SERIALously - 196: Drugs, Murder & Dark Secrets | A Deep Dive into the Downfall of NFL Star Aaron Hernandez

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

On the evening of June 17th, 2013, a teenager named Matthew Kent was out for a run in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, training for his high school track team. It was a hotter than usual, muggy, east coast evening. But before Matthew ever finished his jog that day, he came across something that would rock the entire country in the coming days, weeks, and months…. Liquid IV Get 20% off your first order when you go to https://www.liquidiv.com and use code AE at checkout. Huggies Learn more at https:www.Huggies.com Athena Club Head to https://www.athenaclub.com and use promo code AE for 30% off your first order. RoBody  Go to https://www.ro.co/ae and get your first month for just $99!  Hello Fresh For FREE breakfast for life, go to https://www.HelloFresh.com/freeae We're going on TOUR!! Come see one of our episodes LIVE in a city near you! Head to https://annieelise.com/blogs/events for dates and ticket info! Shop the Merch: www.annieelise.com Follow the podcast on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serialouslypodcast   Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serialouslypod/       Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise     All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_    SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/    About Me: https://annieelise.com/   For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]

This episode is brought to you by FX's American sports story, Aaron Hernandez. From executive producer Ryan Murphy comes the first installment of FX's American sports story. The limited series charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez and explores the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide, and their legacy in sports and American culture. FX's American sports story Erin Hernandez. All new Tuesdays on FX. Stream on Hulu. Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. I hope you guys are having a good start to your week, whether you're driving into work or I don't know, in the office, maybe you're to your week, whether you're driving into work or, I don't know,

in the office, maybe you're at home cleaning, whatever you're doing. I hope you're having a good week. Now, the case we're talking about today, it's one that I decided to talk about because A, we've never talked about it on my podcast, on my YouTube channel, we've never gone over it. It's pretty complex.

Also, there's a new series out that is covering this case. So I've been getting some requests just sliding into my DMs asking me to cover it because that usually happens when there's a new series or documentary that gets released. People want the deep dive version of it, the version that they don't show you on television. And it's also football season.

So rather than kick off football season with Taylor Swift, let's kick football season off by talking about this case, because it is definitely a notorious one. And it's one that you'll be interested in, whether you are a football fan, you think football is a home run, not a touchdown, wherever part of the football spectrum you're on, it still is going to be an interesting case, because it's a case that has a lot of different elements to it. And by different elements, I mean there is child abuse, there is sexual abuse, there's drug abuse,

there's a confused sexual identity, there's brain damage, there is conspiracy. It's a very, very fascinating one. And like I said, the different documentaries out there and now the new TV series that it's scripted. It's not scripted I should say I mean it is scripted. It's not a documentary style. It's with actors where they're just what what's the word? I'm looking for come on Annie figure it out. What word are you looking for? reenact not reenactment What dramatization I don't know you know what I'm talking about Kind of like when they did the oj simpson thing on FX where it was like Ross Geller from Friends who played Rob Kardashian and was it Cuba Gooding Jr who played

OJ? Guys, sorry, it's early morning. What I'm trying to say is that anytime these things come about, whether it is a TV show with actors or documentary version, people want the deep dive. And so when we started researching this, there was a lot to it. So it's going to definitely be a longer episode because we really had to dive in and figure out exactly what the truth is in this case, what all of the different details are. So I'm going to shut up now and I'm just going to jump right in because you're done hearing me talk, right? Well, you're done hearing me rant, I should say. You want to hear the case. So let gonna jump right in because you're done hearing me talk, right? Well, you're done hearing me rant, I should say.

You wanna hear the case. So let's jump right in. On the evening of June 17th, 2013, a teenager named Matthew Kent was out for his normal run, something he did very often. He was in North Attleboro, Massachusetts and running to train for his high school track team. It was a hotter than usual evening though.

It was muggy, it was a little bit sticky outside, kind of like that typical summer East Coast night, if you've ever been on the East Coast, where it's just like so hot, so humid, the kind of day where your skin literally feels sticky as soon as you walk outside. So he's running, but before he could ever finish his run that day,

he came across something that would rock the entire country in the coming days, weeks, and months, because halfway through his run, right in the coming days, weeks, and months. Because halfway through his run, right in front of him, in a park that he had jogged so many different times before, he found a dead body. It was a 27-year-old black male lying on his back, and he had several gunshot wounds. Now clearly, it had all of the markings of a murder, and one that was vicious and angry. But who was he? And more importantly, who would want him dead? The police thought that some answers might lie with somebody that the deceased knew

pretty well. A friend who actually lived nearby, just a mile down the road in fact. And a person who also at the time just so happened to be one of the most famous athletes in America. Now we all know that one of the biggest stories in football right now is obviously Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. And I'm talking so much so that I just found this out this morning actually. There's a Hallmark movie that has been created depicting their romance. It airs in the end of November. And what's it called? It's called, hold on let me pull it up on my phone because I was literally looking at it and I was like dying inside. I was like, is this real life? Oh it's not on my phone anymore. But it's called like a chief love story or

something like that. And I feel like Travis's mom is actually in the Hallmark movie as well. But anyways, you get what I'm saying. This has like taken the NFL by storm, right? And look, I don't care what the haters say, but I'm a Swiftie, so I am here for it. But 11 years ago, it was nothing like this. There wasn't this huge cross-pollination with pop culture and the NFL. The NFL was in a totally different spot. The big story in football wasn't a famous singer dating one of the players or kissing at the end of the Super Bowl. Not even close. The big story in football, maybe actually even in the entire world of sports, was actually a lot darker, a lot more twisted, and frankly, very, very bizarre.

It's actually one that I can't believe that we've never even covered before, and as I was diving into this case, I mentioned it earlier, it became pretty apparent very quickly just how many layers you have to get through to really get a grasp on what actually went down and, more importantly, why. So I think the best place to start is rewinding back to 2013, because a story was unfolding in the sports world, one that nobody ever expected, and it ended up in a different way

than anybody could have ever possibly imagined. It involved some of the biggest names in football too. I mean, maybe the biggest names ever, as a matter of fact. You had Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and Aaron Hernandez. So we're back in 2013, and we know that the NFL is the best of the best, right? However, there's also a smaller semi-pro team and unofficial minor leagues that people can play for. And theoretically, if you are good enough, you could possibly get the attention of the

NFL of one of their scouts and then end up on a pro team and practicing with them. It doesn't happen for the vast majority of players out there, but it does happen. But at the time that we're talking about, one local semi-pro player named Oden Lloyd was determined to make it happen for himself in any way that he could. In 2013, Oden was a linebacker for the Boston Bandits, which is a semi-pro team in the New England Football League. That's where he had spent the last six seasons. Even though it wasn't the NFL, Oden was still an extremely talented football player,

and he had huge, huge aspirations of just leveling up and getting into the pros one day. Oden was the type of guy who was also always smiling. He had this bigger-than-life personality. He was very close with his mom, very close with his sisters, and so much so that they were actually a pretty big reason that he played football,

because one day he wanted to be able to take care of them financially. Odin was just the kind of guy where if Odin loved you, he was always looking out for you, and he would help however he possibly could. I mean, no questions asked. Now, ever since he was little, Odin saw football as his way out, his way out of a pretty rough

neighborhood that he grew up in. The neighborhood was called Dorchester, and it was in South Boston. Now to just kind of level set how dangerous and rough this neighborhood was, the crime in parts of this area is almost 50% above the national average. So in a place like that, it definitely would have been easy for Odin to slip through the cracks and maybe waste away his talent or get caught up in the wrong crowd. But Odin had a gift, and thankfully people really noticed.

And some of the key people who noticed this, aside from friends and family, of course, were some of his high school coaches. They knew that there was something special about him, and they really pushed him to be the best that he absolutely could be. So that led him to play D1 football at Delaware State University, which was one major step in the right direction for achieving that ultimate goal of joining the NFL.

Unfortunately, though, Oden's time in college was pretty short-lived. He ended up having trouble getting the financial aid that he needed to stay in school, so that forced him to drop out and in turn walk away from football, at least for a little while. When he found himself back in that rough neighborhood of Dorchester, he started taking odd jobs just to make ends meet.

First for a local power company, then he moved over into landscaping. But Odin, despite all of this and despite the disappointment of needing to leave school, he couldn't stay away from the game that he absolutely loved. He could not stay away from football. So eventually he started playing for the semi-pro team that I mentioned earlier, the Bandits. This brought him joy, even though he was still in a rough spot financially, so much so that

he couldn't even afford to pay for a team jersey that had his name on it. But that didn't matter. He just loved the sport. Odin felt on it. But that didn't matter. He just loved the sport. Oden felt like it was what he was meant for. He was an athlete and a really good one. He had never been more sure of anything in his life. And we also know what kind of guy Oden was. He was a helper, right? He wanted to take care of the people that he loved, his family, his friends, his sisters, and like the girlfriend that he had had for about a year at this point named Shanae Jakins.

So Odin and Shanae met in early 2012, and they started dating pretty shortly after. Shanae was still in college. She was studying at the Central Connecticut State University. She had dreams of going to law school after graduating. She wanted to become a criminal lawyer. So they tried to do their best to make the relationship work. She would travel and spend time with Odin on the weekends. She would sometimes spend the night with him. Sometimes she would spend the night with her sister. Anything to where they could really balance spending time with one another. And it was actually a perfect situation

because her sister, Shiana Jenkins, was looped into the football world as well. She knew the grind. She understood the long days, the practices, and the supportive role that she would need to play. And that's because Shiana was engaged to a player for the New England Patriots. That player's name was Aaron Hernandez. So now, even though Odin might not have been ready for the NFL or for the big leagues, he was sort of running in the same circle as some of these huge, huge, huge NFL stars. So he got a front row seat to witness really what life was like for all of those guys who had all of this money, all of this fame, notoriety, these guys who were really lucky enough, you know, to make it, so to speak. Now even though Odin and Aaron obviously had a bond over football,

according to Odin's girlfriend, they were never really the best of friends. Sure, they were friendly and they would hang out from time to time, especially when the sisters were together, because I mean one day they could be potentially brother-in-law, but that's really as far as it went. And I want to pause for a second here to just kind of like level set the situation, because you have this semi-pro player whose absolute dream is to join the NFL, right? And he's befriending an actual NFL star, which could in turn be good for Odin's career. It could be good for networking. Maybe Aaron could introduce him to some coaches

or at least maybe put him on somebody's radar who could help him level up, who knows. But it seems like that would be a very exciting moment. And aside from that, obviously there are other perks to rolling with different famous athletes. And Odin got to experience all of that firsthand. He got insane box seats to the New England Patriots games, and that was when Tom Brady was a player for them and kind of like in his goat era, so it was like mega mega big

deal. And it would be a mega big deal for anybody who was just an ordinary person on the street, or even a football fan, but now somebody too who aspired to be in the NFL. That is a huge perk. And aside from all the glamorous things, sometimes Odin and Erin would just hang out at Erin's house every now and then. Just catch up, just hang out, especially with the sisters together. Sometimes they would go to different nightclubs, different bars in the area, and whenever the two couples got together, if the sisters would kind of just go off and do their own thing, Odin and Erin would hang out in Erin's man cave, which was like a repurposed room in the basement.

So it was a really good spot for them to just hang out, chill, it had a bar, a pool table, this like massively huge TV, and every now and then they would also smoke some drugs here and there. Now, Shanae says that Odin wasn't into doing anything hard, but he and Erin would occasionally smoke weed together. One time, in fact, Oden even sent a picture to Sinead of nine joints that he had rolled while he was over at Aaron's house. And look, it's not the biggest deals of deals because I know that weed and marijuana, you know, it's legal in a lot of states now, but it definitely wasn't back in 2013. Also, when you take into

consideration that Aaron was a professional athlete, I mean, the NFL had very, very strict guidelines about weed. And they would do random drug tests, they would give you fines, they would have suspensions. It was a pretty big deal. So when you think about it that way, it's kind of insane that these players would be willing to risk millions of dollars just to get high. This guy literally had made it. He was in the NFL. He had millions of dollars.

He was also on one of the best teams in the NFL With the best players of all time with Tom Brady with so many great players and he himself had recently signed a contract extension worth 40 million dollars 40 million dollars, which I'm just gonna say it right now if I ever had a contract for 40 million dollars I would never risk anything to lose that Certainly not to get high and smoke a little weed $40 million, I would never risk anything to lose that. Certainly not to get high and smoke a little weed, but even if it was like, you know, not even a million dollars, half of that,

like literally peanuts compared to that, I would be on the straight and narrow. So the fact that he was willing to risk all of that or maybe just felt untouchable and would just do that so casually, it's kind of insane to me. But anyways, so we know that Odin wasn't really into anything hard,

but Aaron, well, that's another story. And this is sort of where this entire case takes its first hard left. To understand Aaron fully, we have to know more about his backstory, which honestly is pretty crazy, it's intense, and it is very complex. So I wanna switch gears for a second.

We're gonna go back, we're gonna go way back, as a matter of fact, to Aaron's childhood and it is very complex. So I want to switch gears for a second. We're gonna go back We're gonna go way back as a matter of fact to Aaron's childhood and how he grew up So Aaron Hernandez was born in November 1989 in Bristol, Connecticut His home life was never solid though like ever all throughout his childhood His mom and dad were breaking up His mom Terry was throwing his dad Dennis out and it was just a very toxic and tumultuous household. Yet somehow in all of the back and forth, his dad Dennis always seemed to manage

to make it back into their lives and back into the family home. And from a super young age, Aaron was also exposed to crime. In fact, both of his parents had multiple run-ins with the law and had even been arrested. But that's not all, and that's not even the worst of it. In fact, that might actually be the best of it. Aaron's older brother, DJ, says that he and Aaron were also the victims of frequent beatings

at the hands of their dad. I don't think beat is really even the word that can be expressed. When you literally have to blow on your brother's wounds because of the creases of a belt or a handprint in your body and the burning sensation it has. And have a rule that in your household, you can get beat, but you stay away from the face so other people can't notice. It really has an effect on the way you approach situations

in terms of communicating with others because your safety net is in question because you don't feel safe. It was so bad that one time DJ was even quoted as saying that he actually had told his dad that he was going to call the police on him when he had finally reached his breaking point, when he finally had enough of this abuse.

And instead of his dad getting angry, their dad handed him the phone and said, fine, call them. I'm going to beat you even harder, you and your brother, and they are going to have to pull me off of you when they knock down the door. Which can you even imagine that? For a child to hear that, child, adult, it doesn't matter the amount of fear that that would instill. It is horrifying to think

about. And this was a regular thing. Basically, if their dad ever thought that they weren't trying hard enough in sports or in school, he would just beat on them, wail on them. And sometimes there wasn't even a reason behind it. He would just choose to beat on them for no reason. They say that sometimes Dennis would just be drunk and he would feel like it. He would also do the same to their mother, Terry. And it was normal for Erin to show up to school with different marks, bruises, even a black eye, all at the hands of their dad.

And the crazy part is, that is not even the half of it. ["Spring Day"] It's officially fall and I am so excited to start doing evening walks with the cooler air. It's football season, which also so excited to start doing like evening walks with like the cooler air. It's football season, which also means it's Taylor Swift season, but I'm excited to like get together on the weekends and do all of that. And I feel like one ritual that deserves to be added to your fall priorities is daily hydration and energy from Liquid IV. I have talked to you about Liquid IV before, guys. It is a game changer for me because I'm not somebody that likes to drink old tasteless boring water and because of that I'm often dehydrated. And so for me, not only do I

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Once again, head to huggies.com to learn more. My skin is incredibly sensitive and it's also prone to razor burn. And every razor that I have ever tried has left it like dry and irritated. So when I saw Athena Club at Target, I decided I was gonna give it a shot. And I don't know why I waited.

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So show your skin you care with the Athena Club Razor Kit. Sign up today and you'll get 30% off your first Razor Kit order. Just go to athenaclub.com and use promo code AE. That's A-T-H-E-N-A-C-L-U-B.com with promo code AE for 30% off. So in addition to having to grow up in this very toxic household with this dad who was so abusive to these two boys, Aaron also told

people close to him that when he was a child he was sexually molested. He never revealed the identity of the person who did it, but his brother later said that it was a teenager. Now apparently when he would confide in his friends and his inner circle about this abuse, he would confide in them that he thought that this abuse, quote, made him gay. At one point, a guy who played football with Aaron back in high school said that he and Aaron also had a sexual relationship that started in middle school, and it lasted all through senior year. So it sounds like Aaron might have struggled with his sexuality for years. I mean, sure, his persona was this masculine,

you know, tough-as-nails, hot-headed football player, but it seemed like on the inside, Aaron really wrestled with who he was, also with who he wanted to be, or who he felt like he had to be. But one thing is for sure, though, Aaron's father would have never accepted a gay son. And who knows if Aaron ever even actually wanted to talk with his dad about his sexuality

or that part of his life, because he never got the chance to, even if he did, because his dad died suddenly after a routine hernia surgery when Aaron was just 16 years old. So with everything that was going on in Aaron's home life, the sexuality struggles, the beatings from his dad, now him losing his dad, the toxic relationship that he was exposed to from a very young age, it's really not surprising at all that he just poured himself into football. That was where he was happy. He was happy on the field and that is just where he poured his heart

and soul into. And like Odin, he was very good at it. I mean insanely good at it. So good, in fact, that he was picked up as Gatorade's Football Player of the Year when he was only a senior. Meaning he wasn't just one of the best players in the state, he was one of the best players in the country. He also caught the eyes of a lot of college coaches, and ultimately he decided to spend his college career playing for the University of Florida. This coach, Coach Meyer, allegedly wanted Aaron to be on his team so badly that he flew to Aaron's high school and convinced the principal to let him graduate early. Also he could head down to Gainesville

as soon as possible to start training with the team and learning all of the plays. I mean, he really wanted Aaron on his team. And get this, Aaron wasn't even 18 years old yet. He was still a minor. But somehow all of the adults in his life did feel like that was the best path for him. So they let him go.

In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best move for a kid who didn't seem to be super stable to then go off to college, even graduate early, and start being given all this special treatment, but that is what happened. So that brings us to Aaron now, and I want to pause for a second and go back to his relationship with Odin. Aaron and Odin clearly had their differences because from what I know about Odin, he grew up in a rough area, yes, but he didn't have that horrible home life that Aaron had. However, I still can see how that friendship would develop because you sort of have this bond, right?

You both love football, you love the game, you both had rough childhoods in some aspect, and you had to deal with that toughness. So I could understand how that would bond you together. We also know that in 2007, the year that Aaron started college, that was the same year that Oden found himself having to leave college.

So they had both gone through their struggles, they were both playing football, but they were on completely different levels. So now that Aaron was in college and playing football, on the field, he was absolutely dominating. At least for his freshman year anyway. Because by the time his sophomore year rolled around, he ended up being benched for the

first game due to a failed drug test. Yet still, he got a second chance. I mean, he was notorious for getting second chances too, which trust me, you'll see as we go. So he would go on to start in 11 games that year. And his performance and these record numbers that he was setting ended up buzzing throughout the NFL community. Aaron was starting to look good enough to play for the pros.

But off the field, Aaron would find himself in bad situations pretty often. It was almost like he couldn't shake the need to get into trouble. One night, Aaron was out with his teammates at a club, and at some point during the night, two men got into an altercation with some of the guys from the football team. Later, when the two men left the club, a black Tahoe started tailing them. And then when they all got to a red light, the two guys in the Tahoe got out of the car. One of the guys in the Tahoe was a man named Reggie Nelson. The other was identified as a big, muscular guy with tattoos who was possibly Hispanic

or maybe even Hawaiian. But according to the men who had been followed, this Hawaiian looking guy pulled a gun out on them. Then he shot four or five bullets into their car. This was bad. One of them was shot in the arm and the other one was shot in the head. Now by the grace of God, both of them survived this horrific shooting in this attack,

but they were totally freaked out. I mean, obviously, can you blame them? So was the shooter Aaron Hernandez? I mean, he did kind of fit the description. The police ended up questioning him and also confirmed that he was at that club that night. They also matched this black Tahoe to a man named Reggie, just like the men who had been shot had claimed. But when Reggie and Aaron talked to the police, they both denied any involvement. In fact, Aaron said that he didn't even want to talk to the police without a lawyer present, which fair, that is absolutely his right, but it was interesting.

And it's kind of surprising because nothing really ever came of that night. There wasn't enough evidence to ever move forward with the case. In fact, right now, it's actually officially a closed case, like cold forever, meaning that that night, somebody got away with attempted murder. Now we'll never know if Aaron was actually involved

in this or not, but one thing that I can't wrap my head around through all of the research and everything I've seen is if he was, why would this guy who has so much promise ahead of himself find himself wrapped up in something that is so serious as attempted murder? He was on the cusp of literally every single football dream that he ever had coming to fruition, coming to a reality. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Why risk it all? For what? To prove you're tough? Because you're a little heated after a club altercation? So after his junior year, he received an award for being the best collegiate tight end in all of the NCAA. But by then, he had had enough issues with drug use and with his conduct that his coach

strongly suggested that he go pro. And I mean strongly suggested because he basically wasn't welcome to stay at that college for another year. He had had it. He was over all of the crap that Aaron was pulling. So Aaron decided he was done with college. And it was time for him to declare himself for the NFL draft.

I mean, he seemed like a shoe-in, right? But not so fast, because things ended up being a little touch and go for Aaron's pro career. I mean, at first anyway. It turns out he was good enough to play for the NFL, but coaches and teams were a little put off, to say the least, by his demeanor and all of his different antics off the field.

It's not always just about skill. I mean, the NFL is a serious business, so they want guys who are going to represent their business well and win the games and do all of that. It can't just be that they're a great player. They have to be a good representative of the NFL, and it was kind of questionable if Aaron was that. So when Aaron went to the pre-draft combined, which is kind of like the job interview stage where they look at your skills as a player, but they also look at your character, he like nailed the skillset portion of it.

His results in times and the actual drills were incredible. Some even put him in the top five of all of the prospects that year. However, when it came to the personal analysis part, that's where Aaron started suffering a little bit, because he received the absolute lowest score possible in social maturity. He also had admitted in some of the scouting sessions that he had used weed frequently in college, that he had failed the drug test, so all of that combined, it was pretty off-putting

for a lot of the teams. So much so that he ended up having to write a letter to any of the NFL teams who would take him, saying that he would be willing to write a letter to any of the NFL teams who would take him Saying that he would be willing to be drug tested every other week all if they were interested that he would do it He would test he just wanted to play he wanted to be put on a team and it seems like writing that letter could have either Been a last ditched effort for Aaron to try to get noticed or to come across like he was serious about changing But whatever the intention was behind it, it worked. And there was a team that believed him.

So on June 8th, 2010, he officially signed with the New England Patriots. It was a deal worth $2.37 million, and it also came with a $200,000 signing bonus. So it's safe to say that that was the most money that Aaron had ever seen in his life. It was going to be life-changing for him, for his family, for his sisters,

and for his fiance, Cheyenne. So now he is officially in the big leagues. He's playing with Tom Brady, he's playing with Julian Edelman. I mean, he is playing with some of the greats. All the childhood trauma behind him, everything in the rearview mirror, he got what he wanted.

He's playing professional football and he is getting paid a grip of money to do so. So you might think, okay, great, he finally made it. He finally reached this pinnacle, this peak that he had been working towards. He surely now will start to settle down, right? He'll start to get back on the straight and narrow. He'll focus on what really matters in life, right?

That's what people expected of him. That's what he promised in that letter to the NFL before he was drafted. And it seems like for most of 2010 and 2011 in the rookie season, he kept his word. Sure, he wasn't the most well-liked by his teammates because apparently he always craved to be the center of attention. He always was like showing off and he always wanted to be the most liked guy. But all of that paled in comparison to his past behavior, his past drama, his past conflicts

that he had been involved in. And he finished the season with six touchdowns and 563 receiving yards, which for those who don't follow football, that is not bad at all, because the best of the best tight ends might get over a thousand yards in a year. So for Aaron to get half of that

in his very first year ever, that was a big deal. He also had to miss two games because he had hip surgery. So I mean, he was doing well. He was definitely on this fast track to becoming like, I don't know, would you call it the goat, the MVP, something like that. Like he was definitely outperforming a lot of his other teammates and he was only year one.

In his second NFL season, Aaron and his teammate Rob Grogonski, who goes by Gronk for short, that's probably the nickname that you've heard out there in pop culture, in football, at the, what was it, the Tom Brady roast, all of those things, they were setting records left and right.

And any team would love to have one star tight end. But with Aaron and Gronk, the Patriots now had two. Some fans even said that their playing style revolutionized the position. But off the field, things weren't so smooth. Not even a little bit. In fact, things were about to get a whole lot more violent for Aaron. And really quickly. It's now 2012, and it's Aaron's third season in the NFL.

And this is also the year that he met Odin, because it's when Odin started dating Aaron's fiancée's sister, Shanae. And I know you're probably thinking, alright Annie, like we're knee deep into the episode, that was a lot of backstory to get through, like get to the frickin point. But I promise you will see why all of it is so important, because like I said, this is definitely a complex one one and to really understand it you do have to go back and peel back all of the layers. So on August 27th, 2012, the New England Patriots decided that Aaron was worth a lot more money to keep around. An insane amount of money.

They offered him a contract extension for five years that was worth nearly $40 million. On top of that, he was guaranteed almost $16 million, and it also came with a $12.5 million signing bonus. Now, at the time, it was actually the second biggest contract extension ever that had been given to a tight end. This was a huge, huge deal. But just a few months before then, it seemed like Aaron might have been back to his old ways. Just a few months before then, it seemed like Aaron might've been back to his old ways because on July 16th, 2012, at a bar in Boston, two immigrants named Daniel and Sefirro

were shot and killed when a silver SUV pulled up next to their car and just started firing shots. Some witnesses even testified that the SUV belonged to Aaron and they said that they saw him in that SUV. And at the time of the killings, Aaron did drive an SUV that matched that description. So when investigators rolled the security footage from the bar that night,

Aaron was immediately identified. But was it just another coincidence that he was there that night? Was it like the other nightclub instance where he was there but he had nothing to do with it, according to him? I mean, two shootings, two similar circumstances, and both times Aaron is nearby. We all say where there's smoke there's fire, but is this just a horrible

coincidence? Wrong place, wrong time. And as a matter of fact, that's exactly what the cops thought. When they saw Aaron on that security footage, they thought that it probably was just a coincidence. And nothing more came of it. Which that seems a little bizarre to me, but we've gotta just trust that the police do their due diligence, so who knows. Then just a few months after that, in the middle of his third NFL season, Aaron and his fiance gave birth to their daughter.

This was on November 6th, 2012, and it was Aaron's 23rd birthday, which that's crazy when you think about it. The fact that he already had such a successful career, this multimillion dollar contract, and he was only 23 years old. You also think at 23 years old, you now have a child, you're a professional NFL player, you have millions of dollars,

you may or may not have been involved in two attempted murder shootings. Like, that's a lot for 23 years old, right? So things were now definitely moving forward in his life. He had a lot of exciting things at his fingertips. However, on the field, he didn't play as much this season because he had had some injuries in the past that still lingered a little bit. So this was the year that you could say that he and Odin started to get to know each other better. And at one point, Aaron even sprung for a box suite at one of the Patriots games for Odin's girlfriend's birthday,

which of course Odin also attended. So then fast forward to June of 2013, which would have been off-season for Aaron. And on Friday, June 15th, Aaron invited Odin out to go to some clubs to go bar hopping club hopping with him and some other friends of theirs. They all stayed out super late actually super so late that it was early it was early morning hours but it seemed like Odin had a great time because he had this to say about his experience when he talked to his friends quote shit was crazy the girls were off the chain we smoked that super duper and Aaron dropped 10 G's like it was nothing. We kept rolling past Don at his big ass mansion.

Then he tossed me the keys to his suburban." Now I mentioned at the beginning that Odin's girlfriend didn't seem to think that he and Aaron were that good of friends. But it seems that Aaron did bring him into his inner circle, that they were becoming better friends, closer friends. And Aaron was a guy who had major trust issues. He could be super jumpy and shifty if he thought that maybe you were looking at him the wrong way. So the fact that he was now comfortable

inviting Odin out with him kind of does say a lot about where their friendship stood. And it also seemed like Odin was close enough to Aaron and to his inner group of friends, then he knew things that other people didn't know. Like Aaron's drug use didn't just stop with weed, it went further. According to Odin, Aaron was into way harder stuff,

specifically PCP, which is also known as angel dust. Now PCP is an insanely intense drug and it has these gnarly crazy side effects. I mean, it causes hallucinations, it completely alters your brain, your perception of reality. It can also spark these super violent outbursts and even increase the risk of suicide

if you're the one using it. It's definitely not a drug to just like mess around with lightly. Honestly, it's not a drug to mess around with period. But we all know that people sometimes like to try things, but I am telling you right now, I highly, highly, highly advise against it. Don't do it. So this was apparently a drug that Aaron dabbled with. And the side effects of this drug, which I just mentioned, really also aligned with

Aaron's behavior. According to his friends, he started carrying a gun with him wherever he went because he thought that his life might be in danger. So it was almost like this paranoia was starting to set in. Also during that off season, he started missing some of the team workouts with the Patriots and it became so regular in fact, and his behavior started escalating and becoming so erratic and unpredictable that his coach had to talk with him and say,

look, you are one misstep away from being cut from this team, like get it together. Which once again, it's like you're reaching the pinnacle of everything and you are just throwing it all away. It is awful. It is devastating to witness. So after their long night out at the clubs doing all their club hopping, on Sunday, June 16th, Erin texted Odin to hang out again. And this is what the text message said. It said, I'm coming to grab that tonight. You going to be around? I need that. And we could step for a little again. So Odin agreed and Aaron picked him up at his

house later that night. But what Odin didn't seem to know is that Aaron had been in a fit of rage all weekend after that night out that they had. In fact, he seemed so angry that he might kill somebody. But where was the disconnect? Because Odin had been bragging to his friends about what an amazing night out they had, how it was so much fun. So that's a stark difference to now Aaron unhinged, angry and like still reeling from that night. So what really went on during that night

when they went to the nightclubs? Apparently at one point during that night while they were out at the club, a couple of Odin's cousins showed up. And when Odin noticed them, he left the VIP section that he was in with Aaron and he wanted to go say hello. He wanted to grab a couple drinks with them. But apparently the cousins didn't like Aaron. And according to the other people who were there that night,

Aaron could see that the cousins were giving him dirty looks and that they were kind of just like pointing their fingers in his direction, you know, talking a little shit. So allegedly Odin told them to stop. He didn't want any drama between him and Aaron, but it kept happening. And it turns out that Aaron was watching and saw this entire interaction go down between Odin and his cousins. And we already know that Aaron could get, you know, more than a little bit paranoid, right? So this definitely was not a good mix. He immediately started arguing with Odin. And security footage at the club also confirms this. And it didn't stop there either.

When the group left, Aaron and Odin just kept arguing outside. Now, ultimately for Odin at least, it didn't really seem like anything, just this moment of Aaron being a hothead, getting angry, that was pretty normal behavior after all. So Odin figured that it would pass. He had absolutely no idea that Aaron did not see it that way.

So again, it's now Sunday, June 16th, 2013, and Aaron reaches out to two other guys he knows to go out with them that night. These guys were Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz. Aaron had known them both for a while. They were part of his inner circle. So at about 1.09 a.m., which technically now is Monday, June 17th, the three of them head over to Odin's house in a silver Nissan Altima. Aaron didn't get to Odin's house until around 2.30 a.m. And surveillance footage from across the street confirms that Odin did get into that car. But what happened inside that car between 2.30 and 3 a.m. is a bit of a mystery. However, we do know that Odin sent his sister a few text messages, and here's what they said.

At 3.07, Odin sent a text that said, you saw who I'm with? Followed by NFL, and then another one that says, just so you know. And it sounds like he was trying to get his sister to understand that he was with Erin. But why? He had hung out with him several times before, obviously. So did Odin sense that something was different this time? That maybe something was a little bit off? Or was he just kind of sort of gloating about being out with this famous NFL player and that he's out with him again and he wanted to brag about that? Then, just a few minutes after Odin sent his last text message to his sister, the car that they were all in stopped at an industrial park. This was about one mile from Aaron's house.

Then, by 3.26 a.m., that same Altima was seen on Aaron's home security camera pulling back into his driveway. The problem was, only three men got out of the car after it parked and Odin wasn't one of them. All right, so we age, right? There's no avoiding it. It happens, it happens to all of us. And if you're like me, you lose weight, it comes back, you lose it again, it comes back again.

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freeae. One free breakfast item per box while your subscription is active. That's free breakfast for life at hellofresh.com slash free AE. There's a reason Hello Fresh is America's number one meal kit. The next day that 17 year old high school student who was going for a jog through that park, something he always did, that same park that Aaron and Odin had been at the night before, he made that gruesome discovery when he came across a body. Odin was still there, lying on his back, not breathing. He immediately called the police, who showed up pretty quickly, and shortly after investigators arrived on the scene, they officially pronounced Odin

as dead. The cause of death appeared to be several gunshot wounds to various parts of his body. So the investigators got to work. Once they figured out who Odin was, they pretty quickly pieced together that Aaron might have information, because remember, he lived just a mile away from where Odin's body was found.

And Odin still had a key in his pocket to that Chevy Suburban that Aaron had rented, the one that he was driving when the two of them went, you know, clubbing two days earlier. So at 9.40 p.m., the same night that Odin's body was found, detectives went and knocked on Aaron's door. They started peering into his windows with their flashlights, trying to get him to come to the door, trying to get him to answer. And eventually, after almost an hour, he finally came outside. He said that he had been watching them on the security cameras the entire time.

When the detectives asked him about Odin, Aaron's demeanor then suddenly shifted. came outside. He said that he had been watching them on the security cameras the entire time. When the detectives asked him about Odin, Aaron's demeanor then suddenly shifted. And according to the police, he started to seem agitated. Yet he did confirm that Odin was, you know, quote, up this way the day before. Eventually, Aaron also agreed to go to the police station and talk with the officers.

Just over a week later, on June 26th, 2013, Aaron Hernandez was arrested. He was charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Oden Lloyd. Then within hours of his arrest, the New England Patriots released him from their roster, essentially firing him immediately. The guys that were with him that night also, Ernest and Carlos, were also arrested and charged in the murder. Now, as far as we know, there wasn't any reason that Aaron would want Odin dead.

Why would Aaron kill his friend? Not only his friend, but Odin was practically family. He was dating Aaron's fiance's sister. Not to mention, Aaron had literally made it. He was an NFL star. He had millions of dollars. And why did Aaron want his other friends there when he did this?

Was there some sort of argument or disagreement that went down between all of these men and then Odin as well and Odin was the one that was attacked? Well, let's start with the evidence that the cops said that they had against Aaron. First, there were the text messages that we talked about earlier, the ones that Odin sent his sister about being with Aaron shortly before the murder, as well as text messages from hours earlier when Aaron said that he was going to be coming by later to pick up Odin. The police never found the gun that was used to kill Odin, but on Aaron's own home security footage, he was seen inside of his house shortly after the murder happened and he had a gun in his hands, and when he was seen on that footage, he was heading into his basement.

Investigators also claimed that there were shoe prints that were found at the scene of the crime hands, and when he was seen on that footage, he was heading into his basement. Investigators also claimed that there were shoe prints that were found at the scene of the crime that matched a pair of Nikes that belonged to Aaron. However, they never actually found those shoes. A marijuana joint was also found near Odin's body. Investigators had it tested for DNA, and sure enough, it came up as a match for Aaron, as well as Odin. However, maybe the most damning

piece of evidence for Aaron was a chewed up piece of bubblicious blue cotton candy bubblegum. See, the Nissan Altima that Aaron and his buddies had allegedly picked up Odin in that night, it was also a rental car, just like that Suburban. And when Aaron returned it, a worker at this rental place told the police she had thrown out all of the trash that had been left inside the car when it was left behind. And one of the pieces of trash that she threw away was blue bubble gum that was stuck to a bullet shell casing. So the cops were able to go through the trash and they found it. And the reason this was so important was because before Odin's murder, Erin, Carlos, and Ernest

had stopped at a gas station. And Aaron can be seen on surveillance footage buying that same type of bubblegum. The video was taken at a gas station in Canton around 2am the night of the murder. In the courtroom, you could hear a pin drop while it was played. Hernandez parks the car and exits from the driver's seat. After pumping gas, he walks inside the convenience store, purchasing rolling paper and blue bubblegum. At his side, alleged co-conspirator, Carlos Ortiz,

around his neck, a towel, similar to the one found at the crime scene. So there was a pretty good amount of physical evidence showing that Aaron was involved in the shooting. But would the prosecutors be able to prove that he was the one who actually pulled the trigger? Aaron's trial began on January 29, 2015. And it's safe to say that Aaron's legal team was very, very confident in their defense strategy. Here's what his lawyer had to say during his opening statement.

Aaron Hernandez is an innocent man. The evidence will show that Aaron Hernandez did not murder his friend, Odin Lloyd. Nor did he ask or orchestrate anyone else to murder him. Now this trial, it created a media circus. Obviously, this was a high profile person in a high profile case, but more than 100 witnesses were called to the stand to testify over the course of several weeks, including both sisters, Shanae and Shiana Jenkins. And it's fair to say that this trial, and the entire incident really, has really torn the family apart.

Erin's fiance, Shiana, was actually granted immunity at the trial. At first, she wasn't super cooperative with the prosecutors, but they thought that if they could get her to testify, it might help. Investigators thought that she might have been the one to get rid of the murder weapon, but they couldn't prove it. So after giving her immunity, she took the stand and she testified about a trash bag that Aaron had asked her to remove from their home. He had asked her to remove this once he was already in jail.

This is the video prosecutors referred to as they peppered Shanna Jenkins with questions in court Monday. She testified that Hernandez called her the day after Odenloyde's death and told her to remove a cardboard box from a storage area in their home. Did he indicate to you what was inside the box? No. Did he say why he wanted you to do this? I believe he said it was important.

I'm not too sure. Why did you do this? I believe he said it was important. I'm not too sure. Prosecutors said prior to the trial, they believed the bag she's carrying may have contained evidence and possibly the murder weapon, which was never found. But the defense offered a different theory on cross-examination when Jenkins testified that while she didn't look inside the box, she did think it smelled like marijuana. In the video, Jenkins is seen loading that bag into the trunk of her sister's car. Did you do anything with the box that was in the bag that was in the trunk of the car?

I did. And what did you do with it? I disposed of it. And when you say you disposed of it, where did you disposed of it? In a dumpster. And where was the dumpster? I don't know. Is there anything that interferes with your ability to remember? I'm in a dumpster. And where was the dumpster? I don't know.

Is there anything that interferes with your ability to remember? I mean, at that point I was nervous. Everyone's emotions were kind of on me, and there was a form of breaking down at that point. So, yeah, I was nervous. And as a form of breaking down at that point. So yeah, I was nervous And as a result of that you're unable today to remember what you did with that box. Yeah, I was I was unable then and I'm unable now and in a move that doesn't happen with every case The jury was actually taken to visit Aaron's home Also Odin's home and Odin's murder location, all so

that they could see everything in person and really take it all in. So the trial went on until April 15th, 2015, and that's when the jury finally returned a verdict. Take a listen. Is the defendant not guilty, guilty of murder in the first degree, or guilty of murder in the second degree? Guilty of murder in the second degree? Guilty of murder in the first degree. Madam Court Person, by which theory or theories

deliberate premeditation and or extreme atrocity or cruelty? Extreme atrocity or cruelty. In document 2013-983-3,endant Aaron Hernandez with unlawful possession of a firearm while not at home or work, what say you Madam Foreperson? Is the defendant not guilty or guilty? Guilty. In Debuting 2013-983-C, charging charging the defendant Aaron Hernandez with unlawful possession of ammunition, what say you, Madam Foreperson? Is the defendant not guilty or guilty?

Guilty. Your Honor, may I have the jury be called on count one for Silver Rule 27. Amen. on cap one facility rule 22nd. Thanks. Aaron was officially found guilty of the murder of his friend, Odin Lloyd, and later he received his sentence. The jury returning a verdict of murder in the first degree. And in consideration of the crime

for which you now stand committed, you are sentenced by order of the court as follows. You're committed to the NCI-Cedar junction for the term of your natural life without the court as follows. You're committed to the NCIC interjunction for the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole. That's right, life in prison. Which can you just imagine throwing your entire life away? Which I'd imagine that Odin's family did feel some sort of justice when this verdict and sentence was reached, but take a listen to what Odin's mother had to say about her son after the verdict. My son Odin was the most precious gift in my life. I'm gonna miss his smile.

From across the street I will see his pink gum coming towards me. On Father's Day I'm going to miss the best words. Happy Father's Day, Ma. I've been his mother and father all his life. So on Father's Day, that's one of the things that he gives me. On that Sunday, I had just came from church and my son saw me, he says, Ma, you look so beautiful today. I love those colors on you. And those were the last words I heard from my son. Just like God has left his footprint in the sand. My baby footprint is in my heart forever.

My baby footprint is in my heart forever. He was my strength. I love him dearly. Now the big question in all of this, of course, was why? And let me just say before we get into the why, we're not even close to done with this yet. It gets even crazier. But the big question is why, right? Why did Aaron kill Odin?

What was his motive in all of this? Well, according to the cops and even people who knew Aaron personally, there were a few different theories for a motive. So let's touch on them quickly. The first theory is that Odin was just talking too much. And by this, I mean that some people speculate that maybe Odin knew more than he should have about some of Aaron's past legal trouble,

especially relating to that double homicide back from 2012, the one that Aaron might have been involved with, but initially wasn't treated as a suspect in. Theory number two is that Odin knew too much about Aaron, period, specifically about his sexuality. We touched earlier on the fact that Aaron might have been gay or maybe even bisexual, but he was never really out. And the reason why is because apparently Aaron had told a friend, quote, you can't trust

anyone. And this was right before Odin's murder. So some people think that maybe Odin knew Aaron's sexual secret. And maybe Aaron was willing to kill over that. The third theory is drugs and paranoia, because we know that Aaron was into much harder drugs than weed, some that very very seriously alter your brain chemistry. So it's possible that Aaron was high, he was paranoid, and that that played a factor into him thinking that he needed to kill Odin. But whatever the case, none of those theories were worth Odin's life. I mean, not at all. And while that might've been the end of Odin's story, Aaron's was far from over. After Aaron went to prison for killing Odin, more trouble seemed to find him. Remember that double homicide that I mentioned a couple of times?

Well, investigators did a complete 180. They now officially named Aaron as a suspect in that case, all while he was behind bars. Which I have to wonder, is that only because now he wasn't this glorified NFL player and this untouchable superstar? Now that he was arrested and charged and sentenced for other crimes, it made him more of a, I don't want to say safe target because I believe he was obviously responsible, but it made it so that he was more touchable, more accessible? I don't know, what do you think? In any event, he ended up on trial for the incident while he was serving time for Odin's murder.

Hernandez was indicted today on two counts of first degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. Investigators say the July 2012 shootings started with a chance encounter inside the Cure Lounge on Tremont Street. They say Hernandez followed Daniel DiAbreu, Sefiru Furtado, and their three friends as they left the club. Police say Hernandez then drove up beside their car and from the driver's side of an SUV, fired several shots. Police have since recovered both the SUV and the gun.

Now you'll never guess who Aaron hired on for his attorney for this case. None other than the defense attorney who I absolutely loathe, Jose Baez. You know, the same dirtbag lawyer who got Casey Anthony off for her charges. And hiring him worked out well for Aaron, because in April of 2017, a verdict was ready. To the surprise of many people in the media who were very close to the case, Aaron was found not guilty, and he was acquitted. When he heard the verdict

read aloud in court, he actually cried, and it was a really stark contrast to the Aaron that we saw in Oden's trial. So, was it that prison was changing him? I mean, don't get me wrong, a murderer is still a murderer, 1000%, but maybe now that he was free from the drugs, from the street life, from the money, the wealth, all of these glamorous things, maybe now he was starting to accept some of the things that he had been suppressing for so long, who knows? But then just two days after he was found

not guilty in the murders, Aaron was found hanging in his prison cell. He had used a bed sheet that he tied to a window. The words John 3.16, the scripture, were written across his forehead, which is associated with the Bible verse that says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. And his official cause of death was ruled a suicide. According to workers in the prison, they didn't have any suspicion that Aaron was mentally unwell,

and they said that if they did, they definitely would have moved him, and he would have been under more intense surveillance to avoid something like this from happening. But according to his fiance, she doesn't really think that he actually took his own life. Listen to what she told Dr. Phil during an interview. Do you believe he took his own life? I don't know what to believe, to be honest with you. It's just not the Aaron that I know. I think that if he would have done something like this, it would have been at his worst.

I felt like we were, you know, it was looking so bright. We were going up a ladder, in a sense, to the positive direction. I haven't been able to grasp any of it yet. Well, you probably know him better than anybody else. Do you think this was a suicide or something else? I don't think this was a suicide. Knowing him, I don't know. I don't know.

What would cause you to doubt that he took his own life? I mean, for one thing, we know that he had just been acquitted of two murders and had one on appeal. So I mean, this had to be the high point of high points in a long, long time, right? No, I agree. And that would make me doubt that he took his own life. He's very positive. So excited to come home, I spoke to him.

The night before they say this incident happened and he was so you know that he's going to be home and he's you know he's speaking to a VL. I can't wait to sleep in the bed with you guys and I can't wait to just hold you and love you. There was no indication at all of, you know, such events. So if or why he actually took his own life still remains a topic that is up for debate to this day. Now one of the most popular theories out there is one that I'm going to go over. We know that Aaron was found guilty in the murder of Odin Lloyd.

But there's a technicality at play here, one that Aaron might have actually capitalized on by killing himself. Aaron never had the chance to have his appeal reviewed. So a judge had thrown out his murder conviction on that principle alone. He died before he got his chance at an appeal. When that conviction was overturned, that also could have meant that Aaron's fiance and daughter were entitled to more money from his NFL contract, because technically now he wasn't a murderer anymore, so the grounds that they had for withholding that contractually

obligated money could be challenged, could be tested. And it seemed like this was the reason behind Aaron taking his own life so that his fiance and daughter would be financially set. However, what he wasn't banking on was the fact that two years later, after he took his own life, the court reinstated his conviction. Another theory for Aaron's suicide relates to his mental health and CTE,

which if you're not familiar with CTE, it's been a super hot topic in the sports world the last several years, but basically doctors are finding more and more athletes, especially those in contact sports like football, that they're damaging their brains and damaging them so severely that it's causing them a lot of problems. Some of the most common symptoms are memory loss, mood changes, behavioral problems, as well as suicidal ideations. And here's the thing with CTE, Aaron did have it. In fact, he had the worst case of CTE

that doctors had ever seen in somebody his age. Unfortunately, there's no treatment for CTE either because it can't even be diagnosed until after you're dead. Doctors actually have to look at your brain outside of your body to determine if you have it. Now another reason that some people thought that Aaron may have killed himself is the same reason that he killed Odin Lloyd, because he was secretly gay or secretly bisexual and that he just, you know, couldn't handle dealing with these feelings and dealing with what the media was saying about him now, about his past coming

to light, the abuse, all of these different things. Aaron's brother even agrees that Aaron probably did feel uncomfortable in his own skin and that he was having this extremely hard time dealing with a lifetime of repressed feelings, just trying to really grapple with who he was internally, especially now in prison without the distractions of the money, the club, the sport, all of these things, it really just sunk in and he had to sit in that discomfort.

And people suggest that that's what led him to taking his own life. Erin's fiance hasn't really shared her true opinion one way or another, but she has said that she doesn't think that you can describe or comment on somebody's sexuality without them being there, which I do agree with her. I think that you can't comment on whether or not somebody else is gay. That's something only somebody else can decide and acknowledge and declare for themselves. However, in 2020, a few years after Aaron's death,

an inmate that he was in prison with named Kyle Kennedy says that the two of them did have an intimate relationship while they were both locked up. We were together for a while. He just wanted to be real with himself before anyone. He's like, you know, he's like, I feel like I'm hiding in my own skin. He wanted to come out and tell

the world. He just didn't know how his family would handle it. And that kid had a big heart. He worried about everyone else. Like first, you know, worried about what his daughter might think.

He had plans on going home. I I'm going home soon, you know, or we could be together the street. What would people say? Would you know, or we could be together the street. What would people say? Would you be able to handle this? That was all new to me. One day we were walking in the cell and he's like, just lay down and close your eyes, shut off the light. And he's like, you know, and that's the first time. How much of a dark secret was this for him to carry around as a burden? I could tell once he started opening up to

me and talking to me every day, I could just see it in his eyes. Like he was getting happier. He was just being able to confide in someone. Some of something that he couldn't talk to anybody about. More than that, Kyle also claims that Aaron confided in him about a fourth murder that he was involved with. But now that Aaron's no longer here, it's unclear if we'll ever find out more about that and if he was actually involved in it. I mean, at least for now. We call him double A, you know?

And we got two bodies, like, you know, I used to tell him, boy, we should call him triple A. He's like, nah, he's like four. You know, we're sitting in someone's kitchen, he's fourth. And he's like, yo, he's like, yo, he's like, I got four bodies.

Did you believe him? What we're able to establish is a credible lead that suggests that Aaron Hernandez could have been involved in a fourth murder. If Aaron Hernandez killed four people, he was a serial killer. But if Aaron really did kill four people, like Kyle Kennedy said, that would mean that he actually was involved in that double homicide case where he got acquitted. Also, I would argue he would probably have been involved in that attempted double murder as well. Maybe he just truly thought he was untouchable and that he ruled the streets. There were never any repercussions so he could just do what he wanted. All to say, it seems like Aaron had a lot of demons that he was battling with his

entire life. He had no real direction. He kind of just ended up making bad choice after bad choice and never could quite get on the right path. Now that doesn't excuse what he has done, not at all, but it seems like he did struggle his entire life. And it's incredibly sad for his family, especially for his daughter, who's now almost 12 years old and she has to grow up without a father in her life at all. Which I'm curious, if you have followed this case or Aaron Hernandez's career or anything like that, what do you think? Do you think that this case could have been prevented?

Or like I mentioned in the very beginning of this episode, do you think that Aaron kind of like manifested his own destiny with never being able to escape the drugs, the streets, the guns, this fast crazy life, the money that he all had going on. Let me know what you guys think. And check out that new FX series if you are looking for, I still can't think the word, not a dramatization, but a re- not a reenactment, but you get what I'm saying. It's a new depiction, a true-to-life story, but with actors. That's probably the best way to describe it. It's on FX now. And it's called American Sports Story, Erin Hernandez. So check it out. Alright guys

Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Serialistly I will be back on the mic with you for Thursday's headline highlights and until then we've got our last few tickets for tour We have some special guests. We have Matt Murphy a prosecutor a huge prosecutor from Orange County, LA area We have Kaylin Moore from Heart Start Pounding podcast. We have Kim Berleah. We've got Lauren Mathias from Hidden True Crime. She's an expert in all things cults and LDS extreme people. So we have got some amazing cities, amazing guests lined up where we are going to be doing these episodes live. So check out the dates. They're all at annielise.com. Go to the events tab. We are sold out completely for Phoenix. I think we have a couple tickets left for some of the other cities, but grab

them before they're gone. All right, guys, thank you so much and until the next one, please stay safe. Bye.