an innocent gay boy who was minding his own business, but that's not the case. I think the way he was murdered was sickening and brutal, but I don't think the main motive was his sexuality.

 

Exactly. Finally, the voice of reason. :2thumbsup:

QP

 

(to post 13) Oops. Let's get rid a' that shit immediately. They don't need no stinkin' protection.

 

Blasphemy....

 

No one is saying that, Scratcho. You're better than this.

 

Well, thank you, but I don't even see why he's in the news any more except for that guy wanting to make some money off a corpse.