Murder Made Me Famous: Aaron Hernandez. The Reelz Television Program

 

MURDER MADE ME FAMOUS: 

AARON HERNANDEZ

Perhaps because the series is titled Murder Made Me Famous, one should not quibble about how, technically, Aaron Hernandez was already famous before his arrest for the murder of Odin Lloyd. The last foray into Reelz's obsession with the late New England Patriot tight end, Murder Made Me Famous: Aaron Hernandez gives us a few more details on this most tragic of cases. 

Murder Made Me Famous follows the series' format of reenactments with interviews. With soft yet effective if at times overdramatic narration by Brad Osborne, we go through the sordid details. We start with Hernandez's arrest at age 23, then go down through his early years. We see Aaron's violent and volcanic rage would burst out without warning or explanation. 

As we continue down the dark paths Hernandez took, we get some surprising details and actual and shocking crime photos. For example, we learn of Hernandez's psychological profile, which is damning in its evaluation of his poor self-esteem and violent tendencies. We also learn how an anonymous tip led police to find the car tying him to Lloyd's murder. A more surprising revelation is of the three suicide notes Hernandez left. One was to his longtime girlfriend Shayana Jenkins, one to his daughter and one to someone who has yet to be identified.

It is highly unlikely that the third note was to Kyle Kennedy, Hernandez's purported jailhouse lover. Hernandez's suicide closed the case, but not the collateral damage. 

Murder Made Me Famous has reenactments as part of its storytelling, and David Garcia did a good job as the disgraced former football star. Garcia brought Hernandez's anger and drug use effectively, though I do not remember if we ever saw him in any other light (say, a tender moment with either Jenkins or his daughter). 

One curious element was in how when discussing his fascination with thug life while at the University of Florida, we see Garcia as Hernandez posing with his weapon, but do not see the actual picture. Was there a picture? Given how we were shown the crime photos of Lloyd, it seems curious to not see this particular photo.

The interviews give interesting insight into both Hernandez and the myriad of murders he was tied to. His childhood friend Jerome Hardy continues to stay loyal to Hernandez. If memory serves correct, he is troubled by the crimes but also remembered Hernandez in a more positive light. Ben Volin, the senior NFL reporter for the Boston Globe, expressed that after this case, he was cynical about redemption stories. 

Perhaps the best comment is made by lawyer Douglas Sheff, who again if memory serves represented the Lloyd family. "It'll be a good day when the media remembers the name Odin Lloyd and can forget the name Aaron Hernandez", he comments in the opening to Murder Made Me Famous. Here, he captures the lost truth in the many Reelz and non-Reelz stories that recount this most shocking tale.

For all the ideas of "wasted opportunities" that Hernandez failed to live up to because of his own demons and bankrupt morality, there are many people whose lives are permanently ruined thanks to him. Alexander Bradley, his frenemy who testified against him after Hernandez shot him in the eye and left him for dead. Shayana Jenkins and their daughter, now without a father with a tainted past. Finally, Odin Lloyd and his family. 

We can now close out the seeming glut of Aaron Hernandez-related television documentaries and true crime shows. Murder Made Me Famous: Aaron Hernadez tells its story well, if perhaps a bit too dramatically. Still, it is worth watching for those interested in this sad, so very sad, tale. 

7/10 

Autopsy: The Last Hours of Aaron Hernandez. The Reelz Television Program

 

AUTOPSY: THE LAST HOURS OF AARON HERNANDEZ

Reelz Channel simply cannot quit the late former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez. Having featured him in the specials Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields, Jailhouse Lover Tells All and Life Inside along with episodes of its regular programs Notorious, Murder Made Me Famous and Autopsy, Reelz presented itself as diving into the Hernandez mineshaft once again for Aaron Hernandez: The True Story. The mind boggles at what more can be dug up about Hernandez, and it turns out Reelz has mined this story to where it repackages it to get more attention. 

Aaron Hernandez: The True Story turns out to be a depressing bait-and-switch, as it is a mashup of two previous Reelz productions: Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields and Autopsy. As one who has seen almost all the myriad of Hernandez-related Reelz programs, I was not amused to find myself watching someone old presented as something new.

Still, not one to throw the baby out with the bathwater, Aaron Hernandez: The True Story allowed me a chance to review Autopsy: The Last Hours of Aaron Hernandez. The last hour of the four-hour Hernandez package, Autopsy at least is a tad above some of the more seedy coverage Reelz has given t his story.

Dr. Michael Hunter, forensic pathologist for one of America's major cities (unnamed but at the time more than likely San Francisco), investigates the circumstances that lead to the death of this 27-year-old in this episode. "My question is: how had the life of one of the most exciting prospects in the history of the NFL come to be consumed by violence and what was it that led him to take his own life?" One can argue that those are really two questions, but there it is.

Autopsy is part medical examination, part biography as with reenactments and interviews we cover the subject's life. In this case, it's that of Inmate W106228, who already had unknown health issues before arriving in prison. One was the CTE that was discovered after Hernandez's suicide, which was to Dr. Hunter and the Massachusetts investigators the most advanced they had ever observed in someone so young. This CTE, Dr. Hunter tells us, is associated with dementia, mood changes and aggression.

Dr. Hunter also makes interesting observations that up to now perhaps have not been fully considered when it comes to this tragic case. He notes that Aaron Hernandez never allowed himself to grieve the death of his father Dennis when Aaron was sixteen. From this came Prolonged Grief Disorder, which can also trigger suicidal and homicidal thoughts. The result of his inability or perhaps unwillingness to grieve was to become emotionally unstable with a short fuse as Dr. Hunter puts it.

There were other medical issues that Dr. Hunter observes from both the actual autopsy and Hernandez's life and health records. His use of at least one ounce of marijuana a day as a way to deal with the emotional turmoil could not have helped. There was also the issue of his prison weight. Despite assimilating quickly to prison life Dr. Hunter observes that Hernandez gained weight due to the lack of exercise time versus when he was in the NFL. That gain could lead one to anxiety and depression.

In short, from the evidence Dr. Hunter sees that Aaron Hernandez's suicide was highly likely due to the issues of CTE, PGD and the increase in physical weight, all of which brought about anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts/tendencies.

This is backed up somewhat by Reelz regular psychiatrist Linda Papadopoulos, who states that Hernandez went within himself and in the hyper-masculine world Hernandez lived in, the go-to emotion isn't sadness but anger. This may explain his hair-trigger temper that led to assaults and other alleged murders before Odin Lloyd met his grisly end.

Autopsy, albeit briefly, is to my mind the first Reelz Aaron Hernandez-related show to push back on the idea that Hernandez was gay. While impossible to confirm outside Hernandez himself, one of his friends says that the idea that the "outing" of Hernandez on a sports radio show as the trigger to his suicide is absurd since Hernandez never gave an indication of any same-sex attraction.

Again, it's impossible to state definitively one way or another, but there it is.

Autopsy: The Last Hours of Aaron Hernandez sticks to the regular Autopsy formula, making it a more respectable foray into the cottage industry of the Aaron Hernandez Reelz coverage. There is information that does make one think about why Hernandez ultimately decided to kill himself, but perhaps the final words of the episode sum it up best. One of the interviewees states she feels bad for Odin Lloyd's mother, who has to live the rest of her life without her son. On occasion, perhaps remembering the victims is as important as remembering their alleged and more famous killers.

7/10

Notorious: Aaron Hernandez. The Reelz Television Program

NOTORIOUS: AARON HERNANDEZ

Reelz Channel's Notorious series was perhaps the first time the network brought the sad and sordid story of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez to its viewers. To be fair I don't know if Notorious: Aaron Hernandez preceded Aaron Hernandez: Murder Made Me Famous or not. Quibble again if technically Aaron Hernandez was already "notorious" or "famous" before he was convicted of killing his friend Odin Lloyd, but Aaron Hernandez: Notorious sticks to the series' typical fare. It's a pretty dry reiteration of the Lloyd murder case, which in this case is just enough to get a primer on this case.

With mostly narration and a few interviews, the basics of the Hernandez murder spree is recounted. We learn that Hernandez despite his outwardly charming personality was pretty much a loner throughout his football playing career both at the University of Florida and New England. He didn't socialize with his fellow teammates like the more upper-crust Tom Brady or gregarious Rob Gronkowski. Hernandez also failed to follow the influence of people like the strongly devout Christian Tim Tebow.

It wasn't as if no one tried: coaches and other teammates tried by sharing their family lives and spiritual guidance, but to no avail. Hernandez simply preferred the company of thugs and criminals real or wannabes. The struggles Hernandez had all stemmed from the tumultuous relationship he had with his father Dennis. Dennis Hernandez was both feared and loved: abusive but adored. "If it s to be, it is up to me," he would tell his sons, saying that if they wanted something they had to get it.

"With his volcanic rage and hair-trigger finger, Aaron Hernandez had become Notorious," the narration states. He had by the time of his arrest for the murder of Odin Lloyd already had a very violent past. The assault at a Gainesville bar when he refused to pay for a bar tab. The shooting of Corey Smith, a still-unresolved case where Hernandez was first identified as the shooter only to have the witness recant. The shooting of his former friend Alexander Bradley. The shooting of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, both of which were connected to Bradley's shooting. The murder of Odin Lloyd.

As a side note, what was devout Christian Tim Tebow doing at a bar with an underage Hernandez?

Strangely, his time in prison served to mend the relationship with his mother Teri, though not fully. Surprisingly acquitted of the de Abreu/Furtado murders, he nevertheless committed suicide a few days later. More than likely his suicide was in the hopes of applying an obscure Massachusetts law that vacated a murder conviction if the defendant died before all his appeals were exhausted. Hernandez postmortem also was found to have massive CTE, which may also have played a hand in his erratic and violent behavior. 

Reelz has featured Aaron Hernandez many times, almost to where it's become parody. There's been at least three Hernandez-themed specials. There was the sensationalistic Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields. That was followed by the salacious Aaron Hernandez: Jailhouse Lover Tells All. Finally, there was the surprisingly restrained and rational Aaron Hernandez: Life Inside. Hernandez has also been part of three Reelz Channel programs: this one (Notorious), Murder Made Me Famous and Autopsy. 

Notorious, as I said, sticks to a more grounded and serious level the program has. We do learn a few things, such as how father's words of wisdom influenced his son for good or ill. It also does not delve into Hernandez's complicated sex life. My guess is that his homosexuality/bisexuality was probably not well-known at the time.

It's an interesting albeit dry recitation of Aaron Hernandez's sordid and sad life. The conclusion Notorious has sums up Aaron Hernandez quite well though. "In the end, Aaron Hernandez's legacy of brilliance on the field will forever be coupled with his troubled life off the field". That is what made Aaron Hernandez "Notorious".

5/10

Aaron Hernandez: Life Inside. The Reelz Television Documentary

AARON HERNANDEZ: LIFE INSIDE

Reelz Channel is back to triple-dip on the late Aaron Hernandez. Having already suggested the former New England Patriots tight end was a serial killer in Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields, then featuring the boudoir confessions of Kyle Kennedy with Aaron Hernandez: Jailhouse Lover Tells All, now we have Aaron Hernandez: Life Inside. Unlike the haphazard Killing Fields or salacious Jailhouse Lover Tells All, Life Inside (which could have been re-titled Jailer Tells All) is surprisingly restraint, respectable and focused more on the man versus the monster.

Using a mix of reenactments and interviews, Life Inside involves Hernandez's eighteen months at the Bristol County House of Corrections after his arrest for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Here, Hernandez developed something a father-son relationship with Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, the head of the corrections facility since 1997.

In two separate interviews Hodgson remembers and reflects on the troubled former NFL great. Hodgson found Hernandez pleasant and friendly, unless you "disrespected" him. At that point, he would become quite violent at any perceived disrespect intentional or not. His temper over any slight real or imagined was so great that Hernandez literally ate a letter rather than admit he was wrong when jailers searched his cell. 

Having worked in law enforcement for decades, Hodgson was no fool. While he recognized Hernandez's positive traits, he was also not taken in by Hernandez. He knew that Hernandez could and would use people to his own advantage.

In his first interview with Hernandez, where Hodgson was called in on his day off and appeared in shorts and a polo shirt, Hernandez flat-out told him no one could read people better than Aaron Hernandez. As such, he "deduced" Hodgson came in such casual attire as a way to gain Hernandez's confidence. Later on, he admitted to Hodgson that he was perhaps Hernandez's equal in reading people, but not his superior.

Sheriff Hodgson had two simple pieces of advise for Hernandez which he gave him at the beginning and end of his stay at the House of Correction: talk to your father and read the Bible. Hodgson believed that all of Hernandez's troubles and torments came from his tumultuous relationship with the late Dennis Hernandez. Aaron idolized Dennis despite Dennis' abusive nature. Hodgson speculates that to Aaron, any sign of disrespect to him was disrespecting Dennis.

It was also from Dennis that Aaron learned not to cry in front of others. This was strange advise given that according to Aaron, his father cried often in front of others. Given that advise, Hodgson was surprised when Aaron cried publicly when acquitted of the double murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. It was the fact that Hernandez was found not guilty when he knew he was guilty, Hodgson speculates, that pushed Hernandez into suicide.

Those two pieces of advise: talk to your father and read the Bible, sadly did not help Aaron Hernandez.

Life Inside is different from the two preceding Aaron Hernandez-centered specials in a variety of ways. First, the separate Hodgson interviews paint a more sympathetic portrait of Hernandez (which Hodgson repeatedly pronounces as "Her-nan-deez" versus "Her-nan-dez"). The story of how Aaron had visited his father's grave only once is quite sad. 

It also features a credible subject. Unlike Jailhouse Lover Tells All's Kyle Kennedy aka Pure, Sheriff Hodgson does not focus on any potentially unsavory or scandalous elements of his most famous inmate. His portrait of Hernandez is essentially that of a lost boy, one who was deeply broken and tormented by the demons he carried. As a side note, unlike Kennedy, Hodgson not only sounds more credible but also coherent.

Unlike previous Hernandez-centered documentaries, Life Inside stays almost wholly away from other elements such as his drug use or homosexual or bisexual aspect of Hernandez's private life. The closest the program comes to bringing up Hernandez's sexual orientation is when he recounts how the Odin Lloyd murder may have been triggered by a friend of Lloyd's allegedly calling Hernandez a "punk" and "one of those funny people". That's as close to a suggestion that Hernandez's allegedly secret gay life was the trigger to Lloyd's murder.

Hodgson isn't excusing or trying to explain away Hernandez's life of crime, merely noting that Hernandez was in desperate need of genuine affirmation. This is noted throughout Life Inside with revelations from Hodgson that Hernandez preferred basketball over football but dropped the former when his father became adamant his son pursue the latter. 

A more chilling tale is when a former college football teammate offered forgiveness after a falling out. Hernandez, according to Hodgson, calmly stated that once he got his former friend in a relaxed manner, he cold-clocked him for revenge.

Hernandez's hair-trigger temper is brought up by other interviewees, who remark how all these slights and acts of disrespect real or imagined would get Hernandez's ire. These, unfortunately, led to violent retributions. We hear the reluctance of other NFL teams who, while seeing Hernandez's talent, couldn't get past his shockingly low self-esteem and emotional health issues. It was an ominous scouting report that proved that past is prologue.

The focus on the case and in particular the more father-son aspect makes Aaron Hernandez: Life Inside a more professional, respectable telling of this oft-told tale than past Reelz ventures. It's probably the most sympathetic portrait of Hernandez that Reelz has made, and one of the most sympathetic overall. Perhaps if someone decades earlier had told Aaron Hernandez "Talk to your father and read the Bible" or if Hernandez had taken up those challenges, the entire tragedy that destroyed so many lives might have never happened.

8/10

Aaron Hernandez: Jailhouse Lover Tells All. The Television Documentary

AARON HERNANDEZ: JAILHOUSE LOVER TELLS ALL

Reelz Channel won't let go of Aaron Hernandez. A network that switches between profiling celebrities in trouble and true-crime found the ideal figure in the late New England Patriots player. Not satisfied with delving into a story that paints Hernandez as a serial killer, Reelz returns to the Hernandez well with the salaciously titled Jailhouse Lover Tells All.  

Kyle Kennedy, already featured in Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields, now is brought back to tell not just his alleged relationship with the disgraced tight end, but also about himself. In turns shocking and oddball, Jailhouse Lover Tells All reveals surprisingly little that wasn't already known or suspected.

This "major television event", once again hosted by Dylan Howard, features the story of Inmate W107335, also known as Pure. It was a circuitous route Kyle Kennedy went through to earn his nickname. First it was "Cocaine" (because he was crazy and white, as he tells it in his slow cadence), then it went to "Pure Cocaine", but as that was too long, it was shortened to just "Pure". 

Meeting in prison, Kennedy and Hernandez soon became not just fast friends but lovers. Hernandez was Kennedy's first male lover according to Kennedy, but there were strict parameters. Hernandez initiated the physical relationship by performing oral sex on Kennedy, then moving on to intercourse where Kennedy was on the receiving end. Not once according to what I understood from Kennedy did Hernandez ever receive either oral or anal sex. 

Hernandez also confessed to being unsure if he was gay, and that to have sex with his long-term fiancee Shayanna Jenkins he needed to think of men or be "super high". 

The carnal pleasures were not the only aspects of the Kennedy/Hernandez relationship. As a leader in the Bloods gang, Kennedy soon found himself second fiddle to Hernandez, who now was the "shot caller" in that prison gang. Hernandez quickly became something of a drug kingpin among the other inmates, with Kennedy at his side. "He was the most loyalist person," Kennedy remembers. They would spend their days getting high, cooking meals, selling drugs, writing each other love letters.

Kennedy would also hear Hernandez's confessions to his many crimes. Not only did Hernandez admit to killing Odin Lloyd, but bragged about having four murders. That would be Lloyd, Daniel de Abreu, Safiro Furtado and Jordan Miller, the latter apparently a case of mistaken identity. 

While in prison, Kennedy claims Hernandez talked about what his life post-prison would be like. He wanted to both go into business with and marry Kyle Kennedy. The businesses would actually be, Kennedy asserts, fronts to sell drugs. However, by the end of their affair Kennedy saw that the weight of the trials was making Hernandez more mentally unstable. Hernandez, according to Pure, was highly paranoid, convinced everyone he talked to was an undercover officer waiting to get the goods on him. 

While Kennedy eventually found himself in a minimum-security prison, Aaron Hernandez hanged himself on April 19, 2017.

I cannot help think that if Kennedy really was Hernandez's "jailhouse lover", then Hernandez had remarkably poor taste in men. The idea that this heavily-tattooed, poorly educated criminal would not only inspire lust but genuine romantic love in Hernandez seems almost ludicrous. Granted, people love whomever they do for their own reasons. However, for someone like Hernandez, who may have been a self-loathing gay or bisexual man terrified of being outed, it doesn't seem logical to think he would leave his fiancee and daughter to publicly marry another man after being acquitted of three murders.

This claim that Hernandez wanted to marry Kennedy is more puzzling given that a possible motive for the Odin Lloyd murder was that Lloyd may have discovered or walked in when Hernandez was having a same-sex tryst. As such, why would someone so deeply buried in the closet turn quickly around to be in a same-sex marriage if and when he beat the rap? 

Jailhouse Lover Tells All seems ludicrous on many levels. Kennedy claims to have had many love letters but could only produce one via his attorney where Hernandez talks about loving him. The other letters, Kennedy states, were flushed down the toilet. Already the lack of physical evidence makes one dubious of the true nature of their relationship if any. 

That Hernandez was more than likely gay or bisexual has stronger evidence, but Kennedy can't provide much if any evidence of a sexual relationship, let alone a romantic one.

Even Jose Baez, Hernandez's defense attorney, dismisses the idea of a Hernandez/Kennedy affair. Baez doesn't dismiss Hernandez being gay, but flat-out rejects Kennedy's claims. When presented with the sole letter talking about Hernandez "loving" Kennedy, Baez retorts "Aaron told everyone he loved them".

Another curious element is in Kennedy's assertion that Hernandez and he were major players in the Bloods gang. Again, I'm not a prison gang expert, but I always thought the Bloods were primarily if not exclusively a black gang. The notion of this very white man and the Hispanic former football star taking on major roles in even the local Bloods gang seems bizarre. Again, perhaps not impossible, but quite out of the ordinary.

What is perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Jailhouse Lover Tells All is Howard's total unquestioning belief in Kyle Kennedy's story. Rarely if ever does Howard push back to Kennedy's myriad of claims. Instead, he pushes back against Baez, the man who doubts Kennedy's myriad of claims. It's to where Kennedy could claim he and Hernandez danced naked bathed in the blood of chickens before hosting a prison orgy and Howard would merely nod his head in agreement. Kyle Kennedy comes across as an unreliable witness, one who could say what people want to hear. Again he might be thoroughly truthful in his stories of life with Aaron Hernandez, but one has wide room for doubt.

As a side note, Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields mentioned an attempted murder Hernandez is alleged to have taken part in while at the University of Florida. Curiously, despite their many conversations Hernandez never appeared to have brought up the Corey Smith case to Kennedy. Moreover, Howard never asks Kennedy about the Smith case.  

Aaron Hernandez: Jailhouse Lover Tells All may be true, but it can't get away from being highly questionable, as well as tacky and tawdry. "The things we talked about...it wouldn't be believable," Kennedy says early on. On that I figure many would agree. 

1/10

Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields: The Television Documentary

AARON HERNANDEZ'S KILLING FIELDS

The sad, sordid saga of Aaron Hernandez continues to draw morbid attention from television networks. Reelz Channel has almost a small cottage industry around the late New England Patriots tight end. 

In many ways, the Hernandez saga is the blending of its two main subjects. The network that veers between such shows as the true-crime themed I Lived With a Killer, Copycat Killers and World's Most Evil Killers and the celebrity themed The Price of Fame, Behind Closed Doors and Breaking the Band has featured Hernandez quite often. Quibble about its Hernandez-themed episodes of Murder Made Me Famous and Notorious given he was both famous and notorious before his conviction, but Reelz has done much work with this story. 

Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields is its first foray into this story, spinning off two sequels: Aaron Hernandez: Jailhouse Lover Tells All and Aaron Hernandez: Life Inside. Blending a bizarre mix of seriousness and salaciousness, Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields teases but ultimately makes a mockery of its rather grandiose ideas of itself.

Hosted by investigative reporter Dylan Howard, Killing Fields goes into all sorts of allegations that don't just cover the Odin Lloyd and Daniel de Abreu/Safiro Furtado murders, but also suggest he essentially was a serial killer pre-and-post Patriots. Killing Fields as part of its investigation produces two women whose family members may have fallen victim to Hernandez's reign of terror. The first is Corey Smith, a single father of two who was almost murdered by Hernandez while he played for the University of Florida. The second was Jordan Miller, whose murder may have been due to bearing a physical similarity to Lloyd. 

Killing Fields speculates that Miller's murder may have been a case of mistaken identity, while Smith's case had similar circumstances to the Abreu/Furtado case where perceived disrespect at a club led to a shooting. In a curious twist, the Smith case involves the curiously named Pouncey twins, teammates of Hernandez who were his de facto henchmen. 

Mixed into an already expansive and sleazy story we have the shadowy testimonies of two new witnesses. There's "Q", who claims to have been Hernandez's drug dealer and "Chad", a male stripper hired by Hernandez for his own entertainment that overheard Hernandez planning to kill Lloyd. 

Killing Fields also hired three "elite group of investigators" to delve further into the case. There's homicide detective Michelle Wood, "elite undercover agent" Don Jackson and ex-police detective Bo Dietl. Among their tactics is to rent out Hernandez's former home to do their own search for the missing murder weapon. While this Al Capone's Vault-like search didn't turn up the gun used to kill Lloyd, it did turn up some drugs stashed in the ceiling. 

Despite several teases about what was discovered, we don't get much, but we do get the testimony of Kyle Kennedy aka Pure. In the words of Howard, Kennedy was "Aaron Hernandez's drug dealing lieutenant in the same Bloods gang that Aaron lorded over in prison. He became Aaron's business partner, second in command, best friend, confidant and lover". If Kennedy is to be believed, he wasn't merely Hernandez's sexmate to release his sexual energy. Aaron Hernandez wanted to marry Kyle Kennedy!  

Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields so far is the worst of the Hernandez coverage. Howard comes across as slightly pompous, making grand pronouncements while titillating audiences with such elements as male strippers and hopes to find the gun in a place one imagines had been thoroughly searched. Said stripper "Chad" was found via Howard "through our own internal investigation", but one wonders how they came upon the idea to search for some exotic dancer to begin with. The cloak-and-dagger manner of the interview ("Chad" in a hoodie and possibly false beard with his mask in darkness) gives the whole thing either a need for secrecy or almost comedy.

Add to that some pretty wild statements. "Chad" claims to have come upon "kilos" of cocaine and a gun, unaware of who had hired him until he saw the various Hernandez jerseys and photos matched the client.

As a side note, we never did hear if "Chad" gave anyone a lap dance, though we do learn that Hernandez allegedly had him followed and paid him off to ensure his silence. 

"Q" the drug dealer claims that he at least once held a drug deal with Hernandez in a cemetery in the dead of night. Somehow, midnight drug deals in cemeteries never struck anyone as a bit bizarre to say the least. It isn't impossible, but it still sounds a bit odd.

In short, "Chad", "Q" and Kennedy are rather unreliable witnesses, so why Killing Fields took them at their word with nary a pushback is puzzling. Kennedy's claims of sex with Hernandez are plausible given the appearance of Daniel San Soucie, who claimed a long-term sexual relationship with Hernandez in high school. 

As another side note, Killing Fields may claim an "exclusive" with San Soucie, but the man seems to be in almost every Aaron Hernandez-related special, so one questions how exclusive it was.

Kennedy's other claims that Hernandez was in love with him and wanted to marry him, however, along with having a series of love letters, was too outlandish even for Hernandez's defense attorney Jose Baez, who asserts that Hernandez was gay or at the most bisexual.

Killing Fields doubles down on the "repressed homosexuality" angle too. Early on, we learn that Aaron apparently wanted to be a cheerleader but his father Dennis simply wouldn't hear of it. As to what the various motives for the various murders, there's all sorts of speculation. His sexuality? A brutally beaten brain? Desire to make his fiancee Shayana Jenkins rich? Or was there something more sinister? 

Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields is almost comical in how seriously it takes itself. Loaded with lots of speculation but very little evidence, it's close to exploitative. That is bad enough, but it's a terrible disservice to the families of Corey Smith and Jordan Miller. Smith's mother Sandra Hines and Miller's aunt Tara Davis deserve justice for their family. However, unless Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields gets people to investigate these crimes, it leaves a terrible taste to watch them used in the same special where drug dealers and male strippers regail viewers with tales of midnight cemetery drug deals and unused lap-dances. 

4/10