The odds of winning the lottery are one in 300 million. Those who partake have incredibly slim chances of winning.
In fact, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning twice (which has a 1 in 9 million chance), being killed by a cow (a 1 in 10 million chance), or becoming a huge movie star (1 in 1.2 million). Still, for many, the dream of winning the lottery tops their list.
That was certainly the case for 47-year-old Texan Billie Bob Harrell, who, in the mid-90s, found himself struggling to support his wife and children. Money was tight, and the only way Billie Bob could see a way out was by winning the lottery.
Like many others, he never missed buying a ticket every Wednesday and Saturday, hoping each ticket was the winning one.
Then, in the summer of 1997, his greatest wish came true: he won the $31 million Texas Lottery Jackpot, a life-changing sum of money.
Certainly, it changed Billie Bob’s life, but not for the better. In fact, after the elation and joy had worn off, the father-of-three was left wishing he’d never entered the lottery in the first place.
This is the tragic story of Billie Bob Harrell and how his biggest dream quickly turned into his greatest nightmare.
Billie Bob Harrell Becomes A Multi-Millionaire
Born in April 1949 in Beaumont, Texas, Billie Bob grew up in a working-class household.
The Harrells moved to Houston when Billie Bob was 11, and they quickly became integrated with their local church. This led Billie Bob to have aspirations to become a preacher, just like some of his uncles.
This career choice didn’t transpire since he joined the Marines after completing his education. Upon his discharge, he wound up working various laboring jobs to support his young family. By this point, he’d met Barbara Jean, with whom he’d go on to marry and have three children.
Sadly, after a few layoffs and due to the declining economy at the time, the Harrell family was struggling so much that Barbara had to go to work, too, after years of being a homemaker.
It’s safe to say that Billie Bob and his family were only just getting by. Still, he’d find enough spare change every week to buy his lottery tickets.
His kids’ birthdays often made up his number choices, while other times, he’d put his fate in the hands of the computer to choose the numbers for him. Either way, he hoped and prayed to be the winner when he purchased a ticket.
On June 28, 1997, his prayers would be answered.
Billie Bob was lounging in the house, reading the papers, when he made a startling realization: the newspaper listed his lotto numbers as the winning numbers.
He checked again, unable to believe his eyes. He did a triple-check and called Barbara Jean over to make sure he was right. Sure enough, he was. They were now millionaires.
All those years of praying, enduring the tough times, and never giving up had seemingly paid off for Billie Bob. He was staunchly religious and believed the winning ticket—with the numbers chosen by the lottery computer, not himself—was a gift from God.
The family’s lives were about to change forever.
Life Gets Good For The Harrell Family
From struggling to make ends meet to now having more money than they knew what to do with, it was a fantastic new problem for the family of five.
Billie Bob had been stacking shelves to provide for his family, a far cry from his dream of being a preacher.
The windfall would serve to better their lives, and a month after finding out they were millionaires, the Harrell family made their way to Austin, Texas, to collect their first check.
The $31 million winnings were due to be dispersed at $1.24 million per year for 25 years. Billie Bob, his attorneys, and the rest of the Harrell clan attended the lottery ceremony and told reporters about how tough life had been up until then.
From being laid off multiple times to doing jobs he was overqualified for, Billie Bob made no secret of the fact that the family had struggled financially over the years. The tough times, it seemed, were now over.
Once the family returned home, they were local celebrities. Everyone wanted to congratulate them, talk to them, and let Billie Bob know just how much they were struggling, too.
Generous Billie Bob wouldn’t see someone struggle like he had, not now he had the funds to help them out. So that’s just what he did. He also made big donations to the church and donated turkeys to poorer families that Christmas.
He made sure his family was well looked after, buying them houses and cars, and splurged on a holiday to Hawaii. If someone had money issues, they knew Billie Bob had the funds to help them out. More than this, they knew he wouldn’t have the heart to turn them away empty-handed.
However, Billie Bob’s generosity proved to be getting out of control. It seemed to say “no” wasn’t in his vocabulary, which caused friction between himself and Barbara Jean.
She felt her husband’s liberal way of handing money out was going to leave them in the same position they were in before they’d bought their winning ticket. This was a route Barbara Jean refused to go back down.
A mere eight months after the couple had won the lottery, she filed for divorce.
Billie Bob was devastated. Not only had he lost his wife, but he also lost half of the fortune he’d won; as part of the divorce, Barbara Jean took half of the winnings with her.
Billie Bob knew winning the lottery would be life-changing; he just didn’t think it would change his life for the worse.
Money Can’t Buy Happiness
Less than a year prior, the Harrell family felt untouchable. Now, they were irreparably fractured, and there was no denying Billie Bob was struggling—not just with the divorce but also with his newfound wealth. He was spending at breakneck speed and donating large sums of money to others.
It didn’t take long for the first $1.24 million to evaporate with little to show for it.
Desperate and now in debt, Billie Bob needed help. He figured his best way out of the hole he was in was to make an arrangement with a company that specialized in giving lottery winners lump sums upfront.
He made a deal to give the finance company ten years’ worth of his lottery payments so he could receive $2.25 million immediately.
Essentially, he was giving them $6.2 million in exchange for the immediate cash upfront. This was how desperate things had become for him.
The contract stipulated that the finance company would collect Billie Bob’s half of the lotto winnings for the next decade.
Still, $2.25 million is no small amount, even today. However, it didn’t serve to make Billie Bob any happier. He’d tried to reconcile with his ex-wife, but Barbara Jean didn’t want to re-enter the relationship.
The best she could offer him was family dinners together, which wasn’t enough for the heartbroken man. He wanted his family back.
“Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me,” he would tell his financial advisor at the time.
Deeply unhappy, on May 22, 1999, Billie Bob locked himself in his bedroom and took his own life with a gun.
He’d left several notes for loved ones, telling them why he made the choice to end his life and explaining how the lottery win had adversely affected his family. In his note to Barbara Jean, he said, “I didn’t want this. I just wanted you.”
Less than two years after winning a life-altering amount, Billie Bob endured the euphoric highs and crushing lows that came with having vast amounts of money.
Ironically, Billie Bob had been happier and more content when he had little money but a strong family unit. When his family separated, no amount of money could solve the problems he was facing, no matter how hard he tried.
After his tragic passing, the family fought over what should happen to the remaining cash, though it transpired that there possibly wasn’t enough to pay for the estate tax due, let alone have any left over to disperse among them.
If any real-life story can embody the well-known phrase “money doesn’t buy happiness,” it’s the sad story of Billie Bob Harrell and his $31 million nightmare.
Sources
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/unlucky-strike-6406997
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/us-news/dad-who-won-31m-lottery-30174282
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