FORTUNE AND TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21710, 30 July 1932, Page 18

FORTUNE AND TRAGEDY

STORY OF SWEEPSTAKE WINNERS It would appear that luck and happiness do not necessarily go together, and that the winners of the great sweepstakes of the world are not always to be envied. The day upon which fortune smiled on them has often been the beginning of ultimate disaster and life-long misery, and not infrequently grim tragedy has followed hard upon the heels of the sudden acquisition of wealth from the possession of a winning ticket in a lottery. The unfortunate winner of a sweepstake prize finds overnight that thousands who never beard of him before know him and want his money. They will marry, murder, or sue him for it. Only this year, Clayton O. Woods, a motor mechanic of Buffalo, New York, won 885,000d01, the' second prize in the Irish Sweepstakes. The Overseers of the Poor of New York State claimed the money under a law 100 years old, before Woods had touched a penny of it. He was dismissed from his job. To avoid the overseers’ suit he fled to Canada. His money is still in an Irish bank. Another motor mechanic, Robert Whittaker, of Bristol, England, won 235,000 dol for a 4dol ticket in the Calcutta Turf Club Sweepstakes. Proposals of marriage from women all over the world turned the young man’s head. He jilted his fiancee, sailed for the Continent and made a round of the night-life capitals. In Vienna Jenny Richter, a music hall entertainer, acquired him. A former lover of hers found them together and shot Whittaker dead. Barely 20,000d0l was found to be left of his quarter-mil-lion. SHATTERED HER NERVES. Mrs Selina Thompson, who kept the Station Inn at Worksop, a quiet English village, won IOO.OOOdoI, third prize in last year’s Manchester November Handicap Irish Sweepstakes. While she was answering the telephone message that told her of her luck a neighbour announced that her brother-in-law had been killed by a street car. Next day Mrs Thompson received 1600 begging and threaten ing letters and proposals of marriage. The shock shattered her nerves and sha was compelled to sail for Nova Scotia to escape her worries. ! Emilio Scala, a London cafe owner, and two friends, Apicella and. Constantino, went thirds on a book of tickets last year in the Irish Sweepstakes. They won the first prize, 1,750,000d01. They had agreed to divide any possible winnings equally, but the lucky ticket had been the complimentary one that accompanies every book sold. Quarrels began over the ; purse. Attorneys are now enjoying the prize money in one. of England’s most sensational lawsuits. As the result of her son’s winning 70,000d0l in the Calcutta Sweepstakes last year, the mother of a bricklayer went on an orgy of extravagance and reckless living. It ended with her death in an automobile accident. The winner’s wife took 30,000d0l and ran away with another man. The lottery winner is now prematurely dead from drink. The 149,000d0l which the Dougherty family of Brooklyn won a year ago in the Canadian Army and Navy Sweepstakes was largely expended In legal entanglements into which the sons fell. At present there are close on 20 winners of prizes averaging over 100,000dol apiece in the Manchester November Handicap run a short time ago. They are receiving their deluge of abusive and affectionate letters. Serious trouble already has reached one of them, Mrs Longman, of Toronto. It can almost certainly be predicted that more will follow.