Abraham Shakespeare | Money, Mistakes & Murder
Abraham Lee Shakespeare never thought that winning the lottery would make his life worse than it was before… he was wrong. On November 15, 2006, Abraham, who was an assistant truck driver, and his co-worker Michael Ford were heading towards Miami when they stopped at the Town Star convenience store in Frostproof, Florida to buy drinks and cigarettes. This was also the place that the Florida Lotto winning ticket, worth thirty million dollars, was being sold at. So, they’re at the convenience store, Michael gets out of his truck and asks Abraham if he wants soda. Abraham says no, instead he hands Michael $2 out of the $5 he had on him that day and asks Michael to get him two lottery tickets. Michael does as told and miraculously, it turns out that Abraham had just bought the winning ticket. Later that year, in 2006, Abraham actually won the $30 million, and after taxes, still managed to walk away with $17 million. Of course, to Abraham, this was amazing, the best thing that had ever happened to him in a very long time. He could finally live the life of comfort, he was happy… but not for long.
Michael, the co-worker who gave Abraham the tickets, later came back and demanded a share of at least $1 million of the jackpot. Abraham refused so Micheal sued Abraham, saying that he stole the lottery tickets out of Michael’s wallet. No one bought his story though, so Abraham won the case. But that wasn’t the last of it. Michael soon moved out of his working-class neighborhood in Lakeland into a gated community which cost about $1 million. Apart from that, he purchased a Nissan Altima and a Rolex watch. Friends and strangers always asked for money from Abraham and it had really started to get on his nerves. He once told his brother that it would have been better to be broke and told others that he thought that he had friends, turns out that all they want is money.
One of the friends that Abraham told this to was Dorice Donegan “Dee-Dee” Moore. Dee-Dee asked Abraham if he would want to launch a business with her, apparently Dee-Dee wanted to write a book about Abraham. Abraham didn’t see a reason to say no, so he accepted. Dee-Dee, after this deal, had control over a lot of his money and not long after, withdrew $1 million with which she bought herself a Hummer, a Chevrolet Corvette and a truck before going on vacation. She claimed that the money was a gift from Abraham.
On November 9, 2009, Abraham’s family reported him missing. They said that they hadn’t seen him since April of that year and they were hoping that he had taken his money and was living somewhere else. That was until they started receiving text messages from Abraham’s phone and they knew it wasn’t him as he was illiterate. Police launched a search for Abraham Shakespeare and they were able to find the 42 year olds body, buried under 9 feet of dirt under a newly constructed concrete slab. And who would've guessed, it was on the property of Dee-Dee Moore’s boyfriend. Dee-Dee, who was the last person to see Abraham alive, was found guilty.
Dee-Dee had her own history with the police. In 2001, Moore was convicted of insurance fraud and falsely reporting a crime. Before Abraham’s body was found, she said that Abraham had left town and had gone to Texas, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, or Orlando, Florida, or was sick in a hospital. She also said that Abraham was tired of people asking him for money, so she helped him leave town. After his body was found however, Moore told police different versions of what happened to Abraham. Sometimes she would blame drug dealers, a lawyer and- even her own 14-year-old son. Other times, she said she killed Shakespeare in self-defense.
After Abraham’s disappearance, Moore was actually living in his house and pretending to be him and texting relatives. That’s when they knew that something had happened to Abraham, who was illiterate, and contacted the police. At the same time as Dee-Dee was trying to make it seem as though Abraham was alive, she was also trying to find a person who would take the blame for Shakespeare’s death. Of course, it wasn’t for free, she would pay them fifty thousand dollars. She had also planned to offer the mother of one of Abraham's two sons a $200,000 home if she would lie to detectives and tell them she had seen him recently. She also paid $5,000 to a relative of Shakespeare's to give his mother a birthday card and imply it was from him.
On December 10, 2012, Dee-Dee Moore, with all the evidence, was convicted of first degree murder for the killing of Abraham Shakespeare and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, with an additional minimum sentence of 25 years for possessing a gun in the course of a violent felony.
It's crazy what people would do for money. It honestly makes winning the lottery sound not so exciting anymore. Anyways, rest in peace, Mr. Abraham Shakespeare. Sucks, because he was just trying to live a good life. Saw a friend who wanted to start a business with him and thought 'why not?'. He did not know what kind of monster she was. At least now she can rot in jail and think about all she did for the rest of her life. I hope that Abraham's family is doing okay. Well, I guess that will be it. This one was really sad... well, all of the cases are sad. I hope you guys have a great rest of the day. Be careful out there, guys. I will see you next week!