An ex-stripper who arranged the murder of her playboy husband and his hotel heiress mother siphoned off a vast chunk of his $10 million estate through a rabbi she was allegedly having an affair with, according to a new book.
Brunette Narcy Novak’s relationship with the influential married rabbi is revealed for the first time by best-selling author John Glatt who has investigated the the brutal killing of Ben Novak Jr – a close friend of Frank Sinatra -- and his 86-year-old mother Bernice.
The murders stunned Florida society – Ben’s father built the fabled Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach and family friends included Sinatra’s Rat Pack of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior and Peter Lawford, as well as slain Ameri
can president John F Kennedy.Bernice was discovered bludgeoned to death inside her Fort Lauderdale mansion in 2009. Three months later Ben, 53, was killed in an out-of-the-way hotel room in wealthy Rye, New York. He had been hog-tied, blinded in both eyes and beaten with gym dumbells.
Narcy, 56, was convicted last year of arranging the murders after discovering her husband of 28 years was having an affair with porn star Rebecca Bliss.
Narcy Novack used her brother Cristobal Veliz to recruit Miami car wash owner Alejandro Garcia, who executed the Bernice Novack murder for a couple of thousand dollars. Garcia then enlisted an employee at the car wash Joel Gonzales to help him murder Ben Novack at the Rye Town Hilton.
Her brother was also found guilty of arranging the murders and is serving life in jail. The hit men gave evidence against the siblings. They are awaiting sentencing.
Prosecutors said she feared losing access to the family’s multi-million-dollar estate if Ben divorced her. But the rabbi’s role was never revealed during the three-month trial.
Narcy, now serving life in jail, used the rabbi to fence rare Batman memorabilia and hide tens of thousands of dollars in cash, according to Glatt in his new book Prince of Paradise.
'I was told by numerous sources that Narcy, once a self-proclaimed voodoo priestess, had become involved with a very well-connected rabbi after her husband’s death,' Glatt told MailOnline.
'She openly boasted about their relationship. I was also told she had funneled large amounts of cash from the estate and valuable Batman comics through him.
'Ben had the second largest Batman memorabilia collection in the world, including an original Batmobile he bought just months before his murder.
'Much of the stuff went missing but detectives followed the trail through to the rabbi and his network of orthodox associates.'
A detective who investigated the murders told MailOnline that he had confronted the Brooklyn, New York, born rabbi about the affair.
'He denied it – and acted like he was very offended -- but ultimately led us to some of the memorabilia,' the officer said.
'We will probably never see the money. Ben dealt only in cash and Narcy was the same. We found $390,000 in cash in the Florida house and they kept safe deposit boxes everywhere.
'Narcy walked out of one bank vault with a duffel bag of stuff – we will probably never know how much cash was in there.
'She was a cold, calculating woman. She had previously been into Santeria – South American black magic – and in every storage facility we went to we found rabbits feet and voodoo things. Yet she converted to Judaism when it suited her purposes.'
Ben Novack Jr.'s first wife was a beautiful Las Vegas showgirl in her late twenties named Jill Campion. They married in June 1979, receiving gifts from Frank Sinatra and Ann-Margret before divorcing in March 1981.
As soon as he married Narcy, their relationship was volatile from the start, according to Glatt.
'Once Ben called police accusing Narcy of pistol-whipping him and holding him hostage for 28 hours while she ransacked the house looking for cash,' he said.
'Narcy showed police her husband’s sick photo collection of naked amputees. She claimed his fetish was becoming dangerous – she had gone under anesthesia to fix a broken nose and woke up with enormous breast implants.
'In the months leading up to his death Ben had fallen for heavily-tattooed ex hooker Rebecca Bliss, who was known by her porn star name Mona Love. He wanted a divorce.
'Nancy was becoming desperate, she was in her mid-50s, had lost her once beautiful looks and – worse – feared losing the family’s Fontainebleau millions.
'She was born poor in Ecuador but moved to America to make her fortune. She met Ben at the strip club where she worked and moved in with him soon afterwards.
'The Novak family is Miami Beach royalty. Their hotel was the biggest celebrity haunt of the 1960s and ‘70s. Goldfinger and Scarface, along with several Sinatra movies, were filmed there.
'Sinatra became a close family friend – he was an uncle to Ben as he grew up – and flew the family on his private jet to President Kennedy’s inauguration in 1960. He had his own suite at the hotel.
'At one point every president visiting Miami stayed at the Fontainebleau. Ben grew up amid heads of state and movie stars. He was a playboy always juggling girlfriends until Narcy came along.
'But the marriage was always volatile and towards the end it had become downright dangerous. They both slept with loaded guns under their pillows.
'At first police believed Bernice’s death was an accidental fall but after Ben’s murder three months later they dug deeper and discovered her head had been smashed in with a monkey wrench.
'Ben’s murder was even more gruesome. She arranged for two hitmen, who ultimately gave evidence for the prosecution, to be at a hotel where they were staying for a business conference.
'She let them into their suite and stood by watching as they beat Ben to a pulp. She demanded they slash out his eyes – whilst he was still alive – before ordering them to finish him off.
'Then she calmly went downstairs for breakfast before returning to the room and raising the alarm. She maintained her innocence from the start ,even claiming that her grown up daughter from a previous relationship was responsible.'
Miss Bliss, one of the key prosecution witnesses, testified that Narcy tried to buy her off for $10,000 saying: 'If I can’t have him, no other woman is going to have him.'
Glatt discovered Narcy had waged a campaign against the porn star – even telling the landlord of the love nest Ben had set her up in that he was dead and would not be paying any more rent.
'Yet, despite playing the hard-done-by spurned wife, Narcy herself quickly embarked on a relationship with the married rabbi. They were spotted out together in numerous restaurants and even after her arrest he was driving around in her Mercedes sports car.'
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