Iowa City man’s $250,000 lottery win is latest twist in a life of ups and downs

Very little about Richard Twohy is conventional, even the way he answers basic questions such as his age.

“I'm 64 and nine-tenths years old,” the Iowa City man said.

Twohy isn't shy about his opinions. It's been this way since his years as a New York University law student in the 1960s and as a successful California trial attorney in the 1970s. In Iowa City, his name often shows up in newspapers in connection with legal or political current affairs.

He backpacked around the globe for two years and even was on “Wheel of Fortune,” back when the game show still gave out low-end prizes instead of just cash.

Yet Twohy also lost plenty along the way because of drug use.

“I've gotten used to a life of functional poverty because of a life of crack cocaine poisoning,” he said. “It completely got in the way of everything in my life.”

Drug abuse led Twohy to move 18 years ago to Iowa City, where he lives on a modest monthly disability check. Yet he admits he still craves the action - not drugs now, but lottery tickets.

“I'm an addictive personality,” he said.

On Aug. 3, Twohy paid $20 for a pair of Iowa Lottery “Bingo Times 10” scratch-off tickets. The first one was, like many others for him, a loser. But the second ticket was worth a second look.

Twohy was holding a lottery ticket worth not just the $25,000 top prize, but with a “10X” symbol that maximized his winnings to $250,000.

He went back inside to check.

“I thought the machine was just broken, but it turned out it was just a winner,” said Naomi Keasler of the Kum and Go convenience store on East Burlington Street in Iowa City.

With a prize claim for $250,000 in his pocket, Twohy spent the following weeks and months sorting out his future as he prepared to cash in his winnings.

“I know I'm going to meet relatives I never knew I had,” he said.

On Monday, Twohy walked out of the Iowa Lottery office in Cedar Rapids with a certified check for $175,000 after state and federal taxes.

He says he suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and knows this quick influx of cash could mean trouble. But Twohy says he has been sober for 18 years and still attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to remember what he has been through.

Instead of self-destruction, Twohy is focusing on using the money to help his family. He also wants to support some of the causes he believes in.

Chris Earl, KCRG-TV