The photograph of Mace David Howell Jr. on the front page of the Democrat-Gazette of Sept. 22, 2003, looks like an image out of the 1920s.
Howell, a young lion of Arkansas banking when the blue-tone photo was taken, is dressed in a three-piece suit.
His relaxed, powerful mien exudes success.
Yet it is a tragic picture. Not unlike the imaginary portrait of Jay Gatsby created by novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, who built a life of ostentation and pretense.
Our three-day series took months to put together. Mary Hargrove, the now retired great investigative reporter, and I worked with Jake Bleed, a gifted young reporter.
Gatsby, you may know from the novel, or its movie versions, including the latest starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, was the highest of the high rollers.
So was Howell.
Investors by the score were drawn to Howell, court records show. And they brought their money, about $84 million by the best accounting.
The era in which Howell found himself was not unlike Fitzgerald’s Roaring ’20s, whose cataclysmic end led to the Great Depression.
A torturous 10-year legal squabble came to an end Wednesday when Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Mary McGowan ordered the final payment of about $472,800 to 58 claimants who stuck it out to the end.
McGowan awarded the claimants $1,999,820 on March 22, 2012. The combined payments meant they got on average about 6 cents on the dollar for their trouble.
None of the money was derived from investments with Howell, promissory notes for high-single and double-digit returns.
Ultimately, court records show, the payouts were all from life insurance policies on Howell, whose death provided something that the last sad chapters of his life couldn’t.
Hounded by state regulators, who eventually found his investment scheme to be illegal, and investors, Howell spent his last day, Oct. 23, 2002, alone in an exclusive Beverly Hills hotel room, consuming a lethal combination of the prescription painkiller hydrocodone and expensive, single-malt scotch.
At the end of Fitzgerald’s novel, a character who had been Gatsby’s mentor in things illegal, Meyer Wolfsheim, is dismayed after hearing of the near absence of mourners at Gatsby’s funeral at his Long Island mansion.
“Why, my God! they used to go there by the hundreds.”
In the pouring rain at the cemetery, the late-arriving Wolfsheim, who did not come because of “official” or family reasons, was told of the response to Gatsby’s death.
“He took off his glasses and wiped them again, outside and in.
“‘The poor son-of-a-bitch,’” he said.
Losing two of three usually isn’t a good thing. It will get you eliminated from many a playoff.
In this case, it means the Capitol Lofts will move ahead.
When Capitol Lofts LLC bought the Hall and Davidson buildings for $850,000 on Oct. 31, three businesses were part of the deal.
Two of them had troubles. There was a matter of back-rent and other problems. The third was and is doing a brisk business.
The Downtown Music Hall at 211 W. Capitol Ave. lost its mixed-drink permit because it had stopped selling food, a requirement for the license, said Michael Langley, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control agency for the state. The place had “lots of problems” with the police, Langley said.
So owner Samantha Allen’s last day to operate the hall was Dec. 15.
The new landlords allowed her to make a relatively graceful exit, said Capitol Lofts LLC partner David Robinson.
B&J’s Restaurant and Lounge’s departure from 215 W. Capitol was not as graceful. The tenants were behind on rent and there were lease-violation problems, Robinson said. One day, the new owners came by and saw that their Dec. 2 deadline to vacate had not been observed, he said.
In a couple of days, the owners came by, found the place empty; sinks had been pulled from the walls, and were nowhere to be seen, Robinson said.
Hanaroo Sushi Bar at 205 W. Capitol “is a good tenant,” Robinson said.
The two empty spaces will be gutted and “brought up to code,” Robinson said. Already, the partnership has talked with potential tenants, including a microbrewery, retail shop and a restaurant, he said.
Robinson said that designs are being finalized for popular Little Rock chef Donnie Ferneau’s restaurant that will occupy a vacancy at Capitol Avenue and Louisiana Street in the project.
Meantime, work continues on the upper floors, where 56 apartments will be available in about a year.
If you have a tip, call Jack Weatherly at (501) 378-3518 or email him at
Business, Pages 71 on 12/22/2013