Jack Whittaker won a $314.9 million Powerball jackpot, and his granddaughter and daughter were found dead within seven years

Jack Whittaker owned a contracting business and was already worth about $17 million when he bought a Powerball ticket at C&L SuperServe in Hurricane, West Virginia. On 25 December 2002 it won $314.9 million, then the largest single lottery jackpot. He took the cash option, $113,386,407.77 after tax. He gave 10 percent to Church of God congregations, put $15 million into the Jack Whittaker Foundation, and bought the deli attendant who sold him the ticket a house and a car. In August 2003 a strip-club manager and his girlfriend were arrested for drugging him and stealing $545,000 from his vehicle. He gave his granddaughter, Brandi Bragg, $2,000 a week and four cars. She was reported missing on 9 December 2004 and found dead on 20 December at a friend's house in Putnam County. The cause was undetermined, and no one was charged. Her boyfriend had died of an overdose at Whittaker's house that year. Her mother, his daughter Ginger, was found dead in 2009; police found no foul play. He was sued over bounced checks for gambling debts and by three casino attendants who accused him of assault. He and his wife of 42 years, Jewell, filed for divorce in 2008; the case ran until 2011. His Virginia house burned down in 2016. He told ABC News in 2007, "I pretty much lost everything I held dear in my life." He died on 27 June 2020, aged 73.