Winning the Lottery

In 1988, William "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery. First he was sued by one of his ex girlfriends, then his brother tried to hire a hitman to kill him for the inheritance money. At the time of his death in January of 2006, he was living off of $450 a month from social security and food stamps.

Two years after winning $31 million the Texas Lottery in 1997, Billie Bob Harrell Jr. committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest with a shotgun. Shortly before his death, he'd confided, "Winning the lotttery is the worst thing that ever happened to me."

In 2001, Victoria Zell and her husband won a $11 million Powerball jackpot. She was involved in a drug- and alcohol-fueld car accident killing one passenger and paralyzing the other after vowing to show them how to "drive crazy." She was convicted of four counts of criminal vehicular homicide and four counts of criminal vehicular operation, and sentenced to 7 years in prison, 3 more years than the sentencing guidelines recommended.

Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey lottery twice, in 1985 and 1986, her winnings totaling $5.4 million. Between a love of slot machines and an inability to say no to friends and relatives, she lost all her money by 2001 and was living in a trailer.

Willie Hurt of Lansing, Michigan won $3.1 million in 1989 through the Michigan Lottery. Two years later, he had spent his his winnings on crack cocaine and a divorce, and had been charged with murder.

Jack Whittaker won $315 million Powerball jackpot in the largest individual payout in US history. His initial good intentions towards sharing his earnings backfired when his granddaughter Brandi died from a drug overdose with drugs funded by her allowance from Whittaker, and he was bombarded with lawsuits and other schemes fueled by greed. He became an alcoholic, blaming the "powerball curse" for destroying his life and his marriage.

Abraham Shakespeare, a barely literate ex-con, won $30 million in the Florida Lottery in 2006. He was sued by the truck driver who had bought the ticket for him, claiming that he had bought the ticket for himself and that Shakespeare had stolen the ticket out of his wallet, as well as by an ex-girlfriend. In 2009, he met con-artist Dorice "DeeDee" Moore, who had him sign over properties he owned and later, killed him and buried him under a 30 x 30 concrete slab in her backyard.