In October of 1998, Shepard found himself in a campus bar, Fireside Bar & Lounge, after midnight. The workers in the bar knew of Matthew Shepard's homosexuality and accepted him for who he was, and Shepard, feeling acceptance for once in the twisted place called Earth, enjoyed being in this place, due to acceptance from the people. Shepard lounged around the bar and found two young men sitting at a table and they invited him to sit down. These two young men are named Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. .
After 30 to 45 minutes of casual conversation these three men decided that they would take their leave from the bar. Henderson suggested that Shepard should ride with him, and Henderson would drop Shepard off at his house. Fifteen minutes into the car trip, Henderson told Shepard he was gay, Shepard, reportedly, placed his hand onto Henderson leg. Henderson dealt with this for a few minutes and then looked over at Shepard and told him, "I"m not gay and either is Henderson, now your going to get jacked" (http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/1999/11/05/shepard). .
Dave Cullen writes in his article entitled, "A Dramatic Moment of Mercy",.
"Henderson and McKinney took Shepard out into an open pasture and tied him to a fence post while they repeatedly assault him verbally and physically. They took all of Shepard's belongs from head to toe, and after 18 whips with the butt of Henderson's pistol they left Shepard to die in the bit cold night (1).
Henderson says that he had no plans of killing Shepard on this night. He went on to say that if he wanted to kill Shepard he would have just shot him. These are such harsh words for someone who previously said he would not have done such acts if he was "thinking straight".
Henderson's statement about his action was, .
"I never really planned on killing him [Shepard], I just wanted to make it take him longer to get back to his house, so that I could get the money that he [Shepard] said was there" (www.
