Aimed by a fraud, killed and buried under concrete
In 2006, Florida man Abraham Shakespeare, 42, won $ 17 million. He was killed three years later by DeeDee Moore, the woman who targeted him for the money.
DeeDee managed to take almost $ 2 million from Shakespeare at the time of his assassination.
She and her boyfriend then buried him under a concrete slab in a wooded area.
He had disappeared for several months before she finally recognized where his body was.
Shot in the head by the daughter-in-law who wanted the profit
In 1996, 39-year-old Jeffrey Dampier won $ 20 million in Illinois.
He lived happily for years, spending money on his family, but was killed in 2005 by his daughter-in-law and her husband.
He was married when he won the lottery in 1996, and when he and his first wife separated, they decided to split the rest of the winnings in half.
He later moved to Florida and remarried Crystal Jackson.
While living in Tampa, he had an affair with his wife’s sister Vanessa.
Vanessa and her husband Nathaniel lured him to the apartment where he paid them to live on July 26, 2005, and shot him in the back of the head.
It is unclear why they thought they would inherit his money. His widow Crystal said in 2015 that she would never approach the lottery, saying WFLA: ‘It’s a curse.’
Stabbed to death by an ex-boyfriend
Doris Murray, 42, won $ 5 million in 2007.
The woman from Dublin, Georgia, wanted to use the money in a trust fund for her grandchildren, but was stabbed to death a year after taking her prize.
Derrick Lorenzo Stanley, her ex-boyfriend, was charged with her murder.
She wanted her $ 172,000 reward, an annual installment, to be paid for 20 years. It is now being paid to anyone who has been in her will.
At the time of her death, police said she and Stanley had quarreled and she tried to end the relationship.
Neighbors called police when they saw him coming out of her modest block with blood on his face.
Hit by a car on the way home from the celebration of her victory
In 2010, in Sandusky, Ohio, 47-year-old winner Deborah MacDonald was returning from a bar celebrating her unforeseen $ 5,000 when she was hit by a car.
Her death is believed to have been an accident.
She had just won a modest sum from the Ohio Lottery Cash Explosion.
It was a pre-recorded show that aired a few days after her murder.
After taking his winnings from the TV studio, MacDonald took his friends and family out to dinner and drinks.
She also bought her and her husband wedding rings that they could never afford before.
Chased by strangers who wanted alms until he committed suicide
Billy Bob Harel won $ 31 million in the 1997 Texas Lottery.
A Home Depot worker with a wife and three dependent children, he longed to enjoy worldly life and left his job shortly after receiving his award.
Harel also donates generously to charities and buys cars and homes for friends and relatives.
One year, he bought more than 400 turkeys for needy families to enjoy Thanksgiving.
His reputation for generosity overtook him, and he and his family had to relocate to avoid strangers coming to their homes to ask for money.
He also had to change his phone number to avoid being asked.
Eager to get all his winnings, he made a bad deal from a company that pays lump sums in exchange for all future contributions to the lottery winners.
This meant that he actually received less than he would have done if he had waited for the annual payments. Harel and his wife divorced, and in May 1999, just two years after winning, he shot himself.
He was 47 years old.
Robbed, turned to alcohol and forced to mourn the death of his daughter and granddaughter from drugs before the house caught fire
Jack Whitaker has the worst lucky model of any lottery winner.
The West Virginia businessman earned $ 315 million in 2002, but his life soon became a tragedy.
A year later, thieves broke into his car and stole $ 545,000, which he carried in a suitcase.
They stole another $ 200,000 the following year.
In 2005, Whitaker’s granddaughter Brandi was found dead, wrapped in plastic with drugs in her body.
Her own boyfriend died of a drug overdose months earlier. The official cause of her death is unknown.
Two years later, her mother, Whitaker Ginger’s daughter, died of a drug overdose.
By the time of her death, he said his bank accounts were empty. He blamed the death of his loved ones on the winning ticket, suggesting they bought the drugs that killed them with his money.
“My granddaughter is dead because of the money. She was the shining star of my life and she was what she was to me.
“You know, my wife told me she wanted her ticket torn. Well, I also want us to tear up the ticket, “he told ABC 20/20.
He spent money on gambling and now lives in a trailer park
Evelyn Baishor, now 64, won $ 3.9 million in 1985 and earned an additional $ 1.4 million the following year in New Jersey.
The woman had a crippling habit of gambling and gave much of her money to friends who were just as addicted.
Until 2000, the only home he could afford was a trailer park.
“Winning the lottery is not always what it should be. Everyone wanted my money. “Everyone held out their hands,” she said The bank in 2012
She added: “I won the American dream, but I lost it too. It was a very heavy fall. It’s called a rock bottom.
“I’ve never learned a single simple word in English: ‘no.’
“I wish I had the chance to do it again. Most of the time I want to not play. But I still play it from time to time, “she added.
He donated millions to colleges, and then the Clinton family filed for bankruptcy
Gianni Lee earned $ 18 million in 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri.
She donated much of her fortune to the University of Washington and used the school to build a new library.
But just eight years after receiving her award, she filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
Lee was 50 when he won.
She and her husband had emigrated from South Korea to the United States with his three children in the 1970s.
Among her causes was Bill Clinton, for whom she raised funds in 1997.
She was later on the list of prominent donors who gave to the National Committee of the Democratic Party.