Strange Fruit

Stephen Jimenez went to Laramie, Wyoming in 2000, to write a screenplay about the murder of Matthew Shepard. He expected to be researching fairly open-and-shut case which had almost immediately become the national symbol for anti-gay hate crime. What he found, tucked away among the files, was an anonymous letter that would change the course of his work completely. "I was shocked to hear that Aaron McKinney's attorneys claimed gay panic in their defense," the letter began. "Aaron and Russ were quite familiar with gay guys and had frequented gay bars. They became aware of the fact that they had a valuable asset in their pants, and that gay guys would give them shelter, food, and money in return for a few minutes pleasure." The letter also named some mutual acquaintances of Matthew and Aaron, suggesting the two had known each other before the night of the crime, and casting doubt on the pickup-gone-wrong narrative that had been presented in court. Jimenez spent the next thirteen years researc