Lottery Winner Is Down on His Luck

Buddy Post may be the unluckiest lucky man alive, living proof that money can’t buy happiness. In 1988, he won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery. Since then, he was convicted of assault, his sixth wife left him, his brother was convicted of trying to kill him and his landlady successfully sued him for one-third of the jackpot. The crumbling mansion he bought with his winnings is half-filled with paperwork from bankruptcy proceedings and lawsuits. But if he is permitted, Post, a 58-year-old former carnival worker and cook who lives in Oil City, near Pittsburgh, says he will sell off his 17 future payments, worth nearly $5 million.