"Speak for yourself, exhaustguy."
Posted on 11/27/2004 4:07:31 AM PST by DirtyHarryY2K
A Sad but True Texas Lottery Winner Story
Originally Posted: Nov 24, 2004 Revised:
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Less than two years after Billie Bob Harrell Jr. took the $31 million lottery jackpot, he took his own life Harrell, a former Pentecostal preacher, was a Home Depot stocker when he hit the jackpot.
Billie Bob's (Mis) Fortune
BY STEVE MCVICKER
Houston Press
From the Week of Thursday, February 10, 2000
Many have the same dream: finding the six magical numbers that unlock the treasure known as the Texas Lottery. Then life would be good. Problems would vanish. There are even the collective fantasies of what to buy and with whom to share this new, instant wealth.
Billie Bob Harrell Jr. shared those common visions by common souls seeking the salvation of sudden fortune.
And in June 1997, he found it.
He sat in his easy chair one evening and looked at his Quick Pick and then at the Sunday newspaper. Harrell studied the sequence of numbers again and began to realize the wildest of notions. He and wife Barbara Jean held the only winning ticket to a Lotto Texas jackpot of $31 million.
Harrell, a deeply religious man, knew he had a godsend from heaven. After being laid off from a couple of jobs in the past few years, Billie Bob had been reduced to stocking the electrical-supply shelves of a Home Depot in northeast Harris County. He was having a damn hard time providing for himself and Barbara Jean, much less for their three teenage children.
Every Wednesday and Saturday those kids were on his mind when he'd scrape together a few spare dollars to purchase a couple or so lottery tickets. Sometimes he'd use the sequence of his children's birth dates to choose his numbers. Other times he'd let the state's computer do his choosing for him. That random selection finally paid off, transforming Harrell into a millionaire overnight on a warm evening in June.
The hard times were history when he arrived in Austin about a month later, with an entourage that included his family, his minister and his attorneys, to collect the first of 25 annual checks for $1.24 million.
Life had been tough, he said at the formal lottery ceremony, but he had persevered through the worst of it.
"I wasn't going to give up," said Harrell, then 47. "Everyone kept telling me it would get better. I didn't realize it would get this much better."
In fact, it was great. At least for a while. Harrell purchased a ranch. He bought a half-dozen homes for himself and other family members. He, his wife and all the kids got new automobiles. He made large contributions to his church. If members of the congregation needed help, Billie Bob was there with cash.
Then suddenly Harrell discovered that his life was unraveling almost as quickly as it had come together. He relished the role of being an easy touch. But everyone, it seemed -- family, friends, fellow worshipers and strangers -- was putting the touch on him. His spending and his lending spiraled out of control. In February those tensions splintered his already strained marriage.
And on May 22, 1999, 20 months after hitting lottery pay dirt, Harrell locked himself inside an upstairs bedroom of his fashionable Kingwood home and stood at the point of no return. Investigators say he stripped away his clothes, pressed a shotgun barrel against his chest and fired.
Billie Bob Harrell was gone forever. So was the fortune, and even the family that had rejoiced with him when the shower of riches had first rained upon them. A schism has widened between the children and grandparents, who cannot even agree on whether Billie Bob took his own life. And an intrafamily war looms over the remnants of the fortune, which may not even be enough to pay estate taxes.
Perhaps the only thing not in dispute about his life and death is the jarring impact of money: It may not have caused his problems, but it certainly didn't solve them.
Shortly before his death, Harrell confided to a financial adviser: "Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me."
"Speak for yourself, exhaustguy."
THOSE same people dont give a damn ,they just move on to the next sucker.
I guess I'm a little snively, what with the looming holidays & all . . .
I apologize; it was a spiteful, uncalled for post. I'll refrain from any further contentious posts on the subject.
Killing oneself is just the final act in a long play and sometimes those it hurts the most are the only actors who could have stopped it. I have seen it and it is hard to have sympathy for those those who watched and did nothing.
I apologize for my smart aleck post. I should know better than post while I am house painting!!!!
Secondhand Lions is one of the best movies I have ever seen. :o)
For me that would be reasonable. I stay here now because of the weather – good people can be found most anywhere if a person looks, and I could always follow the weather.
Giving money to people isn't always helping.
Some of the people I know that would have a hand out would not be helped with money. They’d probably OD or drink themselves to death.
A return in the 4-6% range means your net worth has dropped 2.5 to 4.5 in the past six months because the dollar has fallen 8.5% in the 6 months.
I averaged out at 23.045% return last month over a five year term. I do not make risky investments with more than 50k at a time and they are always very short term because I don't like having to keep my eye on the darn things.
I suggest getting a new financial advisor. Perhaps a couple of them.
Mr. Melbell maintains that a person has JUST AS MUCH of a chance of FINDING a winning lottery ticket on the sidewalk as one does of buying a winning ticket.
So instead of buying tickets, we just watch where we step.
IIRC, CBS's "48 Hours" (or some similar news-magazine) detailed a group of
hard-scrabble folks in Texas that had run a pool and finally hit the jackpot in
the lottery.
Some of them prospered, some coped and others seemed to be ruined by their new riches.
As I've always told my folks, if I ever get desparate enough to play the lottery,
and win, they should not worry if they don't hear from me for a month or so.
They should just wait until I call them from my small country estate in Tuscany;
otherwise I'll be incommunicado.
Hmmmmmmmm ......< tinfoil >
I've been in management for many years and have been involved in layoffs. I can honestly say that my company has never, ever, laid off a good worker. Whenever we have to do RIF's (reduction in force), we use it as an opportunity to rid ourselves of deadwood and other "high-maintenance" employees.
Now maybe there are companies out there that layoff their best people. But I've never worked in such a company.
At least it is voluntary.
Thanks for the link proving that Karen S. Gersten exists and confirms the story.
Thanks. Interesting that Karen Garsten's only public appearance recorded by Google is to take place 6 days after reviving this story
thanks. please see also the two previous posts
> During the course of my life, other family members have said to others how greedy and selfish we were because we didn't spot them that $5,000 "loan" or help them get out of that credit card trouble. But my wife and I are wise enough to know that they are actually the greedy and selfish ones. It's a shame that this man never gained the same wisdom.
Ain't right quite just yet, but when we get there heaven help the poor dumb SOB that tries that crap with me. Blood relative or not.
Trajan88; TAMU Class of '88
p.s. Here's to looking forward to a possible Holiday Bowl bid and a little fun in the San Diego sun.
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