Gene Hackman

Story is starting to emerge. They were dead about 9 days. Both tested negative for carbon monoxide poisoning. Dog in the crate probably died of dehydration. Pills scattered on counter were Diltiazem, a blood pressure medication with high toxicity when overdosed.
 
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Ed Haywood said:
Story is starting to emerge. They were dead about 9 days. Both tested negative for carbon monoxide poisoning. Dog in the crate probably died of dehydration. Prescription pills scattered on counter were Diltiazem, a blood pressure medication with high toxicity on overdose.
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If they wanted to off themselves that’s their call, I won’t judge, however leaving a dog in a crate to die like that I will judge, if that was the case
 
They had 3 dogs. 2 were able to get out. The other obviously not. A truly odd story. The wife being close to the pills makes you wonder if she found him fallen and decided her own fate. 95 is a damn good run. One of the shelters posted pictures and he had apparently adopted dogs in the past.

His movies are classics. He was obviously a legendary actor. But it definitely helps that Hollywood still had talented writers with original ideas and a willingness to push boundaries.
 
I hope the investigators are able to piece together what happened. I think it's going to be something different than any of the theories I've seen so far. If he collapsed and she decided to OD to join him, I can't imagine anyone making that decision and not letting the dog out first. Besides, if you're in your 60s and married to a 95 year old, you know the day is coming. It may be a surprise when it does, but not that big of a surprise.
 
Maybe she died first? One report is the front door was open. Maybe that’s when he had the fall where he couldn’t get back up?

I think we’ll eventually find out what probably happened and then say, “Well, yeah, that makes sense.”
 
Matthew said:
Maybe she died first? One report is the front door was open. Maybe that’s when he had the fall where he couldn’t get back up?

I think we’ll eventually find out what probably happened and then say, “Well, yeah, that makes sense.”
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My wild speculation is that she OD'd, he came home and found her like that and lived with her dead body there for some time, but it makes more sense that he died and then she ended her own life.

It could be a true lighting strike where they both died independently within a few hours of each other though. One died (either) and the other is so distraught they have a heart attack. Example, if she found him dead, felt high blood pressure and ran to her bedroom to lay down for a minute and get a blood pressure medicine onboard and then succumbed to it, it would explain it.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Pills scattered on counter were Diltiazem, a blood pressure medication with high toxicity when overdosed.
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While it can be toxic, I’m not sure it would be a good way to commit suicide. It’s used for heart arrhythmias and it seems more plausible she developed an arrhythmia, felt it, went to take (more) diltiazem, but passed out/arrested from the arrhythmia with bottle in hand. 100% speculation, of course, but if the only pills found/that she took were diltiazem, she wouldn’t have died immediately and spilled the bottle from a diltiazem OD.
 
He could play a dark character well. Assassination Tango comes to mind.

I'm going to go with one of them had an accident or medical incident, fell for example, and the other tried to help them, and that led to a second accident. If one was kind of a primary caretaker more or less, and something happened to them, it could be the other wasn't really well equipped to handle the situation. Guessing. That's the only scenario that makes sense to me given what I'm led to believe about their character as described by friends. Very sad.
 
Albany Tom said:
He could play a dark character well. Assassination Tango comes to mind.

I'm going to go with one of them had an accident or medical incident, fell for example, and the other tried to help them, and that led to a second accident. If one was kind of a primary caretaker more or less, and something happened to them, it could be the other wasn't really well equipped to handle the situation. Guessing. That's the only scenario that makes sense to me given what I'm led to believe about their character as described by friends. Very sad.
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He was indeed an awesome actor. Seemed like a great guy.

Given some of the discussion here and with little else and purely speculating, I’m wondering if she had a heart rhythm issue, went to take some of her diltiazem but the rhythm caused her to collapse/die and spill her pills, he came in and tried to go upstairs to help her but had an event of some kind of his own because of the situation (he was 95, so a heart attack is completely plausible as is a fall but preliminary reports don’t indicate that), and it was just a tragic but otherwise benign set of events.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I think the dog did it.
And then was overcome by guilt and locked himself in the crate
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That’s entirely plausible, considering the guilt my daughter’s dog showed when she was snapping at another dog and accidentally nicked my daughter’s arm.
 
Get Shorty came out 30 years ago, doesn’t seem that long ago at all.

Lots of other good actors in that one, too.
 
“Do you pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?”
 
I could see it. I haven't read up on the whole situation. So, it makes me wonder if it was just Hackman and Arakawa living there by themselves without any help.

If thats the case, I know the caregiver's world tends to shrink down to just getting through the day. Bumping around a big old house with minimal outside interaction, things could get a little crazy. Then, when the caregiver goes down, the Alzheimer patient's meds and nutrition aren't getting taken care of. That could hasten the end pretty quick.

Very sad, very tragic for them.
 
Sierra1 said:
Yeah that too, I forgot that part. I wonder if he even was cognizant of her passing and toiled around until he passed. Sad deal over all.
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Gene could have discovered her body, over and over, after forgetting shortly after each time. That would've been hell on earth for him. Alzheimers is so horrible.
 
When a larger-than-life person like him ends up like this, it’s sobering and sad. I can’t imagine what his last week was like.

IMG_7466.jpeg
 
Fiveslide said:
Gene could have discovered her body, over and over, after forgetting shortly after each time. That would've been hell on earth for him. Alzheimers is so horrible.
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Actually it's not hell....or he would a done something about it. My MIL had dementia and colon cancer. She got radiation....and each day was a new day with the pain. She couldn't remember what happened and she always questioned what was that sharp pain.....never had that before. It really was a blessing. ;)
 
Fiveslide said:
Gene could have discovered her body, over and over, after forgetting shortly after each time. That would've been hell on earth for him. Alzheimers is so horrible.
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One of my oldest, closest friends was in a really bad car wreck with a drunk driver. He was in a coma for a couple of weeks, in the hospital for six weeks, and in inpatient rehab for 6 months with numerous physical injuries and a traumatic brain injury. His mother had died shortly before his accident, and he had to be told repeatedly whenever he asked where she was. :( Eventually he'd start to talk about her and then pause and say "she's not here any more, is she?"

Luckily, he can't remember all of that (the repeated learning about it). And he's mostly recovered now (you never really fully recover from a TBI). But just thinking about that possibility with Hackman... Ugh. Awful.
 
My great Grandmother and her brother both had Alzheimer's.
They would ask us the same questions over and over. Their memories seemed to last about 10 minutes and then "Who are you again?" "When did you get here?"

It is like their brain would just reset every few minutes.
She would walk around the kitchen with a fly swatter looking for a fly that wasn't there. It was like she was on a loop.
Sometimes she would revert to a former period of her live and relive that moment having a conversation with family that had long passed.

It was hell for the close family but we could never decide in their shoes if it was terrible or if they just felt like they were forgetful. There were times where we would thing for a brief moment, she got to be 30 years old again and talk to her mom. So I don't know what to think about it. I assume its probably bad but I don't know how bad.

The very end was pretty terrible. My great grandmother spent about a year in bed about every hour she would wake up and just scream her husband's name "Max" and the go back to sleep.
He was awesome. In his mid 90s and kept her at home and took care of her until she passed. He was strong as an ox until the end. I hope my family got more of our genes from his side.
I don't want to put my family through that.
 
My grandfather died of Alzheimer's. In the beginning, it was sometimes hilarious. He once took me fishing, and we drove 30 miles on a section of interstate that had been built but not yet opened. Later he escaped from his assisted living facility, took a cab home, got his car, and drove 1000 miles to Texas. Nobody knows where he was going or how he got money for gas.

But the end was bad. Lying in bed in an ALF for years, wasting away, not knowing anyone who visited him.

His wife's death was tragic. It is possible she would have survived had he been capable of calling 911.

But TBH in Gene's case the tragedy happened years ago, and his demise was probably no worse or better than anyone else with that terrible disease.
 
Tragic story, but a good reminder to this group that the first speculations on a crash or incident often need to wait for more information. A tragic case of the Swiss cheese aligning for three deaths.
 
I have a mutual agreement with a friend of mine, in case either of us gets Alzheimer’s. We’ve agreed on a treatment plan; it only takes one round.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Sometimes she would revert to a former period of her live and relive that moment having a conversation with family that had long passed.

It was hell for the close family but we could never decide in their shoes if it was terrible or if they just felt like they were forgetful. There were times where we would thing for a brief moment, she got to be 30 years old again and talk to her mom. So I don't know what to think about it. I assume its probably bad but I don't know how bad.
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Hard to say, from their perspective. Must be a little like watching reruns of a TV show about yourself.

I heard a story about a family whose patriarch had Alzheimer's and was pretty much off in his own little world for years. He had been a radio operator, IIRC, on a bomber in WWII. CAF or some similar org was bringing said bomber to a nearby airport and the family paid for a private tour of the airplane.

When they boarded, it was like a switch flipped and he was suddenly back to his old self. He gave them a full tour, told stories, sat down at the radio panel... And found where he'd written his own name. It was the exact airplane he'd served on! They enjoyed a blissful hour with him, and after they got off the plane, he drifted back into his own little world again.

SixPapaCharlie said:
The very end was pretty terrible. My great grandmother spent about a year in bed about every hour she would wake up and just scream her husband's name "Max" and the go back to sleep.
He was awesome. In his mid 90s and kept her at home and took care of her until she passed. He was strong as an ox until the end. I hope my family got more of our genes from his side.
I don't want to put my family through that.
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I feel the same way. I hope that our country can figure out how to be as humane to ourselves as we are to our pets and allow euthanasia. If I'm gonna be a burden, just turn me off.
 
DaleB said:
I have a mutual agreement with a friend of mine, in case either of us gets Alzheimer’s. We’ve agreed on a treatment plan; it only takes one round.
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A friend and myself have something similar.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I hope that our country can figure out how to be as humane to ourselves as we are to our pets and allow euthanasia. If I'm gonna be a burden, just turn me off.
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One side of my family has a history of passing around 70, sometimes earlier. The other has a history spending too many years in full-time care at the end of their lives. I sincerely hope I'm in the first group.

If anyone tries to put me in a home, and expect my son to figure out how to pay for that care, I'll find and drink a full bottle of Drano.
 
Fiveslide said:
If anyone tries to put me in a home, and expect my son to figure out how to pay for that care, I'll find and drink a full bottle of Drano.
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Wow, that’s got to be a miserable way to go. There are painless ways that don’t make a mess for those who we leave behind.
 
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