Dumb as a Post?

Sometimes obituaries are like three minute morality plays. This one is simple: man with train wreck of a life wins the lottery; train wreck continues, but on better tracks.

William 'Bud' Post

William "Bud" Post, who died on January 15 aged 66, was, like Vivien Nicholson in Spend, Spend, Spend, a warning that a huge financial win does not guarantee happiness.

In 1988 Post, who had $2.46 in his bank account at the time, pawned a ring for $40 and handed the money to his landlady to buy tickets for the Pennsylvania state lottery. He won $16.2 million, to be paid in annual installments of $500,000 a time.

Within two weeks, he had spent $300,000 of it; within three months, he was $500,000 in debt. He bought a car lot, a restaurant and an aeroplane (though he could not fly). He fell out with his brother, who tried to put out a contract on the lives of Post and his sixth wife; shortly afterwards, matters deteriorated for her when her husband fired a rifle at her Pontiac.

It's all just downhill from there. . .