The Prince of Paradise (15 page)

T
WENTY-
O
NE

“THE MEETING PLANNER FROM HELL”

In the wake of his father’s death, Ben Novack Jr.
was now a wealthy man in his own right, no longer having to rely on his mother for money.
As the personal representative of his father’s estate, Ben Jr.
had agreed to pay Bernice the $2,500 a month for the rest of her life.
But now he was no longer reliant on her; he could do whatever he wanted.

Charlie Seraydar says Ben Sr.’s death had a profound effect on his son, who had always struggled to be recognized in his own right.
He now also started adopting some of his father’s character traits.

“It was a very tumultuous time in Benji’s life,” his good friend explained.
“He had stepped into taking over his father’s character and he was obnoxious.”

He also decided to finally do something about his debilitating stutter, enrolling at a special speech therapy school in New York.

“He pretty much overcame it and found a way to control it,” said Seraydar.
“He used to tell me it had to do with thinking about what to say first and putting the sentences in your head, so you know what words to say.”

In the summer of 1987 Ben Novack Jr.
bought a luxurious fifty-foot Cary boat, using $524,000 from his inheritance.
He christened her
White Lightning
, and moored her right outside his Pompano Beach home.
The powerful boat had four 625-horsepower engines and could reach sixty knots.

“He loved it,” said Seraydar, “and that was an extension of him.
He used to come up to my house in it, and we would always go out on the boat.
He would never venture out more than ten miles.”

The new boat owner especially delighted in having his well-endowed new girlfriend Narcy pose on deck as his human figurehead.

“After Narcy’s boob job,” said Seraydar, “he used to put her on the bow of his boat and ride up-and-down the Inter-Coastal … so people would see her.”

He also held top-level Amway business seminars on board
White Lightning
, writing them off as business expenses.
Often he would be joined by Miami Dolphins star football player Tim Foley, who also worked for Amway and was a close friend.

That summer, Ben Novack Jr.
was so busy running Amway conventions that he missed some shifts at the Miami Beach Police Department.
On September 26 he wrote a memo to his department superior, Sergeant John Tighe, explaining the situation and making sure he received the proper credit.

I have had an emergency business situation in Columbus, Ohio, for the months of August and September, and therefore have been unable to fulfill the normal hour input requirement.
I did return to Miami last week for the main purpose of not missing the range qualification with my service revolver and in fact should be credited with ten hours for September 21, 1985.
(Left home at 7:15
A.M.
and returned at 5
P.M.
) I qualified with a 271 on the PPC and 1098 overall (“Expert”).

I believe that my business situation will resolve itself to where I will be back on schedule and fully able to comply with my monthly hour input during the month of October and from that point forward.

Once again, many thanks for your understanding and the Department’s working with me during this time.

Respectfully submitted, Ofc.
Ben Novack Jr.

*   *   *

After her ex-husband’s death, Bernice Novack, now sixty-five, decided to sell off some of her jewelry, including the diamond earrings she had been given by Frank Sinatra.
She took them to a small jewelry store in Fort Lauderdale, but the owner suggested she go to a bigger one, in Bal Harbour, as the earrings were out of his class.

While there, she struck up a conversation with the saleslady, Estelle Fernandez, finding immediate rapport.
“We became friends instantly,” recalled Estelle.
“I mean we were like sisters.”

A few days later, Bernice returned to the store, telling Fernandez that she’d sold the jewelry for a good price.
“One of the jewelry stores bought it from her,” said Fernandez.
“I guess she needed money at the time, as I don’t think Ben left her anything.”

Over the next few months, the two women began meeting regularly for Chinese dinners, soon becoming confidantes.

“Bernice was very private,” said Estelle, “but she told me stuff she wouldn’t tell anybody else.
She did not want anybody to know she was a foster child [or] know her age.”

In late 1987, Bernice was devastated when her close friend and hairstylist Manny Buccola was diagnosed with AIDS.
They had remained close since the Fontainebleau days, and each week he visited her home to do her hair.

Bernice began taking care of him, and started working with various AIDS charities, raising money and awareness for the disease.

“I got her involved,” explained Guy Costaldo.
“When my lover was ill, a priest here was opening a second-hand store called the Poverello Center, selling used furniture for money to buy food for people with AIDS.”
Bernice started donating furniture and clothes to the center, joining the committee so she could be more actively involved.

“She supported them in every way she could,” said Barbara Lunde.
“This was early on, when no one was mentioning [AIDS].
She gave a lot of stuff to that store and she used to go there all the time.”

The Reverend Temple Hayes, who had first met Bernice at the Science of Mind Center in Boca Raton, said Bernice made AIDS her personal cause long before it was fashionable to do so.
“Bernice was an old soul,” said Temple.
“She volunteered at an AIDS place and was very open-minded.
She had some friends that were gay back then when unfortunately AIDS hit.
She really helped support that organization and took it to heart.”

As Buccola’s conditioned worsened, Bernice visited him daily to nurse him and keep his spirits up.

“When Manny was ill,” said Costaldo, “I went to work, and she’d stop by every day to see him.
We became friends through his illness.”

During their evenings together, Bernice regaled the couple with stories of her glamorous time at the Fontainebleau, and all the stars she had known.
She loved to show them her personal scrapbooks with candid photographs of her posing with presidents and movie stars.

“She was a very exciting woman,” said Costaldo,” and owning the Fontainebleau hotel, she would tell stories.
Manny knew a lot of them, because he worked there.
All about the heyday of the Mafia and very interesting stories if she got talking.
We always bugged her to write a book.”

During Manny’s final days, Bernice encouraged the couple to be blessed by a priest.

“It wasn’t a marriage,” explained Costaldo.
“Manny wanted to do it, and he was ill.
It made him happy.
Bernice was there.
We had Mass said in the living room, and she was here for the party.”

A few weeks later, in July 1988, Manny Buccola died.
Bernice attended the funeral with Estelle Fernandez.

“She loved him dearly,” said Fernandez.
“I don’t usually like that kind of thing, but I went because of her.”

*   *   *

From the very first time Bernice Novack set eyes on Narcy Veliz, she detested her.
Although she may have disapproved of Ben Jr.’s ex-wife, Jill, the former Ecuadorian stripper posed a far greater threat.
But Bernice was powerless to do anything, as she no longer exerted any financial control over her son.
So she kept quiet and bided her time.

Her sister, Maxine, met Narcy soon after she moved in with Ben Jr.

“This one was no beauty, and Bernice hated her,” said Maxine.
“She was so uneducated and spoke with a thick Hispanic accent.
[Bernice] said, ‘Maxine, if I want to see my son, I have to be nice to her.’”

Charlie Seraydar believes Bernice suffered from so-called Jewish mother syndrome.
“She didn’t like her from day one,” said Seraydar.
“You know the Jewish mothers never think their sons’ girlfriends are good enough for them.”

To many, Ben Jr.
and Narcy seemed a good match, and Pete Matthews had never seen his friend so smitten.

“He was devoted to her,” said Matthews.
“I’ve known many women that Benji socialized with … and I’ve never seen any warmth or compassion or sincerity in any of his relationships that I was aware of, except Narcy.”

Matthews observed that Narcy did not fit Ben’s usual taste in girls, making him wonder what special qualities she possessed.
“It was surprising,” he said.
“Narcy was not tall and kind of on the zaftig side.
The girls that had appealed to him over the years were very tall, very sleek, and not overly bosomed, with an hourglass figure.
Everyone has a stereotype, and she was not that.
But apparently she did something to attract him.

“I never talked to Benji about that but there were always rumors that she was kind of a free-spirited young lady, if you know what I mean.
And Benji never really confided in me any of his fetishes or anything.
It was just one of those things that he didn’t discuss.”

*   *   *

Narcy now worked alongside Ben Novack Jr.
in his Convention Concepts Unlimited business.
She joined a small staff that included William Roszell, who set up the company’s computer programs.
It was a cash-only operation, and Novack picked up thousands of dollars in bills at each convention.
He was now earning millions of dollars a year from his business, much of which went unreported.
According to Roszell, Novack was hiding large sums of cash in offshore accounts, to evade the IRS as his father had done.
“He would basically get kickbacks from conventions,” said Roszell,” who left the company in 1991.

Bernice did the books for her son’s company, now listed as a religious organization.
Narcy, too, soon proved a great asset when Ben started bringing her along to Amway conventions.
Her Spanish would be invaluable in building up the growing Hispanic Amway convention business.

“In the years that he started his business,” said Charlie Seraydar, “she was right there with him.”

The last weekend of July 1990 they did a major Amway convention, at the David L.
Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh.
After it was over, Ben Novack Jr.complained he had been overcharged, and threatened to pull out of two future conventions at the center.

The
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
covered the story, reporting how every other organization had always given the convention center high marks in the past.

“Novack said convention center officials tried to wrongfully extract a fee for a percentage of the merchandise his company sold at an Amway sales and marketing seminar,” the story read.
“He also complained about the quality of food and food service at the hall and a lack of cooperation with the hotels.”

The center explained that Novack’s complaints were the result of “an honest staff error and a misunderstanding caused by his verbally abusive overreaction.”

Mark Gatley said this behavior was quite normal for Ben Novack Jr., now known in the industry as “the meeting planner from hell.”

“It goes back a long way,” Gatley explained.
“He would ask for certain things free or with a huge discount.
If we wouldn’t bend, he’d call the chairman of my board or the mayor.
He’d threaten to first, and we’d go, ‘He’s not going to do that.’
But he would, and you’d end up having to cave in.”

On the other hand, Novack always paid his bills, however reluctantly, and brought lucrative Amway business to convention centers all over America and beyond.

“Everybody knew who he was,” said Gatley.
“And when he came into your community, everybody said, ‘Brace yourself, here comes Ben.’
At the end of the day, you’d say, ‘Well, did he complain?’
Yeah, it’s Ben.
We expect it.”

*   *   *

In the summer of 1990, Ben Novack Jr.
hired a building contactor named Joe Gandy to build an extension on his Pompano Beach house.
Soon Gandy would become his trusted right-hand man, just as Ahmed Boob had been for Ben’s father at the Fontainebleau.

“When I met Ben,” Gandy remembered in 2011, “he was living out of a Pompano house … a little house on the water.
Every neighbor hated him.
They hated him across the canal.
They hated him everywhere.
He just made enemies.
As soon as you looked at the man, you could tell he was an asshole.”