After former NFL star Aaron Hernandez was found dead in his jail cell last week, authorities found three suicide notes lying near his body, one addressed to his fiancée, one to his daughter, and the third to his prison boyfriend. Authorities are now questioning whether the player’s complicated sex life was a prime motivation for his years of troublesome behavior, and ultimately his suicide.
Authorities discovered much focus on the Bible inside Hernandez’s jail cell after his death. Not only did he write a portion of a Bible verse on his forehead — John 3:16 — he had also used a red marker to mimic Christ’s stigmata on his hands and feet. Along with the stigmata, which are markings emulating the wounds Jesus suffered on the cross, a Bible was opened to the same verse he excerpted on his forehead. That verse reads, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.”
The suicide seemed to come at a strange time for Aaron Hernandez, since it occurred only a few days after he had been cleared in his second murder trial.
The letter to the player’s prison boyfriend might go toward explaining much of the former New England Patriots’ life, Newsweek reported. Investigations against Hernandez have revealed that there may have been elements of sex, deception, and secrecy to the player’s unsettled life.
In 2015 Hernandez was convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd, the man who was dating the sister of the NFL player’s fiancée. In some ways Lloyd’s murder made little sense, but police were working on an angle that Hernandez killed Lloyd because Lloyd knew of the player’s bisexuality and Hernandez wanted that information kept secret.
A relationship Hernandez reportedly had with a high school friend also played a role in the investigation. Ernest Wallace, a co-defendant in the murder of Lloyd, told police in several different ways that he thought Hernandez was gay. Hernandez’s is bisexuality now seems practically assured after the discovery of the letter to his prison boyfriend.
Investigators also speculated that Hernandez’s sexual proclivities may have been at the root of his bouts of violence. Hernandez had a long list of outbursts going back to his youth, and many of these incidents also formed a central part in the case against the NFL player in Lloyd’s murder.
Perhaps there will be no way to prove the suspicions that Hernandez’ sexual proclivities led to his turbulent life, but it would certainly make sense.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.