RIP Gene Hackman

Hmm no trauma to the body,carbon monoxide ruled out.

Poisoning?
Pills could be some type of hared suicide, but the dog too? Plus the pills were scattered around, if they took them it would have been all of them.

Be interesting to see what they piece together, or if the story just kind of 'vanishes'
 
Pills could be some type of hared suicide, but the dog too? Plus the pills were scattered around, if they took them it would have been all of them.

Be interesting to see what they piece together, or if the story just kind of 'vanishes'
Can't rule out suicide,but whatever was in that medication is what I'm leaning toward.

And the dog could've swallowed a bad pill that rolled out on the floor,that his wife injested.
 
My guess would be that the man had some sort of medical emergency, his wife ran to the bathroom where the dog was crated to get medication then herself had a stress induced heart attack dropping the pills in the process, then when the dog got hungry enough he ate any pills which were in reach which caused the dogs death.

So all in all a string of tragic coincidences that only two of the dogs escaped.
 
Well, those two dogs were outside and not caged in the bathroom. I don't think they can rule out carbon monoxide yet, they died 17 days before they were discovered.
 
My guess would be that the man had some sort of medical emergency, his wife ran to the bathroom where the dog was crated to get medication then herself had a stress induced heart attack dropping the pills in the process, then when the dog got hungry enough he ate any pills which were in reach which caused the dogs death.

So all in all a string of tragic coincidences that only two of the dogs escaped.
That's my guess, too. Hackman was 95, slipped and fell, or suffered a fatal heart attack. His wife tried to help, but became incapacitated too. From what I've read, they both died very close together in time. Tragic, for sure, but not that suspicious.
 
My guess would be that the man had some sort of medical emergency, his wife ran to the bathroom where the dog was crated to get medication then herself had a stress induced heart attack dropping the pills in the process, then when the dog got hungry enough he ate any pills which were in reach which caused the dogs death.

So all in all a string of tragic coincidences that only two of the dogs escaped.
Probably right.
 
I would imagine, with the dog inside a carrier cage, he died of starvation and dehydration.
My guess would be that the man had some sort of medical emergency, his wife ran to the bathroom where the dog was crated to get medication then herself had a stress induced heart attack dropping the pills in the process, then when the dog got hungry enough he ate any pills which were in reach which caused the dogs death.

So all in all a string of tragic coincidences that only two of the dogs escaped.
 
Everyone has darkness within them, but I don't think people are trash. All life is sacred, but I think people are of a greater value than animals and plants. That doesn't give us a right to abuse our world, which we do on a regular basis. But I think the saddest thing is that you're more depressed about the death of the dog than the humans that shared their lives with it. I understand your point of view, I just don't share it.
That thought makes me sad.
Dogs, animals in general, are precious.
People are mostly just trash.
 
I would imagine, with the dog inside a carrier cage, he died of starvation and dehydration.
I guess I'm oddly optimistic in thinking that it must've been an overdose that gave him a much quicker death. It'd still rather think that the dog died of carbon monoxide poison or sedative overdose than dehydration.
 
I'd rather they went, wife, husband, and dog in the same instant from an outside force of nature. Gas leak (no), carbon monoxide (they say no in one article, and another they are testing for it), a massive heart attack killing him instantly, and her suffering the same fate while fetching him meds, and the dog seeing his master gone, just gave up the ghost. But my lizard brain, to use Dexter's term, sees a writing opportunity here for something much darker.
I guess I'm oddly optimistic in thinking that it must've been an overdose that gave him a much quicker death. It'd still rather think that the dog died of carbon monoxide poison or sedative overdose than dehydration.
 
I'd rather they went, wife, husband, and dog in the same instant from an outside force of nature. Gas leak (no), carbon monoxide (they say no in one article, and another they are testing for it), a massive heart attack killing him instantly, and her suffering the same fate while fetching him meds, and the dog seeing his master gone, just gave up the ghost. But my lizard brain, to use Dexter's term, sees a writing opportunity here for something much darker.
Same here, quick and painless is always the least heartbreaking way to go.

But... Yeah you're right other scenarios would inspire stories more.
 
The more details that come out, the more it looks like a series of tragic deaths. Hackman was found in the mudroom with his cane, Arakawa in their bathroom with pills from an open scattered around, the dog that died in a closet within a few feet of Arakawa. Two other dogs were found alive and in relatively good health, one in the bathroom near Arakawa and one "outside," but it's not clear if that meant outside in the house or outside of the home.

Family and friends said Hackman's health had been slipping in recent months and that he had become more reclusive after Covid, afraid of damaging his immune system and/or becoming gravely ill. However, he had always been fairly active before that, bicycling and doing pilates regularly.

Hackman had anginoplasty in 1990, too; potentially a relevant detail, as one of the bottles retrieved from the home contained Diltiazem, a calcium channel blocker used to treat high blood pressure or chest pain. He also had a pacemaker.

It's easy to piece together a number of plausible scenarios. Here's one:

The couple had taken the dogs for a walk. Something happened, and Hackman felt chest pain, so they rushed back. Hackman sits down in the mudroom, unable to go further.

The dogs, worried for their master, won't leave him alone, so Arakawa grabs two of them to separate them from Hackman and each other. One goes in a closet, while the other she with her keeps in the bathroom while searching for her husband's medication. In the stress of the moment, she succumbs to a heart attack or stroke.

Given their seclusion--relatively recent, but not so recent as to arouse suspicion--no one finds them for a week. Without water, the dog in the closet passes away, but the other two are able to fend for themselves somewhat; the dog roaming about the house would still have access to any remaining food and water they'd left out, while the one in the bathroom could drink from the toilet.

A sad story, but one that requires neither malice nor conspiracy, and also one that's played out over and over again through the years, just with less famous people involved. It's even common enough to have a name: "Philemon and Baucis syndrome."
 

Gene Hackman Died a Week After His Wife, Both From Natural Causes


Autopsy reports released this afternoon, and....wow...just wow.

Mrs. Hackman passed away first. She died from breathing complications from the Hantavirus, which is spread by rat droppings and about five to seven people pass away from it in Santa Fe each year. The pills found scattered around her had nothing to do with her death.

Then things get weird.

She passed away ONE WEEK before her husband Gene Hackman died.

Gene Hackman evidently had a very advanced case of Alzheimer's disease and evidently had no idea his wife was lying dead in the front bathroom of their home. His stomach was found to be completely empty, suggesting he had not eaten since his wife had passed away.

He evidently remembered to let two of the three dogs they owned outside but did not let the third dog out of its cage (it died of dehydration).

Hackman had a massive coronary in his mudroom of his home six or seven days after his wife had passed away. He had a severely damaged and scarred heart, indicating multiple heart attacks, stents and surgical repair in the past.

The autopsy did not reveal if Hackman had remembered to take his heart medications, but it would seem unlikely.

What an awful way to die.
 
If I may reflect on something: in the last two weeks, I had a couple of appointments with heart doctors at two branches of Montefiore Hospital in The Bronx. I'm not going to describe my own conditions. I wanted to mention that both branches have huge clinic buildings. Each weekday, there are traffic jams of ambulettes bringing in old people,* many from nursing homes, for their appointments.

I'm not going to get into medical ethics here, but I do wonder what more their doctors can do for many of them. I don't know what my fate will be, but I don't want to be one of those people. It may be a fantasy, but at some point I might prefer to go out in a Viking funeral or like Edward G. Robinson in one of those euthanasia devices at the end of Soylent Green. Life has a cycle that I wasn't aware of, at least on a gut level, until recently. Did Gene Hackman live beyond some reasonable endpoint if he had such a horrible ending? Maybe only God (I'm not even sure what that term means) knows for sure.

* I'm going to be seventy this spring. Not to be too morbid about it, but it does feel like I've crested some hill.
 
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I'm not going to get into medical ethics here, but I do wonder what more their doctors can do for many of them. I don't know what my fate will be, but I don't want to be one of those people. It my be a fantasy, but at some point I might prefer to go out in a Viking funeral or like Edward G. Robinson in one of those euthanasia devices at the end of Soylent Green. Life has a cycle that I wasn't aware of, at least on a gut level, until recently. Did Gene Hackman live beyond some reasonable endpoint if he had such a horrible ending? Maybe only God (I'm not even sure what that term means) knows for sure.

A few years back the law where I live was changed to allow "voluntary assisted dying" (euthanasia) with strict safeguards on the process (see here). One lady I knew who was in the last stages of cancer died via VAD last year; she chose the day, the family came up to say goodbye, and she went out in her favourite place with a glass of wine. There are far worse ways to die.

It's not the answer to every situation; one of the requirements is that the patient is fully informed about their options, and that may not be possible for people with impaired mental functioning. But having known too many people who didn't get the choice, I'm glad the option's there now.
 
It's not the answer to every situation; one of the requirements is that the patient is fully informed about their options, and that may not be possible for people with impaired mental functioning. But having known too many people who didn't get the choice, I'm glad the option's there now.

The paradox with this is that if you are lucid enough today to be able to decide to go today, then you don't need to go today. It's very hard to resist the temptation and roll the dice that the same will be true tomorrow. It's a hell of a thing to decide, but I agree that its good to have the option.
 
The paradox with this is that if you are lucid enough today to be able to decide to go today, then you don't need to go today. It's very hard to resist the temptation and roll the dice that the same will be true tomorrow. It's a hell of a thing to decide, but I agree that its good to have the option.
Being lucid isn't mutually exclusive from being in constantly worsening pain or knowing you are approaching that point of pain.

I watched my mother-in-law die of colon cancer a couple of years ago. She was mentally with it the entire time but the only thing she could talk about at the end was how much it hurt. I don't think she would've taken the choice of assisted dying, but watching the process with her made me realize I would. Not because I couldn't handle the pain, but because I know my husband couldn't handle seeing me in pain like that and I don't know if I could hide it.

A couple of years ago I wrote a story about a husband who was dying of cancer and basically brought his wife's emotional affair partner back into their lives after she ended the friendship years before. I wrote that based on my experience with my mother-in-law and considering what options I would take in that situation.

1. Try to hide any discomfort for as long as I could without him finding out the diagnosis.

2. When I started struggling to hide it, pull away emotionally and physically from the relationship.

3. Figure out which of his friends has been harboring a crush on him and be honest with her about the situation. Get her to "steal" him away.

4. Die on my own terms once he's out of the picture.

Which is exactly how that story went (though I never specified the husband's end) and it amused me how many people commented on how unrealistic it was. It's literally the plan I have in place should I get fair warning of a terminal diagnosis.

Thinking through my own death plan/process/options is at least an hour of my daily routine, lol. Like, I've had a DNR and medical choice proxy thing in place since I turned 35. The world fucking sucks and if I'm already technically gone, then leave me the fuck alone.
 
A few years back the law where I live was changed to allow "voluntary assisted dying" (euthanasia) with strict safeguards on the process (see here). One lady I knew who was in the last stages of cancer died via VAD last year; she chose the day, the family came up to say goodbye, and she went out in her favourite place with a glass of wine. There are far worse ways to die.

It's not the answer to every situation; one of the requirements is that the patient is fully informed about their options, and that may not be possible for people with impaired mental functioning. But having known too many people who didn't get the choice, I'm glad the option's there now.
I see that is in Australia. I don't know if that would ever be accepted in America. But even though it's tricky, I might accept such a law here.

Through most of human history, doctors were very limited in what they could do for a person. Now they have great powers in the front end of keeping people alive, but there are few answers for the "back end" of what to do with people who can no longer even take care of themselves. Hackman had enough resources to keep him out of a nursing home, but in the end no one beyond his wife knew what was happening with him for many days.
 
Being lucid isn't mutually exclusive from being in constantly worsening pain or knowing you are approaching that point of pain.

I watched my mother-in-law die of colon cancer a couple of years ago. She was mentally with it the entire time but the only thing she could talk about at the end was how much it hurt. I don't think she would've taken the choice of assisted dying, but watching the process with her made me realize I would. Not because I couldn't handle the pain, but because I know my husband couldn't handle seeing me in pain like that and I don't know if I could hide it.

I've seen similar things, and it's awful. I think though @TheRedChamber was talking specifically about conditions like Alzheimer's, where the decline is primarily mental and the point where death becomes preferable might come at a stage when the person is no longer mentally competent to make that call.

I see that is in Australia. I don't know if that would ever be accepted in America. But even though it's tricky, I might accept such a law here.

Yeah, I don't know if it would be accepted in the USA, and I'm not sure it would even be a good idea for the USA as things stand. The rights and wrongs need to be considered within the context of the health system as a whole, and that's very different in the USA.

OTOH...just because it's not legal doesn't mean it isn't happening. Before the law changed here, I knew people who'd made their own plans. I suspect there've been more than a few doctors and nurses over the years who've been willing to "assist" patients who were in unbearable circumstances, and perhaps a few coroners and police who chose not to look at those cases too closely.

(But then those extra-legal pathways can go bad very easily, with no scrutiny and often no option for patients to discuss their plans with family.)
 
A few years back the law where I live was changed to allow "voluntary assisted dying" (euthanasia) with strict safeguards on the process...
There are a handful of states in the US. Only a handful. Not nearly enough.
 
I see that is in Australia. I don't know if that would ever be accepted in America. But even though it's tricky, I might accept such a law here.
There are a handful of states in the US. Only a handful. Not nearly enough.
It is legal in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Washington DC. Details vary but in general the person must be declared to be terminal, mentally competent and must physically be able to take the medications.
 
I'm going to sound tin hat, but I'm not buying this.

They have adult children, they have friends. No one texted or called the wife for a week? No one called him, no one came over?

Also, the dog that was left in the crate was described as the wife's constant companion, why was that the dog that was in a crate in a room with the door closed?

There's more to this, but I wouldn't expect anything less from Hollywood and California to sweep things under the rug.
 
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