Friend charged with hiding lottery winner's deathPrevious TopicNext Topic

Exactly.

Sidebar- Offtopic- Indirect comment

To those that think being anonymous is peachy, let me ask you this: THe Jackpot gets hit and is announced. You will NEVER KNOW if anyone ACTUALLY did hit it or if the lottery is rigged. Seriously are you that gulliable to just take the lottery at its word?

"Ohh yeah umm...two tickets won but ummm we cant say who or ummm how it was claimed, we can only say that ahh the ticket was presented...Yeah thats my story and I'm sticking to it "

The media reports bias information leaning the reader from the get go to side with the writers view point. Its even done here.

The Guy did absolutely what is recommended- he DIDNT change his friends and HE DIdnt go willynilly. He remained the same guy. Sometimes it is indeed the greed of others that creates the situation. No financial advisor is gonna stop a death .

As to the article- My prayers to the family. His Mom especially deserves condolences...

I'd have been better off broke.' = i been better off not winning at all

its a crying shame so many big time lotto winners say this,but their lessons to be learned!

their no doubt in my mind lotto winners get treated by different moral codes then must people would like to admit

people who "earn" money worked for it,

when that feeling of they didn't work for their money , aka "earned" the money they have

,  family and  freinds  in ever general direction  thinks its Okay to ask for money AND GET IT

i liken it to robbing a bank and making out super rich

, and a friend who didn't rob the bank, says can i have some money form you

, AND THEY  expect to get what they ask for, cease your friends

and if you say no, they get upset, give them to little, and they are ungateful

must damage to a lotto winner is form  family, friends, people close to you, as must of all crimes are now a days by people you KNOW

to be anonymous form must of a big  family is good thing

if you must be kind and spoil your family and friends,whoever

  at lest give them money by  anonymous means

and if you got the balls,

tell them to their face, i give you x amount, but i NEVER ever want to hear any future requests of money, and you be  gateful  with whatever amount i give you, AGREED?

if they say Deal, then hand it over,
at lest you got them by their words!

so saying no to any future request would be EASY for you,

if they have any morals of obeying agreements they enter into, they leave you alone also!

win/win

would prevent so much idiotic trouble,

  somehow people think they have  RIGHT to your money, its madness!

want proof, take a look at lottery changed my life on tlc  shows

if they ever get back to doing reruns of it :(

its these folks who think cease they know you,

they have a right to feel like you should give them your lotto money!

people really do treat lotto winners by diff moral codes,

  its not wrong to ask for money form them, like it is everyone else, double standards!

in my mind if i won the lotto, i earned it, i cease i played!

if anyone ever asks me for money

i be like go WIN your own lotto  jackpot, thats like telling them to go "earn" their own money! OH

if someone in my family, won, i be like, trust me, keep it to your self

as much damage control as can be done, should be done

take this story form lotto change my life

a mom with many kids won the lotto, all the kids are musty adults now

their was one son  thro , that said Mom keep the money to your self, dont give it away, look atfer your self

now thats a kid that loves their mom!

she give a ton of it away to all the family she had

, and the kids  who got all the FREE MONEY, wanted MORE, and MORE,  you buy them things and, they expected more!

i would not give a penny to people like them"ungateful types"

am the type of person thats like ruthless with people when it comes to money

i go nuts over a penny getting lost!

am a accounting depertments worst nitemare in the flesh

if i ever had kids, and they thro a fit about how cheap i am when i got them GIFTS

, i be like you UNGATEFUL little beep and smack them up side the head,

saying: see if i get you any thing else , thats where being ungateful gets you, NONETHING

then again do whatever you WANT with your lotto money

but beware even if you want to GIVE  away your money,  their ungateful people out their!

and the only thing trying to please ungateful people get you is a lot of good  grief

hell i even have backup plans, if my extended family found out!

i be like, you want money?, sure i got jobs that need to be done, the pay decent, LOL

hire them as personal assistants and stuff, if  they want your money, they can earn it!

 highly over paid for the jobs they do, but at lest  your making them value the money you give them a lot more

people  prize  money they feel they "earned form their time and labor, A LOT MORE then money as a  free

gift

like kids with their parents money to spend, kiss it good bye in a blink of a eye

thats why SOME lotto winners go broke besides the friends robbing you blind

they treat it just like kids with free money their parents given them

kiss it goodbye! hello toys!

i plan to start businesses if i ever won really big jackpots,

always wanted to grow fruit for a living and make a killing doing it,  people view fruit  farmers with respect on how they made money

you grow apples for a living, smart

, they leave you alone with your money if you invested it!

, if they feel its just sitting in a bank account and you have no life goals, and dont"need it for your self"

good god do they come out of the wood work to rob you blind with their requests!

thats how it appears to me anyway!

to me thats what this story highlights, 

i dont know about you all

but stories like this make me think what if i won and how would i avoid such troubles

if you dont plan ahead , you plan for disaster,

i speak form Experience on that!

ummm not hardly.  the only reason detectives and police are half as good at there job is because of the good citizens out there who give them leads in a case.  for example if the persons who were approached would have never went to the police and said "hey this lady wants a body removed from her property" we wouldn be having this discussion now.  and the florida police department would still be sitting around scratching there heads trying to find this guy.

ok and if u dont believe that, check out the tv show "the first 48" 90% of all those cases (excluding ones where the dumb criminals leave forensic evidence behind) are solved because some one knows who killed the person and comes forward and provides them with a lead.  bottom line is that if it werent for the good ppl out there that comes forward in a case with vital information detectives/police would not be anywhere as good as u and everyone else think they are.

That is true.  Remember the guy a few months ago, that killed a police officer, and a family member contacted the cops.  I just hope there are more people out here in this world with morals.

@joshuacloak - some people feel that even if you earned the more, if you make more than them, then they deserve it.  Believe me, I have seen this firsthand.  It is best to just keep financial information about yourself a secret, if that is at all impossible.  And if a lottery has been won, tell them you give 95% of it away to charity.  That will irk them .

I wonder what the cause of death was.

Cause of death was due to gunshot wound, allegedly.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/suspect-murder-lottery-winner-abraham-shakespeare-incriminates-interviews/story?id=9744309&page=1

Who writes these headlines? I certainly wouldn't use the word "friend".

I don't normally post just to agree with what's already been said, but you're spot on. Yeah, sometimes people are killed by somebody who was a friend, but from what I've read it sounds like this person was never a friend in the first place. It sounds like somebody who saw an oportunity by pretending to be a friend.

"I wonder what the cause of death was."

It sounds to me like the real cause was poor judgment.

That woman, Dorice (DeeDee) Moore, was charged Tuesday with trying to conceal the slaying of the man who disappeared after winning millions. On Wednesday, a Hillsborough County judge ordered her held on $1 million bond. The dead man, Abraham Shakespeare, was last seen in April - more than two years after he took a lump-sum payment of $17 million on a $30 million jackpot.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gkCtDG6R13FvTKjRlNvvcu9vKlWA

I totally agree with you Kobra..It is the good people with great morals that help to solve crimes..Im just wondering why it took them so long to arrest her? I feel theres no way to keep your winnings completely quiet..SOMEONE is gonna tell someone..Its sad that a person whom have worked most or all their life and finally get a break where they can finally rest and do all the things most of long to do, have their life suddenly taken away is heartbreaking...Now i understand "curse of the lottery"...SO SAD

This is a really sad story.  Shakespeare trusted someone who he shouldn't have.  She ran a big time con on him, and from local reports, some of his friends say she killed him because he had finally figured out what she was up to. 

The world is full or really bad and rotten people like Dee Moore.  She saw Shakespeare on tv and figured him for a real sap.  She then worked her scam on the guy, got greedy, and killed him.

When I see this kind of thing happen you have to feel sorry for the guy who won the lottery.  You also have to wonder why he didn't have a real advisor or at least a lawyer.  But as someone noted here, not everyone trusts those kind of people.  He made a bad call here, one which cost him his life.

Sad as this is, however, I am more angry with the lottery itself.  Why they are allowed to require winners to go public, to have no choice, is something that needs to be looked at closely.  Each state makes their own lottery rules and admin practices (with the effect of law-we have to follow them).  While some enlightened states allow blind trusts or to remain private, most do not.  Most require you to claim in public.  States like Virginia require you to take part in PR campaigns.

Because of the instant exposure, winners lives are turned upside down.  Some seem to want the attention.  But, I'd bet most winners would prefer not to have it.  If they had a choice, most, I'm sure, would remain anonyomous.  Or form a trust.

Skakespeare's sudden exposure made him an instant target.  Friends said he was constantly harrassed for money.  That exposure let Moore to hunt him down, even bribing a cop to get info on him.  Had he not been required to go public, she wouldn't have even known he had won.  Now, because of that attention, he's dead.

We really need to force, demand, change.  Instead of assuming lottery rules are writen in stone, we must take charge here and demand our elected reps change the laws and allow winners a choice.  Forget about who won, or what kind of person they are.  Even if they are educated, bright people.  It doesn't matter.  All winners need to have a choice.  Let them live in peace.  Or, if they want, let them go on tv, wave that big check around and then go home and deal with what the attention brings. This is not about Shakespeare.  It's about choice.  Maybe if he had one, he'd still be around.

Lotteries say they must make winners public to prove that there are, indeed, real people winning.  They also claim that the people have a right to know where the money is going.  And, if that line of logic fails, they fall back on the good old time tested 'state open records laws'.  What they don't say is that none of their reasons are even trus.  People trust the lottery, and they know real people win it.  For proof, just look up Mr. Shakespeare.  And those pesky public record laws.  Well, everyone one of them, in each state that has them, have exceptions.  Exceptions for many different things.  It would be no problem for them to allow exceptions for lottery winners.  Winners would be known to lottery officials, but not the public, so they can make required checks for outstanding debts owed to the state (taxes, tickets, back child support, etc).  Simple as that.

I think the real problem with Lottery departments is the fact that they a loaded with marketing and PR bureaucrats.  They have jobs based soley on promoting the lottery in their states.  Believe it or not, most state lottery department employees are in marketing or PR (over 75%).  Some of them might lose their jobs if the laws were changed to favor winners remaining private citizens.  I don't know about you, but I think that stinks.  And it needs to be changed.

I'm already bugging my state rep and state senator about having the law changed in my home state.  I've even sent letters to my Congressman asking if, maybe, the federal government might want to hold hearings on the subject.  And maybe begin to consider changing the lotteries anti-trust status.  I hope a lot of you are mad as well.  And, I hope you'll start to fight back and demand that the law be changed.

That's the only way change will happen.  This isn't magic.  The laws can be changed.

Maybe it's too late for Mr. Shakespeare.  But, his fate can be avoided.

Unfortunately, the law can't keep you from having less than stellar friends.

Certain people will be prey no matter what you do to prevent it. Sad but true.

That's certainly true.  Mr. Shakespeare is an example.

So was David Edwards.  And many others.

Lottery's are quick to point out how 'smart people' have no problems once they win.  They like to make ad hominen (sp) arguments like that. 

I think we lose track of the point when we go to cases, and people weigh in with the 'I could of done it better' POV.  That seems to reflect what those state boards are all saying.

Jack Whittaker was interviewed in 2007.  He noted that he had made a mistake by 'going public so soon' after his win, and that he would have done it different and claimed with a trust if could do it again.  Besides his mistakes early on, and an out of control drinking problem, Jack's life goes on.  Even today, he says people stop him and ask for money.  And people still come to his house and ask for money.  And he still gets mail from people asking for money.  People show up at his business and ask for money.  And at church.  He talked about how the money ruined all of his friendships, and totally messed up his life.  He's managed to get his personal life in order, and continues running all of his business operations.  Yet, he said if he could do it all over again, he wouldn't have been 'so public'.

I think a good example of just how complete the process is was an article in a Milwaukee paper in 2007.  The reporter checked the public records of lottery winners and contacted all of them.  None of the winners wanted any publicity, most wouldn't even respond.  The few who did said winning had changed their lives, and that after time they were just starting to get back to normal.  It pointed out that the winners covered the whole spectrum of economic classes, age groups, races, sex and amounts.  One thing they all said (to the reporter) was that they would have not gone public if they had had a choice.  Those folks are all under the radar, none made any news stories like Whittaker, Shakespeare or Edwards.  Just regular people who won and then went about their business.  But, because of the publicity, their lives were turned upside down.

I know most of us would handle winning different.  I imagine those who won probably figured the same thing.  One thing they all had in common though, was the added burden of the publicity before they could get their lives in order.  Most, I'm sure, would agree that the best thing is to have a choice in the matter.

Maybe down the road lotteries will offer some kind of basic counseling for winners, just enough to get them in touch with someone who can let them know what can be done once they win.  Kind of point them in the right direction.  I'm sure that would help.  Maybe they need to rethink how they do things. 

Let's hope they can change.

I don't think I would ever go back to work, but I would find it hard to do a real life version of "unfriending." This is just a sad reality of the lottery, but it's a risk we all take. I wonder if it's happened before in this capacity...