Aaron Hernandez: The true story behind Killer Inside on Netflix

16 January 2020, 17:41

By Sam Prance

Everything the Netflix series tells us about Aaron Hernandez's life, death, sexuality, career and crimes.

Netflix has released a new crime docu-series called Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez and viewers are in disbelief.

Aaron Hernandez was a hugely successful American football player who played for the New England Patriots between 2010 and 2013. However, his career came to end after he was arrested and convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd. Killer Inside seeks to examine how the NFL star became a wanted criminal with in-depth interviews and never-before-seen footage.

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Sportswriters, Dan Wetzel and Kevin Armstrong, narrate the series and it includes interviews with Aaron's childhood friends, colleagues and lawyers. It also features conversations between Aaron with his fiancée and his mum while in prison. Here's all the key information we learned from the Netflix docu-series about Aaron's life, death, sexuality, career and crimes.

Who did Aaron Hernandez kill?

In 2013, Aaron Hernandez was convicted of the murder of his friend and semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. Odin had been shot multiple times in the back and chest in an industrial park close to Aaron's house on 17 June that year. Aaron became an immediate suspect. He pled not guilty in court but on 15 April 2015 but he was found guilty of murder in the first degree, as well as five firearm charges. He was then sentenced to life in prison without the opportunity of parole.

It's still unclear exactly what Aaron's motive for killing Odin was. Police investigated if Odin knew of Hernandez's possible homosexuality and Aaron was worried about being outed, but there's no concrete evidence to suggest this was the case.

Following his death, Aaron was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Some scientists believe this was a contributing factor in Aaron's criminal behaviour but, again, it's not clear.

During his trial for Odin's murder, Aaron also became a key suspect in the 2012 homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. He was indicted for their murders, however, he was acquitted of them in 2017.

Was Aaron Hernandez gay?

Killer Inside explores Aaron Hernandez's sexuality at length. The docu-series includes interviews with Aaron's high school quarterback, Dennis SanSoucie, who claims that he "experimented" sexually with Aaron. Dennis explains: "We continued because we probably enjoyed it. Yes, we were in a relationship back then but at the time, you don’t look at it like that."

Dennis also claims that Aaron's father was homophobic. He says: "Aaron was extremely terrified of his father finding out. I mean, Mr. Hernandez was well known as a man’s man, a father that slapped the [gay slur] right out of you." Killer Inside details that there were also reports that Aaron had a male lover in prison but it's unknown if this was true or not.

Aaron never publicly labelled his sexuality so whether he was gay, bisexual or didn't label himself remains unknown. He had a daughter with his high school girlfriend, Shayanna Jenkins, in 2012 and they later got engaged. Shayanna claims she had no reason to believe Aaron was gay.

How did Aaron Hernandez die?

On 19 April 2017, Aaron Hernandez was found dead in his cell in the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts. It was later ruled as suicide. He left notes for his lawyer, his fiancée and daughter.