He built speedboats for the Shah of Iran, Charles Keating, Robert Vesco, Malcolm Forbes, and George H. W. Bush. Allegations ran wild in the aftermath of Aronows death. During our conversation she revealed that she was a bit hesitant about being interviewed since she is not someone who is comfortable in the public eye but in the end we chatted about everything from her art, her stint in the antiques business to her childhood in Florida with her father, Don Aronow the boat racer and builder of the renowned "I'm one of these guys who has to finish first," Aronow explains. Credit: Courtesy of Arthur Jay Harris. "I'd never be married to a beautiful woman like Lillian if I hauled garbage for a living," Aronow adds. That was just his personality. Although witnesses failed to identify him in police line-ups, Young pled no contest to the shooting. Lipschutz: I never had any inkling that Don was involved in something illegal. This was December of 86. (Captains note: more about Dons, er, appetites, later.) By this time the mid 1990s he was being kept in an isolation cell without, his lawyer claimed, adequate dental or medical care. So he commissioned a design from Michael Peters that split a V in two to create a catamaran. 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. Donalds second business venture was Donzi Marine, which he founded in 1964 and later sold to Teleflex Inc. in the middle of 1965. Wylie, the son of the couple, is a founding member of the well-known NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club. Having made a fortune in the construction business in New Jersey, building homes and shopping centres, Aronow hastily relocated to Florida in 1961. The twos happy marriage disintegrates due to Bens demanding schedules and their son Andrews car accident, which left his legs permanently disfigured. He was formidably competitive both on and off the water, brutally handsome and adroit at negotiating the line between the legal and the illicit at least until the very end. (Ironically, in the immediate aftermath of the crash, Saccentis life was saved by his race partner, none other than Ben Kramer. Our Privacy Policy Creator includes several compliance verification tools to help you effectively protect your customers privacy. "I'd never be married to a beautiful woman like Lillian if I hauled garbage for a living," Aronow adds. The secret to happiness is taking risks. Back in 1981, Time quoted a legal researcher living in Miami as saying: I see people walking down the streets openly carrying guns, some in their hands, others in their holsters. Innovations such as fibreglass construction techniques and the drag-reducing deep V hull were taking chunks from the record times, and also from crews in rough seas. Hed knock you right down., Allan Brown Don was so reckless with shit like that. Phil Lipschutz I never had any inkling that Don was involved in something illegal. Don Aronow called his new boat the Formula. They just dont make em like Don Aronow anymore. Audiences grew. Don was to offshore speed boats what Ben Franklin was to electricity, an admiring Customs official told the newspaper. He was an alpha male, like the male lion you see on safari. 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. He was the type of guy that if he liked you, he loved you. Then the investigation got going and they realised who Aronow was involved with. While limiting your liability, all while adhering to the most notable state and federal privacy laws and 3rd party initiatives, including. Aronow was murdered in his car at the end of 188th Street in North Miami Beach on February 3, 1987. [3][4][5] Kramer had a business dispute with Aronow after buying the latter's USA Racing Team but was forced to sell it back to Aronow after the Customs Service refused to do business with him. Some men had told his father that he'd lost it. They had three children: [1] Michael who was a star athlete at the University of Florida until he was severely injured in a car accident in 1970 and used a wheelchair after that. The fictionalized version of Donald Aronow is played by Ben Aronoff. And hes bellowing, trying to say something. And then one night Aronow and the contessa were driving back from a candlelit dinner in a tiny restaurant high in the Carrara Mountains. I think hed really be proud of the boats., What Are The Best Boats For OffShore Fishing? Thats the king, came the response, according to The Washington Post. He was a great dad and a great husband. I was like, do I really want to move down there? He was going to run for president, and his friend had 140 people who wanted to kill him! [2] And he never would backpedal later or change things. He dont speak too much English, but hes trying to explain something serious. ", "Kramer's Conviction Upheld in Aronow Murder", "Helicopter Crash Foils Drug Smuggler's Prison Escape", "1986-1990 APBA Hall of Champions Inductees", "Master Of Those Mad Racers - Don Aronow hurts a little, but as the world's top ocean powerboat driver and builder he is never bored", "DONALD ARONOW, BOAT DESIGNER AND CHAMPION RACER, SHOT TO DEATH", New York Times, Men's Fashion, Travel: "For The Moment | Show Time for Adam Kimmel", "Interfaith Celebrities: Coming of Age Again, the Girls of NYC and a Couple of Rookies", Historic Offshore Race Boat Association - Donald Aronow, "The Murder of Speedboat Builder Don Aronow", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donald_Aronow&oldid=1099454315, American people of Russian-Jewish descent, James Madison High School (Brooklyn) alumni, Articles needing additional references from January 2014, All articles needing additional references, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 20 July 2022, at 21:33. Aronow: Forrest Johnson was originally his fishing buddy. Saccenti: Don used to come and see me when I was hurt, one of those You need anything let me know, kinda things. Peters: One of the first issues I had to deal with when he hired me [in the early 80s] was [notorious Haitian dictator] Baby Doc [who was a client]. He built this entire street. Airlifted to a nearby hospital, Don Aronow was dead within the hour. Michael Peters One of the first issues I had to deal with when he hired me [in the early 1980s] was [notorious Haitian dictator] Baby Doc [Duvalier, who was a client]. Those two managed to make you feel like you were the centre of their world. However when the Customs Service found out about the younger Kramers criminal reputation, they put the kibosh on the transaction.]. But they [blew] a clutch and had nothing left. Having sold Cigarette for the last time in 1982 (after having sold it and purchasing it back in the late 1970s while merging it with his own Squadron Marine), he formed USA Racing Team and built the Blue Thunders, 39-foot catamarans used by the United States Customs Service to patrol U.S. waters and run down illegal offshore activities, especially drug smuggling. Aranow was married twice, and his two marriages gave him a total of five children. Everything there to me was racing and drug trafficking. You can talk to anybody [about that] [But] he was home every night. Bush, right, was a close friend who initially threw his weight behind the murder investigation. If you needed him, you just hit him on the intercom!, Michael Peters The upstairs apartment above his office was kind of famous. Seemingly he had everything to live for. And he eventually became aggravated with the business. When you shook his hand that was the deal. Don Aronow: The King of Thunderboat Row, 1994, by Michael Aronow As director of the CIA, hed also interacted with Aronow, recalling how Don came and offered to help our country. He said, I cant do this anymore. The 2018 criminal drama film Speed Kills served as a vehicle for Dons epicness. Marchesa Katrin Theodoli and her husband became the owners of Magnum. Around one-third of the regions murders were believed to be related to drugs. And I can tell you, the day he was murdered there were phone calls to the King of Jordan, the King of Spain, George Bush. "And they're entitled to spend it any damn way thay want.". Then he bought a parcel of land immediately west of them, and thats where he built the Magnum building. Don built boats for good guys and he built them for bad guys. Aronow left his office in his white Mercedes, shortly after visiting a rival boat dealership owned by Kramer. One of Don Aronow's race horses has just finished first. Peters: Bushs reaction was that he wanted Dade Homicide on it like the most important case on their books. In the film, Ben Aronoff is wed to Katherine Aronoff, his wife. 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. I never thought anybodyd actually do that, but by God they did. Six foot three, real good looking, lots of swagger. He pulled alongside a Lincoln car with tinted windows. Bob Saccenti The real Don was sitting at a business table negotiating deals. He didnt pick on the little guy. He competed in the race in April 62 and led until the end, but they [blew] a clutch and had nothing left. Aronow: After the 62 race my father started to work with Jim Wynne and Walt Walters. Kramer got a 19-year sentence for manslaughter to run concurrently with a life term for marijuana smuggling. Money comes and goes. It would be easy to become blocked in here. You should have seen that pilot's face.". You dont dare honk your horn at anybody; you could end up dead.. Barely had he begun to win before he sold Formula to Thunderbird Boats. Bobby Young, the convicted shooter and the man who might have provided definitive answers, died in jail in 2009. The race was several days away. On February 3, 1987, Aronow was murdered in his car at the end of 188th Street in North Miami Beach where his boat companies operated. Claudia is a New York-based artist. Michael Aronow is one of Dons five sons from three wives. Ben Aronoff's success in business and as a successful boat racer hampered his personal life and caused a separation between him and his wife. It cost Aronow a fortune to divorce his wife Shirley in 1979. We considered Formula to be a utility boat. You make real money when you sell the company. I never thought anybody would actually do that, but by God, they did., Michael Peters [George] Bushs reaction was that he wanted [Miami] Dade Homicide on it like it was the most important case on their books. WebAronow married twice. 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. [He drove it back and] the boat was sinking at the dock. The sun was lowering in the wintery afternoon yet there was still plenty of warmth and light. I didnt hear shots, with the air conditioner and sewing machines going on, but somebody came and got me. Wylie, the second son, says that he helped start the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Saccenti: He was a great guy and a great businessman. That was the cast of characters he was involved with. A kid was going to start a boat company in Florida, he had bought a boat in California, and he asked Aronow and me to drive it and see if it was any good. Today, Thunderboat Row is a transformed, gentrified enclave. 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. He was right out of a Hollywood script. Brown: Our friend Stu Jackson worked for Thunderbird and he received a gold Rolex when he retired. What are the core values of superyacht builder Sirena Yachts? Aronow's boats won over 350 offshore races and he was a two-time world champion and three-time U.S. champion. It had to do with his father's taxicab company. The year Aronow won his first world championship as an international powerboat driver, he says. The Captain has covered Dons extravagant and extravagant lifestyle in great detail. Their father, Hugh Gibb, was mugged; Barry Gibbs wife, Linda, had her purse snatched. She used to be married to Martin Kimmel, a real estate developer. It was all downhill from there. A guy comes in with the money and you build a boat for them and you never know. The investigating detectives believed that Kramer was seeking to silence Young in jail, paying his legal bills, even possibly seeking to have Young killed. Further reading. Brown: He started Formula from scratch and sold it to Thunderbird in about a year. Barely into his forties, Aronow was now a famous, feted and very wealthy man. Many disputes were going on in his marital life. Peters: [upon hearing Browns story] Im from California, I hope that storys not about me! A guy would come looking at a boat with a girl, and the guy would ask How much? And Don would go, Seventy grand. The guy would say, Thats too much. And Don would say every time, I think you should go get a Bayliner then, this is way too much boat for you. And the guys would be ripping their pockets open trying to give him money! On Tuesday, Smith, the retired detective, called Aronows widow, Lillian, to break the news. (Captains note: we think he means money.) The Beatles, Don Aronow, and his son Michael cruise off Miami before the bands iconic 1964 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The idea of bad guys outracing other bad guys and seizing their fortunes appealed to Aronow reasoned The Washington Post five days after his murder. WebAronow married twice. (ABOVE) CRIME SCENE:A violent criminal named Bobby Young (right) was fingered as the hitman, whose employer according to the courts was Ben Kramer (left), Bob Saccenti [Kramer and Aronow] were both wealthy, and if it was over money, thats a shame. WebClaudia is a New York artist and ex-wife of real estate developer Martin Kimmel. Cigarette, Donzi and other Aronow-conceived brands live on, as do the Miami to Key West race and offshore poker runs. Little could prepare him for the scene two hundred metres up the street. Ben Aronoff's success in business and as a successful boat racer hampered his personal life and caused a separation between him and his wife. The weather was cold and he was getting ulcers and he said, I cant do this anymore. It cost Aronow a fortune to divorce his wife Shirley in 1979. 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. But it bothered Don Aronow that he couldn't win. "She was gorgous," Aronow says. After years of delight, his prosperity is abruptly ended when he is discovered dead in his automobile. He did that a few times. At the time, Saccenti was recovering from a horrific crash on Lake Erie. Because he did, thats for sure. I went over there and he had holes all over him. 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