7 Lottery Winners Who Went Broke!
#7 Abraham Shakespeare
In 2006, an illiterate sanitation worker named Abraham Shakespeare won a whopping $30 million
dollars in the Florida lottery.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy it.
The Lakeland resident squandered almost all of it within two years.
It was in 2008 that he met a woman named Dee Dee Moore who offered to write his life story.
She never got around to it and instead, grabbed his home and what was left of his fortune.
In April of 2009, Shakespeare was shot twice in the chest with a .38-caliber pistol.
He wasn't reported missing until November and his body was found under a slab of cement
in January 2010.
The culprit?
Dee Dee Moore.
On December 10, 2012, Moore was convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of
Abraham Shakespeare.
She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole with an additional
minimum sentence of 25 years for possessing a gun in the course of a violent felony.
A judge has since ruled that Shakespeare’s remaining assets be returned to the estate
of the deceased lottery winner.
#6 David Lee Edwards
Unemployed felon David Lee Edwards won $27 million dollars.
As soon as he got his first check, he went on an insane spending spree.
He bought a $1.6 million house in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; a $1.9 million Lear Jet;
a second home for $600,000 and three racehorses.
He invested $4.5 million in a fiber optics company and limo business, paid his ex-wife
$500,000 for custody of their teenage daughter, and bought a $200,000 Lamborghini Diablo and
a multitude of other cars including a $35,000 Hummer golf cart.
Edwards spent $3 million in his first three months as a lottery winner and by the end
of that year, he had spent a total of $12 million dollars.
By 2006, nearly all of his money was gone and he struggled with drug addiction.
He eventually lost both of his homes and was forced to live in a storage unit that was
infested with human feces.
Edwards died broke and alone in a hospice on November 30, 2014, 12 years after winning
the lottery.
#5 Ryan McKechnie
In 2013, Ryan McKechnie won £40,000 and had hoped to turn his life around after battling
drug addiction.
He never got the chance — he was stabbed to death less than one year later.
The 31-year-old father of three won the money in the Irish lottery.
He had been free of drugs and was raising his three children alone, but relapsed after
his mother's death.
A friend said of Ryan's lottery win: “All his supposed mates started hanging around,
so he didn't have the money for long.”
Broke, he struggled to make ends meet for himself and his family.
Apparently, someone believed that he still had a stash of cash, and he was murdered in
a home invasion robbery in February 2014.
#4 Callie Rogers
16-year-old Callie Rogers won £1.9 million in 2003.
The lucky teen, who was working for £3.60 an hour when she won the jackpot, vowed to
be responsible with her winnings but quickly broke that promise.
She spent it all on vacations, homes, shopping sprees, and even breast enhancement surgery.
Disappointed in the knowledge that money couldn't buy happiness, she attempted suicide four
times and blew about £250,000 on cocaine.
Rogers is now a mother of two.
She lives in a modest house and works as a maid to sustain herself while studying to
become a nurse.
Despite losing all her winnings, she insists she's never been happier.
#3 Janite Lee
In 1993, 52-year-old Janite Lee won an $18 million dollar payout from the Missouri lottery.
The South Korean immigrant wanted to make a difference with her newfound wealth and
contributed widely to various charities including educational programs, community services,
and political organizations.
She was reported to have donated more than $1 million to Washington University, where
her namesake reading room commemorates the occasion.
She gave $277,000 to the Democratic party and met with Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and even
the President of South Korea.
She donated on a smaller scale as well — the family of a deceased South Korean pastor received
$30,000 and the St. Louis Korean American Association was gifted with a house.
A Korean adoption-related association also benefited.
Lee's philanthropy was expensive, as were her exquisite homes, cars, and gambling debts.
After losing just $347,000 in a single year, the writing was on the wall.
Lee filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2001.
#2 Jack" Whittaker Jr
West Virginia building contractor Andrew Jackson aka "Jack" Whittaker Jr. won $315 million
on Christmas Day, 2002.
At that time, he was the single largest jackpot winner in history.
Whittaker was already successful — he was the president of a contracting company called
Diversified Enterprises Construction and had a net worth of over one million dollars.
He had a loving family, and several healthy, happy grandkids.
After winning the prize, he intended to do the right thing and pledged 10% of his winnings
to various Christian charities.
He also dumped $14 million into the Jack Whittaker Foundation, a non-profit that provided food
and clothing to low-income families.
What could possibly go wrong?
While Whittaker did some good with his money, he had his demons.
He was arrested twice.
A woman filed a lawsuit against him after claims that he groped her at a racetrack.
While he was visiting a strip club, thieves took $545,000 in cash from his car.
He eventually started bouncing checks and his wife divorced him.
As a result of his win, Whittaker also left a trail of dead bodies.
His granddaughter's boyfriend was found dead of an overdose inside his home, and she fatally
overdosed months later at a different location.
Her mother also died of undetermined causes.
Whittaker, left with no family and no fortune, said in hindsight, “I wish I’d torn that
ticket up."
#1 Curtis Sharp
In 1982, Curtis Sharp beat 609-million-to-1 odds to win $5 million dollars.
The air conditioning technician from Newark, New Jersey was set for life.
But like many lottery winners, he squandered his money on bad investments, generous gifts
to family and friends and a lifestyle he simply couldn’t afford.
Unlike our other lottery winners, however, Sharp’s story has a good ending.
He was smart enough to keep his job at Bell Laboratories for eight years after winning.
He is now a Baptist minister living off his pension and Social Security checks in a modest
house in Antioch, Tennessee.
He spends his days preaching, and doing prison ministry.
Of his winnings, he said, “A fool and his money are soon parted, and honey, I acted
a fool.”
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