In the first of a six-part series profiling the late Aaron Hernandez, The Boston Globe reported the former New England Patriots tight end was sexually abused as a child, beaten by his father and began smoking marijuana regularly in high school.
The Globe’s “Spotlight Team” produced the series after hours of interviewing people who knew Hernandez, sifting through thousands of court and government records, and reading numerous of texts and emails Hernandez sent before killing himself in prison last year. The report also includes information gathered from about 300 phone calls over a six-month period Hernandez made from jail.
At the time of his death, Hernandez was serving a life sentence without parole for the 2013 killing of his friend Odin Lloyd.
Hernandez was found hanged by a bed sheet inside his prison cell April 19, 2017, days after he was found not guilty for the double murder of two men on a Boston street in 2012.
Included within The Globe's report:
► During Hernandez's NFL career, agent Brian Murphy was trying to counsel Hernandez on the need to always fulfill his obligations in business deals.
“No, no,” Hernandez told Murphy.
Hernandez reached into his closet and pulled out a rifle. “I get my respect through weapons,” he said.
Murphy told a grand jury that he interpreted it as a joke.
► Hernandez adored his father Dennis, even though he and his brother Jonathan were often "beaten and brutalized" by him, according to The Globe. Friends took note that Hernandez didn’t cry when his father died at age 49 from routine hernia surgery, according to The Globe, and yet some believe he never recovered from his father’s death.
► Hernandez's high school quarterback Dennis SanSoucie told The Globe he and Hernandez smoked marijuana before school, before practices and after games. The Globe stated this was the beginning “of Hernandez’s lifelong relationship with getting high, even before big games.”
► SanSoucie also told The Globe he had a sexual relationship with Hernandez in middle school and high school, a relationship they hid from everyone.
► Jonathan Hernandez told The Globe that Aaron Hernandez revealed to him later as an adult that he was sexually molested as a young boy. Jonathan Hernandez declined to name who had molested his brother.