The exact details may never be known, but Gene Hackman, 95 with advanced Alzheimer’s, was alone for about a week after his wife and sole caregiver died. Before Gene Hackman faded from public view in his adopted hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico , the locals would see the ageing movie star on the golf course or in his truck or walking his beloved dogs in the enchanted western city, amid the mesquite, juniper and pinyon pine. His wife, Betsy Arakawa, was often alongside him.
There was much about his life that she managed. She set up the golf games with his friends. She policed his diet, given the heart trouble that had dogged him for decades.
She diluted his wine with soda water. She typed and edited the novels he wrote by hand. She also apparently took on the role of sole caregiver as he endured the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s.
Thirty years his junior, she must have planned to see him to his end, in their home. And so it was all the more jarring last week when authorities in New Mexico revealed more dark turns in the mystery of how the couple died last month in their four-bedroom house, hidden by trees at the end of a luxurious cul-de-sac east of the city..