The Prince of Paradise (22 page)

By the fall of 2002, Ben and Narcy Novack were back living and working together, as if nothing had happened.
But Bernice Novack could not forget her son’s frantic call for help, or rushing over to his house to find him bruised and battered.

“Bernice was so upset that she went into counseling for the longest time,” said her neighbor Rebecca Green.
“She was just so disturbed by it.”

To make things even worse, she saw her daughter-in-law every day, at the Conventions Unlimited office.
Always extremely private, Bernice would discuss what she was going through only with her closest confidants.

“Well, she called me and told me the entire story,” said Barbara Lunde.
“She said, ‘Please do a prayer for me, so I will know what to do.’”

Bernice also confided in Temple Hayes, saying she had hoped it would be the end of the marriage.
“She was appalled and flabbergasted,” said Hayes, “that someone could have done that to her son … she feared for his life.
She knew Narcy was into Santería and even wondered if she had put some kind of spell on her son.

“She felt Narcy was involved in some kind of Spanish Mafia, and said, ‘There you go.
I knew what was going to happen.
She only married my son for what he has, and because she wants to control him.
She brought in these hit people to show him what she would do if he ever tried to leave her.’”

Bernice was especially hurt by Narcy’s allegations that her son was into bondage sex, telling her sister she refused to believe it.
“Bernice said, ‘It’s a lie,’” said Maxine.
“She tied him up, and they kept him there with a gun to his head until he opened that safe.”

When Estelle Fernandez asked how Ben could possibly stay with Narcy, Bernice said it was because he had always hated to be alone at night.

“But I think Narcy must have had loads of stuff on him,” Estelle said, “like offshore money, bank accounts, and stuff like that.
He knew he couldn’t trust her to keep her mouth shut, and that’s the real reason why he stayed with her.”

For Ben’s sake, Bernice now did her best to get on with Narcy, but it was always an ordeal.
When friends asked why she was still working six days a week, Bernice explained that she was only doing it to protect Ben.

“His mother was extremely worried about him,” Fernandez said.
“She stayed mainly because she wanted to see Ben.”

A few months after the home invasion, Prince Mongo told Bernice how sorry he was about what had happened.
“I said, ‘How does he stay in the house with Narcy under those conditions?’”
said Mongo.
“She said, ‘I told him he has to sleep with one eye open.’
I said, ‘I would tell him to sleep with both eyes open.’”

T
HIRTY

“TIME MUST MOVE FORWARD!”

Over the next several years, Ben and Narcy Novack did appear to get their relationship back on track.
Convention Concepts Unlimited was thriving, and money was rolling in.
None of Ben Novack Jr.’s clients or business contacts had any idea of what had happened, or how perilously close the company had come to imploding.

In the wake of the home invasion, the Miami Beach Police Department questioned Reserve Officer Novack about the incident, having him write out his version of events in an official report.
Soon afterward, he was told that his services were no longer needed.

“There was a little bit of an embarrassment in the department,” explained Charlie Seraydar, who had retained close ties to the Miami Beach Police Department after retiring.
“And that would have been the last time he donned the uniform.”

On May 5, 2005, Ben Novack Jr.
wrote a letter on Convention Concepts Unlimited notepaper to Miami Beach police chief Donald DeLucca, with the heading “Resignation/Retirement.”

“It was good sitting down with you a few weeks ago … to discuss the past, present and future,” it began.
“Having been a sworn and certified police officer for more than 30 years … I have certainly seen a lot of changes.”

The letter went on to explain that because of the “tremendous growth” of his business, he could no longer devote sufficient time to serving in the Reserve Unit.

“I feel that the best course for me may well be to ‘retire,’” he explained, “and go out on a very high note with many fond memories of the past 30
+
years.”

He promised to let the chief know if the situation were to change, thanking him for allowing him to attend several upcoming police courses in order to maintain his state certificate for the next four years.

“It saddens me to leave something that has been part of my life for 30 years,” he wrote, “but time must move forward!”

*   *   *

After leaving the Miami Beach Police Department, Ben Novack Jr.
devoted all his spare time to building up his collection of Batman comic books and memorabilia.
As he could no longer live out his Caped Crusader fantasy on the streets of Miami in a black and white, he now lived it vicariously through his Batman toys and comics.

“I must have sent him five hundred boxes over that period,” said British dealer Ed Kelly.
“He would pay for all the shipping, and I would just fill boxes for him and send it.”

Novack now went to all the Comic Cons around America, getting to know the dealers and making useful contacts.

“He would have a whole army of people searching for stuff for him,” said Kelly, “and he’d buy it through auction houses and dealers.
He was very good at negotiating and I’m sure he got things at great prices.
But of course because he was buying so much of it, people would give him good prices.”

*   *   *

Although Ben and Narcy’s close friends were aware of their marital problems, these were never discussed when they met socially.
The Novacks were now regulars at Robert Woltin’s Italian restaurant Louie Louie, on Las Olas Boulevard, a few blocks from their home.

“I met him at my Miami nightclub Façade in 1987,” said Woltin.
“He was a customer at my restaurant and he would eat there with Narcy on the weekend.”

They were often joined for extended dinners by Prince Mongo and Jerry Calhoun.

“Ben would order a five-hundred-dollar bottle of wine,” said Mongo, “and drink the whole bottle.
Narcy may have one glass.”

Although Mongo was close to the couple, he was aware of Ben’s stable of kept women around Miami.
“Joe Gandy would take those whores money all the time,” said Mongo, “to pay their rent secretly.
I didn’t like Gandy and what he was doing undercover.
And that’s why Ben never got rid of him.
Ben was using him, because you won’t cut off your left hand, will you.”

Ben Novack Jr.
now had several mistresses whom Gandy catered for, who had all received new breast enhancements from their rich benefactor.
“There [were] three he had,” said Gandy, “that I used to drop money with.
And every one of them goes with him [for] money.
None of them were with him for love, including Narcy.”

Gandy could earn up to $5,000 a week from his boss, running his secret errands and helping with conventions.
“I was making a lot of money every week,” Gandy said, “but I put up with a lot of shit.
I wanted to kill him a thousand times.”

Periodically, Narcy’s daughter, May Abad, would arrive with her two teenage sons to stay for a few weeks.
But Ben never allowed the boys in the house, in case they messed with his Batman collection.

“He would send them to my house for the night,” said Mongo, “because Ben didn’t want them sitting on his sofa.
He didn’t want them touching Batman.
He wanted them regimented.
When they came in the house he said, ‘Don’t move!’”

Mongo recalls May, who worked as a barmaid, as being in her own world and never close to her mother or her stepfather.
“She didn’t really care about Ben,” he said.
“But she cared about her kids.”

Several years running, Mongo was invited to Passover Seder at the Novack home, where Narcy prepared a traditional kosher meal.
“Ben would be at the head of the table,” he said, “and we’d have the kosher wine and all the rituals.
We’d have to put on our yarmulkes, and May and the kids would be bored to death.”

According to many, Ben Novack Jr.
disliked his stepdaughter intensely.
Although she occasionally worked on conventions for him, he tried to avoid her as much as possible.

“He hated May to death,” Joe Gandy confirmed.
“Sometimes May and her mother would go three to four years without talking.
No kids came by.
No nothing.
Then they would end up making up, and Ben would let her back in the office to work.
But Bernice couldn’t take her at all.”

Charlie Seraydar, who has known May since she was a little girl, says she had a very difficult upbringing.
“May was always a problem child,” he said.
“She has her issues with her kids, very similar to the issues she experienced with her mother.
I thought she was a nice kid.
The problem is her mother.”

*   *   *

On January 19, 2006, Ben Novack Jr.
turned fifty, and made a will, leaving virtually everything to Narcy.
He even wanted their caskets to be buried next to each other at his family’s mausoleum in Queens, New York.

Narcy would inherit all his property, but if his eighty-three-year-old mother survived him, Narcy would receive only $200,000 and half the 2501 Del Mar Place.
In the event that Narcy died before him, he bequeathed $250,000 each to her grandsons Patrick and Marchelo Gaffney, and $100,000 to their mother, May Abad.

At the end of his will, Novack stipulated that his death would automatically void his and Narcy’s contentious 1991 prenuptial agreement, and be superseded by his will.

*   *   *

Ben Novack Jr.
was now running up hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on his coveted black American Express card, for his business and personal expenses.
But while he was living big, Bernice Novack shopped in thrift stores and watched every cent.

“She loved these huge flea markets in Pompano Beach,” said Temple Hayes.
“Once, we went and spent the whole day there, looking for bargains.”

On one trip to New York, Hayes brought Bernice back a ten-dollar imitation Rolex watch she had bought on the street.
“Bernice loved that thing so much,” remembered Hayes.
“She was so tickled.
She wore it faithfully all the time.”

The former mistress of the Fontainebleau was now known in several Fort Lauderdale stores as a demanding customer and extremely hard to please.

“Bernice loved to shop,” explained Guy Costaldo, “and she liked to return.
She’d take it home, try it on, and then didn’t like it and return it.
And I used to tease her, saying, ‘The girls in Saks must shake when they see you, because they don’t know if they’re getting a commission this week or not.’”

Eventually, Bloomingdales banned her from the store, because she had taken back so many clothes.

“We’d go shopping,” said Estelle Fernandez, “and we’d all buy stuff.
And the next thing you know Bernice is returning everything.
She really didn’t need it.
She just did it for the thrill.”

Where once the former model had dressed like a queen in the most expensive haut couture—and still had those clothes, now carefully stored away and labeled in boxes—she’d now throw on an old shirt and jeans to go to work.

“She had no use for those clothes,” said Fernandez, referring to Bernice’s former classy wardrobe.
“That was a different life and a different lifestyle.
She was now down to wearing nothing, because she worked in this office with these lowlifes.
She didn’t even want to put makeup on.
She said she had no reason to get dressed.”

*   *   *

Although Ben Jr.
was often rude to her, his devoted mother refused to hear a bad word about him.
While her son and Narcy were traveling around the world running conventions, Bernice looked after Ben’s two cats and tidied up their cluttered home as best she could.
Ben had always had a pet cat since childhood, and often seemed more attached to his cats than any human being.

“Ben doted over those cats,” Temple Hayes recalled.
“When [he and Narcy] would travel, he wanted [Bernice] to go over two or three times a day, especially if one of the cats was not feeling well.
He stressed a lot about his cats.
Sometimes he would even talk to them on the phone.
Ben even had a small cat cemetery in his backyard, where his pet cats over the years were buried.
There were these beautiful little tombstones of his kitties,” said Hayes.

Ben was still highly dependent on his aging mother, regularly calling her late at night to talk.
He made no allowances for her being in her mid-eighties and in declining health, and thought nothing of calling her in the midst of a heated argument with Narcy and asking her to drive over and provide moral support.

“This is when he used his mother,” explained Estelle Fernandez.
“‘I can’t handle Narcy.
You have to come over.’”

Narcy would then come on the line, complaining that Ben was watching pornography on his computer.
He would deny it.

Then the old lady would drive over to Del Mar Place at midnight to make peace between them.

“It was horrible,” said Estelle.
“She’d say every day, ‘I never thought my life would be like this.’”

All the stress in her life was starting to take its toll.
Bernice became depressed, and her doctor put her on the antidepressant Xanax and its generic, alprazolam.
Also, her asthma, which she had always suffered from, was getting worse.
She started suffering chronic asthma attacks in the middle of the night, and had to keep an oxygen machine by her bed.
She even began sleeping with her clothes on, in case she had an attack and had to go to the emergency room in the middle of the night.

“She was afraid,” said Fernandez.
“She didn’t want to go to the hospital in her nightgown, and would be prepared.”

Whenever she had an attack, she would immediately phone Ben for help.
On the many occasions she was unable to reach him, or he was out of town, she drove herself to the emergency room.

*   *   *

That Christmas, a man followed Bernice Novack home from a mall where she had been buying presents.
He waited until she had driven her car into her two-car garage, and then attacked her.

“As she stepped out of the car, he grabbed her heels,” said Estelle Fernandez,”and dragged her out of the car.
Then he grabbed her purse and ran to a car parked nearby and drove off.”

The old woman was so shaken up by the attack that Ben Jr.
had Joe Gandy fit dead bolts on every door of her house, for extra protection.