The lottery curse and 9/11 families

You hear and see it enough that it has become a stereotype--some poor schmoe wins the lottery but is more miserable than ever. He's hounded by family and strangers, he's spent everything he won and then some to achieve an affluent lifestyle, lawsuits tie up payouts, etc. until he says he wishes he never won the money.

We've also seen surviving 9/11 family members on shows (like Oprah's) describing the void they are trying to fill, buying things from the government's payout. They won the lottery, but at a huge personal cost. The curse of the 9/11 widows goes into details about some of the families:

This was the lottery that nobody wanted to win. The day New York's Twin Towers were destroyed by hijacked planes, hundreds of widows were left destitute. As the full extent of the horror of 9/11 became evident, public donations poured in. During the feverish days following the attack, Congress established a billion- dollar compensation fund, and grieving wives became overnight millionaires.

No one could have known that for many of them, the money would destroy their lives once again, attracting jealousy, resentful relatives and making them even more depressed. Some would become squandering, spendaholic widows, their payouts fuelling addictions which could not replace the husbands they had lost. Others would become embroiled in legal battles with their families, their lives eaten up by bitterness.

Obviously there was controversy over the payouts from many different directions. Should the government pay out in the first place? And why were differing amounts paid out?

The financial awards were based on the victim's age and potential earnings. Senior master of the fund, Kenneth Feinberg, explains: 'Over the course of 33 months I met about 1,500 families. 'In calculating awards, the law decreed that I take into account pain and suffering. That was the first requirement. The second requirement was that I must take into account the economic circumstances of each claimant.'

And unfortunately, very few people had legal documents in place to dictate what their final wishes would be.

The most bitter family disputes have involved the relatives of unmarried victims who had not prepared for their mortality as they were only in their prime. 'One of the problems we had was that only 20 per cent of the victims had wills,' says Feinberg.

The 20% is for all victims, so the legal wrangling isn't limited to those that were unmarried. The whole article is heartbreaking--the loss these people suffered is unfathomable. But for many, the curse of lottery money seems to have made things worse.