Since Jack said he was going to give away much of his winnings, a lot of people thought it would be a fine idea if he gave some to them. They turned up at the C&L Super Serve in the wee hours and waited for the great man to show up for biscuits. People lurked in the parking lot wild-eyed, or paced the store aisles as if they were deciding whether to buy a folding knife, flag decal, work gloves or the hunter’s best friend: a “hands-free grunter,” promising authentic deer noises. Even an evangelist from Israel hit up Jack for cash. “A lot of them, they had cancer, or their child was dying,” Brenda says. “Different stuff like that, which was heartbreaking. It would even make you want to reach in your own pocket.”

One morning Brenda was trying to chat with Jack, when a distraught young man, who said he was out of work, interrupted. “I need a job!” he shouted. Jack was real nice to the fellow, Brenda says. “Jack was, like, ‘Well, you come down to my office, and I’ll see what I can do for you.’ But mainly what the man wanted was money. He was, like, ‘No, I need money right now!'”

Pretty soon, Jack stopped coming to the convenience store, Brenda says. But people still found him to ask for money. They telephoned his home and rang his doorbell. Given the size of Jack’s fortune, some were reluctant to go away empty-handed. A few threatened Jack’s family. Off-duty deputies from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department began providing private security for his family.