Game show victories aren't always a ticket to happiness. Join us as we explore shocking true stories of contestants whose lives took unexpected and tragic turns after their moments of televised glory. From murder to fraud, these tales will leave you stunned!
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00:00As he posed as Patrick Quinn, the real password surrounding this contestant was...
00:05The password is phony.
00:06All right, Patrick.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be looking at the most notable instances of game show or
00:12reality competition winners whose lives took tragic turns after their victories.
00:16Firstly, none of us cheated on that show. There was no planning to cheat, no attempt to cheat.
00:24Hector Gioberti, Goulder Ultimate Search.
00:26In 2006, Hector Gioberti bested his competitors and emerged as the winner of the third season
00:31of the Nigerian survival reality series, Goulder Ultimate Search.
00:35Hector, come here.
00:49Congratulations, you are the ultimate man.
00:54His victory came with a grand prize of 5 million naira and a Ford Explorer SUV.
00:58After his win, Gioberti got married to a fellow contestant and settled on the mainland area of
01:03Lago State. Sadly, his life came to an unfortunate end in September 2017 when he was attacked in his
01:08home by unidentified gunmen. The assailants reportedly followed Gioberti from the airport,
01:13where he had picked up his sibling and opened fire, killing him and injuring his father.
01:17Following weeks of investigation, police arrested Ismaila Adeyemi,
01:21whom they believed was responsible for the attack.
01:24Alan Smith beat Shazam
01:26Alan Smith was a soul singer with the Motown-inspired Jersey Shore group Sensational
01:30Soulcruisers. These soul singers are so good, their band even got to jam with the boss himself,
01:36Bruce Springsteen, from the Big Apple. Let's hear it for Alan and Taheem.
01:42In 2019, Smith showcased his musical talents when he appeared on the Fox game show Beat Shazam,
01:47alongside Taheem Tajjay, his fellow band member. The duo excelled in their category,
01:52correctly identifying a variety of hit songs, which won them $260,000 and advanced them to
01:57the next week's episode. However, Smith never got the opportunity to enjoy his winnings,
02:08as merely two weeks after filming, he passed away due to a sudden heart attack. Ironically,
02:12the last song Smith correctly identified to clinch the grand prize was How to Save a Life by The Fray.
02:18Sushil Kumar – Konbanega Karopati
02:23In 2011, Sushil Kumar became the first contestant to win the top prize of 50 million rupees on
02:29Konbanega Karopati, the Indian adaptation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
02:41Before this life-changing win, Kumar was a computer operator and teacher who earned a
02:45modest income. This dramatic change in his fortunes led to him being dubbed the
02:49real-life Slumdog Millionaire. But after the whirlwind victory, the hero in this real-life
02:53movie didn't have the happiest of endings. Kumar reportedly made poor investments and
02:57excessive charitable donations, rapidly depleting his prize money. The mounting
03:00pressure led him to turn to alcohol as a coping mechanism, further complicating the situation.
03:05Eventually, Kumar went bankrupt and had to return to teaching to make ends meet.
03:09Cindy Stowell – Jeopardy
03:11Cindy Stowell became one of 2016's best performers on the game show Jeopardy,
03:15raking in over $120,000 across a six-episode winning streak.
03:19Cindy, you start us off.
03:21Under the Christmas tree for $200, please.
03:23Unfortunately, she never got to watch her impressive run with the rest of the country,
03:27as she passed away just about a week before her taped episodes were broadcast.
03:31Cindy Stowell is our champion. She is from Austin, Texas, and she collects nail polish.
03:38Yeah, it started in grad school.
03:40A science content developer from Austin, Texas, Stowell competed while she had stage
03:444 colon cancer. Determined to fulfill her dying wish of appearing on the show,
03:49filming was grueling as she endured a fever and had to rely on painkillers to push through.
03:53But in a final heartwarming gesture, Stowell donated all of her earnings to cancer research.
03:57And Cindy's wish was that her prize money be donated to cancer research to help others like her.
04:04Darva Conger – Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire
04:07At the turn of the century, Fox brought 50 women from across the country,
04:10one from each state, to compete for the heart of an anonymous multimillionaire.
04:14This is no joke. Before this show is over, our multimillionaire will determine which
04:19of 50 women will make the perfect bride for him. Once he has made his selection,
04:25the couple will be married legally right here on this stage.
04:29In the end, the millionaire, Rick Rockwell,
04:31chose Darva Conger of California and married her on the spot. However,
04:35whatever dreams of a fairytale ending Conger had were quickly shattered. It wasn't long
04:39after the show aired that people began questioning Rockwell's background.
04:42I was thrust in the public eye and for the first time in my life I was having to defend myself.
04:46I'm being called a gold digger and a this and a that and being ripped apart in the media.
04:50The supposed multimillionaire turned out to be far less wealthy than he claimed,
04:54and even had a restraining order against him from a previous relationship. Conger was heartbroken,
04:58but she wasted no time. Right after their honeymoon,
05:00she filed for an annulment and sold off Rockwell's engagement ring.
05:04I actually went back to school and became a nurse anesthetist,
05:06and that's what I do for a living, and it's a wonderful life.
05:08Carrie Ketchum, Super Password. The password is fraud.
05:11Hi, Patrick. Hi.
05:13What happened there? Did you...
05:14Oh, I had a little bit of an accident a couple weeks ago, but I'm feeling fine. It's,
05:17you know, the least of my worries right now.
05:19Or at least it was for Patrick Quinn, who appeared on NBC's Super Password in 1988
05:24and won $58,600 across four episodes. When a bank manager in Anchorage, Alaska,
05:29watched the episodes, he recognized Quinn as Carrie Ketchum,
05:32a fugitive wanted in Alaska and Indiana for fraud.
05:35Because his real name is Carrie Ketchum, and some very interested viewers in Anchorage,
05:40Alaska recognized him as someone believed to have defrauded the bank they work in,
05:45so they tipped off police.
05:46The manager reported these suspicions to the Secret Service, who then arranged with the
05:50show's producer to arrest Ketchum when he came to claim his winnings. Ketchum had used the
05:54Patrick Quinn alias, which belonged to his college professor, to commit several fraudulent acts,
05:59including illegally collecting a life insurance policy on his ex-wife.
06:02He was sentenced to five years in prison, and NBC refused to pay him the prize money.
06:07Since he lied about his name and just about everything else,
06:10the producers say he won't get his winnings, not even lovely parting gifts.
06:15Michael Larson, press your luck. Between 1969 and 1982, Michael Larson was arrested
06:20three times in Ohio for theft and other fraudulent acts.
06:23Let's meet our second player, Michael Larson. How are you, Michael?
06:29Now, Michael, what do you do for a living?
06:32Oh, I drive an ice cream truck in the summer. I hope to win enough money here not to
06:36have to do that this summer.
06:36Do you have it with you today?
06:38Larson had always had a knack for scams, but his largest grift came in 1984 on Press Your Luck.
06:44Larson had studied the show extensively and discovered that its supposedly
06:47random game board actually only followed five predetermined patterns.
06:51Stop!
07:03Armed with this knowledge, he managed to get on the show and pulled off a dramatic win,
07:07earning a record $110,237.
07:11CBS executives were convinced Larson cheated,
07:13but unable to prove it, they were forced to pay him.
07:15I've never seen anything like this ever happen in the history of all the 20-some-odd years
07:20that I've been on network television. So once it was discovered what he had done,
07:24we knew there was nothing wrong. He beat the system.
07:26Larson quickly reverted to his fraudulent ways afterwards. In 1995, he was implicated
07:31in a pyramid scheme and went into hiding in Florida, where he died four years later.
07:35Timothy Bleifnick, Family Feud
07:37In 2020, Tim Bleifnick appeared on Family Feud with his family members,
07:41where he jokingly answered that saying,
07:42"'I do' is the biggest mistake anyone could make at their wedding.
07:45What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding?
07:48Honey, I love you, but said I do.
07:53Not my mistake. Not my mistake. I love my wife."
07:56This seemingly harmless remark would take on a sinister meaning just three years later.
08:00By February 2023, Bleifnick's estranged wife Becky was living separately with their three sons,
08:05when an intruder broke into her home and shot her dead.
08:08I think people were just horrified that a
08:10mother of three young boys could be shot and killed in her own home.
08:14Investigators later linked the crime to Bleifnick after discovering online
08:18searches like how to break into a window with a crowbar, and how to create a homemade gun silencer.
08:23It appears he killed Becky upon learning she had begun seeing someone else after their separation.
08:27Bleifnick was ultimately convicted and handed three life sentences.
08:31The court believes that the appropriate sentence would be natural life in prison.
08:40Life in prison, without the possibility of parole.
08:44Charles Ingram, Who Wants to be a Millionaire
08:46In 2001, British Army Major Charles Ingram became only the third contestant
08:50ever to win the £1 million jackpot on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
08:55You've just won £1 million! £1 million!
09:04But he never saw a penny of that money. Ingram, along with his wife Diana and an accomplice,
09:08Tech 1 Wittuck, allegedly cheated by using a coughing signal to point him to the correct answers.
09:14Shall I just rethink this for a second?
09:25Yeah, I'm sure it was Holbein.
09:27Although Ingram denied the accusations, he was found guilty of deception,
09:31fined £115,000 and given a suspended sentence.
09:36The scandal derailed his life. Ingram was dismissed from the military and found himself
09:40in another fraud case, involving an illegal insurance claim. Since then,
09:44he has published two novels and appeared on shows like The Weakest Link and Wife Swap.
10:11Rodney Alcala – The Dating Game
10:15This popular dating game show featured Rodney Alcala in 1978 as one of three
10:19bachelors vying for the affection of Cheryl Bradshaw. Alcala charmed his way into a date
10:28with Bradshaw, but she declined as she found him creepy. Her instincts proved spot on,
10:32what the show's producers and audiences didn't know was that Alcala was a serial
10:36killer in the middle of a prolific spree. Between 1968 and 1979, he killed at least
10:41eight people, though the actual toll is believed to exceed 100. He was eventually
10:45arrested in July 1979 and convicted of five murders in California and two more in New York.
10:50Alcala was sentenced to death, but he succumbed to a heart attack in 2021 while on death row.
10:55President officials say Rodney Alcala passed away from natural causes
10:59at a Kings County hospital.
11:01Are you a fan of any of these game shows? Did we miss any other tragic cases involving their
11:05winners? Let us know in the comments below!