All-American Murder: The Rise and Fall of Aaron Hernandez, the Superstar Whose Life Ended on Murderers' Row
Written by Alex Abramovich and James Patterson
Narrated by Peter Coleman
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Football coaches, players, and fans called Aaron Hernandez unstoppable. His four-year-old daughter called him Daddy. The law called him inmate #174594.
He was a college All-American who became the youngest player in the NFL and later a Super Bowl veteran. He was a star tight end on the league-dominant New England Patriots, who extended his contract for a record $40 million.
Aaron Hernandez's every move as a professional athlete played out in the headlines, yet he led a secret life-one that ended in a maximum security prison. What drove him to go so wrong, so fast?
Son of a University of Connecticut football hero known as "the King" and brother to a Huskies quarterback, Hernandez was the best athlete Connecticut's Bristol Central High had ever produced. He chose to play football at the University of Florida, but by the time he arrived in Gainesville, he was already courting trouble.
Between the summers of 2012 and 2013, not long after Hernandez made his first Pro Bowl, he was linked to a series of violent incidents culminating in the death of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro football player who dated the sister of Hernandez's fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins.
All-American Murder is the first book to investigate-from the unique vantage point of the world's most popular thriller writer-Aaron Hernandez's first-degree murder conviction and the mystery of his own untimely and shocking death. Drawing on original and in-depth reporting, this is an explosive true story of a life cut short in the dark shadow of fame.
Alex Abramovich
Alex Abramovich is the author of Bullies: A Friendship. He writes for the London Review of Books and teaches at Columbia University.
Related to All-American Murder
Related audiobooks
Heisman: The Man Behind the Trophy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPresidents of the United States: The Most Prevalent and Best-Known Leaders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Kids Got It Right: How the Texas All-Stars Kicked Down Racial Walls Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tom Brady: A Biography of an NFL Superstar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Capital of Basketball: A History of DC Area High School Hoops Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Amendment Killer: A Brooks/Lotello Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Attucks!: How Crispus Attucks Basketball Broke Racial Barriers and Jolted the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeventeen and Oh: Miami, 1972, and the NFL's Only Perfect Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAaron Judge: The Incredible Story of the New York Yankees' Home Run-Hitting Phenom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jail Blazers: How the Portland Trail Blazers Became the Bad Boys of Basketball Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: The Great Founding Father of the United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5After 20 Years Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHoop Innovators:: The Pioneering Visionaries Who Changed the Game of Basketball Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica's Game: The NFL at 100 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Texas Titans: George H.W. Bush and James A. Baker, III: A Friendship Forged in Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Sports Biographies For You
Endure: How to Work Hard, Outlast, and Keep Hammering Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elevate and Dominate: 21 Ways to Win On and Off the Field Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Stone Cold Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Hidden Power of Adversity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tiger Woods Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LeBron Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Under the Black Hat: My Life in the WWE and Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Darkness to Light: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unguarded Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Run the Mile You're In: Finding God in Every Step Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just Tyrus: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breathe: A Life in Flow Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5QB: My Life Behind the Spiral Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Never Had It Made Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things That Make White People Uncomfortable Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's Hard for Me to Live with Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running from Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life's Too Short to Go So F*cking Slow: Lessons from an Epic Friendship That Went the Distance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Where Tomorrows Aren't Promised Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When the Game Was Ours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for All-American Murder
44 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a straightforward telling of the tragic story of Aaron Hernandez. Aaron was an extremely gifted athlete who threw away his talent in favor of living the thug life. He had everything going for him and through bad luck, bad choices, and the possible destruction of his brain through repeated hits to his head his life went into a downward spiral of drugs and eventually murder. This book didn't do a great job of developing all of the characters like the best true crime books do. After finishing it I didn't feel like I really knew any any of the people involved. It told the story more like an episode of 20/20 or Dateline. It also showed how we put our sports heroes up on pedestals. Aaron Hernandez got away with so much for so long because he was good at throwing a football. A spotlight was especially thrown on the football culture at the University of Florida. On the surface this was a sad tale of someone who had everything and managed to throw it away. Look deeper however and you see yet another NFL player with brain trauma. Repeated concussions have been shown to alter brain function. Until this issue is properly addressed it may only be a matter of time until another Aaron Hernandez tragedy plays out.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This turned out to be different than I thought it would be. I had heard James Patterson interviewed and thought it was going to be about both Aaron Hernandez and CTE. As it turned out, it was 99% about Aaron Hernandez and the lifestyle that brought him to suicide in prison at the age of 27. A well known Boston researcher is quoted as saying the Hernandez brain had more CTE damage than any 27 year old brain he had previously seen and a picture of the brain is included. That's about the extent of scientific information. There is no attempt to connect Hernandez's outrageous behavior to CTE.Aaron Hernandez was an outstanding football player at an early age. Unfortunately his father died when he was in high school and his mother seems to have been unable to give Aaron the support he needed, she had some pretty big behavior problems herself, and his older brother was in college in Connecticut. Aaron did get support from a group of undesirables that led him to drug use and a disrespect of the law. They continued to influence him through the next ten years of his short life.The book chronicles Hernandez's experience through college, the NFL and his drug fueled and volatile personal life including trial for 3 murders. I don't want the book to be true because it comes down to a kid that didn't have the adult guidance he needed as a young adult. At least that's how it seems in Patterson's telling of the "facts."
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was somewhat aware of the Aaron Hernandez trial, but don't follow sports news all that closely anymore. While this is ostensibly a non-fiction book that tells the rise and fall of a superstar, the narrative includes elements of speculation not proven in the court of law. One might then consider this to be a storyfied account of Hernandez and the people he killed (or presumably killed). The story itself, despite whatever liberties with the facts, is a good one and well told. I already knew how it ended, so the fascination was in the progression. It was suggested in the story that Hernandez probably suffered brain injury similar to what caused Dave Duerson and Junior Seau to kill themselves. Probably the only thing this story doesn't elaborate on, however, is Hernandez' injury history. The conclusion, therefore, is just more speculation and more of a means to make sense of a life that should have followed a far better script.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty good. Not much of a football fan, buy I enjoyed the story and my dad would be proud that I did learn something about football. This was nicely put together as far as being a believable true crime story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aaron Hernandez was so talented. He was worth millions playing football, but he was also a drug user, hot head, and a thug, who showed no remorse. What a waste of someone, who could brought joy to those who love football.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5After reading this book, I am even more disgusted with football. The coaches, college and professional, cover up for bad behavior. Many of the players are thugs, violent and mean, and they believe themselves to be above the law. Sadly, many people revere them and their behavior. Add drugs and money into the mix and it is a recipe for disaster.
The authors do a good job of laying out all the issues and the problems of the life of Aaron Hernandez. Sadly, this was a young man with a great deal of athletic ability that got involved with drugs and gangs, and liked to go everywhere with guns.