Amputee-porn fan murdered by stripper wife @ Amway conventio

[Lurleen McQueen]

OK, this could truly be fodder for a Patterson song...

You've got to read the whole thing to suss out all the disturbing/chuckle-inducing details...

July 8, 2010
Four Are Indicted in Suburban N.Y. Hotel Killing
By SAM DOLNICK
WHITE PLAINS — From the moment Ben Novack Jr. was found bludgeoned, bound and gagged inside a hotel suite in a wealthy New York suburb a year ago, the details of his life and violent death have grown more peculiar with each disclosure.

His blood-covered body was found on the floor of Room 453 at the Rye Town Hilton, where Mr. Novack, 53, was helping run an Amway convention. His face was bound in duct tape, as were his legs, taped below the knees, and his hands, bound behind his back.

A Rolex watch was not taken, but his trademark bracelet, with B-E-N spelled out in diamonds, was gone. Hotel records showed that no one had entered the hotel room with a key before the killing of Mr. Novack, whose father founded the famed Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach.

A week after the murder, an anonymous letter, written in Spanish, surfaced, saying that Mr. Novack’s mother, who had died three months earlier, had also been murdered.

There were police reports and court testimony about Mr. Novack’s comic book memorabilia — his collection of Batman-themed material was said to be the second largest in the country and to include a full-size replica of the Batmobile — as well as his taste in pornography featuring women missing limbs.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors and local authorities announced the indictment of the four people they say plotted the attack, including the woman who had been a suspect all along: his wife, a former stripper whom he had previously accused of threatening to kill him. The motive, authorities said, was seizing control of his fortune.

Mr. Novack’s wife, Narcisa Veliz Novack, known as Narcy, was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Fla,; her brother, Cristobal Veliz; and another relative, Denis Ramirez, were arrested in Brooklyn. A fourth suspect, Joel Gonzalez, who was believed to have been hired to kill Mr. Novack, remained at large.

Ms. Novack, 53, was arraigned on Thursday morning in Federal District Court in Fort Lauderdale and ordered held without bail. Mr. Veliz and Mr. Ramirez were arraigned on Thursday afternoon in Federal District Court in White Plains.

The four defendants are charged with interstate domestic violence, stalking and conspiracy to commit interstate domestic violence and stalking. If convicted of the top count, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, called Mr. Novack’s death “a savage killing” as he announced the charges on Thursday during a news conference in White Plains.

“The plot that led to the death of Ben Novack,” he said, “was a family affair.”

The Westchester County district attorney, Janet DiFiore, described the killing as motivated by greed, saying Ms. Novack “was intent on eliminating her husband and taking his family fortune for her own.”

Mr. Novack grew up inside the Fontainebleau, the Miami Beach landmark that was founded by his father and opened in 1954. The hotel had such an air of glamour — it had an elevated pool, a bar filled with celebrities and politicians, a sensuously curved facade that opened up to a vast collection of rare antiques — that it was chosen as the setting for a scene in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger.”

Mr. Novack’s aunt Maxine Fiel remembered her nephew enjoying the perks of luxury hotel living, which included trick-or-treating trips in a chauffeured limousine, but for all its opulence, she described his childhood as “pretty lonely.”

Mr. Novack amassed a dizzying array of Batman memorabilia and other collectibles that was packed inside the couple’s home “floor to ceiling,” according to Henry R. Zippay Jr., one of Ms. Novack’s estate lawyers. “They were avid collectors of everything that interested them. His focus was on Batman, primarily.”

Mr. Bharara said the estate, which in addition to the Batman trove included several homes in Florida, boats and vintage automobiles, was worth $5 million to $6 million.

When Mr. Novack met his future wife, she was a stripper, according to The Miami Herald. The couple had a stormy relationship that included accusations of spousal abuse.

The police were called in 2002 after robbers broke into their large two-story home in Fort Lauderdale. Mr. Novack told the police that he had been tied and handcuffed to a leather chair for more than 24 hours. He said the robbery was conducted by several men he did not know, but it was orchestrated by someone he knew well: his wife. She said that the robbery was part of an elaborate sex game. No charges were ever filed.

On the day her husband was killed, Ms. Novack told the police that she went down to breakfast about 7 a.m., leaving him asleep. When she returned 40 minutes later, she said, she found him bound and bloody on the floor.

When she talked to the police the next day, she offered possible motives for his murder. She said he had enemies, carried large sums of money when he traveled, and that he had recently clashed with a comic book collector who had shown up at the house.

Police gave Ms. Novack a lie detector test, and she “showed indications of deception” when questioned about her knowledge of the killing, according to a court record filed on July 24.

The indictment unsealed on Thursday described Ms. Novack’s role in the murder plot.

Prosecutors say she traveled with her husband from Florida to Rye Brook, N.Y., on July 9 to oversee an Amway convention at the Rye Town Hilton hotel that his company, Convention Concepts Unlimited, had organized. Her brother and at least one co-conspirator drove from Florida to New York on July 2 and again on July 9. On July 10, Mr. Gonzalez and a co-conspirator scouted out the hotel in preparation for the attack, prosecutors say.

That morning, the indictment states, Ms. Novack opened the door to the hotel suite that she shared with her husband to allow Mr. Gonzalez to enter. Mr. Gonzalez “beat, cut and bound” Mr. Novack, according to the indictment.

During the attack, Ms. Novack provided the assailants with a pillow that was held over her husband’s face, prosecutors said.

Ms. Fiel, Mr. Novack’s aunt, said that news of the arrests came as a relief.

“This is what we’ve been fighting for all the time,” she said. She said she had never met Ms. Novack, though they had once had an unpleasant conversation over the phone, and she called the motive simple: “Ben had a lot of money.”

Mr. Bharara said the authorities had filed a civil complaint seeking the forfeiture of the estate, as well as Mr. Novack’s life insurance policy, to prevent Ms. Novack from inheriting any proceeds.

There has already been a struggle in the courts over the estate, which, according to Mr. Zippay, Mr. Novack left to his wife. In February, a Florida judge granted Ms. Novack control of it before reversing himself three days later, ordering her to post a high bond before she could be named personal representative of the estate, Mr. Zippay said. She did not post the bond.

Ms. Novack also sought to gain control of the estate of her husband’s mother, Bernice Novack, who was found dead in April 2009 in her Fort Lauderdale home with severe injuries to her head, broken teeth and broken fingers.

The death was ruled accidental, but Ms. Fiel has long believed that her sister was murdered as part of a plot to seize the family’s money. In 2002, Bernice Novack told the police that her daughter-in-law strongly disliked her, adding that she believed that she was once poisoned by her.

When asked about Mrs. Novack’s death, Mr. Bharara said, “We are taking a look at that, as you expect we would, and we may have more to say about that later.”

[bovine knievel]

Wearing a wig is one thing but she ain't giving you an arm and a leg...

This is truly the WTF of the day and definitely has the makings of PHood song.

['Scratch]

Bernice Novack, who was found dead in April 2009 in her Fort Lauderdale home with severe injuries to her head, broken teeth and broken fingers.

The death was ruled accidental, but Ms. Fiel has long believed that her sister was murdered as part of a plot to seize the family’s money. In 2002, Bernice Novack told the police that her daughter-in-law strongly disliked her, adding that she believed that she was once poisoned by her.

That's what you'd call one hell of an accident. Truth is often stranger than fiction, especially when it involves Floridians.

[beantownbubba]

Bernice Novack, who was found dead in April 2009 in her Fort Lauderdale home with severe injuries to her head, broken teeth and broken fingers.

The death was ruled accidental, but Ms. Fiel has long believed that her sister was murdered as part of a plot to seize the family’s money. In 2002, Bernice Novack told the police that her daughter-in-law strongly disliked her, adding that she believed that she was once poisoned by her.

That's what you'd call one hell of an accident. Truth is often stranger than fiction, especially when it involves Floridians.

"Accidental" indeed. How could whoever was involved in that ruling still be employed? Even if u say a single accident could have resulted in both "severe injuries to her head" and "broken teeth" how do you get to the broken fingers? I'd love to read the report purporting to recreate the "accident". Mind boggling!!

[Swamp]

Hotel records showed that no one had entered the hotel room with a key before the killing of Mr. Novack, whose father founded the famed Fontainebleau hotel
Mr. Novack grew up inside the Fontainebleau, the Miami Beach landmark that was founded by his father and opened in 1954. The hotel had such an air of glamour — it had an elevated pool, a bar filled with celebrities and politicians, a sensuously curved facade that opened up to a vast collection of rare antiques — that it was chosen as the setting for a scene in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger.”

I stayed there once and I almost died

[RevMatt]

"It was them high heeled shoes and the wooden leg he made her wear."

"I'm scared of the basement of the Fountainbleu hotel. I've heard tales of what goes on down there."