Free Republic

A flurry of hate mail disguised as terse business memos tells the tale of two men's fury that ended Tuesday in a bloody murder-suicide at a Davie banquet hall.Tuesday's ultimately fatal confrontation began on Monday with two memos written by Jerome ''Jerry'' Berlin, co-owner of the Signature Grand in Davie.The first, addressed to Arlene Pecora, wife of his longtime business partner Michael Pecora as well as the Signature Grand's sales manager, informs her that ``effective immediately, your services are no longer needed. Please move any and all of your personal belongings from your office.''The second, tacked to the time clock...

For 18 years, Jerome Berlin, a nationally known Democratic fundraiser, and Michael Pecora, a former temple caterer, worked together to build two of the largest banquet centers in South Florida. On Tuesday, in the executive office of one of those halls, with 800 schoolchildren in a ballroom only one floor below them, Pecora shot and killed Berlin and then turned the gun on himself. Berlin and Pecora were heard arguing loudly in the second-floor office of the Signature Grand in Davie when three gunshots rang out after 11 a.m.

DAVIE, Fla. (AP) - A prominent Democratic fund raiser and his business partner were found shot to death Tuesday in a banquet hall they owned, police said. Jerome Berlin and his business partner, Michael Pecora, were found dead in a locked office on the second floor of the Signature Grand banquet hall in Davie, police said. Police believe the deaths were a murder-suicide.An employee reported overhearing an argument, then three gunshots in the office.At the same time, about 1,200 eighth-grade students were attending an African Heritage Forum on the banquet hall's first floor.Berlin was a Miami businessman who raised millions...