Aaron Hernandez appeared upbeat in recorded phone calls from prison shortly before he was found dead in his cell in April 2017. The former New England Patriots player had taken his own life by hanging himself with a bedsheet. Even though the calls were heavily redacted and only included Hernandez’s side of the conversation, he expressed optimism. The recordings were made public after The Boston Globe and WBUR in Boston fought for them in a lengthy public-records battle.