Ethiopian Review

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – The wife of a man who was killed last week in the Hilton Rye Town told police in 2002 that he often hit her and once broke her nose.

Narcisa Novack said she and Ben Novack Jr., whose father built the famed Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, “had a very violent past together,” according to a police report on an incident at their home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Ben Novack, 53, was beaten to death July 12 in the couple’s room at the Hilton Rye Town in Rye Brook, where he had organized an Amway convention. His wife told police she went up to the room from breakfast and found him dead.

The 2002 report, released this week, refers to several bizarre elements about the Novacks’ life together, including what happened to Narcisa Novack after she said her husband broke her nose. She told police that he took her to a plastic surgeon to repair her nose and when she woke up after the surgery she had breast implants she hadn’t asked for, the report says.

“While she contends this was done against her will, she never made a complaint to anyone,” the report says.

The police report was spawned when Ben Novack complained that his wife had stage-managed a home invasion and robbery at their home.

The 18-page report includes references to the Novacks’ use of portable urinals, to nude photos of women with artificial limbs, to a roomful of Batman collectibles and to a claim from Narcisa Novack’s mother-in-law that Narcisa tried to poison her.

It is replete with police frustration over the Novacks’ lack of credibility and concludes with no charges filed. One officer predicted that “as confusing to me as it is, the two would get back together in the near future.”

He was right.

Although the story of the home invasion led to an order of protection and short-lived divorce proceedings, the Novacks remained married until Ben Novack’s death.

- By JIM FITZGERALD | The Associated Press