Convicted killer and former New England Patriots star Aaron J. Hernandez hanged himself inside his cell at the state’s maximum security prison in Shirley early Wednesday, in an apparent suicide five days after he was acquitted of two additional murders.
Hernandez, 27, was serving life without parole for killing Odin L. Lloyd in an industrial park near the football player’s million dollar North Attleborough home in 2013.
The arc of his life was short, and steep. He reached the highest levels of fortune and acclaim in professional sports, only to throw it all away by shooting Lloyd, who had been his friend.
Hernandez apparently took his own life on the day many of his former teammates will be honored at the White House for winning Super Bowl 51 without him.