Aaron Hernandez might now be an unlikely source of collectors’ items.
Cory Hayden, a former inmate in a Massachusetts jail, told The Boston Globe’s Mark Shanahan on Tuesday he’s trying to sell a note the former New England Patriots tight end wrote to him in 2013 while they were in solitary confinement at the Bristol County House of Corrections.
Hayden claims he stole Hernandez’s prison identification card but was caught and punished for doing so. Having learned of Hayden’s jailhouse offense, Hernandez wrote Hayden this note on the pages of Walter Mosley’s “Bad Boy Brawly Brown,” according to Shanahan:
“Cory,
I heard you are the one that tried to steal my ID! That’s crazy 101! make sure you fall back and stay out of trouble! I’ve been good down here, but they are trying to mess with me but I’ll never fold! As long as i got my food, I’m good! What dont breck you makes you stronger. I cant wait to get the chance to prove my innocence in court! This (expletive) is crazy, but it is what it is! Everybody will look stupid once I prove I’m innocent! I cant wait to get back to ball, which will be sooner than later, hopefully! Im stayin strong because I truly am innocent, and I am anxious for trial to come! Good lookin out for real! Make sure you stay out of trouble, especially wit the way the cops treat people in this jail, trying to cause chaos! I cant wait to get out of this jail it aint right in here. Be easy one!”
Hayden, who now works in Maine, has contacted at least one sports memorabilia shop owner looking to sell the note from Hernandez at the right price.
“I’m looking to get decent money for it,” Hayden said. “It could be very valuable. And it’s in a book about a kid who got his life together.”
Time will tell whether this keepsake nets Hayden the windfall he seeks.
