Polito's Take: Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hernandez

This is the tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hernandez. By day, he's a tight end for the New England Patriots, but when night falls, state prosecutors paint a picture of him as a gun- wielding gangster.

In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde because he was fascinated by personalities and how they can affect a person. In his day, a person who displayed Jeckyll and Hyde like behavior would have been diagnosed with a split personality. Now, psychiatrists call it dissociative identity disorder (DID). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV, a person with DID has at least two distinct identities or personalities that alternately control their behavior. DID is one of the most controversial psychiatric disorders. There is not broad agreement on what causes it or how it can be treated. There is some research that suggests the person displaying the personalities is faking.

Today, FOX 25 broke the story that investigators are looking into Aaron Hernandez in connection to a double murder that happened on July 16, 2012 in downtown Boston. On Wednesday, Hernandez was charged with murder in the death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, of Dorchester.

Some people diagnosed with DID claim they have little memory of the activities and thoughts of their multiple personalities. Maybe that could explain Mr. Hernandez's reluctance to cooperate with investigators in the 10 days between the murder and his arrest. It could explain his cold, expressionless face at Wednesday's murder arraignment.

We are now facing the prospect that a man we were cheering for on Sundays could have been a gang-banger in the offseason. If I wrote a script with this premise and sent it to Hollywood they'd laugh harder than the people who saw me walking around the Public Garden Tuesday in winter clothes on one of the hottest days of the year. (Click here to watch the video)

The truth is always stranger than fiction.

Cox Media Group