Curse of Lottery
Winning the Lottery Was the Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Him
The E! NeThe E! Network's True Hollywood Stories The E! Network's True Hollywood Stories Investigates "Curse of the Lottery" reviewed the sad outcomes of lottery winners whose lives took tragic turns. Jim Zura and crew went to various locations in southeast Texas to shoot interviews and B-roll to tell the story of Billy Bob Harrell. Billy Bob Lottery" looked into the tragic stories of lottery locations in Texas to shoot interviews and B-rolls to say to the story of Billy Bob Harrell.
Down on his luck, barely able to support his family with his job at Home Depot, Billy Bob suddenly struck it rich as the sole winner of a 31-million dollar Texas Lottery jackpot.
Billy Bob went on the inevitable spending spree. Cars, homes, charitable donations, pinball machines...But the sudden limelight, change in lifestyle, and cavorting led to a divorce. While he enjoyed living the high life for a while, he soon began to miss his wife and family.
Less than two years after his lottery win, Billie Bob went to his ex-wife’s home in Kingwood, Texas, with a big bouquet of flowers. She and the children were not home. When they arrived an hour later, his oldest son found him in a locked upstairs bedroom. He was dead. At his feet lay a shotgun. Desperate love notes were found at the scene, two years after winning the lottery.
Friends and co-workers discuss Billy Bob's tragedy. Shortly before his death, he said: "Winning the lottery was the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
"When you get a call to do a network shoot, you frequently don't know in advance the details of what you're about to experience. It's often a fun outing, working with a celebrity, or a rewarding thing with a notable person who has made a medical or socioeconomic breakthrough. Then there are the profoundly sad stories of life. You don't absorb the gravity of it while shooting, but on the ride home from Montgomery County, it all sinks in..." - Jim Zura.