Striking it rich, twice
Evelyn Marie Adams defied huge odds: The New Jersey convenience store clerk won a seven-figure prize not once, but twice.
Adams hauled in $3.9 million from her state’s Pick-6 lottery game in October 1985 — and she kept playing. Soon after, another $1.4 million was hers.
Many requests for financial help ensued. “I couldn’t go anywhere without being recognized,” she told The New York Times in 1993. “A few of my relatives were angry because I had so much.”
She ended up losing a large chunk of her fortune in Atlantic City casinos. In 2012, The New York Post caught up with her at a New Jersey trailer park.
“I’m broke now … I work two jobs,” she told the newspaper. “My advice to anyone (who wins) would be to go to your lawyer and accountant first.”
