The Prince of Paradise (27 page)

T
HIRTY-
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IVE

THE FUNERAL

On Thursday, April 9,
The Miami Herald
printed Bernice Novack’s full-page obituary.
Reporter Michael Vasquez conducted a rare interview with Ben Novack Jr., who revealed personal details that his mother had always kept hidden.
She would have been even more horrified that the obituary, entitled “Fashion Model, Hotelier’s Wife,” said that she was a year older than she actually was.

“Bernice Novack, a foster child turned 1950s fashion model,” it began, “and one half of the husband-and-wife team that brought the Fontainebleau to Miami Beach, died earlier this week from injuries sustained during a recent slip and fall.
She was 87.”

The article outlined her glamorous life with Ben Sr., entertaining famous celebrities and world leaders at the Fontainebleau.

“Bernice,” it read, “after a bumpy childhood that included time in a foster home, worked as a fashion model for the likes of Salvador Dali and Coca-Cola.
Her hair was a vibrant red—a color it would remain all her days.”

Ben Jr.
said his father had “flipped” for his mother, but there had been a problem as he was still married to Bella.

“She didn’t want to date a married man,” Ben Jr.
explained, “and made it very clear to him.
A year later or two years later he showed up with a divorce certificate and said, ‘
Now
can we date?’”

Then Ben Jr.
recalled his “glamor life,” growing up in the penthouse of the Fontainebleau and meeting every president from Kennedy to Ford, as well as his friendship with Frank Sinatra and the “Rat Pack.”

He said that after his parents divorced, they remained close until the end of his life.

“[They] never really parted ways,” he said.

*   *   *

At 4:00
P.M
.
on Friday, April 10, a memorial service for Bernice Novack was held at Beth David Memorial Gardens in Hollywood, Florida.
Rabbi Alan Litwak of the Temple Sinai in North Miami Beach presided, although neither Ben Novack Jr.
nor his mother were members of Litwak’s congregation.
All the rabbi knew about Bernice was what her son had told him in a brief telephone conversation the day before.

Wearing sunglasses and dressed in a fashionable black outfit, Narcy Novack greeted the mourners as they arrived at the synagogue.
There to comfort her were her brother Cristobal, who had driven down from Philadelphia, and their sister Estilita, who was staying for a couple of days.

“Narcy was smiling,” Estelle Fernandez recalled, “and seating everybody like she was at a convention.
She was happy and pleasant, and you wouldn’t have even thought she was at a funeral.”

At first, Estelle hadn’t even recognized Narcy, as she had her blond hair cut and dyed red for the occasion—like that of her late mother-in-law.

“She came over to me and shouted, ‘Estelle!
How are you?’
Fernandez recalled.
“And I looked at her and said, ‘I’m fine, but I think you might have mixed me up with someone else.
I don’t think I know you.’

“And she said, ‘It’s me.
It’s Narcy.’”

When Estelle apologized for not recognizing her, Narcy said it was probably because of her new hairstyle.

“She went on and on about stupid stuff,” said Fernandez.
“No show of remorse.
Nothing.”

May Abad and her two teenage sons, Patrick and Marchelo, were also there, perfectly turned out.
Ben Novack Jr.’s friend Jerry Calhoun had flown down in his private plane with his twin brother, Jack, and Prince Mongo to attend the service.

“Narcy came over to me,” Mongo remembered, “and said, ‘Bernice and I were getting along so good.’
And I said, ‘Oh, Narcy, I’m sorry and I hope things are going to be better.’”

Most of the mourners were elderly and had worked at the Fontainebleau while Bernice and Ben Sr.
had presided over it.
Bernice’s longtime boyfriend George Rodriguez was late arriving, because he’d gotten lost.
He was inconsolable throughout the service.

A marble urn containing Bernice’s ashes had been placed at the front of the chapel.
Next to it were photographs of her with Ben Jr., Narcy, and May with her sons.

“She would have never agreed to that,” Fernandez said of the photos.
“It was everything she hated.”

When Estelle and her husband took their seats at the back of the hall, May Abad brought them to the front, to sit with the close family.

“I was shaking through the whole ceremony,” Fernandez recalled.
“I said, ‘May, thank Narcy for sitting me up front.
I really appreciate it.’
And she said, ‘She didn’t do it.
I did.’
So they hated each other even then.”

During the Orthodox service, Ben Novack Jr.
delivered a eulogy to his mother from the pulpit.
He began by saying that he had intended to prepare a speech the night before, but had not gotten round to it.

“To heck with it,” he told the mourners.
“I think I’ll wing it.”

“I was a little disappointed with Benji,” said his old friend Pete Matthews.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, to come up with something off the wall like that at your mother’s funeral.’”

Ben Jr.
then proceeded to announce his mother’s age and that she had been a foster child, two of her most closely guarded secrets.

“It was everything Bernice didn’t want anybody to know,” said Estelle Fernandez.
“I would have thought he’d be a little bit more caring.”

Estelle was also appalled that throughout his eulogy, Ben constantly referred to his mother as “Bernice.”

He also compared his mother’s death to the tragic skiing accident that had killed film star Natasha Richardson just two weeks before.
Initially, the actress had refused any medical attention, returning to her hotel room.
But a few hours later she complained of headaches and was taken to the hospital.
She died two days later.

“Bernice died the same way that that actress died,” Ben Jr.
told the mourners.
“She fell outside the bank a week before, and this is the result.”

Then he suddenly segued into his mother’s often fraught relationship with Narcy.

“It was ridiculous,” said Rebecca Green.
“He hadn’t prepared a thing and said he didn’t know what to say.
Then he stood up there and said, ‘Well, Narcy and my mother didn’t get on well, but in the last couple of years they have started getting along better.’
And I’m thinking, ‘What a thing to say.’”

After the service, Estelle asked Narcy what they planned to do with the ashes, as Bernice had often said she wanted her ashes mixed with those of her pet schnauzer before being scattered on the waters at the Fontainebleau.
Narcy replied that they still had not decided, and were taking them home.

“Later she told me that she and Ben scattered them at the Fontainebleau,” said Fernandez.
“But I don’t believe her.”

*   *   *

After the service, everyone went to the Bonaventure Country Club in Fort Lauderdale for a catered reception.
Narcy had organized everything, and had even asked Jerry and Jack Calhoun, who perform professionally as the Calhoun Twins, to play a lively set of country and western music.

“So these guys came in with cowboy clothes and everything,” Bill Green remembered, “and start singing county and western songs and playing banjo.
Then Narcy went up and started singing with them.

“That was strange, because Bernice didn’t like country music.
She was a very refined lady.
I kept thinking, ‘This is a funeral and not a nightclub.’”

*   *   *

In the days after Bernice Novack’s death, her family and friends began to suspect that something was wrong.
Guy Costaldo was so furious that his dear friend was being portrayed as “a fall-down drunk,” that he called Fort Lauderdale Police Department to complain.

“She didn’t fall in the afternoon with a couple under her belt,” he said.
“But they didn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

Maxine Fiel was also angry at newspaper stories focusing on the glass of wine found on Bernice’s dining room table.
“My sister was not a drinker,” Fiel said.
“She did like her wine to relax her, but under no means was she an alcoholic.”

Ben Jr.
even hired Pete Matthews’s brother Joe, who specialized in homicide investigations, to review the case.
After reading the Fort Lauderdale Police Department report and viewing photographs of the death scene, Joe Matthews agreed that Bernice Novack had died from more than a fall, and that Fort Lauderdale Police had carried out a shoddy investigation.

“It was an embarrassment,” said Matthews, “and they did a terrible job in processing the scene.
My biggest concern was that the crime scene was not done properly.
I can’t believe they could investigate any kind of death, and only take thirty to forty photos.”

After reviewing all the reports and giving his opinion, Joe Matthews waited and waited to hear back from Ben Novack Jr.

“Maybe a month or two went by,” said Matthews, “and I didn’t hear anything.
Pat [Franklin] and I would meet for a cigar together and fix all the problems of the world.
One time I said to him, ‘Whatever happened with Benji?
Is he ever going to look into [his mother’s death] or not?’”

*   *   *

In late April, Cristobal Veliz and Francisco Picado paid a short visit to Miami.
While there, they drove to Fort Lauderdale in a rented car to meet Veliz’s sister Narcy.
When they arrived, Veliz directed his young friend to a particular street where a Cadillac Escalade was parked.

“It was his sister’s car,” Picado later testified.
“We followed it to a diner and into a parking lot, and parked a few spots to the left.”

Narcy Novack then got out of her car and went into the diner, closely followed by her brother, who told Picado to wait in the car.

“In approximately twenty minutes he came out with a bag with a newspaper inside,” Picado said.
“He opened it up and it had about three thousand to four thousand dollars, all in hundred-dollar bills.
Then we went back to Miami.”

*   *   *

In May, Ben Novack Jr.
filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Bank of America.
It claimed that his mother’s earlier fall on the bank’s property had caused the internal injuries leading to the second fall that had killed her.

He hired a Miami Beach lawyer named Robert Switkes to handle the suit, sharing with Switkes his doubts over the official cause of his mother’s death.
After reading the Fort Lauderdale Police reports and autopsy report, Switkes agreed.

“This couldn’t have been an accident,” he said.
“You just don’t get up and fall.
The injuries were totally inconsistent with somebody falling.”

*   *   *

After Bernice Novack died, Narcy spent time at her house going through her things, and specifically sifting through her treasures from the Fontainebleau.

“Bernice had three bedrooms loaded with stuff,” said Estelle Fernandez.
“I don’t know if it was valuable … and it might have been more sentimental than anything.”

Narcy threw out Bernice’s prized collection of books, explaining that she and Ben were not readers.

“I said, ‘Why are you throwing out the books?’”
Fernandez reported.
“She says, ‘We don’t need them.’”

Then Narcy invited Estelle over to pick out anything she wanted to remind her of Bernice.
Estelle told her that all she wanted was a photograph of Bernice.
Narcy said she had a very nice one on her nightstand, and promised to mail it to her.

“So I gave her my P.O.
box address,” said Fernandez, “but I never got anything.”

One day, Bill and Rebecca Greene came over to find Narcy going through Bernice’s freezer.
“And Narcy says to us, ‘Why don’t you guys take this food?’”
said Bill.
“I said, ‘No, I don’t want it.’
And she says, ‘Well, there’s nothing wrong with it.
Bernice was very clean.’
I thought that was a strange thing to say.”

Ben Novack Jr.
asked the Greenes to look after his mother’s house, as they had a spare key and knew all the alarm codes.
Over the next few weeks, Ben, who had now been appointed executor of his mother’s estate, was a frequent visitor.
As Bernice Novack’s only child, he had inherited her estimated $2 million estate.
The only other beneficiaries were her sister Maxine, who received $50,000 in cash, and her nieces Meredith and Lisa, who received $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.