He graduated from East Jefferson High School in 1956, spent a brief period studying engineering at Northrop Aeronautical Institute of Technology, the University of Southern California and tried motion picture directing classes at the Pasadena Playhouse.
According to a report in the New Orleans States-Item newspaper Banister served as a munitions supplier for the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion and continued to deal weapons from his office until 1963.
[3] While Novel was in Ohio, resisting Garrison's attempt to get him extradited, two waitresses of the club were arrested and charged with violating obscenity law, for topless table-serving.
[14] This order was withdrawn after the club owner Edward Centa agreed to end the topless attire, while the lease to Novel was ruled invalid.
[15] According to the final report issued by the Assassination Records Review Board, Novel came to the attention of Garrison after allegedly making claims that he was an employee of the CIA in 1963 and knew both Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby.
"[17] In 1997, an FBI report was released which stated that Novel worked with Garrison in attempts to fake photographic evidence to link Fidel Castro with the assassination.
In that article the New Orleans States-Item produced a handwritten letter, that experts identified as Novel's handwriting, which referred to a CIA connection to his advertising agency.
[20][21] Subsequently, Novel filed a $10-million libel suit against Garrison and Playboy in Federal Court,[21] being represented by Elmer Gertz, who was an expert in reputation damage and smear campaigns.
[6] In an episode of the PBS program Frontline aired on February 9, 1993, Novel said he saw photos of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover engaged in oral sex with his aide Clyde Tolson.
[24] The episode incorporated the work of author Anthony Summers whose book Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover alleged that Novel said he was shown the photo by CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton.
[25][26] In 1974, columnist Jack Anderson wrote that Charles Colson consulted Novel on the possible use of a degaussing device that could erase copies of the Watergate tapes stored in the White House and the CIA from a distance.
[27] Jim Garrison's successor to the seat of district attorney Harry Connick Sr. brought charges against Novel for conspiracy to firebomb part of New Orleans by balloons on behalf of a world's fair Novel was promoting.
[28][29][30] Part of the defense was an audiotape, which was made public by Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, which revealed DeLorean was the victim of a sting operation.