The mansion where Gene Hackman and his wife were found dead is now for sale

It has not been a year since the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and the mansion where their bodies were found has gone up for sale. The price is six million euros. On February 26, 2025, maintenance workers at the estate alerted the security service after receiving no response. The police arrived and found the bodies: Hackman and Arakawa were in different places in the mansion and had been dead for several days. One of his dogs had suffered the same fate. The shock of the macabre end of the winner of two Oscars, for The French Connection and for No forgivenessan actor with 75 films on his resume, shook Hollywood and the echo spread throughout the West. After initial speculation, the couple’s death is considered due to natural causes: he, suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s, died of a heart ailment and she died of a hantavirus infection.

The mansion occupies approximately 1,200 m2 and is located in the area known as the high desert of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, next to Hyde Park Road and at the end of the Old Sunset Trail on a property that covers nearly 5,000 m2. “The custom primary residence showcases architect Ed Boniface’s signature style: fluid spaces that blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor living, highlighting stunning, expansive views from the Jemez Mountains to Colorado,” boasts Sotheby’s International Realty.

“There will be buyers who are reluctant to purchase a property where a death has occurred, but others do not care. We are selling the property with its virtues and all the positive aspects,” the selling agency tells The Wall Street Journal. Naturally, there are no objects or personal belongings of the ill-fated couple left in the house.

Hackman himself was actively involved in renovating the mansion: he turned to renowned architects Harry Daple and Stephen Samuelson, of Studio Arquitectura, to turn his ideas into reality, and in the early 2000s he added an adjacent home. The actor told the specialized magazine Architectural Digest who was drawn to Santa Fe after working on a couple of films there. ‘It had a kind of magic.’

Between Paris Hilton and Umberto Eco. Graduated in Law from the UB and in Journalism from the UPF, I have collaborated with La Vanguardia since 2016. Before, in Vanity Fair, Grazia, Vanitatis, Corazón TVE, Qué Leer and Lecturas.