Ben Novack Jr (1956-2009)
Runs in the family
In July 2009, Ben Novack Jr, a Floridian, was found dead in a hotel room in Nyack, a suburb of New York City, where he was on a business trip with his wife Narcy. He had been beaten, and his body was bound and gagged. Murder. No doubt about it.
Only four months earlier, his mother Bernice was found dead in her Florida home. She had numerous broken bones and bruises, and blood was all over the place. Murder? Certainly looked like it to most people but not to the coroner, who determined that she died after several "unwitnessed falls."
Ben's wife Narcy is a person of interest in his murder, for which - as of February 2010 - no one has been charged (see Update below). In light of his murder, the death of his mother might be re-opened. The Novack saga promises to run and run.
Son and mother were each worth millions. An ex-model, Ben's mother Bernice was the wife of Ben Novack Sr, owner of the ultra-glamorous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.
The ornate hotel, which was the setting for the James Bond movie 'Goldfinger,' counted luminaries such as Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis and Irving Berlin among its guests. The presidential suite was occupied, when he was in town by, yes, President John F Kennedy. Mobsters, too - Meyer Lansky of Murder Incorporated fame, and Sam Giancana, who had links with President Kennedy – stayed there.
The Fontainebleau went bust in 1977, but Novack remained wealthy and on his death, his widow and his son inherited substantial amounts. And when she died, Ben Jr was again a main beneficiary. Even though he did not live long enough to collect, his inheritance from his mother went to his estate.
In addition to his inheritance, Novack ran a successful convention-planning business (it was at one such convention in Rye, New York that he met his death). He also had valuable possessions, including a collection of Batman memorabilia so large that it was stored in warehouses. Individual Batman comic books can fetch tens of thousands of dollars.
Bizarre lives, bizarre deaths
She wasn't there. She didn't do it.
That is what Novack's wife Narcy told the cops.
Ben and his wife Narcy - Narcisa Cira Veliz Pacheco, a native of Ecuador – married in 1991. They had no children of their own. Narcy has an adult daughter from a previous relationship, May Abad, who has two children of her own. May was with her step-father Ben and her mother at the convention in Nyack where Ben was killed.
Did the cops believe Narcy?
Narcy said that on the fateful morning, she went for breakfast alone. Ben remained in the room, alone. When she returned about an hour later, she found his battered body.
There was no forced entry and, as his Rolex watch and other valuables were still in the room, robbery was ruled out.
She took a lie-detector test but was not charged with murder. Nor, to date, has anyone else.
Narcy was an immediate and obvious suspect. She had an electronic room-entry key. She was in line to inherit his entire fortune. And violence was not a stranger in their relationship.
In 2002, Miami police found Ben Jr bound and gagged in his bedroom. He had been robbed.
Who did it? This one is easy: she did. Ben fingered his wife, and she confessed! But she claimed that it was all part of a sex game. Narcy also possessed photos of them engaged in unusual sexual activities. She threatened to release the pictures to the press if her husband pressed charges, which he refrained from doing. In turn, she returned the items she had taken.
Ten days after this strange non-robbery, Ben filed for divorce but later withdrew the petition, saying that he and his wife had made up their differences.
Fast forward to 2009 and the bloody demise of Bernice, who was fit and healthy, considering her age (87). Her son told police that about a week before she died, she had taken a nasty fall onto concrete. After treatment, however, she felt well enough to return home.
A week later, she was dead, found face down in the utility room and with symptoms consistent with one or more hard falls: skull and jaw fractures and broken teeth. Her blood was found in several rooms in her house and in her car.
Mighty May and Batman and Robin
Novack's will is complicated, not least by a possibly conflicting pre-nuptial agreement with Narcy. Narcy may get the entire estate; if she doesn’t, her daughter May might.
Inheritance complications are part of the Novack family legacy. When Ben Senior died in 1985, Ben and his mother had to fight off a claim by a former Miss Uruguay, who had been a girlfriend of the hotelier. The dispute took several years to resolve.
When, in 2002, Ben Novack Jr had been tied up in a home invasion orchestrated by his wife and her accomplices, he had been bound with duct tape.
Ben Novack Jr’s murdered body had been bound with duct tape.
After the New York murder, police obtained five rolls of duct tape from the Novack home in Florida.
Florida law allows a judge to deny an inheritance to a beneficiary if evidence suggests that they participated in an “unlawful and intentional killing.” A murder conviction is not necessary.
Narcy’s daughter May has filed court papers to that effect against her mother.
UPDATE - January 2010 New York police receive an anonymous letter asserting that Ben and Bernice were both murdered, and the letter provides enough inside information to convince the constabulary that this is no crank letter.
UPDATE - January 2010 It turns out that Ben Jr had a step-brother, Ronald. His father and his first wife, Bella, adopted a boy who became a homeless drifter. Ben Sr left him a mere dollar in his will but Bella, who died in 2001, left an estate initially valued at about $100,000 and now worth possibly millions. Ronald is back in the picture.
UPDATE - February 2010 Although a suspect in Ben's murder, Narcy gets control over his estate in probate court. It is a double win: she gets his estate, and she also gets Bernice's, which Ben inherited after she died. But Narcy's celebrations are short-lived: the next day the judge returns control to the court, ordering Narcy to post a $5 million bond before she can be named personal representative. The estate's money could not be touched without court approval.
UPDATE - July 2010 Narcy Novack, her brother and another relative were arrest in connection with the murder of Ben Novack Jr. Also indicted was a fourth man whom police suspect to be a hired killer. He remains at large. It is increasingly likely that the death of Ben Novack's mother will be re-examined.
