Andrew Jackson "Jack" Whittaker Jr - West Virginia Powerball Winner

This is Andrew Jackson "Jack" Whittaker Jr, a businessman from West Virginia.

Way back on December the 24th, 2002, Jack was a rich man. He had a contracting business that was generating around $17 million a year in revenue. Little did he know, though, that the very next day, he would be multiple-times wealthier. And, I really do mean wealthier to the nth degree. The next day, December the 25th, 2002, Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr won the Powerball lottery. At that time, it was the biggest-ever lottery jackpot; it was worth $315! He was filthy-rich.

Life would be great from there on in. Sorry, I meant to say that life should have been great from there on in. It wasn't.

Sometimes, when you have more money than you know what to do with, you get carried away. Andrew Jackson "Jack" Whittaker Jr got carried away.

"The more you have, the more difficult it is to resist temptation." That's what a man that knew Jack had to say. He wasn't kidding. Jack succumbed to temptation. There were wild parties and strippers... Lots of strippers. There was also a lot of money being thrown around. Jack was generous. He gave money to many people. He even bought the store clerk that sold him the winning ticket a house and car. He gave money to the church. He gave money to charities. It seems that everybody got some.

The downward spiral began.

Andrew Jackson "Jack" Whittaker Jr became an easy target for lawsuits. A rich man with money. Everybody wanted a piece of him. Jack says that he had spent millions of dollars just fighting off the lawsuits. That got the best of him. He began to drink. Alcohol consoled him.

One thing that Jack could count on, though, were his loved-ones. That was especially true of his granddaughter, Brandi Bragg.

Jack gave Brandi everything. He bought her new cars. He gave her $2000 a week. Brandi was a teenager. For a teenager, that kind of money meant a lot.

But just as Jack went into a downward spiral after coming into loads of money, so did his granddaughter. People knew that she had money and that attracted the wrong crowd - Drug dealers. Brandi started doing drugs.

Less than two years after Andrew Jackson "Jack" Whittaker Jr won the $315 million Powerball jackpot, his granddaughter Brandi was found dead. Cause of death unknown. The drugs may have had something to do with it. Maybe it didn't. But either way, her lifestyle probably contributed to her death.

"My granddaughter is dead because of the money," Jack said. Jack believes that winning the lottery was the worst thing that ever happened to him. Life was good before the win. It's not anymore. He wished he'd torn up that winning ticket.

By 2007, just a few short years after winning the biggest lottery jackpot ever, Jack said he was broke. $315 million - Gone.

All of the bad stuff that happened to Jack happened because he was a generous man, a good man. It got the best of him.