Jack Whittaker woke up on Christmas morning in 2002 to more than just Santa Claus. He held the winning ticket for the $315 million Powerball jackpot. I’m sick to my stomach, and I’m just at waste of words and advice Whittaker said. looking for advice, and it’s like a birthday.”
Since that time, Whittaker has donated $15 million to build two churches. He donated at least $50 million worth of houses, cars and cash. The crowd meant that everyone knew about Whittaker’s comment-breaking, and that they were begging him for help. To address these demands, he formed the Jack Whittaker Foundation. Jill, the clerk who sold him the winning ticket, worked on the bike for him. “There were so many letters that they didn’t even deliver the letter. There was nothing for us to sit for 10 hours just opening envelopes,” said Jill, who asked her last name must be kept private. Jill says she’s received requests for all sorts of things, such as “they want new clothes, they want entertainment, people want Hummers, people want houses – totally amazing things.”
Whittaker met his wife at the age of 14 and started running a successful business, making about $16 million a year by earning . He came to the doctor’s appointment with his daughter where he saw his granddaughter Brandi and gave her a sonogram for the first time. Life was good then, but everything changed when a whole lot of money came. People began suing his company, over 400 suits total, and Whittaker began to drink. Money was stolen from his car; and he could not go anywhere in the city without 150 people going around and asking for money or things they needed. Family, friends, and everyone else except Brandi.
Whittaker bought and decorated the elaborate home including a perfect recreation of the bottle from the 1960s TV sitcom “Dream of Jeannie.” He also gave Brandi about $2,000 a week and bought her four new cars. Whittaker said that while Brandi was only 17 years old at the time he was very responsible with that money . “Cars mean a lot to a kid,” Whittaker said. “He had four cars and I’m proud that he had four cars.”
But money and vehicles also attracted drug dealers. Brandi started using illegal drugs. Whittaker repeatedly tried to get her help and sent her to several treatment programs, but she was unable to stay clean. “He doesn’t want to be in charge of money; he doesn’t want to own money; he wants to be next to medicine,” Whittaker said. “Pawpaw said, ‘Medicine is all I care about.’ It broke my heart.”
Then one of Brandi’s friends was found dead from a drug overdose in the house Whittaker had bought. Father blamed Whittaker and Brandi for his son’s death. Almost two years after Whittaker hit the jackpot, Brandi disappeared. After two weeks of frantic searching, she was found dead on December 20, 2004, wrapped in a plastic sheet, behind a junked van shaving The cause of death was listed as unknown. Whittaker believes the Powerball win has become a curse on his family. “My niece died because of money,” he said.
Whittaker now says he regrets winning the lottery. “Since I won the lottery, I think that greed is not the rule,” he said. “I think if you’ve got something, there’s always someone else who wants it. I wish I’d ripped up this ticket.”
