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Gene Hackman Lost His Wife and Caregiver, and Spent 7 Days Alone
Before Gene Hackman faded from public view in his adopted hometown of Santa Fe, N.M., the locals would see the aging 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 on Friday 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.
Officials said the couple died of natural causes, he of heart disease and she of a rare viral infection. But it was Ms. Arakawa — the caregiver, lover, protector — who died first, perhaps on Feb. 11, leaving Mr. Hackman, 95 years old with advanced Alzheimer’s, alone in the house for days. He is believed to have died a week later, on Feb. 18.
Their decomposing bodies were not discovered for yet another eight days, when a maintenance worker called a security guard to the house after no one came to the door. Emergency workers found Ms. Arakawa, 65, on the floor of a bathroom near a medicine bottle and spilled pills. Zinna, one of their three dogs, was dead in a crate in a closet. The body of Mr. Hackman was discovered in a mud room, with slippers and a cane.
New Mexico’s chief medical examiner said on Friday that Alzheimer’s disease was a contributing factor in Mr. Hackman’s death. Ms. Arakawa died of hantavirus, which is contracted through exposure to excrement from rodents, often the deer mouse in New Mexico.
The exact details of what happened in the house over the course of that week may never be known. Friends and neighbors said that the couple had increasingly receded into the private confines of their hillside house since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the timeline presented Friday raises the terrifying possibility that Mr. Hackman, a Marine veteran and actor of consummate precision and control, had spent days in the presence of his fallen wife, too disoriented or feeble to call for help — trapped, essentially, in the handsome, secluded home that had been his reward for a life toiling in the limelight.
Mr. Hackman was drawn to Santa Fe in the late 1980s, shortly after his divorce from his first wife. He had already earned an Oscar for his starring role in the 1971 thriller, “The French Connection.” Another Oscar, as a supporting actor in the 1992 western “Unforgiven,” would come later.
His father, who abandoned the family when Mr. Hackman was 13, was a pressman for the local newspaper. His mother was a waitress. But Mr. Hackman had a bohemian streak, and he was drawn to Santa Fe’s stunning natural landscape and the artists the landscape inspired. He would become one of them, spending much of the second half of his life painting, sculpting and writing fiction in Santa Fe, far from the trophy homes of Beverly Hills that many celebrities of his caliber inhabit.
Ms. Arakawa was a classical pianist, born in Hawaii. She met Mr. Hackman in Los Angeles at a fitness center where she had a part-time job. He had forgotten his entry card, and she refused to let him in, according to Rodney Hatfield, a friend. They married in 1991. Friends said that the relationship seemed natural, despite the age difference.
“That part never came to mind because they seemed equal in so many ways,” said a friend, Susan Contreras. “She was a personality unto herself.”
The life they settled into in Santa Fe was both charmed and strikingly normal. Architectural Digest featured an earlier hilltop house they owned outside of town, built to their specifications in an elegant Southwestern style. Mr. Hackman joined the board of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, one of the city’s storied cultural gems. They invested in a restaurant, Jinja, which displayed Mr. Hackman’s paintings and named a house mai tai cocktail in his honor.
But others remembered a man who often seemed to fit the mold of the Everyman he so often played onscreen. Helen Dufreche, a former neighbor, recalled meeting Mr. Hackman for the first time about a decade ago. He was wearing a baseball cap and had pulled up alongside her in a truck to compliment her dachshunds.
“What cute puppies!” he said.
Tom Allin, a longtime friend of Mr. Hackman’s, said Ms. Arakawa had always served as something of a gatekeeper for her famous husband. Over a 20-year friendship with Mr. Hackman, Mr. Allin never recalled speaking to him over the phone or emailing with him. He would always set up golf games or visits through Ms. Arakawa. Uninterested in technology, Mr. Hackman did not have a cellphone that Mr. Allin knew about.
“She was very protective of him,” Mr. Allin said, adding that Mr. Hackman seemed happy to have his wife run things.
He recalled Mr. Hackman saying that he would have been dead “long ago” without his wife taking care of him and ensuring that he ate healthily.
In January 2020, just before the pandemic, Mr. Allin said, he saw his friend for his 90th birthday in Islamorada, Fla. He recalls Ms. Arakawa mixing soda water into his wine. “She just really looked after him,” he said.
He also said that he could sense that Mr. Hackman was declining. The couple had a tradition where Mr. Hackman would cook dinner each year for Ms. Arakawa’s birthday. In 2023, she came home expecting a meal, Mr. Allin recalled, but Mr. Hackman had forgotten their ritual.
Like many older Americans, Mr. Hackman retreated indoors during the Covid crisis to stay safe. In recent years, neighbors in Santa Fe Summit, the gated community where the couple lived, said they had seen no sign of the couple, except for their trash cans on the side of the road, waiting to be picked up.
During Friday’s news conference, Sheriff Adan Mendoza of Santa Fe County said that investigators had determined that on Feb. 9, a Sunday, Ms. Arakawa had picked up Zinna from a veterinarian after the dog underwent a procedure, which could explain why Zinna was being kept in a crate.
On Feb. 11, perhaps hours before she died, Ms. Arakawa emailed her massage therapist in the morning and then went to a grocery store in the afternoon. She was also captured on surveillance video making a brief stop at a pharmacy. Sheriff Mendoza said he believed she wore a mask that day while in public, which she often did to avoid bringing any illnesses back to her husband, friends said.
Ms. Arakawa stopped by a local pet food store later that afternoon and then returned to her neighborhood around 5:15 p.m., the sheriff said. She did not respond to any emails after that day.
Asked whether the couple had anyone taking care of Mr. Hackman, Sheriff Mendoza said, “At this point, there’s no indication that there was a caretaker at the home.”
James Everett, who lived part-time in the neighborhood for about five years, said in an interview last week that he found it unusual that the couple did not have any caretakers, given Mr. Hackman’s age. “I know when my dad was 95, 96, 97, 98, we had a live-in cook and maid for him,” he said. “I’m surprised they didn’t have them.”
Another neighbor, Robert Cecil, wondered whether the couple’s desire for privacy was, in the end, a “weakness” that contributed to the horror that befell them.
But Mr. Hatfield, Mr. Hackman’s longtime friend, said that Mr. Hackman loved Santa Fe because it allowed him to live a life that was not always that of a star. “I know that Gene did not like the role of celebrity,” he said. “It was pretty obvious.”
Another friend, Stuart Ashman, said that solitude was often the goal for people who migrated to Santa Fe. “People come here as a way to hide out,” he said. “They certainly did.”
A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration cannot block federal money for child care subsidies and other programs aimed at supporting needy children and their families from flowing to five Democratic-led states for now.
The states of California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York argued that a policy announced Tuesday to freeze funds for three grant programs is having an immediate impact on them and creating “operational chaos.” In court filings and a hearing earlier Friday, the states contended that the government did not have a legal reason for holding back the money from those states.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was pausing the funding because it had “reason to believe” the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally, though it did not provide evidence or explain why it was targeting those states and not others.
The programs are the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes child care for children from low-income families; the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance and job training; and the Social Services Block Grant, a smaller fund that provides money for a variety of programs.
The five states say they receive a total of more than $10 billion a year from the programs.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who was nominated to the bench by former President Joe Biden, did not rule on the legality of the funding freeze, but he said the five states had met a legal threshold “to protect the status quo” for at least 14 days while arguments are made in court.
The government had requested reams of data from the five states, including the names and Social Security numbers of everyone who received benefits from some of the programs since 2022.
The states argue that the effort is unconstitutional and is intended to go after Trump’s political adversaries rather than to stamp out fraud in government programs — something the states say they already do.
Jessica Ranucci, a lawyer in the New York Attorney General’s office, said in the Friday hearing, which was conducted by telephone, that at least four of the states had already had money delayed after requesting it. She said that if the states can’t get child care funds, there will be immediate uncertainty for providers and families who rely on the programs.
A lawyer for the federal government, Kamika Shaw, said it was her understanding that the money had not stopped flowing to states.
The Interior Department’s new “America the Beautiful” annual pass for U.S. national parks.
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Department of Interior
The National Park Service has updated its policy to discourage visitors from defacing a picture of President Trump on this year’s pass.
The use of an image of Trump on the 2026 pass — rather than the usual picture of nature — has sparked a backlash, sticker protests, and a lawsuit from a conservation group.
The $80 annual America the Beautiful pass gives visitors access to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites. Since 2004, the pass has typically showcased sweeping landscapes or iconic wildlife, selected through a public photo contest. Past winners have featured places like Arches National Park in Utah and images of bison roaming the plains.
Instead, of a picture of nature, this year’s design shows side-by-side portraits of Presidents George Washington and Trump. The new design has drawn criticism from parkgoers and ignited a wave of “do-it-yourself” resistance.
Photos circulating online show that many national park cardholders have covered the image of Trump’s face with stickers of wildlife, landscapes, and yellow smiley faces, while some have completely blocked out the whole card. The backlash has also inspired a growing sticker campaign.
Jenny McCarty, a longtime park volunteer and graphic designer, began selling custom stickers meant to fit directly over Trump’s face — with 100% of proceeds going to conservation nonprofits. “We made our first donation of $16,000 in December,” McCarty said. “The power of community is incredible.”
McCarty says the sticker movement is less about politics and more about preserving the neutrality of public lands. “The Interior’s new guidance only shows they continue to disregard how strongly people feel about keeping politics out of national parks,” she said.
The National Park Service card policy was updated this week to say that passes may no longer be valid if they’ve been “defaced or altered.” The change, which was revealed in an internal email to National Park Service staff obtained by SFGATE, comes just as the sticker movement has gained traction across social media.
In a statement to NPR, the Interior Department said there was no new policy. Interagency passes have always been void if altered, as stated on the card itself. The agency said the recent update was meant to clarify that rule and help staff deal with confusion from visitors.
The Park Service has long said passes can be voided if the signature strip is altered, but the updated guidance now explicitly includes stickers or markings on the front of the card.
It will be left to the discretion of park service officials to determine whether a pass has been “defaced” or not. The update means park officials now have the leeway to reject a pass if a sticker leaves behind residue, even if the image underneath is intact.
In December, conservation group the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., opposing the new pass design.
The group argues that the image violates a federal requirement that the annual America the Beautiful pass display a winning photograph from a national parks photo contest. The 2026 winning image was a picture of Glacier National Park.
“This is part of a larger pattern of Trump branding government materials with his name and image,” Kierán Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, told NPR. “But this kind of cartoonish authoritarianism won’t fly in the United States.”
The lawsuit asks a federal court to pull the current pass design and replace it with the original contest winner — the Glacier National Park image. It also seeks to block the government from featuring a president’s face on future passes.
The America the Beautiful National Parks Annual Pass for 2025, showing one of the natural images which used to adorn the pass. Its picture, of a Roseate Spoonbill taken at Everglades National Park, was taken by Michael Zheng.
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Not everyone sees a problem with the new design. Vince Vanata, the GOP chairman of Park County, Wyoming, told the Cowboy State Daily that Trump detractors should “suck it up” and accept the park passes, saying they are a fitting tribute to America’s 250th birthday this July 4.
“The 250th anniversary of our country only comes once. This pass is showing the first president of the United States and the current president of the United States,” Vanata said.
But for many longtime visitors, the backlash goes beyond design.
Erin Quinn Gery, who buys an annual pass each year, compared the image to “a mug shot slapped onto natural beauty.”
She also likened the decision to self-glorification: “It’s akin to throwing yourself a parade or putting yourself on currency,” she said. “Let someone else tell you you’re great — or worth celebrating and commemorating.”
When asked if she plans to remove her protest sticker, Gery replied: “I’ll take the sticker off my pass after Trump takes his name off the Kennedy Center.”
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in a vehicle outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday, a day after an officer shot and killed a driver in Minnesota, authorities said.
The Department of Homeland Security described the vehicle’s passenger as “a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” who had been involved in a recent shooting in Portland. When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants Thursday afternoon, the driver tried to run them over, the department said in a written statement.
“Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot,” the statement said. “The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene.”
There was no immediate independent corroboration of those events or of any gang affiliation of the vehicle’s occupants. During prior shootings involving agents involved in President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement in U.S. cities, including Wednesday’s shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, video evidence cast doubt on the administration’s initial descriptions of what prompted the shootings.
READ MORE: What we know so far about the ICE shooting in Minneapolis
According to the the Portland Police bureau, officers initially responded to a report of a shooting near a hospital at about 2:18 p.m.
A few minutes later, police received information that a man who had been shot was asking for help in a residential area a couple of miles away. Officers then responded there and found the two people with apparent gunshot wounds. Officers determined they were injured in the shooting with federal agents, police said.
Their conditions were not immediately known. Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said during a Portland city council meeting that Thursday’s shooting took place in the eastern part of the city and that two Portlanders were wounded.
“As far as we know both of these individuals are still alive and we are hoping for more positive updates throughout the afternoon,” she said.
The shooting escalates tensions in an city that has long had a contentious relationship with President Donald Trump, including Trump’s recent, failed effort to deploy National Guard troops in the city.
Portland police secured both the scene of the shooting and the area where the wounded people were found pending investigation.
“We are still in the early stages of this incident,” said Chief Bob Day. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to end all operations in Oregon’s largest city until a full investigation is completed.
“We stand united as elected officials in saying that we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts,” a joint statement said. “Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences.”
The city officials said “federal militarization undermines effective, community‑based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region. We’ll use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
They urged residents to show up with “calm and purpose during this difficult time.”
“We respond with clarity, unity, and a commitment to justice,” the statement said. “We must stand together to protect Portland.”
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, urged any protesters to remain peaceful.
“Trump wants to generate riots,” he said in a post on the X social media platform. “Don’t take the bait.”
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