[Allegations ran wild in the aftermath of Aronows death. On the afternoon of February 3, 1987, a man claiming to be Jerry Jacoby walked into Aronows Thunderboat Row office exhibiting strange behaviour. Allegations ran wild in the aftermath of Aronows death. Saccenti: [Kramer and Aronow] were both wealthy, and if it was over money, thats a shame. I dont think it ever ran again. Within a year of its creation, Donzi Marine gained recognition on a global scale, making it an immediate success. Speculation about who the killer might be ran from jilted lovers or jealous husbands to [Jewish mobster] Meyer Lansky and the CIA. Peters: Aronow looked the part. Shortly after the visit, Aronow left his office and drove down the street to Apache Performance Boats to visit with his former protg, Bob Saccenti. The sun was lowering in the wintery afternoon yet there was still plenty of warmth and light. A kid was going to start a boat company in Florida. He was the wealthiest in the field, but he died tragically, and it took 20 years for the prosecution to convict him. But in the end the investigation led to a hired gun. Or man, his brother Robin added. The more problematic aspect was that Aronow additionally arranged to sell USA Racing Team, complete with the Blue Thunder contract, to Ben Kramer, who by now had drug smuggling convictions. His first boat was made of wood and broke apart. Nearly a decade later, two men pleaded no contest to charges related to Aronow's killing. Aronow had just left a meeting with Bob Saccenti, part owner of Apache Power Boats together with partner Ben Kramer. Another witness tried to follow the Lincoln as it fled but could not catch the killer(s). Aronow: By 66 my dad had sold Donzi to Teleflex. We could see all the gunshots., Allan Brown He was murdered right out in front of my office, halfway betweenSaccentis building and my building. The rest of NE 188th Street is covered with blocks of expensive condos promising comfortable waterside living. Always laughing and full of life were typical depictions of the man. "A stunning blonde. It was a big building and obscured the Donzi plant, and you couldnt see [Donzi] from Highway 1 anymore! It had to do with his father's taxicab company. Their father, Hugh Gibb, was mugged; Barry Gibbs wife, Linda, had her purse snatched. Meanwhile, Kramer had been convicted of massive marijuana smuggling and money laundering, receiving multiple prison sentences including life without parole. Kramer got a 19-year sentence for manslaughter to run concurrently with a life term for marijuana smuggling. Many disputes were going on in his marital life. Lipschutz: The saying he had about [Cigarettes famed Mistress model] was every man should have a Mistress. And that certainly described him, too. That was just his personality. The investigating detectives believed that Kramer was seeking to silence Young in jail, paying his legal bills, even possibly seeking to have Young killed. His earliest memory was riding home in the richly leathered back seat of his father's limosine, listening to the strangely anxious voices of his parents talking in the front of the car. Her father was extremely wealthy and Don once told me he was going to take Shirley to California if the old man didnt cut him into the business. With his father, he also founded Fort Apache Marina on the Row, comprising a boat storage facility, waterfront restaurant and patio bar. Your request appears similar to malicious requests sent by robots. Phil Lipschutz I never had any inkling that Don was involved in something illegal. Donald Joel Aronow (March 3, 1927 February 3, 1987) was an American designer, builder and racer of the famous Magnum Marine, Cary, Cigarette, Donzi, and Formula speedboats. Don Aronow with his wife Lillian and son Gavin. Don Aronow is also quite proud of his lovely wife Lillian. Sure enough, I moved there on a Monday and he was murdered that Tuesday.. Audiences grew. WebThree weeks before he was murdered, Aronow had a pensive, reflective talk with his wife, Lillian, a former girlfriend of Jordan's King Hussein. He was larger than life. But at night, were chasing many of the same guys for smuggling., Events took a turn towards the surreal when Carlos Lehder, the Medelln Cartel kingpin, started buying up Normans Cay, an island in the Bahamas some 330 kilometres off the coast of Florida, for his cocaine transport empire. Peters: Bushs reaction was that he wanted Dade Homicide on it like the most important case on their books. The fictionalized version of Donald Aronow is played by Ben Aronoff. Michael Peters was a contracted designer to Aronow from 1981 to 1986, and was then hired full-time. He would build larger premises next door, on what was now known as Thunderboat Row, putting his erstwhile companies and new-found competitors in the shade. Reaching out across the Pacific to Miami, Florida, The Captain gets the lowdown on the wild life and times of legendary Cigarette builder Don Aronow. Don was to offshore speed boats what Ben Franklin was to electricity, an admiring Customs official told the newspaper. He thought he was going to semi-retire to Florida and skin dive and fish, but he got bored. Five days after his murder, The Washington Post reported that a Customs official described Aronow as co-operative when Aronow had been approached for information about one of his clients. But if he didnt like you, watch out. His face flushed with excitement, Don Aronow launches into another one of his stories. Don Aronow born in 1927 in Brooklyn New York, left New Jersey in 1961 to relocate in Miami. It was into this volatile, heady mix that vice president George HW Bush President Reagans lieutenant in the White Houses war on drugs unwittingly stepped. How a week chartering in Croatia with SamBoat changed my life. I used to work boat shows with him and Holy Christ!, Michael Aronow I dont think any of those guys had ever seen anything quite like it, to be honest., Allan Brown At Cigarette, he had an intercom in his office and he used to boff his secretary there. I went over there and he had holes all over him. He was a great dad and a great husband. Claudia is a New York-based artist. Aronow: Forrest Johnson was originally his fishing buddy. I dont want to make him out to be the greatest boatbuilder in the world, but in that particular class of boats, he was unequalled., Again, Peters gave a qualifying view: Don perfected things already invented: hull shapes, construction techniques and engine setups. And if you had money and you were a coward, hed take as much as possible. Half out of his car, Aronow lay slumped, crimson blooming across his shirt. Don and I had had a meeting to discuss my salary. Having made a fortune in the construction business in New Jersey, building homes and shopping centres, Aronow hastily relocated to Florida in 1961. He did that a few times. Peters: The upstairs apartment above his office was kind of famous. Aronow was bigger than life, and he was also a boat designer. There are about 70 people out there who think they have a boat Don built for himself!, Michael Aronow By 1966, my dad had sold Donzi to Teleflex. Wally Tatomir: Death And Obituary What Is The Cause Of The Equipment Manager&Death? In Speed Kills, the story of Ben Aronoff is based on the life of Donald Aranow, who built speedboats and raced them. [He drove it back and] the boat was sinking at the dock. He had plenty of cheese. Don Aronow called his new boat the Formula. He retired and moved to Florida 10 years later -- a millionaire in his early 30's, his fortune spawned by the thousands of tract homes Aronow had built and sold throughout northern New Jersey. When his kids are teenagers, his first wife Kathy decides she cant stand him anymore after finding out about his other relationships. It did not take the US Customs Service long to learn of this. WebIn 1964, Brownie worked for Don Aronow at Donzi Marine, the first real sport boat builder. You never knew who might show up here, from royalty and high-born celebrity clients to drug-dealing low-lifes, by way of government officials, heads of the various boat firms and a diverse population of workers who earned their livings here. A pattern emerged whereby Aronow would sell his companies and then seek to eclipse them. At the east end of the street is now the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center; further east, across Biscayne Bay, on oceanside Sunny Isles Beach, stands the Porsche Design Tower. He had first wanted to get into motor racing as a hobby, citing his rich status from running the Aronow Corporation, a construction company. And he liked to get the best of people. Don did not enjoy boating. Some people say he was hiding from the mob. Aronow had just finished a meeting with Apache Power Boats co-owner Bob Saccenti when a powder blue Lincoln drew up next to his vehicle from the opposite direction. And he became hooked on racing and thats how it all began. [1] In 1953, he established his own construction company, the Aronow Corporation which quickly became one of the largest construction companies in the state. Witnesses assert that as Aronow rolled down his window, the other driver allegedly started shooting. by The Captain | Oct 12, 2021 | Articles | 0 comments. Don Aronow's pockets are stuffed with fifties and hundreds. He would have a succession of ladies that would appear. [1] He graduated a top athlete from James Madison High School in 1944,[1] worked as a life guard at Coney Island, and enrolled at Brooklyn College. "I got into ocean powerboat racing after I retired to Florida," he says. However, this consciousness of guilt made for a weak states case. Hed retained his key designers. Aronow's boats won over 350 offshore races and he was a two-time world champion and three-time U.S. champion. Some people badmouth him, He did this, he robbed that. Well, thats shame on you. Bobby Young was the person who did the killing, and he said that Ben Kramer hired him. George H.W. Aronow can still remember peering out at the countryside through his thick glasses, watching the tiny lights flickering from the small farm houses of rural New York and the hobo jungle campfires burning in the night. Aronow evidently stopped his car willingly; he was found with his foot pressed fully down on the accelerator, the 5.6-litre Mercedes engine racing wildly hed put the car in neutral, almost certainly to engage whoever was inside the Lincoln. You should have seen that pilot's face.". It was just one of the unusual clients Aronow had dealings with: oil-rich Arabs, Princess Caroline of Monaco and the Shah of Iran. He was right out of a Hollywood script. Hed knock you right down. And then one night Aronow and the contessa were driving back from a candlelit dinner in a tiny restaurant high in the Carrara Mountains. Aronow agreed to buy USA Racing Team back from Kramer, equally predictably for less than the consideration hed received. As director of the CIA, hed also interacted with Aronow, recalling how Don came and offered to help our country. In reality, Don had already amassed a million dollars before relocating to Miami with his family. Drug smuggling could be the regions major [largest] industry.. Brown: He was murdered right out in front of my office halfway between Saccentis building and my building. It was from here the hit man opened fire, three bullets striking the powerboat star. They had two sons, Gavin and Wylie. In 1948, he married Shirley Goldin, [1] [6] whom he had met while working as a lifeguard on Coney Island. Leaving his office that afternoon, Aronow was making for his North Bay Road residence, a 1929 Spanish-style waterfront mansion undergoing renovations, 30 minutes drive away. It cost Aronow a fortune to divorce his wife Shirley in 1979. And then there's the matter of status by association. They just dont make em like Don Aronow anymore. In 1964 he started Donzi Marine; the Donzi brand became an international success and Aronow quickly sold the company to Teleflex Inc. in mid-1965. This is his story in the words of some of the men who knew him best. Hes the only person Ive ever known like that. By this time the mid 1990s he was being kept in an isolation cell without, his lawyer claimed, adequate dental or medical care. About his second son, David, nothing is known. His wife appeared on the cover. Phil Lipschutz The saying he had [about Cigarettes famed Mistress model] was, Every man should have a Mistress. And that certainly described Don, too., Allan Brown Hed fuck your wife in a second. But nothing compares with the go-fast scenes of the 1960s, 1970s and climatic 1980s. The full breakdown of his net worth at the time of his passing is still unavailable to the general public. Lillian is Aronow's second wife -- a former Palm Beach socialite, heiress and high fashion model. Allan Brown Shirley was his first wife. I was a little hesitant to move to Miami because my view of it was straight out of [1980s TV series] Miami Vice. The contessa suddenly mashed her brakes and brought the car to a halt at the side of the road, its tires only inches away from a sheer drop into a dark valley. "I'd never be married to a beautiful woman like Lillian if I hauled garbage for a living," Aronow adds. Young died in prison in 2009 after steadfastly refusing for years to testify against Kramer. Aronow is a former junior high school gym teacher from the Bronx. A violent criminal named Bobby Young was fingered as the hitman, and his employeraccording to the courtswas Ben Kramer. Wylie, the second son, says that he helped start the Bored Ape Yacht Club. So does Jordan's King Hussein -- and Haiti's President Baby Doc, fugitive financer Robert Vesco, British tabloid tycoon Sir Max Aitken, King Juan Carlos of Spain and Evil Kneviel. He was a real successful cocksman. However, when the Customs Service found out about the younger Kramers criminal reputation, they put the kibosh on the transaction, Allan Brown Ben Kramer bought USA Racing from Aronow and apparently there was some money under the table. Retired President Lyndon B. Johnson owned several 16ft. Donzi speedboats on his Texas ranch with which he would race his Secret Service agents. Since he was not supposed to be building boats in 1969, according to his non-compete clause following the sale of Magnum Marine, Aronow built the first Cigarette boat under the name Cary, with the help of Elton Cary's Miami Beach facility. Dream Symphony: Inside the 10-year build of the world's biggest sailing yacht. To this day, he maintains his innocence. The Miami moto king launched Magnum Marine the next year, in 1967. Michael Peters If you were a coward with him, you were gone. Leaving his office that afternoon, Aronow was making for his North Bay Road residence, a 1929 Spanish-style waterfront mansion undergoing renovations, 30 minutes drive away. The automobiles tycoons untimely demise, which made international headlines, did not go over well with the crowd. Hes pointing out the door and theres Don in his car, the engine screaming and hes slumped over the steering wheel. Members of the Bee Gees were neighbours on both sides. Similar to IMDb, it lists a middling 4.2 stars out of 10. Barely into his forties, Aronow was now a famous, feted and very wealthy man. We were having lunch one day and Don asked if it was a good watch. The story was also the basis for the 2009 documentary film Thunder Man: The Don Aronow Story and the 2018 movie Speed Kills with John Travolta. Aronow: My father broke up more marriages than anybody. 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