Aaron Hernandez: Netflix series Killer Inside offers chilling look at NFL star turned convicted murderer
Three episodes offer testimony from 'a tapestry of perspectives... from every walk of life in which Aaron was involved', and examine issues including Hernandez's sexuality and abusive upbringing
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
A new Netflix docuseries will examine the true story of how a star athlete fell from grace after being convicted of murder.
Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez attempts to piece together the double life of NFL player Aaron Hernandez, who played for the New England Patriots until being arrested in the summer of 2013 for the murder of Odin Lloyd.
Hernandez began his football career in high school, where he broke several state records and went on to play at university, first in Connecticut and then Florida.
He became a star tight end at the University of Florida, before becoming the youngest player in the NFL at the time when he joined the New England Patriots – winning a five-year contract extension worth $40 million in 2012 as a result of his performance.
This all came to an end when Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player, was shot and killed on 17 June 2013. His body was found in an industrial park around a mile from Hernandez’s mansion in Massachusetts.
The 27-year-old had been dating Shaneah Jenkins, sister of Hernandez’s fiancee Shayanna Jenkins (with whom he had a daughter), at the time of his death.
Hernandez and two others were arrested and charged just over a week later. He was convicted in April 2015 and sentenced to life without parole – he was found dead in his cell, having taken his own life in 2017. At the time he had just been acquitted of the murder of two other men in Boston in 2012, and was waiting to appeal his murder conviction.
Killer Inside is the most comprehensive visual account yet of Hernandez’s story, and examines issues including his sexuality, abusive upbringing, celebrity, and post-morterm diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head trauma.
Over the course of three episodes, which were directed by Geno McDermott, those involved offer testimony from “a tapestry of perspectives... from every walk of life in which Aaron was involved”.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
These include Dennis SanSoucie, Hernandez’s high-school quarterback and secret lover, and former Patriots offensive tackle Ryan O’Callaghan, who discusses the pressure to remain silent as a gay man in football, The Guardian reports.
Journalist Dan Wetzel, one of McDermott’s partners on the project, says there is no single answer as to what went wrong with Hernandez: “I think it was a perfect cocktail of problems. And there were many, many times when this could have gotten a walk-back or he could’ve gotten off the rails. He just never had the help or just made terrible decisions.”
Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez is available to watch now on Netflix.