What Really Killed Andy Griffith?

TV icon Andy Griffith died of a heart attack in 2012 — but The National ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that the small screen sheriff was exposed to deadly asbestos decades ago!

The ENQUIRER has unearthed a 2013 report stating that the North Carolina home in which “The Andy Griffith Show” star lived with long-suffering first wife Barbara, and their adopted children, Dixie and her tragic brother Sam, was riddled with the fire-resistant insulation, which can cause lung cancer and mesothelioma.

Andy, who was married to Barbara from 1949 to 1972, in the late 1980s developed a “mystery illness” that triggered a horrible cough, and his condition baffled doctors, who thought it was an inflammation of his nerves. “My illness was strange,” Andy once admitted.

“As I got better, the symptoms of influenza were replaced by terrible searing pain that ricocheted through my entire body,” he said. Andy, shown here in a scene from "Matlock," had suffered a heart attack on May 9, 2000, and underwent a quadruple bypass at a hospital in Norfolk, Va.

Sources suspect it was the asbestos fibers that Andy inhaled that led to the respiratory illness and, ultimately, compromised his lung function. One expert claims it could take 30 years or more for the deadly fibers to increase breathing difficulties and help lead to the heart attack that killed him!

Andy, who passed away on July 3, 2012, at his Manteo, N.C., home, likely “died from the poison,” a source says. “Andy’s death is such a mystery,” adds another insider. “It was so strange.” Also odd was the speed with which Andy went into the grave.

But The ENQUIRER has learned he left explicit instructions with third wife Cindi (right), that he wanted to be laid to rest immediately on his farm. “There was a lot of surprise over the haste with which Andy was buried — but that was the way he wanted it,” an insider tells The ENQUIRER.

“He even had a plot marked out for the grave diggers about 50 yards from his home. He didn’t want any crowds or long drawn-out funerals, and he didn’t want his final resting spot to become a tourist attraction," said the insider, noting that Andy — fittingly memorialized in bronze in his native home of Mt. Airy — also didn't want Cindi and Dixie "to squabble over any funeral arrangements."

Andy was interred just four-and-a-half hours after his 7 a.m. death. His body was rushed to a local funeral home, prepared for burial and then whisked back to his farm. Cindi and about a dozen of Andy’s friends gathered for the funeral service, but the quick burial prevented Dixie from being able to attend.