Are you bummed that you didn’t win the $640 million Mega Millions jackpot? Don’t be—it turns
out winning the lottery can often be a terrible curse. From Jack Whittaker, who says he wishes ‘we had torn the ticket up,’
to Evelyn Adams, who won twice and gambled it all away, The Daily Beast rounds up the unluckiest lotto winners of them
all.
So you defie
d the odds and won the $640
million jackpot. Congratulations, what should you do next? If these previous lottery winners are any indication, you
should probably be very, very careful. Winning the lottery can end in bankruptcy, lawsuits, and even death.
Denise
Rossi, $1.3 million
Denise Rossi won $1.3 million in the California lottery and then shocked her husband by filing for divorce 11 days
later. But she never told her husband or anyone involved in the divorce about her winnings. Unfortunately for Rossi, two
years later, her ex learned about her lucky win and sued her. In a deposition, she admitted she did not mention the winnings
because she did not want her husband “getting his hands on them.” That plan backfired slightly. In 1999, a judge ruled that
Rossi had violated state disclosure laws and ordered her to give a portion of her winnings to her husband. How much? Every
penny. If she had previously disclosed the winnings, he would only have gotten half. Honesty really is the best
policy.
Willie Hurt, $3.1 million
Willie Hurt must have felt like he was on top of the world
when he won
$3.1 million in the Michigan lottery in 1989. But he wasn’t. He had probably figured this out by the time he was hauled
into court and charged with killing a woman over crack cocaine two years later. If that wasn’t painful enough, Hurt’s lawyers
said that he didn’t have any money left by that time either.
Ibi Roncaioli, $5 million
Ibi
Roncaioli, already married to a wealthy doctor, got even luckier in 1991, when she won $5 million in the lottery. But she
spent much of it on alcohol and gambling, although she gave $2 million to a secret son that her husband was unaware even
existed. Having left control of the family’s finances in Ibi’s hands for years, her husband, Joseph Roncaioli, was stunned to
discover in 2003 that not only were the winnings gone, but his personal fortune was gone as well. Shortly after this
discovery, Ibi died mysteriously and Roncaioli was found guilty in her
death.
Evelyn Adams, $5.4 million
They say that in life you get no
second chances—unless you happen to be Evelyn Adams. Adams won the New Jersey lottery two
years in a row—in 1985 and 1986—for a grand total of $5.4 million. Unfortunately for her, she became a frequent visitor
to Atlantic City, where she gambled with her lotto
winnings and discovered that the third time is definitely not the charm. By 2001, she was broke and living in a
trailer.
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William
Post, $16.2 million
William “Bud” Post III won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery
in 1988, and his problems started almost immediately. His landlady/sometime girlfriend sued him, saying that they had agreed
to split the winnings. A court awarded her $5.3 million in 1992. At the same time, his legal fees amounted to $129,000 in one
year. As Post continued to squander his remaining money, one of his brothers was convicted of hiring a man to kill Post and
his wife and make it look like a murder-suicide. Post’s woes did not end there—he also received a 6-to-24-month prison
sentence after firing a gun at someone who had come to his house to collect on debt. He died in
2006.
Michael Carroll, £9.7 million
Michael Carroll’s troubles began well before he
ever bought his lottery ticket. In fact, he was already being monitored electronically by police when he won £9.7 million, or
$15.5 million, in 2002. He spent lavishly on drugs, parties, and prostitutes. Carroll also bought a mansion, which he
eventually had to sell at a £600,000 loss because it was in such poor shape, complete with the remains of several cars that
he had destroyed during demolition derbies. As if this wasn’t enough, he also had a string of arrests and jail time for
everything from cocaine possession to “running amok with a baseball bat at a Christian rock concert.” By 2011, the year of his second suicide
attempt, the father of two was completely broke.
Jeffrey Dampier, $20 million
Jeffrey Dampier
won $20 million in the Illinois Lottery in 1996, and he was very generous
with his money. He bought his family houses and gave them gifts. But Dampier may not have been generous enough for his
sister-in-law, Victoria Jackson, because in 2005, she and her boyfriend kidnapped, robbed, and killed him. After she was
found guilty in the killing, Jackson offered words of comfort to her mother. “Jeffrey forgives me,” Jackson promised. At
least she’s at peace with her crimes.
