A few days before Aaron’s death, a Boston reporter had gone on the radio and gabbed about rumors that Aaron had been leading a double life. Before long, tabloids were floating the idea that Kyle Kennedy had been his prison lover.
Rumor had it that one of the three notes Aaron had left behind was intended for Kennedy. The contents of that note would not be revealed. But a copy of the note Aaron left for Shayanna did make its way into a court filing.
“Shay,” Aaron had written. “Your character is that of a true angel and the definition of God’s love!”
Aaron asked his fiancée to tell his story fully, to always remember how much he loved her. His death was God’s plan, he said. In parting, he told her:
“(YOU’RE RICH)”
A month later, on May 17, Shayanna Jenkins appeared on Phillip McGraw’s television program. There was no note intended for Kennedy, she assured Dr. Phil.
“There’s nothing for Kyle Kennedy,” Shayanna said.
When Dr. Phil asked her if Aaron was gay, Shayanna assured him that Aaron was not. “He was very much a man to me,” she said.
On May 24, DJ Hernandez released a statement—his first public comment since Aaron’s death.
“From the bottom of my heart,” DJ had written, “I want to thank everyone who has supported my mother and me during such difficult times. My younger brother Aaron was far from perfect, but I will always love him. Many stories about my brother’s life have been shared with the public—except the story Aaron was brave enough to share with our mother and me. It’s the one story he wanted us to share with the world. It is Aaron’s truth.”
But the statement was followed by months of silence on DJ’s part. As of this writing, the story that DJ hinted at remains untold.
What did Aaron mean, when he told Shayanna, “You’re rich”?
One inmate told prison officials that Aaron mentioned a rumor that had been going around the prison: If an inmate had an open appeal, and died in prison, he would be acquitted of that charge and rendered innocent.
Incredibly, that rumor turned out to be true: According to a principle known as Abatement ab initio (“from the beginning”) the moment of Aaron’s last breath was also the moment in which his conviction for Odin Lloyd’s murder was rendered void. And if Aaron was free and clear of every murder he’d been accused of, didn’t it stand to reason that the Patriots—who had voided Aaron’s contract guarantees after his arrest for the murder of Odin Lloyd—owed Shayanna and Avielle the millions they had refused to pay Aaron?
As of this writing, lawsuits filed by Jose Baez and several other lawyers are ongoing.
As the summer drew to its close, Aaron Hernandez made headlines again.
On September 21, researchers at Boston University announced the startling results of their thorough examination of Hernandez’s brain: not only did the brain exhibit symptoms of CTE, it showed signs of Stage III CTE—the worst case ever seen in a player as young as Hernandez.
Aaron’s brain was “totally mangled,” one of the researchers would say.
No medical diagnosis could explain all of Aaron’s decisions, in life or in death. Many professional athletes suffer from CTE. Very few commit murder.
There is no way to establish how badly Aaron’s brain was damaged at the time that he committed his various crimes. No single explanation exists for any of his actions.
Like all lives, Aaron’s life was more complicated than that.
What we do know is that Aaron Hernandez was an escape artist. On the football field, no one could catch him. In Florida, he was a few steps removed from a terrible shooting that no one had answered for. In Boston, he almost certainly committed a double murder that he got away with.
And when Aaron was caught, and convicted, for Odin Lloyd’s murder, he continued to find new ways to escape. By killing himself, he escaped a long life behind bars. He escaped his sole remaining murder conviction, while finding a way to provide for Shayanna and Avielle.
In the end, he escaped understanding.