Laramie Project Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old gay student attending the University of Wyoming in the fall of 1998 when he was kidnapped, robbed, tied to a split-rail fence, beaten, and left for dead by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. A little after midnight on October 7 McKinney and Henderson met Shepard for the first time at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming. The two men subsequently offered Shepard a ride home, but instead of driving him there they took him to a remote rural area. Shepard, still alive but in a coma, was discovered 18 hours later by a cyclist, Aaron Kreifels, who at first thought he was a scarecrow.

Shepard sustained skull fractures to the back of his head and in front of his right ear. The beating caused severe damage to his brainstem, which affected his body's ability to regulate heart rate, temperature, and other vital functions. Because of the severity of the injuries doctors were unable to operate. Shepard never regained consciousness and was on full life support until he passed on October 12 in a Colorado hospital.

The Laramie Project is a book/play by Moises Kaufman that explores this heinous crime and the events surrounding its aftermath. The work is a compilation of interviews with the people of the town and their perspectives on the incident.

Factors that Contributed to the Crime

Hate Crimes

Most people agree that Matthew Shepard was murdered because he was gay. Two days after the assault McKinney told the police, "[he looked] like a queer…like a fag." McKinney told police he and Henderson had discussed "jacking him up" before they left the bar, and claimed that after they had driven past Wal-Mart Shepard had, "put his hand on my leg, and slid his hand like he was gonna grab my balls." It was then that McKinney hit him with the butt of his pistol (Kaufman). The defense team argued...

Aaron's really bad about that. He doesn't like to be around gay people at all, and neither does Russ. They just don't like them at all. So he got aggravated with it and said he was straight and he didn't wanna have anything to do with it, and he walked off. He said that's when him and Russ went into the bathroom and decided to pretend that they were gay and get him in the truck and rob him. They wanted to teach him a lesson not to come on to straight people. I'm not excusing their actions, but it seems to be partially his fault" (Kaufman).
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crimes of hatred are a sad fact of American life. The term "hate crime" did not enter into the American vocabulary until the 1980s when emerging hate groups like the Skinheads launched a wave of bias-related crime. The FBI began investigating what we now call hate crimes as far back as World War I, when the Ku Klux Klan first attracted attention.

The Culture of Laramie

Kaufman uses the words of the people of the town to demonstrate the mentality that allows this type of behavior to manifest itself. At the beginning of the play when a resident discovers that Kaufman and his crew are there to tell the Shepard story they respond the crew is "…sticking your nose into something we don't need to talk about. That's over and done. We don't want any more of this. You're not wanted here" (Kaufman).

This statement speaks volumes about how one segment of the populace deals with difficult issues. Other telling comments support this head in the sand mentality. The mother of Reggie Fluty, the woman Sheriff who first aided Shepard said,…