"They didn't like each other in the end, " says Dr. Bob Magoon, an eye surgeon, racer and friend to both. He kept newspaper clippings about unsolved murders in his house. Nobody thought much of the comment at the time. In the summer of 1987, Fort Lauderdale police arrested Young after he twice shot an Army vet, Craig Marshall. Lacy. Panzavecchia took a shot at Young's car. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. It could have had to do with the CIA.". Michael Aronow Inc. 1988 - Present35 years Port Washington, New York Thoroughbred and Equine Consultants. He shot Aronow in the chest, blasting his way down to the groin. Jesse Jackson has a bit part -- as the innocent humanitarian who got Young out of a Cuban prison in 1984. . Don Aronow was a dead set legend. About 2 p.m. the day of the murder, Don Aronow arrived on Thunder Boat Row. Not to worry, he explained. Someone put a small pipe bomb underneath the seat of his maroon Jeep last September. The chauffeur is 39 years old and 6 foot 2 -- about the same age and height of the stranger who walked into Aronow's office on the afternoon of the murder. This time the dispute was over a 40-foot custom-made sailboat, Cat Dancer, named for Young's green-eyed girlfriend, a one-time topless dancer. "I'd do anything for him, " an Aronow employee, Patty Lezaca, quoted Jacoby. Another lawyer, now disbarred, could be a player in the Aronow investigation, too. With a .45, the killer opened fire. And the street talk is that he also gave Aronow cash -- under the table. Marshall lived. Supposedly, he kept a squad of Rottweilers trained to attack on hand command. A shy waitress and a persistent customer put their faith in fortune cookies in this sweet story from the director of Lbs. He sold his pricey, high tech vessels to the political world: King Hussein of Jordan, the state of Israel, the Sultan of Oman, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier's Haiti -- and George Bush and the United States. Then Aronow left. . At least one he had committed. On April 19, 1988, a federal grand jury in Oklahoma City indicted Young and three other men in a Colombia-to-U.S. drug pipeline. Still recovering from the failed breakout, Kramer limped out of court on a wooden crutch. Ben Kramer, the fast-life desperado, is also adjusting to life in prison. A tall stranger walked in, introducing himself as Jerry Jacoby. He was a hero and a genius, a ballbuster and a bully. Young's latest lawyer, Virgil C. Black, says his client is simply a convenient police target. It could have been international. He seemed "agitated, " says Jerry Engelman, Aronow's manager. His co-defendant: Ben Kramer, the racer-turned-drug lord, also guilty. They threatened to cancel the Blue Thunder contract if Aronow didn't buy the company back. Investigators don't have the proof.
Fast Talk - the Wild Life of Legendary Builder Don Aronow According to the Nashville newspapers, Silverman is a federal informant. UMs Destiny Harden was ill and almost didnt play against Virginia Tech. The Aronow stables at Ocala, Fla., house about 40 2-year-olds in various. The locals also found out that the FBI was interested in "a case of murder on the high seas involving the killing and discarding of a body from Robert Young's boat.". Panzavecchia still had on his underwear with the words "Be My Baby, " and his gold panther ring. Young's old lawyer, Melvyn Kessler, doesn't represent him anymore because of his own criminal problems. Young skipped out on his $120,000 bond. One of their horses--named Don Aronow--won more than $200,000 in prize money. Someone swiped a gold Rolex watch from the dead man's wrist. With him on the ill-fated scuba trip was Robert Young, also jailed. Aronow built the dead-end street where he died, known as Thunder Boat Row, and paid his well-tanned laborers for designing and manufacturing his sassy speedboats: Formula, Donzi, Magnum, Squadron. Cuban authorities said they found almost 300 pounds of marijuana aboard. No one has been charged. Andreu wrote a report: DeCora "stated he had information from a source who was in federal custody in Oklahoma and provided them the name of Robert Young as the shooter in their investigation of millionaire boat builder Aronau, " spelling the name wrong. A child of the Depression, Aronow, 59, founded several of the world's hottest speed-boat manufacturing companies. "And I'll let the dog chew on him. His technique was to establish a company's reputation by winning races (the world. Then he counted the rings, Mysterious ball seen beside road was 14-foot invasive snake, New York officials say, Elite gathering of financial titans returns to Miami for annual event, UM, Pitt battle for first place in ACC Saturday in front of sold-out Watsco Center, Philly phenom Carranza back at DRV PNK Stadium to face former Inter Miami teammates, Fourth-quarter burst by LaShae Dwyer propels UM women to ACC tournament quarterfinals, Heat falls to 0-2 on important homestand with painful loss to Knicks. He didn't want to talk to The Miami Herald. But he was the wrong one. "He just stopped by to see how I was doing, to find out what was going on in the neighborhood, " he says. About two weeks later, Palm Beach SWAT officers coaxed Young out of a five-acre estate. a perplexed Aronow asked. Aronow drove his Mercedes less than a block, over to Bob Saccenti's boat place. Aronow drove a white Mercedes, Kramer a white Porsche. Take a look, He found a clam on a Florida beach to make some chowder. He was holed up with his green- eyed companion, three Rottweilers and a .22-caliber semi- automatic rifle. Detectives looked for the watch. Abruptly, he left the office, just as Aronow announced he had to be on his way. It hasn't been easy. But his gold Rolex was missing from his wrist. Even before police crack the case, though, mystery writers and prime-time TV producers have penned scripts for the gangland-style killing on Feb. 3, 1987. They never found the other one. But Aronow's son explains: In 1984, his dad sold his USA Racing Team firm to Kramer's Apache company. Along Thunder Boat Row, people are reluctant to talk about the extent of the Aronow-Kramer relationship. He instructed his employees to accept collect calls from a con in a federal pen. Once a Boca Raton officer stopped Young's Mercury Marquis and spotted one of the dogs in the back seat. He announced that he worked for a rich man who wanted Aronow to build him a 60-foot boat. "Unless you could hear that directly from Ben or Don, it's guessing.". Jesse Jackson, running for president, engineered the release of Young and 21 other Americans, as well as 26 Cuban political prisoners, in June 1984. Not six months later, Young plotted a drug deal with John "Big Red" Panzavecchia, 39, a member of the "Dixie Mafia." Both liked money, winning, fast toys and the color white. Then he stopped talking upon the advice of his lawyer. ", To another officer, Fort Lauderdale Organized Crime Detective Stephen Robitaille, Young said: "I'm a mercenary.". It exploded, injuring his legs.
"What they did personally amongst themselves, I have no idea, " says Robert Saccenti, a former pal of both men. Panzavecchia ran guns. He is in jail in Oklahoma City, awaiting sentencing on the federal drug charge. And they looked for Jerry Jacoby.
Mystery Stalks Street Where Speedboat King Met Violent Death And he may or may not be the same Jerry Jacoby who once strayed into Cuban waters during a scuba-diving trip out of Miami. They were Communists. USA Racing Team's primary mission was its lucrative U.S. Customs contract -- to build "super" anti-smuggling catamarans called Blue Thunder. . He might or might not be the Jerry Jacoby who has a chauffeur's license from Seminole County. "And Don did buy it back, " Michael Aronow says. No buyer, pal or partner turned out to be quite so volatile as Benjamin Barry Kramer, 35, a brash, impatient boat racer who packed a .357 Magnum and ran a worldwide drug empire complete with a toll-free beeper number. A Lincoln Continental with tinted windows was parked nearby, waiting. Conceivably, they could be wrong. He boasted to a cop of running guns "south" and bumping off three Cuban military men. The cast of characters -- two behind bars, one the victim of a mysterious bomb explosion, and one unaccounted for -- all have connections to a trans-Atlantic network of shell companies and secret bank accounts. Robert S. Young, a self-described mercenary with a fondness for call girls, guns and mean dogs, is the hit man who gunned down Donald Aronow, the legendary speedboat demon, investigators suspect. In his spare time, he built speedboats for the Shah of Iran and American presidents George Bush Sr and Lyndon Johnson, among others and he hung out with the Beatles. At his boat shop, dopers occasionally visited him. "They've been following leads, " says Gary Rosenberg, assistant state attorney.
The History of Cigarette Founder Don Aronow - Power & Motoryacht This story was originally published April 1, 2009, 10:21 AM. Bush named a Cigarette Fidelity. A day or two after the murder, Kramer told police how troubled he was to lose his "friend" Aronow. Says Michael Aronow, the slain racer's son: "The way my father lived, it (the murder) could have been as casual as a handshake. Call girls got him into Leavenworth. . Kramer turned over land, assets and a Bell helicopter. Others raced in the Kentucky Derby. Donald Aronow, a bored millionaire at 28 and a dead man 26 days before his 60th birthday, used to move briskly through Miami's shadowy world where dopers, government spies and mobsters commingle. But when the Feds found out they were buying the boats from Kramer, a drug suspect himself, they cringed. "To tell you the truth, " he told Officer Tim Frost, "I'm looking for a guy who's been selling crack to my niece and I'm going to kill him . Some think two cars might have been involved. He sold boats to Christina Onassis and Victor Posner and allegedly was a pal of Meyer Lansky, the financial brains of organized crime. But this Jerry Jacoby wasn't that Jerry Jacoby. Through the lawyer, Mary Catherine Bonner, Kramer denies involvement in the murder. What's more, Young's description -- blue eyes, dark-blond hair -- does not match a composite drawing of the Lincoln's driver made from eyewitness accounts: a white man with a tanned complexion, a day or two's growth of whiskers and wavy brown hair. Jacoby never looked for a boat. But Aronow may have possessed a darker side that even he could not outrun. For years, Young used different dates and places of birth, different names and occupations. And Benjamin Barry Kramer, the world champion fast-boat millionaire, could have ordered the daytime ambush after he and Aronow squabbled over a shady business deal, some investigators surmise. Saccenti says they didn't talk about Kramer or bad business blood. The murder of Aronow, shot to death three years ago, seems to be unraveling as one of the most sensational chapters in the nation's drug story. Although cons have implicated Young in the Aronow murder, some investigators speculate that more than one man pulled off the crime.
THE VIOLENT DEATH OF AN AMERICAN DREAM - The Washington Post "Bobby is one of those guys you should be afraid of, " the detective says. They threw him in jail. Aronow knew a Jerry Jacoby, a racing champion and former partner. On May 17, 1988, Miami Detective Nelson Andreu, investigating the Panzavecchia murder, got a telephone call from Metro-Dade Detective Mike DeCora, investigating the Aronow murder. The next day, Young, using the name Bobby Scott, took some shots at Panzavecchia -- four .25-caliber bullets through the skull.
MURDER OF ARONOW UNSOLVED AFTER YEAR - Sun Sentinel Robert Samuel Young, 41, the suspected hit man, is a "soldier of fortune type, " says Fred Haddad, one of his multiple lawyers. "That's hearsay, " Michael Aronow says. Publicly, the Metro-Dade Police Department, the Dade State Attorney's Office and the FBI refuse to comment on the Aronow investigation -- except to cite substantial progress. The racers, Aronow and Kramer, had much in common. By the 1980s, the two men were in the boat business together. An Aronow family lawyer, Murray Weil, won't discuss the racers' financial dealings. A couple of weeks ago, a federal jury found Kessler guilty of a drug conspiracy charge. A world-champion boat racer who enjoyed wild success in business, he was also an unapologetic playboy and fabled bon vivant. An old Bell chopper plucked him from the prison's athletic field -- only to snag on a barbed wire fence and crash.
michael aronow horses BOAT RACER LIVED HARD AND FAST AND LOVED IT - Sun Sentinel . He backed his Mercedes into the street. He named a Donzi 007. "What do you do for your boss?" In the 1970s, police said, he ran a "floating prostitution" enterprise in St. Louis; Columbia, S.C.; Wheeling, W.Va.; and Las Vegas. Aronow, afraid of nothing, also moved in corporate circles. Aronow built the dead-end street where he died, known as Thunder Boat Row, and paid his well-tanned laborers for designing and manufacturing his sassy speedboats: Formula, Donzi, Magnum, Squadron XII and the needle-nosed Cigarette. Prosecutors said the lawyer helped cycle Kramer's dirty profits through secret bank accounts and phony companies stretching from Colombia and Los Angeles to Miami, London and Lichtenstein.
Principal - Law Office of Michael Aronow - LinkedIn UM women play immature first quarter, bounced by Virginia Tech in ACC tournament, Mysterious creature seen hopping along rainforest river for first time in 24 years, 11 sharks wash up on South African beach, researchers say. Takeaways and reaction, Miamis falling murder rates show the fallacy of Republicans anti-immigration stance | Opinion. U.S. District Judge James Kehoe gave him 10 years, on top of life. Michael, the oldest of three children from Aronow . Another possible government witness is William George Walton, also serving time. Maybe they never will. Aronow's last boat venture, USA Team Racing, was sold in November. . Their livers were missing, Little dragon found on uninhabited Australian island is a new species.
Speedboat king's death still a puzzle | Miami Herald Along Thunder Boat Row, they called him the Old Man. In 1985, Kramer and a car-racing pal paid $50,000 to have a 36-year-old Fort Lauderdale man killed, witnesses told federal agents.