Jack Whittaker.
The Worst Case Ever Of The Infamous Lottery Curse!
Strippers, Drugs, Dead Relatives, Crime, And He Claims The Money Is All Gone!
In the days before Christmas 2002 Jack Whittaker bought one single Powerball ticket from his regular stop for breakfast biscuits, C&L Super Serve in Hurricane, West Virginia. Brenda the clerk at the store liked the big man who always wore black, and liked that he only bought one ticket.
Jack only bought one chance, and only when the pot got to a huge amount. Why bother with the little stuff. Over the years he had built a large construction and sewer pipe laying business that employed a hundred folks and was said to already be worth $14 million.
Christmas Night, 2002, Jack's wife Jewell woke him and told him that four of his numbers had placed according to the local TV station. That would surely be a pretty big prize in a huge Powerball drawing. It wasn't until the next morning that Jack discovered the TV station made an error and he had won the big prize of $314 million!!!
Jack took the cash option on the payout and was cut an after tax check for $114 million dollars!
Jack became an instant celebrity, making the rounds of the national morning news shows, even allowing a half-hour TV show to be filmed in his home. He vowed to donate a biblical 10% of the money to Christian causes, build churches, and to Brenda the clerk's surprise, to share some with her. He eventually bought her a $123,000 house, a Jeep, and gave her $44,000 cash.
Thousands of letters poured in begging for money and Jack poured $14 million onto the Jack Whittaker Foundation, hiring private eyes to separate the real from the fraudulent requests.
Several days later Jack forgot all of the good promises, strolled into the strip club the Pink Pony, and foolishly slapped $50,000 on the counter. The manager asked him to never flash that cash in the club again, and Jack proceeded to party down until being helped into a limo for the ride home later that night.
Much more was to happen in the coming years, much of it sad.
First Was that Jack had pancreatitis, and he'd had eight operations in eight years. His health was not good and partying would surely take a toll.
Folks started following Jack so that he had to change his routine. No more biscuits at C&L Super Serve.
Brenda's older daughter did not work and talked Brenda into spending the $44,000 on her a trailer and car. Other relatives thought she was a millionaire and demanded help she could not give. Her sister stopped talking to her.
Jack was living it up at a racetrack with a woman (not his wife) when the clerks claim he grabbed their hair and slapped their backsides. Several lawsuits followed.
Then, at the Pink Pony, again, Jack was said to brag about having a half-million dollars in his briefcase in the truck. He was drugged and woke to find the window smashed and money stolen. Police found the briefcase hidden behind a dumpster and arrested a stripper and another man. The Pink Pony lost their liquor license which put about 40 people out of work. Nice going Jack.
Within a year Jack said the foundation was "overwhelmed" and suspended operations.
At any given time Jack and his company had about 400 claims and lawsuits against them. One of his suits was for bouncing checks at Atlantic City casinos. Several million dollars were spent on legal fees alone. He quickly passed the point of giving away over $50 million dollars.
Jack gave his teenage granddaughter Brandi Bragg as much as $5,000 in a single day, and up to $2,000 a week as an allowance. She was said to claim she had no friends as people just wanted to be with her for the money. Brandi dropped out of high school.
Jack allowed Brandi's young "friends" to drive his vehicles, paying them to drive her around. According to many kids she started smoking crack quite frequently.
Three of those young men were arrested fro stealing $100,000, again from the front seat of Jack's truck.
Then Jack was arrested and charged with drunk driving in a treacherous storm.
Jack also had another house he hung out at with another woman. She had won $25,000 at the racetrack one day and when she arrived home she and Jack were robbed in the home at gunpoint. The robber was a grandfather from Florida.
Then Jack started growing a ponytail!
Brandi was said to be injecting drugs now. As her life spiraled out of control she took teenage friends with her. Eventually her boyfriend was found dead of an overdose of a mixture of at least four different drugs. Three other young men were arrested for stealing stuff from Jack's house as the boy lay dead in the bedroom.
Jack and wife Jewell had become estranged.
Jack wrecked his Hummer and again was arrested for driving drunk. He had a pistol in his boot and $117,000 cash in the vehicle.
Then Jack's granddaughter Brandi was found dead of an overdose, wrapped in a tarp and hidden behind a junk car on a friend's property. Seems the friend freaked out when she died and hid the body.
Jack still put no blame on the money or himself, instead he laid all the blame on Brandi's schoolmates. "All of the problems I have had are because of my granddaughter's drug-using friends," he angrily told an Associated Press reporter. "I'm going to find them and put them in jail.
Jack seems to have fallen off of the news radar in the last couple of years but we shall keep our eyes and ears open. In 2007 he claimed to be broke, his remaining money stolen by check fraud thieves. Time will tell if this story is accurate.
Hopefully he has taken steps to correct some of the excesses and abuses in his life, but if not, we will keep you informed about what is perhaps the single most detailed story ever of the "Lottery Curse"!
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