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. Supposedly, he kept a squad of Rottweilers trained to attack on hand command. At his boat shop, dopers occasionally visited him. And in the end, he wound up as nothing more than a target for an assassin's bullet. They never found the other one. "I can't confirm or deny anything that's not public record, " says Walton's lawyer, Paul A. "I'd do anything for him, " an Aronow employee, Patty Lezaca, quoted Jacoby. He was a hero and a genius, a ballbuster and a bully. "And Don did buy it back, " Michael Aronow says. A child of the Depression, Aronow, 59, founded several of the world's hottest speed-boat manufacturing companies. Someone swiped a gold Rolex watch from the dead man's wrist. Bush named a Cigarette Fidelity. Michael Aronow Inc. 1988 - Present35 years Port Washington, New York Thoroughbred and Equine Consultants. This story was originally published April 1, 2009, 10:21 AM. . Abruptly, he left the office, just as Aronow announced he had to be on his way. 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. He is Paul K. Silverman, also convicted on a drug charge, also serving time in Oklahoma. Along Thunder Boat Row, people are reluctant to talk about the extent of the Aronow-Kramer relationship. A shy waitress and a persistent customer put their faith in fortune cookies in this sweet story from the director of Lbs. But he was the wrong one. . 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. Ben Kramer, the fast-life desperado, is also adjusting to life in prison. A couple of weeks ago, a federal jury found Kessler guilty of a drug conspiracy charge. They threatened to cancel the Blue Thunder contract if Aronow didn't buy the company back. 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. He announced that he worked for a rich man who wanted Aronow to build him a 60-foot boat. For years, Young used different dates and places of birth, different names and occupations. Not to worry, he explained. But this Jerry Jacoby wasn't that Jerry Jacoby. Investigators don't have the proof. Takeaways and reaction, Miamis falling murder rates show the fallacy of Republicans anti-immigration stance | Opinion. It pulled up to the Mercedes, driver's side to driver's side. Nobody thought much of the comment at the time. Just last Friday, he was sentenced in a daredevil escape from Metropolitan Correctional Center April 17, 1989. Others raced in the Kentucky Derby. It exploded, injuring his legs. The next day, Young, using the name Bobby Scott, took some shots at Panzavecchia -- four .25-caliber bullets through the skull. "And I'll let the dog chew on him. A day or two after the murder, Kramer told police how troubled he was to lose his "friend" Aronow. An old Bell chopper plucked him from the prison's athletic field -- only to snag on a barbed wire fence and crash. 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.". A Lincoln Continental with tinted windows was parked nearby, waiting. "That's hearsay, " Michael Aronow says. But Aronow may have possessed a darker side that even he could not outrun. He is in jail in Oklahoma City, awaiting sentencing on the federal drug charge. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. 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. Another possible government witness is William George Walton, also serving time. My Prince Charming had a shot at the Kentucky Derby . Kramer turned over land, assets and a Bell helicopter. Aronow, afraid of nothing, also moved in corporate circles. Maybe they never will. The street talk is a bit different: Aronow returned the land, the equipment and the chopper to Kramer -- and kept the under-the-table money. 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. 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. Young liked guns -- rifles, shotguns, Rugers. Then Aronow left. And they looked for Jerry Jacoby. 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. "Unless you could hear that directly from Ben or Don, it's guessing.". He and two pals agreed to cooperate and testified against Young in the federal drug case, according to attorney Anita Sanders in Oklahoma City. In the summer of 1987, Fort Lauderdale police arrested Young after he twice shot an Army vet, Craig Marshall. Marshall lived. Their livers were missing, Little dragon found on uninhabited Australian island is a new species. He designed, built and raced the famous Magnum Marine, Cary, Cigarette, Donzi and Formula speedboats. They were Communists. Aronow drove his Mercedes less than a block, over to Bob Saccenti's boat place. 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. Aronow drove a white Mercedes, Kramer a white Porsche. Robert Samuel Young, 41, the suspected hit man, is a "soldier of fortune type, " says Fred Haddad, one of his multiple lawyers. Even the Rev. 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. He shot Aronow in the chest, blasting his way down to the groin. . We act in a management and/or Agent capacity in any and all aspects of the industry.. Says Michael Aronow, the slain racer's son: "The way my father lived, it (the murder) could have been as casual as a handshake. His technique was to establish a company's reputation by winning races (the world. 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. But Aronow's son explains: In 1984, his dad sold his USA Racing Team firm to Kramer's Apache company. He sold boats to Christina Onassis and Victor Posner and allegedly was a pal of Meyer Lansky, the financial brains of organized crime. He seemed "agitated, " says Jerry Engelman, Aronow's manager. 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. Panzavecchia ran guns. 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. . Although cons have implicated Young in the Aronow murder, some investigators speculate that more than one man pulled off the crime. Another lawyer, now disbarred, could be a player in the Aronow investigation, too. . He didn't want to talk to The Miami Herald. No one has been charged. By the 1980s, the two men were in the boat business together. "I'd even kill for him.". He kept newspaper clippings about unsolved murders in his house. Still recovering from the failed breakout, Kramer limped out of court on a wooden crutch. He instructed his employees to accept collect calls from a con in a federal pen. You can arrest me now if you want to. 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. Young's old lawyer, Melvyn Kessler, doesn't represent him anymore because of his own criminal problems. It hasn't been easy. Along Thunder Boat Row, they called him the Old Man. Saccenti says they didn't talk about Kramer or bad business blood. At least one he had committed. UMs Destiny Harden was ill and almost didnt play against Virginia Tech. Then he stopped talking upon the advice of his lawyer. Detectives looked for the watch. Take a look, He found a clam on a Florida beach to make some chowder. a perplexed Aronow asked. Jesse Jackson, running for president, engineered the release of Young and 21 other Americans, as well as 26 Cuban political prisoners, in June 1984. Some think two cars might have been involved. It could have had to do with the CIA.". About 2 p.m. the day of the murder, Don Aronow arrived on Thunder Boat Row. Aronow's last boat venture, USA Team Racing, was sold in November. He named a Donzi 007. They threw him in jail. One of their horses--named Don Aronow--won more than $200,000 in prize money. Someone put a small pipe bomb underneath the seat of his maroon Jeep last September. 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. He might or might not be the Jerry Jacoby who has a chauffeur's license from Seminole County. But his gold Rolex was missing from his wrist. Call girls got him into Leavenworth. USA Racing Team's primary mission was its lucrative U.S. Customs contract -- to build "super" anti-smuggling catamarans called Blue Thunder. "They've been following leads, " says Gary Rosenberg, assistant state attorney. "But Kramer took a big loss. "They were having trouble with a deal.". He was bested businesswise very badly.". Young's latest lawyer, Virgil C. Black, says his client is simply a convenient police target. 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. Lacy. Jesse Jackson has a bit part -- as the innocent humanitarian who got Young out of a Cuban prison in 1984. They looked for the Lincoln. Aronow knew a Jerry Jacoby, a racing champion and former partner. He was holed up with his green- eyed companion, three Rottweilers and a .22-caliber semi- automatic rifle. A double-dealing mob tale, it might out-Godfather The Godfather -- if, of course, it's not fiction. Release Date: Confirmed for 2021.michael aronow horse trainer.. Aronow was a handsome family man who moved to Miami after making a.His unparalleled accomplishments in the world of powerboating are insightfully described by the one who was with him nearly every step of the . "What they did personally amongst themselves, I have no idea, " says Robert Saccenti, a former pal of both men. Don Aronow was a dead set legend. A world-champion boat racer who enjoyed wild success in business, he was also an unapologetic playboy and fabled bon vivant. U.S. District Judge James Kehoe gave him 10 years, on top of life. "They didn't like each other in the end, " says Dr. Bob Magoon, an eye surgeon, racer and friend to both. An Aronow family lawyer, Murray Weil, won't discuss the racers' financial dealings. Both were hot-tempered. Or it could have had something to do with Ben Kramer, he says. He refused to identify his employer. He boasted to a cop of running guns "south" and bumping off three Cuban military men. Not six months later, Young plotted a drug deal with John "Big Red" Panzavecchia, 39, a member of the "Dixie Mafia." Panzavecchia took a shot at Young's car. And the street talk is that he also gave Aronow cash -- under the table. According to the Nashville newspapers, Silverman is a federal informant. But when the Feds found out they were buying the boats from Kramer, a drug suspect himself, they cringed. 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. Panzavecchia still had on his underwear with the words "Be My Baby, " and his gold panther ring. A fisherman found his body in a canal in Broward County. It could have been international. Conceivably, they could be wrong. "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 . . "He just stopped by to see how I was doing, to find out what was going on in the neighborhood, " he says. His co-defendant: Ben Kramer, the racer-turned-drug lord, also guilty. "What do you do for your boss?" The Aronow stables at Ocala, Fla., house about 40 2-year-olds in various. Jacoby never looked for a boat. Cuban authorities said they found almost 300 pounds of marijuana aboard. He backed his Mercedes into the street. "Bobby is one of those guys you should be afraid of, " the detective says. Through the lawyer, Mary Catherine Bonner, Kramer denies involvement in the murder. On the course, Aronow horses -- Mike began training horses after his accident -- were the top winners at Gulfstream Park during the 1985 season. 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. They found the Jerry Jacoby the murdered man knew. With him on the ill-fated scuba trip was Robert Young, also jailed. Young, already serving time for the "Dixie Mafia" murder, didn't respond to a telegrammed request for an interview. ", To another officer, Fort Lauderdale Organized Crime Detective Stephen Robitaille, Young said: "I'm a mercenary.". He got himself into Cuba -- for smuggling. With a .45, the killer opened fire. The drug deal went bad. The racers, Aronow and Kramer, had much in common. In the 1970s, police said, he ran a "floating prostitution" enterprise in St. Louis; Columbia, S.C.; Wheeling, W.Va.; and Las Vegas. A tall stranger walked in, introducing himself as Jerry Jacoby. Once a Boca Raton officer stopped Young's Mercury Marquis and spotted one of the dogs in the back seat. 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. Both liked money, winning, fast toys and the color white. 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. Michael, the oldest of three children from Aronow . 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. 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. About two weeks later, Palm Beach SWAT officers coaxed Young out of a five-acre estate. His widow, Lillian Aronow, has not spoken publicly about her husband's murder. Young skipped out on his $120,000 bond.
