The lotto curse: seven jackpot winners ruined by their millions

All Aussies dream of one day winning the lotto and living the high life, and the lucky ones see their wish come true when their numbers come in.

But for some winners, a lotto win is less of a dream and more of a nightmare.

These seven jackpot winners saw their life ruined by their new millionaire status.

Lotto ‘waster’ killed by her accountant

Her safety was probably the last thing Aussie lotto winner Maria Lou Devrell was thinking about when she collected her $5 million in 1999.

Also read: Eight things lottery winners won’t tell you

The NSW winner and her husband had Peter Joseph Kelly for 20 years before coming into their money and hiring him as their accountant.

But after becoming frustrated by the couple’s ‘wasteful’ spending habits Kelly ended up murdering Ms Devrell with a rubber mallet covered in cling wrap in a fit of rage in 2011.

The 54-year-old Central Coast man had the power of attorney for his victim at the time of the killing, later told psychiatrists he "was just so furious'' with her and "saw crimson'' during the argument that foreshadowed the murder.

"A situation emerged in which they were spending money more quickly than it was being allocated to them by the offender,'' Justice Robert Allan Hulme said in sentencing Kelly to a maximum of 18 years in jail.

"He seems to have had the attitude that they were being wasteful.''

The Crown said Kelly had murdered her because his investment decisions had put half of their winnings at risk, but his defence barrister told the court last month that he had "hit back'' at Ms Devrell after she had attacked him first.

The lotto lout who blew $15 million

Mickey Carroll struck gold with a £9.7 million ($15 million) lottery jackpot win when he was just 19 years old, but is new-found riches quickly turned his life into a nightmare. 

Also read: 18 things more likely to happen than winning the lottery

The British garbage collector already had a criminal record and was wearing a police-monitored electronic ankle tag at the time he collected his winnings in November 2002. 

He quickly became known as the ‘lotto out’ and self-proclaimed ‘King of Chavs’. 

After giving £4 million to friends and family, and buying a mansion in Swaffham, Norfolk, Carroll reportedly spent the remainder of his winnings on excessive spending and wild parties filled with cocaine, gambling and hookers. 

Carroll claimed in his autobiography he was also blackmailed out of £130,000 by criminals which threatened his family

His wild lifestyle found him in trouble with the police on numerous occasions, resulting in stints of community service and also time in jail for offenses ranging from drunkenly catapulting steel balls from his new Mercedes van to failing to appear in court. 

But Carroll’s most excessive spending involved an investment bond of around £3.9 million which he was advised to set this up as an untouchable fund that would generate a substantial monthly income even if he blew the rest of his fortune. 

Also read: 16 simple ways to save money every month

When, inevitably, his readily-available cash did run out, Carroll began to withdraw from the bond itself — each time paying colossal penalties of tens of thousands of pounds. 

By May 2010, after having spent the entirety of his winnings and being declared bankrupt, Carroll applied for his old job as a garbage collector. 

While he now earns just £400 a week working at a slaughterhouse and rents a modest flat the Lotto Lout still says he has “absolutely no regrets” about the way he spent his winnings.

The bored lotto winner who drank to his death bed

Keith Gordon thought he’d never have to worry again when he won $14 million (£9 million) in 2005.

But the father-of-two was so ‘bored’ after he gave us his job as a Baker that he ended up drinking himself to death.

Happily married from Shropshire, UK, Gordon was thought to have died penniless and alone from a heart attack that was blamed on the stress of gaining so much money on a lotto win.

Although after his death it emerged that he actually left nearly £800,000 in his will.

Also read: 27 ways you waste your money

Gordon and his wife splashed out on top-of-the-range BMW’s, racehorses and an executive box at Aston Villa football club.

The couple, who were married for 27 years, separated two years after Gordon quite his job and started drinking heavily out of boredom.

He moved to Cheshire where he rented a £1million home and hired a chauffeur and a gardener on annual salaries of £25,000 and £15,000 respectively.

But he blew a fortune on gambling and was duped out of more than £700,000 by conman James Prince, who persuaded him to invest in bogus business schemes while he was in rehab for his drinking.
“I thought the lotto win was going to be the answer to my dreams. Now those dreams

have turned to dust,” he told The Times before his death in 2010.

The winner murdered for his millions

Another lotto jackpot winner murdered as a result of his new-found riches was Florida man Abraham Shakespeare.

He won $40 million in 2006 but tragically had very little time to enjoy his new lifestyle.

Just three years after collecting his winnings, Shakespeare vanished, his body found later in 2010 under a concrete slab.

Also read: Saving a top priority for Aussies in 2016

Dee Dee Moore, a stranger who befriended him after his win, was found guilty of his murder after conning him out of $1.8 million and shooting him to death.

A court heard Shakespeare had already given away most of his money by the time he was murdered.

"After trial and listening to all of this over two weeks, words that were said cool, calculated, manipulated. Abraham Shakespeare was your prey and victim. Money was the route of evil you brought to Abraham. You are sentenced to life in prison you shall not be eligible for parole," the Judge said at the time of the sentencing.

The win that led to the demise of the whole family

Andrew Whittaker made headlines as the largest single winner of an American lottery with a haul of US$314.9 million in 2002.

Already a successful businessman, Whittaker donated $14 million to a charity established in his name, and gave the cashier who sold him his winning ticket $50,000 in cash and a house.

But in the years following his win, he faced a string of legal and personal problems.

In 2003, while visiting a strip club, thieves broke into his car and stole a suitcase containing $545,000.

Also read: Possible to save money by eating less?

Months later, $200,000 was stolen from his car, although it was later recovered.

The same year, his granddaughter’s boyfriend died from a drug overdose at his home, followed by his granddaughter, who also died from an overdose.

In 2007, it emerged that Whittaker was bankrupt after he claimed he was too broke to pay a woman who had successfully sued him.

In 2009, after the death of his daughter, he told reporters: "I wish I'd torn that ticket up."

The son kidnapped for his millions

After winning £100,000 (the equivalent of around $3.5 million today) in the 1960 Sydney Opera House lottery, Thorne's son Graeme Thorne was kidnapped on his way to school by Stephen Bradley, who issued a ransom request for $25,000 or threatening that without the money the boy “will be fed to the sharks".

The boy’s body was found a month later by schoolboys on a vacant block of land.

Bradley, a 34-year-old Hungarian migrant, fled to Sri Lanka with his family, but was arrested by Australian detectives on arrival and eventually extradited to Sydney where he was found guilty and sentenced to life in jail.

Also read: 18 habits of exceptionally successful people

The teenage millionaire whose life turned sour

16-year-old Callie Rogers was the country’s youngest ever winner when she picked up her £1.9 million ($3 million) in 2003, but lost it all within six years.

She blew thousands on lavish gifts, nights out, designer clothing, breast implants – and a whopping $415,000 on cocaine.

Rogers, who lost her winnings in record time, returned to juggling three cleaning jobs and living with her mother.

“My life is a shambles,” she said in 2009. “It’s ruined my life.”

By 2013, she had just $3,300 left in her bank account, claiming that she was finally happy with the money gone.

“It was too much money for someone so young. Even if you say your life won’t change, it does and often not for the better,” she told The Sun at the time.