DID THE CHRISTIAN REALLY “WIN” THE LOTTERY?

(FOLLOW – UP)

 

 

January 29, 2004

 

The following articles from paulharvey.com and West Virginia’s Charleston Gazette one year since the Christian won the lottery provide their own witness to who really “won” in this matter. See if you think the fruit portrayed by these articles would persuade you that this lottery winner truly is a Christian…

 

&&&&&&&&&&

 

 

Paul Harvey.com Noon Broadcast, January 26, 2004.

 

“Yesterday’s names—Jack Whittaker of Nitro, West Virginia—he won the largest single jackpot in lottery history Christmas, 19—[no,no] just this last Christmas—2002—but he’s been in trouble ever since—drunk driving, trying to assault the manager of a tavern—one thing or another. The man who won $315,000,000 dollars is regularly at the race track giving it back.”

 

 

&&&&&&&&&&

 

 

January 27, 2004

Powerball winner Whittaker charged with DUI

 

By Charles Shumaker
STAFF WRITER

Putnam County’s Powerball jackpot winner, Jack Whittaker, faces a drunken-driving charge after he was found slumped over the steering wheel of his car alongside Interstate 64 near Nitro on Sunday.

A courtesy patrol driver first noticed Whittaker’s car around 5:30 Sunday evening as it was pulled alongside the road during a winter storm that covered area roads in ice and snow.

State Police Senior Trooper B.R. Morris filed the misdemeanor charge against Whittaker, citing the Scott Depot man’s failed field sobriety tests and his 0.190 blood alcohol level, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

Morris wrote that he tried numerous times to wake Whittaker and noted his car’s keys were in the ignition and the vehicle’s motor was running.

Whittaker told Morris he had a drink of alcohol, but earlier in the day.

“I’m nowhere near intoxicated,” Whittaker told a television news station as he was escorted into Kanawha County Magistrate Court on Sunday. Whittaker remains free on bond.

Whittaker, 56, won the $314.9 million Powerball jackpot on Christmas in 2002 and chose to take a $113 million lump-sum payment.

Whittaker’s arraignment on the drunken-driving charge follows an altercation earlier this month. Whittaker was arrested in Putnam County after he allegedly tried to hit Todd Parsons, a manager of Billy Sundays Bar and Grill in St. Albans, when he was asked to leave. Whittaker allegedly threatened to have Parsons and his family killed, State Police reported.

Whittaker also has had portions of his fortune stolen on two occasions. Most recently, someone stole $100,000 in cash from his sport-utility vehicle while it was parked outside his home.

In August, $545,000 in cash and cashier’s checks was stolen from his car outside the Pink Pony strip club at Cross Lanes. The money was recovered and two bar employees were charged in the theft.

“It’s been a rough few weeks,” Whittaker said Sunday. “It doesn’t bother me because I can tell everyone to kiss off. But my wife, she’s having a hard time with it.”

Whittaker spent millions of his winnings to set up his nonprofit Jack Whittaker Foundation to help West Virginians find jobs, buy food or receive an education.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

To contact staff writer Charles Shumaker, use e-mail or call 348-1240.