Paperback: The Prince of Paradise (2013) examines a startling case of greed and violence set against the backdrop of one of America's most iconic hotels. It is also about a multi-millionaire Florida businessman, tawdry secrets and a family murder mystery.
In its glittering heyday, the Fontainebleau was the gold standard in luxury hotel grace and sophistication. With its sweeping Art Deco design, antique French décor and furniture, the landmark hotel put Miami Beach on the map in the 1950s and '60s.
Built by the legendary hotelier Ben Novack Sr, the Fontainebleau laid the groundwork for today's Las Vegas. Indeed, casino mogul Steve Wynn often stayed there as a boy, learning valuable lessons for his future dream palaces.
For almost two decades Ben Novack Sr and his ex-model wife, Bernice, reigned over Miami Beach. Always larger than life, they entertained presidents, heads of state and movie stars at their dazzling Miami palace.
World-class entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis played the La Ronde Room, and iconic movies like The Bellboy, Goldfinger, Scarface as well as an episode of The Sopranos were filmed there.
In January 1956, Ben Novack Jr was born and became the Prince of the Fontainebleau. Known to one and all as "Benji," he grew up in his father's seventeenth-floor luxury penthouse with room service at his beck and call. The little prince may have been spoiled and petted by the likes of Sinatra and the Rat Pack but he received scant attention from his parents.
Naturally nervous, Benji grew up with a revolving door of nannies and housekeepers and developed a chronic stammer which would plague him for life.
When Miami Beach fell out of fashion in the 1970s, Ben Novack Sr went bankrupt, eventually losing his beloved Fontainebleau in 1977. A few years later, he died a broken man.
Ben Jr then launched a convention-planning business and made millions, having absorbed considerable knowledge from his father.
In 1991, he fell in love with an Ecuadorian stripper named Narcisa Veliz or Narcy, as everyone knew her, embarking on a roller-coaster marriage that would ultimately claim his life more than a quarter of a century later.
It was ironic that Ben Novack Jr should die in a hotel room where the police found him bound up in duct tape, beaten to death. Seven years earlier in 2002, police found Benji in an eerily similar situation when his ex-stripper wife Narcy duct-taped him to a chair for twenty-four hours and robbed him. Claiming it was a sex game, he never pressed charges and never followed through with a divorce.
Prosecutors believed Narcy let the killers into the room and watched them brutalize Novack. They also suspected she was involved in the death of Novack's mother, who took a fatal fall months before. Strangely, it was Narcy's own daughter, May Abad, who implicated her to the police.
In April 2012, the final chapter in the long, strange story of the Fontainebleau Hotel was written in a federal courtroom in White Plains, New York. In a stunning nine-week trial, Narcy Novack and her brother Cristobal stood accused of orchestrating the brutal murders of Ben Novack Jr and his eighty-six-year-old mother, Bernice.
It played out like classic film noir as the two siblings absolutely denied any involvement in the murders, claiming they were innocent pawns who had been framed by Narcy's daughter.
In recounting the story for his book, John Glatt used personal interviews, police records and trial transcripts to report the events leading up to the murders of Ben and his mother. Regarding the alleged 2002 home invasion robbery, the author reviewed police records and interviewed participants but no charges were ever brought, Narcy denied any wrongdoing and evidence of the incident was excluded from the murder trial.
Novack's case has also been televised on several programs including My Dirty Little Secret (ID), 48 Hours, Dateline NBC, Snapped, True Crime with Aphrodite Jones and Beautiful & Twisted (Lifetime).
Narcy Novack and Cristobal Veliz were sentenced to spend the rest of their natural lives in prison for orchestrating the vile killings of Ben and Bernice Novack.
About the author: John Glatt is the author of twenty-two books and has more than thirty years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. He has appeared on television and radio programs all over the world including Dateline NBC, Fox News, A Current Affair, BBC World News and A&E Biography. Visit him at www.johnglatt.com
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