Hotel Heir Widow Charged in Husband's Death

July 8, 2010— -- The wife of a Florida hotel travel executive who was beaten to death in a New York hotel room last year, allegedly let her husband's killers into the room and then handed them a pillow that was placed over his face.

Narcy Novack was arrested in Florida today on federal charges of conspiring to intimidate, beat and kill her husband, 53-year-old Ben Novack Jr. at a Hilton in Rye Brook, N.Y. last year.

Ben Novack was the grandson of the founder of the famous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. The hotel has been a Miami landmark for more than 50 years. In its heyday, the 22-acre hotel was the place to be seen. It played host to entertainment legends Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Judy Garland, Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, Marlene Dietrich, Debbie Reynolds and many others.

It was also featured in numerous movies including Goldfinger, Midnight Cowboy, Scarface and Police Academy 5. Tony Soprano even stayed there in one episode of the HBO series.

To bring the hotel -- listed on the National Register of Historic Places -- back to its glory days, the owners spent $1 billion in renovations, reopening the 1,504-room property in November 2008. It once again became one of Miami's hottest hotels.

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But the hotel's founding family apparently had its own issues.

Ben Novack grew up in the penthouse of the Fontainebleau. His father eventually lost the hotel to bankruptcy and the younger Novack went on to start his own business. The multimillion-dollar event-planning company had organized an Amway convention at the Rye Brook Hilton last July.

Narcy Novack allegedly used this convention as a chance to kill her husband.

She and her brother, Cristobal Veliz, drove twice from Florida up to New York, according to an indictment unsealed today in the federal court for New York's Southern District. They allegedly conspired with Denis Ramirez, Joel Gonzalez and a third individual not identified who appears to be cooperating with authorities.