Matthew Shepard
E165732
Matthew Shepard was a young gay American college student whose brutal 1998 murder in Wyoming became a symbol of anti-LGBTQ+ violence and led to significant hate crime legislation in the United States.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Matthew Shepard canonical | 5 |
| Matthew Wayne Shepard | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1446282 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Matthew Shepard Context triple: [Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, namedAfter, Matthew Shepard]
-
A.
Aaron Crow
Aaron Crow is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball, primarily for the Kansas City Royals.
-
B.
Christopher Wallace
Christopher Wallace is an American journalist and television news anchor known for his incisive political interviews and long career at major U.S. networks.
-
C.
John Holmes
John Holmes was a famous American adult film actor of the 1970s and early 1980s, widely known for his prolific career and distinctive physical attributes.
-
D.
Gabriel Harris
Gabriel Harris is an American percussionist and musician best known for his work with his mother, folk singer and activist Joan Baez, as well as other world and folk music artists.
-
E.
Michael Brown
Michael Brown is a film and television editor known for his work on the biographical miniseries "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows."
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Matthew Shepard Target entity description: Matthew Shepard was a young gay American college student whose brutal 1998 murder in Wyoming became a symbol of anti-LGBTQ+ violence and led to significant hate crime legislation in the United States.
-
A.
Aaron Crow
Aaron Crow is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball, primarily for the Kansas City Royals.
-
B.
Christopher Wallace
Christopher Wallace is an American journalist and television news anchor known for his incisive political interviews and long career at major U.S. networks.
-
C.
John Holmes
John Holmes was a famous American adult film actor of the 1970s and early 1980s, widely known for his prolific career and distinctive physical attributes.
-
D.
Gabriel Harris
Gabriel Harris is an American percussionist and musician best known for his work with his mother, folk singer and activist Joan Baez, as well as other world and folk music artists.
-
E.
Michael Brown
Michael Brown is a film and television editor known for his work on the biographical miniseries "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows."
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | human ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath |
blunt force trauma
ⓘ
homicide ⓘ |
| commemoratedOn | Matthew Shepard Day observances in various communities ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| crimeLocation | near Laramie, Wyoming, United States ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1976-12-01 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 1998-10-12 ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Casper College
ⓘ
Catawba College ⓘ University of Wyoming ⓘ |
| ethnicGroup | White American ⓘ |
| familyName | Shepard ⓘ |
| fieldOfStudy |
foreign relations
ⓘ
political science ⓘ |
| fullName |
Matthew Shepard
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Matthew Wayne Shepard
|
| givenName | Matthew ⓘ |
| hasFather | Dennis Shepard ⓘ |
| hasHeritage | American of English descent ⓘ |
| hasMother | Judy Shepard ⓘ |
| inspired |
advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States
ⓘ
campaigns for hate crime legislation reform ⓘ increased public awareness of anti-gay violence ⓘ |
| legalCase |
State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney
ⓘ
State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney ⓘ
surface form:
State of Wyoming v. Russell Henderson
|
| mannerOfDeath | hate crime ⓘ |
| memorializedBy |
Matthew Shepard Foundation
ⓘ
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act ⓘ The Laramie Project ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being victim of a high-profile anti-gay hate crime
ⓘ
inspiring expansion of U.S. federal hate-crime laws ⓘ |
| occupation | college student ⓘ |
| perpetrator |
Aaron McKinney
ⓘ
Russell Henderson ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth |
Casper, Wyoming
ⓘ
surface form:
Casper, Wyoming, United States
|
| placeOfBurial |
National Cathedral
ⓘ
surface form:
Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., United States
|
| placeOfDeath | Fort Collins, Colorado, United States ⓘ |
| religion | Episcopalianism ⓘ |
| residence |
Laramie, Wyoming
ⓘ
surface form:
Laramie, Wyoming, United States
|
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| sexualOrientation | gay ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
The Laramie Project
ⓘ
surface form:
The Laramie Project (2002 film)
The Laramie Project ⓘ
surface form:
The Laramie Project (play)
numerous books and documentaries on hate crimes and LGBTQ+ rights ⓘ |
| victimOf |
anti-LGBTQ+ violence
ⓘ
hate crime in Laramie, Wyoming in October 1998 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Matthew Shepard Description of subject: Matthew Shepard was a young gay American college student whose brutal 1998 murder in Wyoming became a symbol of anti-LGBTQ+ violence and led to significant hate crime legislation in the United States.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Matthew Wayne Shepard
subject surface form:
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act