https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crazy-love-who-murdered-miami-beach-hotel-heir-benji-novack/
Wow. What a couple of days. It started with Onassis, but there wasn’t much there. American Greed Monday was cancelled so I had to do it myself. There was the guy, Colin Something, who killed his father and stepmother in Slippery Rock. Minkow and Petters. There was the rehash of Pamela Phillips and the discovery of Dying to Belong. The Highlands Ranch, CO guy with the perpetual grin who killed both his wives; how long do you have to be married to collect spousal social security? And finally, but not the winner, was Fayed Fatso and Goldfinger, aka e-bullion in Moorpark, CA. That is a good one. The woman there, Pam Fayed, appeared to be every bit the equal or better of her husband yet she was stalked and finally killed. It was brutal and right out in the open. They had $24 million in the safe in gold and a 200-acre ranch. He was a slob electrician; she was divorced with a daughter.
The winner is Narcy Novack. Of course it isn’t funny at all. I cannot think of a better title: Crazy Love. Maybe Demented, Violent, and Sick, but not love.
“He was one of those drivers who drove the route from Philly, to New York City, to Washington, D.C.” the description from the detective sergeant goes. You can watch the apartment in the show.
His colleague on the case (Alison Carpentier), you can see it in the screenshot above, retired after the arrests. It took almost a year after the murder. The Westchester County detective is one of the heroes in this story. It took that much out of her, but she was right because it was over. There was a mountain of evidence and there is no way the trial would be lost. But the prosecution kicked her off the case. She had given the third intended murder victim (Benji’s 85-year old mother was the first) $5000 of her own money for safety.
This was a poor, immigrant family from Ecuador. Narcy is the youngest of six; Cristobal, the bus driver, is an older brother; a sister wrote the letter early-on to the PD in Spanish detailing the plot and the criminals.
That is where the high finance was orchestrated, right there on the kitchen table with Western Union money transfers.
Did they make mistakes, was it the perfect murder? It was not even close. Even the motive–money–was not obscure. It was so completely obvious it only took one year for arrests and two years to go to trial.
There were money trails, corroborating confessions, photographs and video, credit card receipts. motel records, cellphone data, and more. It was a clear-cut conspiracy. Narcy had done it before in terms of a violent attack for money and these murders were planned and attempted multiple times.
The Miami police department, despite Novack’s very friendly ties, was virtually complicit in the first murder, that of the elder Mrs. Novack. What about Ft. Lauderdale, don’t they have a police department?
Anyway, Narcy reminds me ever so slightly, just a tiny, tiny bit of my own mother.
Or should I say, I have known people like that. I have known people who you cannot even have a conversation with; everything they say is jibberish. Clearly they are trying to cover-up some flaw of their own but you cannot really tell what it is. They are extremely outwardly- and money-conscious. They are uneducated but smart, or should I say more like perceiving and even relentless. They know nothing about money or finance, they are just afraid of being poor. In terms of personal relationships, if they cannot have something or someone, no one can. Their life really boils down to that one simple point: if I cannot have it, I don’t want any part of it. At some point it will come down to a reckoning, all or nothing but I, as the matriarch, have earned it. I deserve it. I’m your mother.
Say what you want about Ben Novack, Jr. He was demanding and spoiled as a child is not that bad. As a 10-year old he could and did fire employees at the Fountainbleu Hotel. He also led a lonely life for a child. He learned and related to prostitutes. You could say the same about Gauguin.
I think Benji was a very hard worker who built Convention Concepts virtually by himself and he was the impetus behind the whole family’s employment and lifestyle. By every account excluding Narcy’s, he was an outstanding stepfather and role model for May Abad:
Under Novack’s last will, with Narcy out of the picture, her daughter, May Abad, 38, is designated to receive $150,000, with the balance — and bulk — of his estate left to Abad’s two sons, Marcello, 21, and Patrick, 20, in the form of trusts. Abad also has a third son, Ben, born after her stepfather’s death.
… I don’t know. I’ve never heard anything about where these children came from–I mean who the father is–or what her deal is. She sounds honest and articulate. Last I read she was seeking some money from the court–it is worth mentioning that she put the kabash legally on quick payouts to Narcy after the murder–for surgery for one of her sons because she is working two jobs and cannot afford it. They are all pretty helpless and they are after money. I don’t know.
Did I mention, they were poor immigrants and Narcy was a stripper? That is how she met and clung to Ben, Jr. One of the quotes in one of the shows is “She was promoted to stripper.” As I mentioned earlier, for her none of it was the first time.
https://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2009_3rd/Jul09_BNovack.html
