HACKMAN'S HORRIBLE END DIDN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN!

Poor decisions snowballed until actor was left helpless & alone

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ADDLED acting legend Gene Hackman shuffled around his Santa Fe, N.M., home like a ghost for six days before his death from heart disease, while the dead body of his wife, Betsy Arakawa, rotted on a bathroom floor, investigators say — but sources tell GLOBE the senseless tragedy didn’t have to happen!

In an exclusive report, GLOBE lays bare the heart-breaking final days of the 95-year-old Hollywood great — and how the two-time Oscar winner may have still been alive today if Betsy, 65, hadn’t sealed him away from the world!

The dual deaths were shrouded in mystery until Santa Fe County Chief Medical Examiner Heather Jarrell announced that classical pianist Betsy likely died Feb. 11 from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome — a rare disease caused by the urine, droppings and saliva of infected rodents, affecting the heart and lungs.

The couple, who lived in New Mexico since the 1980s and tied the knot in 1991, was found dead * in their Santa Fe home in late **February