Jack Whittaker: the $315m Powerball winner who wished he had torn up the ticket

Jack Whittaker had built a successful construction business in West Virginia and was already a millionaire when he won the Powerball jackpot on Christmas Day 2002. The prize, $314.9 million, was then the largest single jackpot ever. He took the lump sum, which the Associated Press put at $93 million after tax.

He set up a foundation, paid for churches and gave away at least $50 million in houses, cars and cash. Requests for money poured in, and within a year his life had begun to unravel. At a strip club, thieves broke into his car and took a briefcase holding $245,000 in cash and three $100,000 cashier's cheques; it was later found with the money. He was charged twice with drink-driving and faced hundreds of legal claims.

His wife left him, and his granddaughter, who had struggled with drugs, died. He later lost his daughter too. In a 2007 ABC News interview he blamed greed for much of what followed and said he wished he had torn the ticket up.

He died on 27 June 2020, aged 72, after a long illness.

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Sources

• ABC News (abcnews.go.com)
• NBC News / AP (nbcnews.com)
• WSAZ (wsaz.com)