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By Bob Weaver
It may be difficult from this week forward to report humorously about the foibles and life of Jack Whittaker.
It has become a tragedy.
Record Powerball winner Jack Whittaker said his 17-year-old granddaughter "was my world," having doted on the girl since before he won the biggest jackpot ever.
Steve Crosier told The Associated Press that his son Brandon "freaked out," apparently after Brandi died, implying her body was wrapped and removed from the site of the death.
Brandi Bragg is being buried today in Hinton, after her body was found two weeks after her disappearance.
"All of the problems I have had are because of my granddaughter's friends, her drug using friends," Whittaker said. "I'm going to find them and put them in jail."
Brandi had her own apartment and several vehicles, including a Hummer and Cadillac Escalade, and lots of cash. She also had lots of friends attracted to her money and life-style.
One friend, 18-year-old Jesse Tribble, was found in Whittaker's home in September, dead of a drug overdose.
Whittaker was out of town at the time.
"Since she won the lottery she had too much money ... I could point fingers all day long ... the money is the root of it all I would say," said Becky Layton, a longtime friend.
Whittaker's only grandchild was an avid softball player and Church of God member. She was thrust into the world of money and what money can buy, lavished on her by her grandfather.
Recovering drug users and alcoholics frequently speak about the negative role money brings to addiction and self-destruction.
Some say "If I had been well-financed I would have died ten years ago."
"It's not her fault, it's the people who sold drugs because they weren't taken off the street," said Whittaker.
The girl's death adds to a long list of woes for Jack Whittaker, in many ways linked to "Jack's Jackpot."
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