What To Do?

If you're born into a wealthy family and have never held a job. If you spend your life reading and listening to music. If you happen to be a reclusive bachelor with no heirs. What do you do with your estate when you die?

Well, you could pick 70 names at random out of the phone book and leave everything to complete strangers.

Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara drew up his unusual will in 1988 in front of two witnesses at a Lisbon registry office, 13 years before he died of natural causes at the age of 42, weekly newspaper Sol reported.

"I am sure he just wanted to create confusion by leaving his belongings to strangers. That amused him," one of the witnesses and one of the man's few friends, Anibal Castro Vila, told the newspaper.

"The registry office employee was shocked when he asked for the Lisbon telephone book and started choosing names at random. She asked him several questions to check his sanity but he was really lucid," he said.

Da Camara's heirs are still waiting for his estate, which includes a 12-room apartment in the centre of Lisbon, a house near the historic northern town of Guimaraes, a car and nearly 25,000 euros (32,000 US dollars) in a bank account, to be divided up.

You know what? The guy probably had a good chuckle over the whole thing whenever he thought about it. Many of the heirs were very suspicious of the letters informing them of their bequest fearing it was a scam. It would be interesting to look in on the heirs in a few years time to see if it changed anything for them, wouldn't it? It doesn't sound like there is an enormous estate, however. So coming into sudden money may not be all that big a change for any of them. Or as big a disaster as it has been for some folks.

A man beset by problems since winning a record lottery jackpot says he can't pay a settlement to a casino worker because thieves cleaned out his bank accounts.

Powerball winner Jack Whittaker gave that explanation in a note last fall to a lawyer for Kitti French, who accused him of assaulting her at the Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center, a slots-only casino near Charleston, according to a motion French's lawyer filed this week demanding payment of the confidential settlement.

Although he was already a wealthy contractor, Whittaker became an instant celebrity on Christmas Day 2002 after winning a $314.9 million Powerball jackpot. He took his winnings in a lump sum of $113 million after taxes, and at a news conference in which he came across as a jolly saint, he promised to donate one-tenth to his church and contribute to other causes.

He soon created a charity to help people find jobs, buy food or get an education; he split $7 million among three churches; and he gave money to improve a Little League park and buy playground equipment and coloring books for children.

But his life has been marred by lawsuits and personal tragedies. He faced his granddaughter's death by drug overdose in 2005; he was sued for bouncing checks at Atlantic City, N.J., casinos; he was ordered to undergo rehab after being arrested on drunken driving charges; his vehicles and business have been burglarized; and he was sued by the father of an 18-year-old boy, a friend of his granddaughter's, who was found dead in Whittaker's house.

I remember when this guy won. He seemed so lucky then. Now, not so much.