The Murder of Ben Novack Jr.

This is a case that I had heard a lot about.  Several television shows, including 48 Hours, have done shows based on this story.  I also recently read the book "The Prince of Paradise" by John Glatt and at the end of the month Lifetime is going to air the movie "Beautiful and Twisted" starring Rob Lowe as Ben Novack Jr.  These shows, and even the book, only scratch the surface of all the twists and turns in this case. In fact, officially it is not over nearly six years after the death of Ben Novack Jr. 

This case would be interesting despite the people who were involved but it is the history of the people, and the money involved that makes it even more high profile and captured people like myself who are seemingly "obsessed" with true crimes.

It is difficult to know where to start with this story but considering all that were involved I suppose we should start with Ben Novack Sr. Ben Novack Sr. was a well known man in his own right.  He became most famous in the 1950's when he built the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach Florida.  He had been a hotel entrepreneur, starting out in New York, but had moved to the Miami area in the 1940's.  At the time Miami was just coming into its own but it was the Fontainebleau that helped launch it.  It became the hot spot to go.  Frank Sinatra practically lived there; many of Sinatra's movies were made on location there; The Rat Pack often performed in one of the many areas designed for such. Later it was also used for the movies Goldfinger and Scarface, among others.  There were also rumor surrounding the Fontainebleau of course. The biggest probably had to do with the mafia being involved some how. If you know anything about Sinatra, you know that mafia rumors have always followed him, legitimately or not.  I have not honestly researched enough about him to find out how substantial the rumors are. It always feels like to me that if anyone was friends with a so called gangster or mafia person they were automatically lumped in as being an associate of theirs in some way.  It is not unreasonable to believe that since Ben Novack Sr. and Frank Sinatra were close that those rumors would trickle down to him, but who knows.  

The Fontainebleau opened for business in December of 1954.  It was considered to be one of the largest and most prestigious hotels.  It started out with a little over 500 rooms, at least 12 restaurants and nightclubs and a luxurious pool.  Today, (or at least in 2009) it is owned by Jeffrey Soffer and boasts over 1500 rooms.  It is also considered a historical landmark. Ben Sr. remained the owner of the Fontainebleau until 1977 when he lost it through the courts after filing bankruptcy.  Prior to building the hotel Ben Sr. often still traveled frequently from New York to Miami. It was in the 1940 when in New York on business that he met the woman who would become his second wife, and the "First Lady" of the Fontainebleau, Bernice.  Ben Sr. was still married to his first wife, Bella, and at some point they had adopted a boy they named Ronald.  Remember that name because while you will not hear it often in this story, he will come into play again eventually.  Ben and Bella divorced, bitterly apparently. Bella obtained property they owned that had another prestigious hotel on it and lived out her life pretty well.  Ben Sr. had little to do with Ronald after the divorce although it is alleged that he worked at the Fontainebleau for a short while at some point.  After his divorce from Bella, Ben Sr. and Bernice were married in 1951.  They had Ben Jr. in 1955 while living in the Fontainebleau.

By all accounts Ben Jr. did not have much of a real childhood. He himself stated that he was always surrounded by adults.  It seems that the staff at the Fontainebleau were his caretakers. Often that landed on the security guards at the hotel and is said to have sparked Jr's interest in law enforcement.  As an adult he was a reserve officer for several years, generally working just enough to maintain his certificate.  Staff of the hotel have been quoted as saying that basically when it came to Jr. their job was to give him whatever he wanted. Most describe him as a "spoiled brat" as a child. It was said that whenever he did do something that was out of hand or even if they denied him something he wanted, if Ben Sr. found out their jobs were often on the line.  In the same respect Ben Sr. seemed to have little to do with Jr. as he was always so busy with his hotel and it apparently came first in his life.  Eventually Bernice and Ben Sr. would also divorce but by all accounts remained very close to the very end.  In the meantime, Ben Jr. still mainly stayed with his father.

I have gotten the distinct impression through my research that Bernice herself, while she tried very hard to be motherly and close to Jr that their relationship was one with distance.  She had grown up in the foster care system, later becoming a model, and I get the feeling that she just may not have had the skills to be a "normal" mother.  In later years she had professed to friends her desire to be close to Ben Jr. and she did work for him but I think when he had been a young child, like Ben Sr., Bernice was so wrapped up in the Fontainebleau, likely at Ben Sr's insistence, that neither parent were emotionally available to Ben Jr.  As a result he grew into an ambitious man who often apparently showed an aggressive side when things did not go the way he planned. At least like his father, he also tended to be controlled and obsessed with money, possessions and prestige.  

When Ben Sr. died in 1985, although he had been married and divorced once again after Bernice, he left the bulk of his estate to Bernice and Ben Jr.  It should be noted that in his will he left $1 to his adopted son Ronald.  People often are advised to do this, especially when substantial amounts of money are involved so that an heir cannot contest the will.  We are entitled to leave whatever we want to whomever we choose and do in essence do not owe our children anything but sometimes this is done to prevent there being issues later.  Of course by the time he had died Ben Sr. had lost the Fontainebleau and his estate was not nearly what it once had been.  

In the meantime Ben Jr. was becoming an entrepreneur and millionaire in his own right.  After a few false starts he eventually created, owned and ran, Convention Concepts Unlimited.  The name nearly speaks for itself but it was a company who worked with other companies and organized and ran their conventions.  Over the years his biggest client was Amway. He worked with other companies but this was his main client and the bulk of his business.  Eventually Bernice would come to work for him doing their "books." Ben Jr. was also joined by his wife "Narcy," whom he married in 1991 and her daughter May Abad, with just a few other employees helping.  

Ben Jr. was not happy just working and making money, he also became a "collector."  I say that in quotes because while he did eventually become the owner of the second largest Batman collection in the world he seemed to have "collected" other things and in essence was a hoarder of things. Also, like many who have obtained wealth he was known to get the cheapest deals or pay the cheapest price that he could for things, even involving his business.  Although, in the end everyone says that while he would argue and attempt to "chew down" a price, he always ended up paying his bills, whether he was happy about it or not.  By all accounts, that I could find, he was rather good with his money and seemed to have more than he knew what to do with.

Besides his oftentimes aggressiveness, and his "spoiled brat" attitude, Ben Jr. had a least one other big down fall, his "Playboy" attitude. Before meeting Narcisa "Narcy" Veliz Abad at the strip club that she worked at Jr. had had several minor, and a few serious relationships. Marriage did not seem to stop his Playboy ways. Narcy was divorced with a daughter, May.  By all accounts she never really raised May at all.  May eventually did grow up and have two children but it seems that through most of her childhood she was not super close to either Narcy or Ben.  As she grew into an adult is appears that at least her relationship with Ben became better and she began to work for him and his company.  It still seems though that her relationship with Narcy was always rocky.  In the book "The Prince of Paradise" by John Glatt, he tends to describe the relationship between Ben and May and never truly a good one and while it seems that others would agree to this in the early years, most argue that it changed as May grew into an adult. May has also been on some of the true crimes shows talking about their relationship, although she seems to make it sound like it was always wonderful and refers to Ben Jr. as her Dad.  There was much made about the fact that after Jr's death that it appeared that May made more out of their relationship than there really was.  However, these allegations were mainly either by people who were later implicated in his death, or by people who were not really close to, or lived near enough to see the relationship. Personally I think it is somewhere in the middle.  It sounds as if Ben Jr. was so into his money and the "trophy" wife that he molded Narcy into that he was not interested in being "saddled" with a child.  It is likely that since his job had him traveling often, and when he wasn't he often liked to just pick up and go, that he expected the same of his wife and would not like the idea of having to be tied down with the responsibilities of a child.  It does not appear that Narcy had any issue with this either.  Then as she grew older and had children of her own they may have helped her by providing an income and likely monies and the things wealth could buy without having the other responsibilities.  By all accounts he became very fond of May and her children over the years as he got older.

Bernice was not fond of her daughter in law but knew that if she wanted to maintain a relationship with her son she would have to learn to live with Narcy and her ways. Narcy had grown up in a large family from Cuba but most of the siblings had eventually moved to America by the time she met Ben Jr.  And while obviously Ben was likely first attracted to her physically from the strip club it does seem that Narcy enjoyed and embraced her role as a wealthy wife and acted accordingly. At some point Narcy claims that Ben Jr. sent her to a plastic surgeon to have her nose fixed after they had a fight and he had broken it and that when she woke up she had breast implants added also.  I find the claim a bit exaggerated myself though.  It was well known that Ben Jr. always paid for his women to have breast implants and Narcy definitely did not seem like the type that would argue against it.  Throughout their marriage Ben Jr. seemed to keep himself an array of girlfriends.  At the time of his death he was paying for the apartment and bills for a Rebecca Bliss. He was generally able to hide it most of the time but a few months before his death Narcy learned of Rebecca.  In fact, Narcy contacted her and offered her $10,000 to never contact Ben Jr. again, she declined.  Prosecutors later argued that this angered Narcy and she was convinced that Ben Jr. was going to divorce her and that their pre-nuptial agreement only gave her $65,000, plus the funds to get set up somewhere else, so she resorted to killing him.

This was not the first time that Narcy was scared Ben Jr. was going to divorce her and she made sure she got what she wanted before hand.  In 2002, all evidence suggests that Narcy orchestrated a home invasion in which she had two men enter the house and tie Ben Jr. up and held him hostage in the house for 24 hours.  In the meantime, she and her accomplices ran sacked the house taking money and valuables.  When Ben Jr. was released she made it clear to him that the only reason he was still alive is because she had allowed it.  One would think that would have been the end of the marriage.... right?  Well, for a time period it seemed that it was. Divorce was filed and mud was slinging in all directions and then Ben Jr. dropped the claim.  However, he had made it clear to everyone, including his cop friends what had happened. For her part, at least from my understanding Narcy never fully admitted her involvement but it was one of the first times in which she started talking about Ben Jr. and some of his sexual preferences.  According to her, not only was Ben Jr. into bondage and the like but he had a fetish with what she called amputee porn.  I am unsure if either of these claims were ever really true or just alleged by Narcy and eluded to being used as blackmail against him. Ben claimed that she took $370,000 in cash and several valuable items, but he never official filed charges against her.  The 2002 incident was known by a lot of people and not soon forgotten. I am sure that any of those who did forget it were quickly reminded in 2009 when Ben Jr. was murdered.

But... Narcy had not started with Ben Jr. Bernice was her first target. Now, whether an unfortunate event with Bernice prompted her death to come sooner is not known.  In late March 2009 Bernice, at 87 years old, fell in the parking lot of her bank.  She suffered some injuries, especially to her face. As much as I have been able to determine it was basically caused by uneven pavement or cracks in the sidewalk so it was not like this 87 year old woman who was pretty vigor for her age had simply just fallen.  But, at her age, one can rarely tell.  So, when she was found in her home on April 6, 2009, barely a week later, just inside her laundry room of her house, surrounded by blood, few questions were raised.  To investigators at the time it appeared to them that she had injured herself getting out of her car in the garage, had made her way into the house in the bathroom and attempted to clean herself up, but realized she was failing and went back through the house again, likely to call for assistance.  Before she could do so she had fallen again and apparently died there.  A few investigators questioned the blood everywhere, and apparently they were right in some parts.  She had made it into the home and to the bathroom, likely to clean up and she probably was headed to the phone when she later collapsed and died.  What they would not know for several months was that she had not simply fallen out of her car but that she had been attacked inside her garage with a monkey wrench.  Her broken jaw, broken off teeth and her skull fractures had left a few questions for some but again, they looked at her age and her recent fall and her death was determined to be an accident. Her will specified that all of her estate was to pass on to her son, Ben Jr. as long as he was still living.  Other provisions were made if he was no longer living, none of which went to Narcy.

Between April and June 2009, between preparing his mothers funeral and being at the peek time for his business Ben Jr. did not have a lot of time to deal with anything with Bernice's estate.  It is not like there was any hurry to do so.  Friends say that Ben Jr. was upset with his mother's death and that he too believed, what with the recent fall, that she had fallen and it was an accident.  No-one knows why, or for that matter can we confirm that it is true, but they said before he died, Ben Jr. had begun to suspect there was more to his mothers death. I have not come across any statements that were made by him or why even the friends think this, let alone any reports of Ben Jr. questioning officials.  It could be pure speculation.  At any rate, nothing official was on record about any suspicions when it came to Bernice's death aside from a few of Bernice's friends feeling like after her death Narcy had tended to act as if she and Bernice were closer than people knew that they were.  

While there may not have been suspicions after Bernice's death, the same could not be true when Ben Novack Jr. was obviously killed in his hotel room in New York on July 12, 2009... three short months after his mother.  First, there was never an issue of accident or murder. It was plain to see, this was no accident.  He was found, not just covered in blood, and gagged, but the most obvious sign is that his eyes had been gouged out. An autopsy revealed several blunt force trauma injuries to his head but the official cause of death was the fact that he had choked on his own blood due to his mouth being taped.  

The obvious first question was, Who did it?  So here was Narcy's story. She says that Ben had been up all night working, which was not unusual and that he had come to bed about 6:30 am.  She said she got out of bed soon after and left the room about 7:15.  She claims that she went downstairs and spoke with a woman that worked at the hotel. The woman had informed her that since the convention had brought in many more than they were expecting that they were going to resorting to plastic silverware.  Narcy claims that she called back up to the room, or at least to Ben's cell phone to tell him about this because she knew he would not be happy.  She says she did not get an answer but she just figured he was sleeping so she went to the convention area to check on things.  She claims she was gone from the room for close to 45 minutes, at which time she went back to the room to wake Ben, but to first use the bathroom. The part about using the bathroom was important because she claims that she did not see Ben's body until after she was done, yet his body was in an area that investigators thought it odd she did not see him before.  She says she went straight to the phone. The police arrived at 7:57.  

Security cameras in the hotel show Narcy leaving the room and later show her standing near another camera downstairs talking on her cell phone.  Prosecutors later claimed that this was staged so that she would be in front of the camera as an alibi.  That may have worked but two large things jumped out at them immediately that did not sit well with them when it came to Narcy.  First, the only key card used on the door was hers and there was no signs of forced entry.  Secondly, they had all but determined that while Ben was found on the floor that the struggle had begun on the bed in which they found the arm to a pair of sunglasses.  They all but knew immediately that these were a knockoff of a named brand pair.  When investigators asked Narcy about it, she first claimed that it belonged to her and that Ben had been trying to fix them for her.  She seemed to clam up when she was asked where the rest of the glasses were, as they were never found. They also found it odd that this couple, who had all this money, and seemingly had the best of everything would have bought a knockoff pair of sunglasses. While it is obviously possible it just did not seem to go with their lifestyle and how they did things. Investigators tried to determine if anything was stolen in the attack but Narcy was less than helpful.  Ben Jr. was known to carry a lot of personal money on him and when he was doing the conventions he also collected money so there was little idea how much would have been there.  There were later claims that Ben wore a gold, diamond studded bracelet that said his name on it at all times and it was not there.  Later, it was the one thing that could not be proven was stolen, although speculated, and definitively connect to anyone involved.  Narcy talked to the investigators for about twelve hours immediately following the murder.  She was quick to let them know that Ben was a "hard" man and often made people angry.  Investigators say that her emotions were off and on and did not seem genuine.  They often felt like she would over exaggerate with her emotions when the questioning got tough.  It was said that the following day she failed a polygraph.

Investigators really had nothing to hold her on and were not able to piece things together for nearly a year.  In the mean time a fight started quickly over Ben Jr's estate.  While the murder was committed in New York, the Novack's lived in Florida.  It was no secret that Narcy was a prime suspect, regardless if the police were officially announcing it or not.  In Florida there is a statue referred to as the "Slayer Law" that prevents someone from benefiting from a will when they are involved in the person's death.  It was reported that before leaving New York Narcy had already taken over $100,000 from Convention Concepts Unlimited.  She then apparently wasted no time in cleaning out storage garages with collectibles in it or working on Bernice's house. Her daughter May Abad, quickly filed against her to prevent her from not just benefiting but from liquidating the estate until the matter of Ben's murder was settled. The judge involved realized that early on he needed to protect the assets and prevent Narcy from moving things.  However, several months later he changed his mind, although it was only briefly.  Narcy wasted no time though, she took every opportunity she could to hide money and items.  Their Ft. Lauderdale home was searched on July 16th but it was quickly noticed that not only would it take a lot of time to inventory the items, but Narcy was on a mission. Without a complete inventory his estate was estimated to be between six and ten million dollars.  I am not sure they were ever really able to determine the full worth of the estate at the time of his death.  In August Narcy walked into a Bank of America with a key to a safe deposit box that contained three boxes in the names of Ben Jr. and Bernice.  The person at the bank allowed her access even though she was on neither account.  She conned her way in telling them that she would bring Ben Jr. in later in the afternoon to change the paperwork giving her access.  Ben had been dead seven weeks.  The bank later said Narcy had gone into a private room with the boxes and left with some bags full and the boxes were empty but no-one knows for sure what was in the safe deposit boxes.  Her lawyer later claimed that she did nothing illegal when she opened those boxes as she was the clearly the heir entitled to them.  I personally find it unusual that the bank did not know he had died.  By all accounts things were already filed in court and considering his wealth and his heritage in Florida, as well as the gruesomeness of his death I would imagine that the information was all over the news and newspapers.  

While all of this fighting was going on nothing was being done with Ben's body in New York. He was still laying in the morgue.  Eventually the judge appointed Douglas Hoffman, an attorney, to be in charge of the estate and arrange for burial.  He was finally laid to rest in Queens New York in September near his father.  

In the meantime investigators in New York, assisted by the FBI, were investigating the case.  They had seen video surveillance from the hotel and had seen a few things suspicious that they were looking into. They had also received an anonymous letter about the case. It was later determined that the writer was Narcy's sister that lived in Florida. In that letter there were several things of importance.  First, it was the first time they were told to look back into Bernice's death and claimed that they were connected.  Secondly, it told them to look closer not just at Narcy but her brother, Cristobal Veliz.  And thirdly, it warned that May Abad's life was likely in danger. 

Their investigation eventually led them first to Denis Ramirez, Joel Gonzalez and Alejandro Garcia.  Denis Ramirez had driven to the hotel while Gonzalez and Garcia went inside.  It was not long until they all implicated Cristobal Veliz and Narcy Novack.  According to them Christobal was informing them on what to do based on speaking with Narcy.  Ramirez lived in New York, as did Veliz but the other two lived in Florida.  Garcia also admitted being involved with Bernice's murder although there had been someone else there with him that time.  Of course they could not simply used the words of three "hit men" who had criminal pasts to prove their case but it was a start. They traced cell phone calls and video surveillance, among other things.  Garcia also confirmed what the letter to the investigators had said... May Abad was next on the list.  

Narcy was finally arrested on July 9, 2010, almost an exact year from the murder.  While Ramirez, Gonzalez and Garcia made plea deals, Narcy and her brother Chrstobal stood trial together in 2012.  During the nearly ten week trial prosecutors claimed that Narcy was the ring leader.  They believed she had started all of this because she feared Ben Jr. was ready to divorce her and she would lose everything.  On the defense side, they insisted that the three men were lying and that it was not they, but May Abad who had orchestrated the murders. There was never any shred of evidence that this claim was true. There was however plenty of evidence that the other three men were the ones telling the truth.  In the end both Narcy and Veliz were convicted of murder, domestic violence, stalking, money laundering, conspiracy to commit murder and witness tampering.  They were only acquitted on one charge, felony murder, of which could have sent them to death row.  The reason the jury failed to convict them on felony murder is that they could not prove that anything had been stolen at the time of the murder.  The closest they came was the gold/diamond studded bracelet that said Ben, but they could not positively link it to the suspects.  In the end both Narcy and Veliz received sentences of life without parole. 

You would think it that was the end of it, right?  Yeah not quite.  The aftermath of it all is almost as bizarre and convoluted at the murders. Most of it had to do with the estate itself but there was another twist that could have compromised the criminal trial.  After authorities discovered that May Abad's life was in danger, according to her she was flown to New York basically to be informed.  Narcy had hired a private investigator who later testified that he had followed May as well as gone through her trash to get evidence. He apparently came up with nothing.  Investigators informed May and told her they would relocate her but that the paperwork to do so could take months and that they were basically informing her so she knew to be careful.  May says she called the Fort Lauderdale police several times when she and her children were being followed or strange things happened only to be told there was nothing that could be done.  Local officer, Alison Carpentier ended up loaning May $5,000 to relocate for her safety.  May later paid back this loan but Carpentier lost her job when it was discovered. At least through the media, and possibly the trial but I cannot be sure, defense attorney's claimed that this proved that May was being paid for her testimony.  Attorney's were cautioned about using this angle because while it was agreed that it likely should not have happened, the defense risked bringing more sympathy to May and making Carpentier a hero.  They could never prove that it was 'payment for testimony' or that Carpentier had anything but May's best interest and safety at heart.

Once Narcy was charged, and later convicted she was no longer eligible to benefit from Ben Jr's estate due to the "Slayer Law" in Florida. This meant per the will May and her children were the beneficiaries. Well, not so fast there.  As is often the case when there is a lot of money involved people come from everywhere claiming to have a interest and entitled to someone's fortune.  At least as of 2014, the estate was still not settled due to court proceedings.  Sadly it went from an estimated 6-10 Million to under 4 the last I have seen.  Why is that? Well, over the years at least five cousins have attempted to sue the estate.  Their claims have not gotten anywhere really.  The last I saw in my research there were really only two left to deal with, one of which who does not ever plan to give up, but I will get into them in a few minutes.  Suddenly, as we sometimes see in cases where lots of money is involved a woman is claiming to be the illegitimate child of Ben Sr, so Ben Jr's half sister.  I have not discovered if this claim has been proven to be true, but her claims likely will not go anywhere. Most of the time they have to prove that the person who died knew about the "new" person or reasonably should have and first, I am unsure they could prove that.  Secondly, while this may have worked after Ben Sr. died, I do not see it going very far with this woman.

The story of Ronald Novack is a little more interesting. Although there were claims that at some point Ronald worked for a short period at the Fontainebleau, it seems that he had lost all connection, not just with Novack side of the family but also his mother, Bella, over the years.  It has been claimed that Ronald possibly suffered from mental illness but that he had spent most of his adult life homeless and living in the woods.  There was an attempt to find him by a cousin in 1999 but it failed.  In 2001 Bella died leaving her estate to Ronald, but again, no one seemed to know where he was.  The cousin hired attorney Douglas Hoffman, the same one who was later appointed to be in control of Ben Jr's estate, to handle Bella's estate.  By 2008, the courts were about two days away from declaring Ronald dead when he suddenly resurfaced.  He supposedly had met up with an attorney when on the streets and told his story.  This attorney eventually looked into the situation and that is how he supposedly came to the process of claiming his inheritance from Bella's estate.  Little did he, or anyone else know, but Bella also had an estate worth several million.  Because of his issues the money was put into a trust giving him an allowance of $400 a week and taking care of any health care issues.  Then came the death of Ben Jr. His attorney started filing things to help Ronald make a claim against the will.  Apparently at some point the case was dismissed but later refiled. His lawyer has been quoted as saying that the first mission was to have May and her children removed on the basis that Ben Jr. had been coerced by Narcy to put them in his will and that in essence there was a chance that Narcy would still benefit, despite the law that preventing her.  He was later quoted as saying that if this did not work that they would attempt to also use the "Slayer Law" that prevented Narcy from benefiting, against May, based on the fact that the defense attorney's at the criminal trial said that it was May and not their clients that had ordered the deaths of Ben and Bernice.  Even the attorney has stated that it is "a long shot" but that they are entitled to attempt it.  The lawyer, and friend of Ben Jr., that had prepared the will has publicly and more than likely in court, stated that Ben Jr. was not coerced by Narcy to add May and her children, but did so willingly.  For whatever reason as of 2014 this matter was not settled.  May was able to obtain $50,000 from the estate to help one of her sons have heart surgery and some things have been liquidated, such as the Batman collection, but as far as I can tell, almost 6 years after his death, his estate is still not settled.

I admit that as far as the relationship between May and Ben Jr, through everything I have read or seen on television, I am a little perplexed and not sure what to think about their relationship.  May has been on many shows referring to Ben Jr. as her "Dad" but there are claims that she never referred to him or thought of him as such until after his death.  Then there are the claims that while they were not close when she was young that over the years Ben had grown very fond of her and her children and their relationship was a good one.  It would not be unusual for someone to come out after someone's death claiming to be closer to the person than they actually were, especially when money was involved but I cannot say that was the case here, or not. Even Ben's attorney has stated that Ben wanted May and her children to benefit so who are we to say differently.  In the end, for me I guess it matters little.  There is plenty of evidence that May and Narcy's relationship was always bad, even prior to Ben Jr's death and it is unlikely, especially after her mother has accused her of murder, that if May were to benefit from the estate that Narcy would see anything.  On top of this, May worked and helped with the business, as well as she was personally involved in his life, at least in some form.  None of the others, aside from maybe one cousin that he may have had more contact with than the others, but who is wealthy in her own right, seemed to have much or anything to do with Ben Jr. I am almost certain he never intended on his fortune being spent on lawyers and courts.