See Photos Of Lottery Winners Who Died Tragically

The photos and full stories of lottery winners who died tragically has been told on Brainnews.

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As the saying goes money is really not everything, here are a list of people who invited death shortly after money was involved here are the top ten deaths caused by winnings.

Craigory Burch Jr.

Craivory age 20 won nearly half a million dollars from a Georgia lottery in November 2015. Just two months later, he was later found dead after a tragic home invasion , Robbers entered his home and demanded his won money According to his girlfriend, who ran for help during the robbery, Burch pleaded with them not to kill him in front of his kids. He told them they could have his bank card, but when the thieves couldn’t find his wallet, they shot him and ran away. Burch had recently used some of his $434,272 Fantasy 5 winnings to buy Christmas presents for the less fortunate.

Burch, who had a photograph taken of himself holding a large check showing his winnings, had purchased a home in Fitzgerald with some of the proceeds.

Burch’s killer pictured below:

Urooj Khan

Poor Urooj Khan should have kept his promise to himself. A lottery-ticket-buying addict, he’d sworn off buying lottery tickets. But the 46-year-old Chicagoan couldn’t fight the urge; he had to buy one more. Bam! His ticket hit the million-dollar jackpot. Lucky son of a gun.

Deciding to cash out the ticket in one lump sum instead of installments, Khan waited with much anticipation for that first check of $425,000. Tragically, he never saw a dime of it. He suddenly dropped dead the day after his winnings were publicly announced.

The coroner said it was natural causes. But a close family member wasn’t buying it. Sure enough, another autopsy revealed that Khan died of cyanide poisoning. And after he was dead, his estate quickly cashed the check. Naturally, the local police department is now treating his death as a homicide; however, as of 2017, the case remains unsolved.

Abraham Shakespeare

Another big winner, Abraham Shakespeare hit it large in the Florida state lotto for $30 million in 2006. Shakespeare lived it up for a couple of years, almost having spent all his money until he suddenly disappeared in 2006. His body was found under a concrete slab in April 2009

Suspicions turned to a woman Shakespeare was associated with who had apparently bilked him out of over a million dollars. She even convinced Shakespeare to sign over his assets to her. She was later charged and convicted of Murder. He was one of the nicest men you could meet in a lifetime.

Amanda Clayton

Single mom Amanda Clayton struck it rich hitting the lotto in Michigan for $1 million in 2011. A welfare recipient, Clayton had previously struggled to take care of her two kids. But greed is a strange thing. She was convicted of welfare fraud and sentenced to probation when it was discovered , that she continued to use food stamps after the winning ,
Coukd have been a bad habit that drove Clayton to deceive the government. Only 25 years old, she was found dead in 2012, likely due to a drug overdose

Ryan Mckechnie

It seemed life was offering Ryan McKechnie another chance when the 31-year-old hit the Irish lotto in 2012 for £40,000 (about 50,000 in US dollars). A former drug addict, McKechnie had already kicked the habit prior to winning and was in the midst of raising his three children alone after their mother died of drug-related causes in 2010.

Generous with all his friends, however, the money was quickly gone, forcing McKechnie to struggle to make ends meet for himself and his family. Apparently, someone believed that he still had a stash of cash. He was found stabbed to death in his home in February 2014.

Jeffrey Dampier

Probably one of the most infamous lottery deaths , especially if you watch ID , he was An enterprising man, a wholey generous man , who took in his wives sisters who ended up killing him, when Jeffrey Dampier won $20 million in the Illinois state jackpot, he took some of his winnings and opened up a gourmet popcorn shop (as he was brought up as a popcorn boy ). He also lavished gifts on his sister-in-law, paid all their fees and house rents upfront .

Unfortunately, Dampier’s sister-in-law had plans for some of the money that hadn’t been spent. Along with her boyfriend, she helped kidnap Dampier and then shot him to death in a most humiliating manner.

Billie Harrell

In june 1997 Billie Harrell Jr. $31 million in lottery winnings after struggling working multiple jobs for years supporting his wife and three children. He was given his first payment of $1.24 million and thought that he had seen the end of his financial troubles. The beginning was jovial as always, he donated tens of thousands of dollars to his church, bought cars for friends and family, and took his family to Hawaii. Strangers began calling him randomly for donations and Harrell Jr. had to go into hiding. His lavish spending alongside a bad deal made with a lump sum lottery deal left him with much less money that he had originally won.

Shortly after making that bad deal Harrell. Jr. split from his wife, the final straw for the struggling Texan. In 1999 his son found him dead, he had shot himself in the head. Shortly before he committed suicide Billie Harrell Jr. told his accountant that winning the lottery was the worst thing that had ever happened to him.

David Lee Edwards

When David Lee Edwards went from struggling ex-con to a lottery jackpot winner of a share totaling $27 million he was ecstatic, but his story is that shows the corruption that money can bring upon people. Then years after his big win Edwards died, alone, in hospice, penniless. The drug addict spent a third of his life behind bars before his luck seemingly changed in 2001. Edwards quickly became engaged to Shawna Maddux and the pair were married in a lavish Malibu wedding. In his time with cash Edwards and his wife brokered loans to party in Vegas where he would supply his entourage of friends with drugs. The couple purchased three homes together and would often fly between them whenever they felt the urge. The pair quickly spiraled downward and Shawna began to fall in and out of rehab before being involuntarily committed to a substance-abuse treatment program, but nothing seemed to work. She was arrested for stabbing Edwards with a crack pipe in 2004 and eventually the couple was living in squalor in their storage unit.

The chances of actually winning modern lotteries are based upon the lottery itself. For the simple 6-to-49 lotto, where we choose six numbers from 1 to 49, the chances are 1 in 13,983,816. When it is a bonus ball game the chances of winning are even lower at 1 in 258,890,850.

Probably this is what propels the gamblers to go for it.
So goodluck.

More Unfortunate Lottery winners

When Janite Lee won $18 million from the Illinois lottery she was working at a wig shop after immigrating from South Korea. Her first order of business after winning was to move her family into a million-dollar home in a gated community located in St. Louis. She spent a lot of her money on philanthropic contributions, dining beside Bill Clinton and Al Gore. One of her largest contributions put her name on the side of the reading room at the Washington University School of Law. After a year or so Lee signed over her rights to yearly payments and took the lump sum, it took her eight years to go completely bankrupt. Less than a decade after signing over her rights for the lump sum 60-year-old Janite Lee declared bankruptcy with a total of $700 in her bank account. The fact that she spent most of her money on philanthropic efforts makes us feel even worse for this former millionaire.

Timothy Elliott

It was 2008 when Timothy Elliott won $1 million prize from the Massachusetts lottery via scratchers commonly found in gas stations. After winning it was discovered that he was on probation for robbing a bank two years prior and therefore buying scratcher (ie. gambling) was against his probation. He was convicted of unarmed robbery and until the scratcher incident was a compliant probate. The court did search for any reason that the court may have to send him back to jail, but they decided that he could keep the money. He was forced to pay the $65 fee that goes to the cost of monitoring him. This fee was previously waived because Elliott had been compliant. Elliott collects $50,000 each year until he reached the total one million dollars, after taxes he receives $35,000. Timothy Elliott has schizoaffective disorder and is monitored by the Mental Department of Health.

This is one of the strangest stories on the list, Jose Antonio Cua-Toc immigrated to America illegally from Guatemala in 2000. After purchasing the winning ticket Cua-Toc had asked Erick Cervantes to redeem the prize for him since he was illegal and couldn’t do it himself. Cervantes kept the money for himself, which prompted Cua-Toc to sue him for the amount, $750,000. Cervantes and his wife falsely reported that Cua-Toc threatened their lives and he was thrown in jail. While he was in jail facing deportation Cervantes and his wife spent over half of the lottery winnings. After viewing the solid evidence it only took the jury 30 minutes to decide that Cervantes was guilty and awarded Cua-Toc the money plus punitive damages.

This tragic tale starts with William Post III winning $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988. His total winnings equated to 26 yearly payments of $497,953.47 and immediately after getting his first payment we spent $300,000 on frivolous things. In three months his debts totalled $500,000 and after his next payment he bought a mansion for $395,000 in Oil City, Pennsylvania. One year after winning half of the $32 million jackpot William Post III was estranged from his brother. The man paid a hitman to kill William Post III and his sixth wife in a scheme to collect his winnings as an inheritance. The hitman failed and Post’s brother was arrested. Eventually William Post III had incurred more than one million dollars in debt. After losing all of his money Post collected food stamps and a $450/month stipend. The elderly man died naturally of respiratory failure in 2006, he was 66 years old.

Callie Rogers

When Callie Rogers won the lottery in Great Britain she was only 16 years old and working for the equivalent of $5.50/hour. She won almost $3,000,000 from the National Lottery jackpot in 2003 and reported at the time that she didn’t want anything posh, just a normal car and life. Unfortunately like a true teenager who is given millions of dollars Rogers spent big. By 2011 she had undergone two breast augmentation surgeries, had two children, and attempted suicide four times. The young woman also admitted to spending about $380,000 on cocaine in the time she was rich. Now a mother of three, Callie Rogers spends her time raising her children and saving their money for birthdays and holidays. The tumultuous time after becoming a teenage millionaire is now far behind her as Rogers continues to live life as she studies to receive a degree in nursing.

Michael Linskey

In 1991 Michael Linskey bought a $14 million winning lottery ticket from a South Boston corner store. This store just happened to be owned by feared Boston mobster Whitey Bulger. The story goes that Bulger bullied Linskey into sharing his winnings since the winning ticket was bought at his store. Linskey took half of the winnings and the other half was split between Bulger, Kevin Weeks, and Linskey’s brother Patrick. The four men actually signed a notarized statement informing the world that they all agreed to this financial arrangement. It was proposed four years later that Bulger bought into the winnings with laundered money while the mobster was being investigated by U. S. Attorney Donald K. Stern. It can only be imagined how scary it is to be shaken down by a legendary Boston mobster, probably scary enough to forget how fun it is to have won such a huge sum of money from the lottery.

Full name Andrew Jackson “Jack” Whittaker Jr., Jack won over $314 million in the 2002 Powerball Jackpot. At the time this was the largest jackpot to be won by a single ticket in American history, a feat that prompted several issues with the law and even some personal tragedy. He spent his money on multiple things including strippers and philanthropic efforts. In 2003 outside of a strip club in Cross Lanes, West Virginia Jack Whittaker’s car was robbed of over $500,000 that he kept in a suitcase at all times. Another incident at the club got two employees arrested for plotting to drug Whittaker and take his money, and in even another car robbery he lost $200,000 in cash that was later recovered. In a strange turn of events the boyfriend of his grand daughter was found dead on Whittaker’s property in the Fall of 2004. A couple of months later his granddaughter was found dead and wrapped in a tarp, he took her death very hard and received a DUI a couple of years later.

Michael Carroll

At the ripe age of 19, Michael Carroll won the UK National Lottery after living a somewhat hard life without his father, who had spent time in jail for stabbing a couple. He told the media he didn’t plan to spend his money lavishly, just that he wanted a 3-bedroom home on a lake where he could go fishing. In 2004 the young man was pulled over and banned from driving for driving without L-plates or insurance. While drunk the next year Michael Carroll began catapulting steel balls from his Mercedes van resulting in 32 broken car windows in his hometown of Downham Market. The drama that unfolded in his life is almost unreal, five of his Rottweilers guarding his mansion were found with their throats cut and he even paid £130,000 to blackmailers who threatened his family members. Eight years after starting as a binman in 2002 when he won the lottery Michael Carroll once again applied to be a binman, proving that everything eventually comes full circle.