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Title details for The Book of Matt by Stephen Jimenez - Available

The Book of Matt

The Real Story of the Murder of Matthew Shepard

by Stephen Jimenez
Andrew Sullivan
ebook
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1 of 1 copy available
With a New Conclusion by the Author
On the night of October 6, 1998, twenty-one-year-old Matthew Shepard left a bar with two alleged “strangers,” Aaron McKin­ney and Russell Henderson. Eighteen hours later, Matthew was found tied to a log fence on the outskirts of town, unconscious and barely alive. Overnight, a politically expedient myth took the place of important facts. By the time Matthew died a few days later, his name was synonymous with anti-gay hate. The Book of Matt, first published in 2013, demonstrated that the truth was in fact far more complicated – and daunting. Stephen Jimenez’s account revealed primary documents that had been under seal, and gave voice to many with firsthand knowledge of the case who had not been heard from, including members of law enforcement.
 
In his Introduction to this updated edition, journalist Andrew Sullivan writes: “No one wanted Steve Jimenez to report this story, let alone go back and back to Laramie, Wyoming, asking awkward questions, puzzling over strange discrepancies, re-interviewing sources, seeking a deeper, more complex truth about the ghastly killing than America, it turned out, was prepared to hear. It was worse than that, actually. Not only did no one want to hear more about it, but many were incensed that the case was being re-examined at all.”
As a gay man Jimenez felt an added moral imperative to tell the story of Matthew’s murder honestly, and his reporting has been thoroughly corroborated. “I urge you to read [The Book of Matt] carefully and skeptically,” Sullivan writes, “and to see better how life rarely fits into the neat boxes we want it to inhabit. That Matthew Shepard was a meth dealer and meth user says nothing that bad about him, and in no way mitigates the hideous brutality of the crime that killed him; instead it shows how vulnerable so many are to the drug’s escapist lure and its astonishing capacity to heighten sexual pleasure so that it’s the only thing you want to live for. Shepard was a victim twice over: of meth and of a fellow meth user.”

  • Creators

  • Series

    Truth to Power

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 26, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781586422684

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781586422684
      • File size: 26827 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 11, 2013
      In this radical reexamination of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, investigative reporter Jimenez suggests that the tragedy may have been less about gay bashing, and more related to drug trafficking and methamphetamines. Drawing on 13 years' worth of interviews and investigation, Jimenez pieces together a sequence of events and motives distinctly at odds with the public record. Instead of being the innocent victim of a hate crime, Shepard becomes a complex, flawed individual involved with the drug trade and other dubious behaviors. One of the killers, Aaron McKinney, is recast as a meth-addicted bisexual. Rather than a spur of the moment incident between strangers, there's every indication that Shepard knew his murderers long before that fateful night. As he ultimately notes, "â¦Matthew was part of an interstate drug-trafficking circle, and that the buying and selling of crystal meth was only one of the activities he and Aaron shared." In claiming that Shepard was killed because of drugs, and the "gay panic" story was offered as a cover and heavily pushed by media and politicians as part of a larger agenda, Jimenez completely changes the meaning and impact of Shepard's death. While Jimenez's argument is thorough and convincing, the controversial aspect may be enough to alienate many readers.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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