Former Inmate Looking For 'Decent Money' For Aaron Hernandez Handwritten Note

Handwritten notes and former possessions of deceased celebrities have been known to fetch high bids at auction, so it perhaps comes as little surprise the same goes for former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. At least one individual, a former inmate at the Bristol County House of Corrections, hopes to snatch “decent money” for a note allegedly written by Hernandez during his time at the Dartmouth, Massachusetts county jail.

Cory Hayden told the Boston Globe Wednesday that he spoke with Hernandez while the two were serving time in 2013 for separate offenses; Hayden was in on a gun charge related to a drive-by shooting, and Hernandez had recently been arrested for the murder of Odin Lloyd. At one point, Hayden says the former star athlete passed him a book with a message scrawled inside in blue ink.

Read: Multiple Handwritten Suicide Notes Found In Aaron Hernandez's Prison Cell

Hayden reportedly stole Hernandez’s jail ID within days of the athlete’s arrival to the jail in hopes of selling it, but he was caught. Hayden told the Boston Globe that he “got sent to the hole” — solitary confinement — where Hernandez had also been sent for his own safety, away from the general population.

“At some point, Hayden says, Hernandez learned that he was the one who’d stolen his ID,” the Boston Globe reported. “Instead of getting upset, he passed Hayden a copy of Walter Mosley’s “Bad Boy Brawly Brown,” a novel about a young black man who falls in with the wrong crowd but gets saved at the end.”

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It was then Hayden noticed that a few of the pages were stuck together with black putty. Inside, Hayden found the handwritten note. According to the Boston Globe, the note reads:

“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 is out of jail and now lives in Maine — reportedly contacted Phil Castinetti, the owner of sports memorabilia shop Sportsworld, just days after Hernandez’s April 19 suicide at the at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts. Hayden told the Boston Globe he’s hoping to get “decent money” for the book. He added, “It could be very valuable. And it’s in a book about a kid who got his life together.”

At the time of his death, Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the Lloyd murder, a conviction that was overturned earlier this month. Just days prior, he had been acquitted of murdering Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado outside a Boston nightclub in July 2012.