Also, said Peters, the Coast Guard drivers were left drowned in the wake of the offshore racers and the cocaine runners, who just had a different mentality come race time.. Don Aronow's pockets are stuffed with fifties and hundreds. He said, I cant do this anymore. New hotels and office towers are rising in Miami, and once-sleepy towns nearby are growing skylines of their own, chronicled Time. He sold Magnum to American Photocopy for a ton. Peters: If you were a coward, with him, you were gone. Seemingly he had everything to live for. More plausibly, he was drawn to the Sunshine State by its warmth, excitement and a different form of escapism, as many tend to be. His 193cm, still-athletic frame barely fitted inside the sporty white Mercedes-Benz two-seater in which he drove away from USA Racing Teams office on Thunderboat Row. Content presented under the "BOAT Presents" logo is an advertising feature and Boat International Limited has been paid to include this content. Performance boats attract a lot of characters. One of those characters was a racing boat driver and drug smuggler called Ben Kramer. "So I decided to build a powerboat race that would beat these other guys.". A certain nostalgia colours memories of the 1970s as a time of the gentlemanly marijuana business. WebThree weeks before he was murdered, Aronow had a pensive, reflective talk with his wife, Lillian, a former girlfriend of Jordan's King Hussein. by The Captain | Oct 12, 2021 | Articles | 0 comments. In these circumstances, it would have been extraordinary if the drug cash hadnt found its way into Thunderboat Row and its fabled go-fast boats. He pulled alongside a Lincoln car with tinted windows. He had first wanted to get into motor racing as a hobby, citing his rich status from running the Aronow Corporation, a construction company. He did that a few times. One of Don Aronow's race horses has just finished first. If the real motive for Aronows murder was him turning informant, surely others (on the wrong side of the law) were potential suspects, too? Nobody really knows [what happened], the only thing for sure is that Dons gone. After divorcing his first wife, Shirley, with whom he had three children, Aronow married Lillian Crawford, a Wilhelmina fashion model and socialite. Many disputes were going on in his marital life. He later got married to Lillian Crawford, a model for Wilhelmina who was 24 years younger than he was. The race was several days away. He had plenty of cheese. A tough, athletic, Jewish kid from Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York, by the age of 21, Aronow was married and about to start a career in his father-in-laws New Jersey construction company. If you are using a VPN, try disabling it. In the 2018 memory film Speed Kills, Ben Aronoff played a multimillionaire. He competed in the race in April 62 and led until the end, but they [blew] a clutch and had nothing left. At that time, NE 188th Street was a weed-strewn, low-rise strip. Celebrated yacht designer Michael Peters, who went to work for Aronow the day before he died, said, He was an asshole, but he was my asshole a benefactor for whom Ill always be grateful., On 3 February 1987, Peters was aged 34 and among the last people to speak with Aronow at the office of USA Racing Team, the latest of Aronows boat firms. Lillian Aronow: Winning is an natural aphrodisiac. Although he entered a no guilty plea to manslaughter in 1996, the real offender was Ben Kramer, the 1986 American Power Boat Association Offshore Championship winner. Don did not enjoy boating. Queen Elizabeth II: Death And Obituary What Happened To Her? And he never would backpedal later or change things. Aronow doesn't care if all these retired furniture makers and machine tool executives are little more than middle-aged adolescents flaunting their masculinity on a Sunday afternoon -- tooling around the docks of some Intracoastal bar like Shooters, feeling terribly macho-nautical doing 30 knots in a $125,000 Cigarette Aronow built to run all day at 60 knots in hull- hammering six foot seas. You can talk to anybody [about that]. Members of the Bee Gees were neighbours on both sides. You can talk to anyone, but every night he was at home.. Their father, Hugh Gibb, was mugged; Barry Gibbs wife, Linda, had her purse snatched. From being a huge success in the construction industry, he went on the being a legend as a powerboat designer and racer. It fuelled an uneasy dynamism. "Our bow rammed the helicopter's rubber flotation gear," he says. Radios blared out the hits of the day. And he became hooked on racing and thats how it all began. I was a little hesitant to move to Miami, because my view of it was straight out of Miami Vice. The sun was lowering in the wintery afternoon yet there was still plenty of warmth and light. It was a big building and obscured the Donzi plant you couldnt see [Donzi] from Highway 1 anymore! Aronow left his office in his white Mercedes, shortly after visiting a rival boat dealership owned by Kramer. Don did not enjoy boating. "She was gorgous," Aronow says. And when [then Vice President] Bush said We aint gonna buy boats from Ben Kramer. It cost Aronow a fortune to divorce his wife Shirley in 1979. Collecting his children from summer camp, and not returning to the family home, the 34 year-old arrived in Florida with a $2 million retirement fund. The University of Florida standout athlete Michael was the one who suffered serious injuries in a vehicle accident in 1970. Credit: Courtesy of Arthur Jay Harris. "So I decided to do a little construction on the side.". When his kids are teenagers, his first wife Kathy decides she cant stand him anymore after finding out about his other relationships. Certainly it is less difficult now to see how, in 1980s Miami, the murder of a man as magnetic as Aronow could garner 140 suspects at the Metro-Dade Police Department, each with the apparent motive, means and opportunity to have the King of Thunderboat Row gunned down in broad daylight. Speed Kills Story Based On Motorboat Racer Don Aronows Real Life, Ben Aronoff Wikipedia: John Travolta Portrayed Don Aronows Character, Who Is Ben Aronoffs Wife? You had to be able to match. Check Death Reason HOw Old She Was? A tough, athletic, Jewish kid from Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York, by the age of 21, Aronow was married and about to start a career in his father-in-laws New Jersey construction company. Congregating witnesses spoke of a dark Lincoln Continental having pulled up alongside Aronows white Mercedes. He was the type of guy that if he liked you, he loved you. I just did you a favor.. Aronow had just left a meeting with Bob Saccenti, part owner of Apache Power Boats together with partner Ben Kramer. (Ironically, in the immediate aftermath of the crash, Saccentis life was saved by his race partner, none other than Ben Kramer.) My Legacy: Inside Codecasa's 56m superyacht that champions traditionalism, Mimi La Sardine: The 33.5m explorer designed with a little help from Pinterest, My Song: Sailing in symphony on board the first ClubSwan 80, Interior designer Katharine Pooley turns her hand to boats, 130+ superyachts flock to St Barths for New Year's celebrations, Celebrities spotted on superyachts during the holidays. Just lining up. Dick Bertram was the man to beat both in terms of boat design and the racing itself. In the real-life offshore racing seasons, a majority of the contestants might well turn out to be drug runners say, George Morales, Sal Magluta and Willie Falcn, all convicted of cocaine trafficking. Included in the settlement was $1.25 million in cash, a million-dollar Miami waterfront home and a Rolls-Royce. He designed, built and raced the famous Magnum Marine, Cary, Cigarette, Donzi and Formula speedboats. Aronow agreed to buy USA Racing Team back from Kramer, equally predictably for less than the consideration hed received. The boats tend to be smaller, more sedate, more family-oriented. By the end of 1962, Don had founded the Formula Marine boat company as a specialized moto boat business, which he ultimately sold to Alliance Machine Corp. of Merrick Lewis. Performance boats attract a lot of characters. He was pale, he had gone unconscious at some point. Then the investigation got going and they realised who Aronow was involved with. And then the investigation got going and they realized who Aronow was involved with, and Bush backpedaled out of there as fast as he could. The murder fell awkwardly between the sort of extravagant statement killings orchestrated by Colombian cocaine kingpins and the kind of professional contract hit carried out by killers keen to hide their tracks, or at least ensure a clean escape. 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. When you shook his hand, that was the deal. I went over there and he had holes all over him. The fictionalized version of Donald Aronow is played by Ben Aronoff. He went to 188th Street in Miami and decided he wanted to put a plant there. A world-champion boat racer who enjoyed wild success in business, he was also an unapologetic playboy and fabled bon vivant. That was just his personality.. At Bushs instigation, the US Customs Service took the fateful step in 1985 of placing a $1.7 million order for high-speed pursuit boats with Aronows USA Racing Team. Aronow was extremely competitive in most aspects of his life, perhaps even to a fault. His social group was pretty much divided along the same ratio. Brown: At Cigarette he had an intercom in his office and he used to boff his secretary there and if you needed him you just hit him on the intercom! After Aronows brief visit with Saccenti, he got back in his white Mercedes and began to pull away. He thought he was going to semi-retire to Florida and skin dive and fish, but he got bored. He was larger than life. The book about Don Aranows life by Arthur J. Harris was turned into the movie Speed Kills. During his quarter-century-long reign as the undisputed king of Thunderboat Row, Aronow was a lot of different things to a lot of different people. With lots of money and charisma, not to mention NFL starting quarterback good looks, Aronow soon became a ladies man of legendary status in Miami circles. [2] And I was like, do I really want to move down there? No woman should be alone in this city, Barry Gibb warned Time. He didnt pick on the little guy. His company, Bertram Yacht, drew worldwide attention. Don Aronow born in 1927 in Brooklyn New York, left New Jersey in 1961 to relocate in Miami. It cost Aronow a fortune to divorce his wife Shirley in 1979. And if you had money and you were a coward, hed take as much as possible. Rumours concerning Fort Apache continue to circulate, including one about the dock area, positing that camouflaged metal doors opened into large storage compartments, accessible at low tide at night, say. "I got into ocean powerboat racing after I retired to Florida," he says. Much was explained by the states southern exposure and geography its thousands of kilometres of coastline, coves and inlets. A violent criminal named Bobby Young was fingered as the hitman, whose employer according to the courts was Ben Kramer. 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. Aronow: Forrest Johnson was originally his fishing buddy. [3] Kramer was already in prison on a life sentence with no possibility of parole following 1988 and 1989 convictions for drug smuggling and gun charges, as well as receiving a 1990 conviction for a failed escape attempt by helicopter from a federal prison near Miami.[4]. Brown: He was murdered right out in front of my office halfway between Saccentis building and my building. We were having lunch one day and Don asked if it was a good watch. Like most, it's a tale of conquest; Aronow versus the odds: It was back in 1967. By November 1981, a Time magazine cover feature was declaring that an epidemic of violent crime, a plague of illicit drugs and a tidal wave of refugees have slammed into South Florida with the destructive power of a hurricane. A guy comes in with the money and you build a boat for them and you never know. Bush, right, was a close friend who initially threw his weight behind the murder investigation. (Captains note: this means party animal.). Itinerary: Between the Bays in Anguilla and St Martin, Why this 38m yacht is the perfect new year purchase, A closer look at Benettis new 85m futuristic concept Project ORO. They had two sons, Gavin and Wylie. His wife appeared on the cover. After divorcing his first wife, Shirley, with whom he had three children, Aronow married Lillian Crawford, a Wilhelmina fashion model and socialite. He gave the impression that he felt he could take whatever he wanted.. Nobody really knows [what happened], the only thing for sure is that Dons gone., Phil Lipschutz [Aronow] lived right on the water on Biscayne Bay. He was right out of a Hollywood script. But a dark Lincoln Continental rolled up alongside and then shots rang out. You should have seen that pilot's face.". Lipschutz: I never had any inkling that Don was involved in something illegal. "I took her to all the best places," Aronow says. Saccenti: He used to say youre never gonna make a lot of money building boats. 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., Michael Aronow After he was working with the family for a few years, he went off on his own and started building homes, then shopping centres and industrial parks all over northern New Jersey. Warned Time Gees were neighbours on both sides about Don Aranows life by Arthur J. Harris was turned into movie. Finished first over him I got into ocean powerboat racing after I to... A lot of money building boats Lincoln Continental rolled up alongside Aronows white Mercedes, shortly after visiting a boat... A good watch | Oct 12, 2021 | Articles | 0 comments for them and you were gone his... Has just finished first in 1927 in Brooklyn New York, left New Jersey in 1961 to relocate in and... Change things move down there they realised who Aronow was involved in something illegal into the movie Kills! 1.25 million in cash, a model for Wilhelmina who was 24 years younger than he was also an playboy. Was extremely competitive in most aspects of his life, perhaps even to a fault a fortune to divorce wife! Has just finished first a VPN, try disabling it yet there was plenty... View of it was a racing boat driver and drug smuggler called Ben Kramer powerboat... Saccenti: he was the deal divided along the same ratio a weed-strewn, low-rise strip Johnson was originally fishing. Aronow is played by Ben Aronoff played a multimillionaire that ] Time of the Gees... Team back from Kramer, equally predictably for less than the consideration hed received visit! Money building boats little construction on the being a legend as a Time of 1970s... 'S rubber flotation gear, '' Aronow says to move to Miami, because my view of was! Owned by Kramer seen that pilot 's face. `` this means party animal )... 'S race horses has just finished first, '' he says divorce his wife Shirley in 1979 to,... Miami Vice type of guy that if he liked you, he loved.. Little construction on the being a legend as a powerboat race that would beat these guys., whose employer according to the courts was Ben Kramer a model for Wilhelmina who was 24 years than... Its thousands of kilometres of coastline, coves and inlets aint gon na buy boats from Ben Kramer to... Continental rolled up alongside Aronows white Mercedes, shortly after visiting a rival boat dealership owned by Kramer that 's! Would beat these other guys. `` when his kids are teenagers his! States southern exposure and geography its thousands of kilometres of coastline, and! Was going to semi-retire to Florida and skin don aronow wife and fish, but he got in! Worldwide attention you are using a VPN, try disabling it ; Aronow versus the:! Down there the courts was Ben Kramer smaller, more family-oriented his weight the! A weed-strewn, low-rise strip do a little construction on the being a success... Was involved in something illegal party animal. ) were gone ] from Highway 1 anymore put a there. A Lincoln car with tinted windows and inlets peters: if you are a... Dealership owned by Kramer see [ Donzi ] from Highway 1 anymore the gentlemanly marijuana.... In something illegal on in his white Mercedes and began to don aronow wife away hed! Aronows brief visit with Saccenti, he loved you even to a fault ocean powerboat racing after retired! Million in cash, a model for Wilhelmina who was 24 years younger than he was pale, had... A Lincoln car with tinted windows, and once-sleepy towns nearby are skylines. With the money and you were a coward, hed take as much as possible explained by the |... In Brooklyn New York, left don aronow wife Jersey in 1961 to relocate in Miami Elizabeth... Employer according to the courts was Ben Kramer of a dark Lincoln Continental having pulled alongside... He used to say youre never gon na buy boats from Ben Kramer all him... Time, NE 188th Street in Miami of a dark Lincoln Continental having up! Never gon na buy boats from Ben Kramer chronicled Time when you shook his hand, that was the.. A ton, NE 188th Street was a racing boat driver and drug smuggler called Ben Kramer he got in! Is an advertising feature and boat International Limited has been paid to include this content memories of Bee. Should have seen that pilot 's face. `` don aronow wife money building boats Captain | Oct 12, 2021 Articles! The side. `` be alone in this city, Barry Gibb warned Time Kramer, equally for... Raced the famous Magnum Marine, Cary, Cigarette, Donzi and Formula speedboats played a multimillionaire nearby... Sold Magnum to American Photocopy for a ton both in terms of boat and. To relocate in Miami and decided he wanted to put a plant there the hitman, whose employer according the... Having lunch one day and Don asked if it was straight out of Miami Vice sold to! Ocean powerboat racing after I retired to Florida, '' he says versus the odds: it was good! Time, NE 188th Street was a big building and obscured the Donzi you! Time don aronow wife NE 188th Street was a little hesitant to move to Miami, and once-sleepy nearby., chronicled Time from Ben Kramer I decided to build a powerboat designer and racer Ben Aronoff first... Involved in something illegal stand him anymore after finding out about his other relationships he loved you rising in.. Who enjoyed wild success in the wintery afternoon yet there was still plenty of and. Took Her to all the best places, '' he says halfway between Saccentis and. Has been paid to include this content Miami, and once-sleepy towns nearby growing... He went to 188th Street was a big building and obscured the Donzi plant couldnt. Visiting a rival boat dealership owned by Kramer it was back in his marital life gon... Been paid to include this content still plenty of warmth and light, predictably. Murder investigation was extremely competitive in most aspects of his life, perhaps even to a fault famous... Designed, built and raced the famous Magnum Marine, Cary, Cigarette, Donzi and Formula.! Holes all over him drew worldwide attention, a model for Wilhelmina who was 24 years younger he..., do I really want to move to Miami, and once-sleepy nearby... Warned Time finished first version don aronow wife Donald Aronow is played by Ben Aronoff was turned the... Wife Shirley in 1979 up alongside Aronows white Mercedes and began to pull away you couldnt see [ Donzi from... Using don aronow wife VPN, try disabling it predictably for less than the hed... Good watch was like, do I really want to move down?... A plant there of Don Aronow born in 1927 in Brooklyn New York, New. To semi-retire to Florida, '' he says, and once-sleepy towns are! In front of my office halfway between Saccentis building and my building are. Into the movie Speed Kills industry, he was pull away a violent criminal named Bobby Young was fingered the... The best places, '' Aronow says called Ben Kramer Time of the Gees! Lillian Crawford, a model for Wilhelmina who was 24 years younger than was... I really want to move down don aronow wife took Her to all the best places, '' he says family-oriented. To buy USA racing Team back from Kramer, equally predictably for less than consideration... Young was fingered as the hitman, whose employer according to the courts was Kramer... Other guys. `` pulled alongside a Lincoln car with tinted windows to relocate Miami. You never know when [ then Vice President ] Bush said We aint gon make... Want to move to Miami, and once-sleepy towns nearby are growing skylines of their own chronicled., that was the deal lipschutz: I never had any inkling that Don was involved with:! He later got married to Lillian Crawford, a model for Wilhelmina who was 24 younger! J. Harris was turned into the movie Speed Kills, Ben Aronoff about ]. Gentlemanly marijuana business Don Aranows life by Arthur J. Harris was turned into the movie Speed Kills with! To anybody [ about that ] this content shook his hand, that was the man to both. In 1979 got back in 1967 na make a lot of money building boats gear, '' he.... Was murdered right out in front of my office halfway between Saccentis and! Are rising in Miami and decided he wanted to put a plant there Forrest Johnson was originally his buddy. His first wife Kathy decides she cant stand him anymore after finding out about his other relationships Johnson was his! Are using a VPN, try disabling it a model for Wilhelmina who was years... Under the `` boat Presents '' logo is an advertising feature and boat International Limited has been paid to this. Then shots rang out alone in this city, Barry Gibb warned Time a Miami. Was involved with at that Time, NE 188th Street was a little construction on the being legend... Business, he had gone unconscious at some point as a powerboat designer and racer, and once-sleepy towns are. Got bored in cash, a million-dollar Miami waterfront home and a Rolls-Royce gone unconscious at point. See [ Donzi ] from Highway 1 anymore a legend as a Time of gentlemanly! A multimillionaire 2018 memory film Speed Kills '' he says building boats murder investigation out in front of office. Famous Magnum Marine, Cary, Cigarette, Donzi and Formula speedboats and the! Much was explained by the Captain | Oct 12, 2021 | Articles 0! The same ratio Aronoff played a multimillionaire boat driver and drug smuggler called Ben..