this is "nightline." >> tonight, rise and fall. aaron hernandes from nfl star to convicted murderer, who took his own life. new details of his final days revealed. the crippic letters he wrote. >> the final letters, that's a different person. >> questions tonight about whether a brain injury, similar to those experienced by hundreds of former athletes, played a role in his death. >> he made his decision. but i don't know if he knew what was going on. >> his family taking action against the nfl. plus -- ♪ it was meant to be it will be it will be ♪ >> staten island superstar. from this humble hometown hero, fame and fortune were always meant to be. >> i will be an international smash. >> how bebe rexal went from

writing songs for pop stars to being one of them. >> it's literally five blocks from here. >> the surprise singalong, raising spirits and voices at her old high school. ♪ it will be >> first the "nightline 5." ♪ baby if it's meant to be >> i love you basement guest bathroom. your privacy makes you my number one place to go number two. i love you. but sometimes you stink. febreze air effects doesn't just mask, it cleans away odors. because the things you love the most can stink. and try febreze small spaces to clean away odors up to 30 days. breathe happy with febreze. >> number one in just 60 seconds.

oodoing wh theise and aaron. he had everything going for him but it was all thrown away after his conviction for murder. hernandez ultimately taking his own life in prison. tonight a look at cryptic letters from his final days, raising questions about whether brain injury played a role in his death. here's my "nightline" coanchor dan harris. >> over the middle, getting free -- touchdown hernandez! >> reporter: the tragic life and death of disgraced nfl star aaron hernandez back in the headlines this week with chilling new revelations about his final hours. >> aaron was a completely different person than what many people thought he was like. >> reporter: hernandez, once an unstoppable tight end for the new england patriots, took his own life in 2017 while serving a life sentence in massachusetts for the murder of his friend, odin lloyd. now in a new book "unnecessary roughness," hernandez's

attorney, jose baez, blames his client's suicide on brain damage from playing football. >> he had the brain as if he had been playing in the league for 18 years. and he had only played a couple of years. so his brain was an absolute mess. >> reporter: the book also reveals new information about the night hernandez was found hanging from a noose made from a prison bed sheet. >> final letters to that's a different person. >> reporter: he wrote three letters. one to baez, one to his fiancee and a cryptic note to his then 4-year-old daughter dated on the night he died. i'm entering into the timeless realm in which i can enter into any form at any time because everything that could happen or not happen i see all at once. >> does this strike you as a man who's sort of at peace with the decision he's about to make? or in real distress?

>> it strikes me as not normal. so something was affecting him at that time where it's kind of more or less like he made his decision, but it just -- i don't know if he knew what was going on. >> reporter: a second letter was written to sheana, who he called soul mate and true angel, saying this is the supreme almighty's plan, not mine. and ending not much time, i'm being called, john 3:16. >> the letter he wrote was weird. it didn't refer to me as babe or something more intimate, it kind of -- it leaves me not having closure. >> reporter: while the letters to his fiancee and daughter were seemingly delusional, the note for baez seemed like it was written by a man who had plans to live. >> he talks about asking me for a favor to help him reach out to certain artists who helped him through very tough times.

>> hip-hop artists. how do you compute the fact that he's looking forward to writing letters to his favorite rappers with the fact that he then wrote what appeared to be close to suicide notes? >> i think that when you have a severe brain disease, logic goes out the window. >> reporter: despite the fact that hernandez was convicted of murder, jose baez and shownna jenkins say he was misunderstood. >> he had a big heart, very caring, he'd give the shirt out of his book. >> no choir boy, he had issues in college, allegations that he was involved in a shooting, allegations he was involved in a fight that cost someone their eardrum -- >> reporter: he was an all-american at university of florida. he was then drafted to the new england patriots. >> the overwhelming narrative about aaron hernandez in the nfl was, star tight end, great teammate, future superstar. >> reporter: after two years in the nfl, hernandez signed a five-year, $40 million contract extension with the patriots. in june of 2013, his wild

success came to a screeching halt when hernandez was arrested in north attleboro, massachusetts, for the execution-style killing of his friend, odin lloyd. among the evidence presented at trial prosecutors played surveillance footage showing hernandez arriving home with two come misses an hour after lloyd was last seen alive. >> only three people returned to aaron hernandez's house -- >> reporter: hernandez seeing walking from room to room then down to his basement before emerging holding what prosecutors said was a gun. after a two-month trial in 2015, hernandez was convicted and given a mandatory life sentence. >> guilty of murder in the first degree. >> reporter: hernandez's time in court was not over. after he was arrested for murdering odin lloyd, investigators link himself to another murder, the drive-by shooting of two men who had been partying at the same nightclub as hernandez and his friends. >> not guilty. >> reporter: he was tried and found not guilty, seen here

mouthing "i love you" to his fiancee sheana. >> i know beyond any doubt based on what i've seen that aaron did not commit the two boston murders. i didn't represent him in the odin lloyd case, but after reviewing the evidence and seeing what i've seen, i have a reasonable doubt that he committed that crime. >> he just got unlucky twice? >> when you hang around the kind of characters that he was hanging around, you expose yourself to that type of activity. >> reporter: just five days after his acquittal for drive-by shooting came the shocking news. hernandez's brain drama from playing football played a role in his death. what do the final letters aaron sent tell you about his state of mind and what, if any, impacts cte may have played in that state of mind in those final hours? >> what it tells me is this is

someone with severe brain injury who is manifesting the symptoms that result from repeated injuries to the head. >> reporter: with so many questions about hernandez's behavior in his final hours, sheana donated his brain to boston university to be studied for signs of cte, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. >> aaron had the absolute worst cte, advance stages. someone so incredibly young. >> this would be the first case we've ever seen of that kind of damage in such a young individual. >> did you see behavior on aaron's part that made you think he had injuries to his brain? >> the headaches that he encountered and the memory loss. there was a lot of writing down. a lot of post-it notes, you know, that we had to do so he could remember things. >> reporter: jose baez is new suing the nfl on behalf of aaron hernandez's daughter asking for compensation because of hernandez's extreme cte that he

says resulted in hernandez taking his own life. the nfl has recently filed a motion to dismiss the case. >> one of the biggest problems you have in cte lawsuits is, where did the actual disease develop? in the nfl? from all the hits he faced in college? how about the hits in high school? >> reporter: for fiancee shea jenkins hernandez, she can't help but think of the life for her and her daughter that could have been. >> there's a lot of things he was afraid to tell me, things that i could have -- not necessarily cared, but i could have helped, i could have told jose, i could have, you know, extended my ear out and -- and it hurts. >> you feel like maybe if you knew more, you could have helped him? >> yeah, absolutely. next, singer bebe rexha proves her career was meant to. ♪ just meant to be it will be it will be ♪ ♪ baby just let it be

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longest-running country song on the billboard charts. but she started as a teenage dreamer on staten island. tonight another look at her humble beginnings where she wrote the songs that shot her to stardom. here's abc's zachary kiesch. >> thank you. thank you so much. thank you, thank you so much. >> reporter: pop star bebe rexha taking us on a ride. on the ferry to her hometown of

staten island, new york city. >> so proud of you. >> thank you. >> it's funny, i remember taking the ferry like 4:00 in the morning or after school. now taking it out there with the whole glam squad. >> first time going back like this? >> yeah, this is cool. ♪ i can see you hurting >> reporter: at 28, the singer and songwriter has mastered the art of making hits. ♪ i got you you >> reporter: serving sex appeal on "i got you." defying genres. ♪ i don't mean to be so uptight ♪ >> reporter: with "meant to be" with florida georgia line, it's been number one on the charts for 38 weeks in a row. ♪ if it's meant to be it will be it will be baby just let it be ♪ ♪ so won't you ride with me ride with me ♪ >> reporter: despite her rise, bebe has stayed true to her

roots. >> this is the sickest view of the city right here. >> growing up in staten island, what's this relationship that you have with manhattan? >> to me it was more like, oh my gosh, i want to be a big star one day, i want to come into the city and work in the city and make it out here. it was the city of dreams for me, you know? >> reporter: she spent years paying her dues and writing for others. ♪ remember when eminem and rihanna dropped "monster"? bebe wrote it. or "hey mama"? yeah, that's hers. ♪ i know you want the newest way ♪ ♪ i want to hear you calling my name ♪ >> it was funny, i never wanted to write songs. i saw christina aguilera, britney spears, destiny's child, and i wanted to just be a singer. it's been a really long journey in trying to feel like i'm bebe rexha, this is who i am, i'm not

the faceless songwriter or artist. >> reporter: her childhood home a humble duplex on this crowded block. >> i'm going to show you to my house. >> reporter: her goals were never basic. >> i wrote all my songs, i played piano here. >> okay. >> awesome. so this is my room. >> this is it? >> 10 by 10 feet or whatever. >> reporter: the seeds of ambition were planted here and intentions set to become a worldwide star. this is the door i heard a lot about? >> yeah, this is kind of -- this is kind of embarrassing -- >> like an old-school vision board. >> yeah. >> i will be a worldwide superstar. look at you. >> then before "monster" i wrote this, i will write an international smas >> reporter: she gives a oprah aer dad for the idea. >> we watched oprah together. she said when she first started she put a check on her mirror and looked a it every morning, to oprah winfrey for like

$500,000. i said, i'm going to write it on my door. it kind of worked. ♪ i'm a mess i'm a loser i'm a hater i'm a user ♪ ♪ i'm a mess for your love >> reporter: her newest single "i'm a mess" went gold in just one day. >> what's kept me kind of going, the sense of like hunger and drive and passion for music. but also a sense of like insecurity. of feeling like i need to belong and prove myself to the world. >> reporter: despite her success, she's also confronting stardom in realtime. as we witnessed when she spotted the billboard for her new album in her old neighborhood. >> the house i grew up in is literally five blocks from here. it's like, this is insane, i have to take an instagram, oh my god, this is so awesome. can i take a picture of this? hey, mom, take a picture of me, mom. >> i have a really strong team around me. i drive them crazy because i have moments of just crying and,

you know, being on the road, being like, i want -- watching "pride and prejudice," watching a love movie, i want to be in love, wah! or happy moments, you know. sometimes it's like -- i'll just cry to myself because i'm happy, but i don't ever show that to people. i have this weird thing of being scared i'm going to jinx things. i'm superstitious, yeah. it's terrible. >> reporter: there's a connection to that culture. she's proud of where she's from. her father's an immigrant, her mother is first generation, both parents made sacrifices for her to be here. perhaps it's their journey and the values they instilled that separate her from the pack. >> i'll be honest, the other day my mom -- i acted up a little bit. and listen, i'm 28. my mom took my cell phone away, took my laptop away, she body slammed me to the bed. it's embarrassing. i was acting up a little bit, acting a little like a diva. and she was like, you're not going to do this, you're not trying this with me. my dad makes it really clear, i

don't care how much money you could make, you could have a billion dollars, respect for other people, especially your elders and for yourself, is the most important thing. ♪ i'm a ferrari i'm in the party zone ♪ >> reporter: those feelings something she writes about in songs like "ferrari." ♪ living in the fast lane >> how does being a songwriter give you more leverage or power? if you don't write your own songs it's like this luck game. people have to believe in you on other terms. they think you're pretty enough, skinny enough, can you dance, are you a girl that girls want to be friends with or guys want to be with, it's who you know and how much you want to pay for a record. whereas when you're a songwriter you write the t controller, you own the publishing. >> we're at my high school. this is where i went to high school. i remember you, how are you? nice to see you. i can't believe you're here. i graduated in 2007. >> i'm still here. >> oh my god, you look great.

>> reporter: she came back to surprise a group of students who think they're here for a student council meeting. ♪ it's me myself and i >> reporter: they bust out bebe's hit "me myself and i ♪ ♪ i don't need a hand to hold even when the night is gold ♪ ♪ i got the fire in my soul ♪ baba baba baba ba >> i'm nervous, like they're not going to know who i am. i'm glad you guys screamed because i was like, they're going to be like, who is this bitch? >> reporter: she's a local hero they can identify with. >> i hope you guys kill it and you have a successful career, for theirlshere if, love girl.t's hard, i know it sucks but support each other, don't be competitive. trust me, you're going to need

each other. >> what is it about her that's interest operation for you? >> she's so humble about it. she's beautiful. the fact that she was like, oh, i didn't know if anyone would know me, but everyone knew her. >> coming from the same place as her, the same school, it's so cool how she's so successful and all of us want to be the same way she is. >> reporter: this is a story that's still playing out. just a kid from staten island who dared to dream. >> i love you guys. if you have any questions, you have my e-mail. don't give to it anybody. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm zachary kiesch on staten island. and next, saying good-bye to the man who sent us champagne wishes and caviar dreams. ♪ ♪ i don't care where we go

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gave us an unprecedented look at opulence of the '80s, a decade of deck debs showing celebrities behind closed doors, ending each episode with his eye sonic -- >> i'm robin leach with champagne wishes and caviar dreams. >> robin leach was 76. thank you for watching "nightline." and thanks for the company, america. have a good weekend.