While swaying on a hammock: Tragic story of the lottery’s unluckiest winners

“We’re normal human beings,” said Cindy Hill on Friday, moments after she and her husband, Mark, posed with an oversized check for $293,750,000. “We’re common,” she added. “We just have more money.”

That check represents half of the more than  $500 million Powerball lottery jackpot, which the Hills are one of the two lucky winners.   

The Hills are cognizant of their need to obtain professional financial help. Common wisdom says people who suddenly fall into extreme wealth rarely know how to handle their new circumstances.

Thus, the Hills may avoid yet becoming another tragic story like those of past lotto winners who merely squandered away their million-dollar winnings.

Time has an intriguing article on this by Terri Pous, “The Tragic Stories of the Lottery’s Unluckiest Winners.” And in this edition of While swaying on a hammock, we’ll feature one personality – Andrew “Jack” Whittaker who took merely four years to lose all his winnings of $315 million.

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Andrew Whittaker may have been the wealthiest man ever to win a major lottery jackpot. When the 55-year-old West Virginia construction company president won a $315 million Powerball jackpot in December 2002 — at the time, the largest jackpot ever won by a single ticket — he was already worth some $17 million. 

And Whittaker knew to distribute his new mega-wealth, pledging to give 10 percent of his fortune to Christian charities, donating $14 million to his Jack Whittaker Foundation, and even giving a $123,000 house, a new Dodge Ram Truck, and $50,000 in cash to the woman who worked at the convenience store where he had purchased his winning ticket.

But even Whittaker couldn’t escape his own demons. Beset by legal difficulties and personal problems, he began drinking heavily and frequenting strip clubs. On Aug. 5, 2003, thieves stole $545,000 from his car in a West Virginia strip club parking lot while he was inside. In January 2007, Whittaker reported to the police that thieves had completely emptied his bank accounts. On Jan. 25, 2004, robbers once again broke into his car, stealing an estimated $200,000 in cash that was later recovered. 

And a string of personal tragedies followed. On Sept. 17, 2004, his granddaughter’s boyfriend was found dead from a drug overdose in Whittaker’s home. Three months later, the granddaughter also died of a drug overdose. Her mother, Ginger Whittaker Bragg, died five years later on July 5, 2009. 

Whittaker himself is alleged to be broke — a claim he made as early as January 2007 for failing to pay a women who successfully sued him. He’s also being sued by Caesars Atlantic City casino for bouncing $1.5 million worth of checks to cover gambling losses. “I wish I’d torn that ticket up,” he sobbed to reporters at the time of his daughter’s death.

Read about the other unlucky winners here. 

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Suggested reads:

The New York Times: The Bad Luck of Winning

  

The Onion: Powerball winners alreadydivorced, bankrupt

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