Speculation about who the killer might be ran from jilted lovers or jealous husbands to [Jewish mobster] Meyer Lansky and the CIA. She used to be married to Martin Kimmel, a real estate developer. The Lincoln drove over the grass to get away. Lipschutz: I never had any inkling that Don was involved in something illegal. Bobby Young, a career criminal, acknowledged the occurrence in 1995 and gave a complete confession in 2009, just before he passed away. They had two sons, Gavin and Wylie. Today, Thunderboat Row is a transformed, gentrified enclave. But they [blew] a clutch and had nothing left. Six foot three, real good looking, lots of swagger. 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. Allan Brown Shirley was his first wife. You make real money when you sell the company. Their father, Hugh Gibb, was mugged; Barry Gibbs wife, Linda, had her purse snatched. Don Aronow has actually been married twice in his life. Besides the states weak case, there were other, more fundamental doubts over whether Kramer had arranged to have Aronow shot. Please make sure JavaScript is enabled and then try loading this page again. Like others who bought a boat company from Aronow, the Theodolis had reason to be wary. Donalds second business venture was Donzi Marine, which he founded in 1964 and later sold to Teleflex Inc. in the middle of 1965. Despite being pursued, the murderers managed to escape by driving across the grass. Don was the only person who gave me more than a platitudehe gave me a job, this was December of 86. Some people bad-mouth him, Oh he did this, he robbed that, well thats shame on you. If the real motive for Aronows murder was him turning informant, surely others (on the wrong side of the law) were potential suspects, too? 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. Certainly, he added sex appeal to it all. In 1977, Cigarette introduced the super sexy new 35 Mistress (as the advertisement read). Mega-priced and obscenely over-powered, Aronow's sleek craft have set 25 world speed records, won more than 300 major races and earned a dozen world ocean racing champions. In 1948, he married Shirley Goldin [1] [6] who he had met while working as a lifeguard on Coney Island. They had two sons, Gavin and Wylie. With his first wife, Shirley Goldin, he has two sons and a daughter. At 57, he is a lean and muscular six-foot-two. Lipschutz: The saying he had about [Cigarettes famed Mistress model] was every man should have a Mistress. And that certainly described him, too. His roles in Saturday Night Fever, Carrie, Urban Cowboy, Face/Off, Grease, and A Civil Action, among many others, make him a must-see 70s and 80s heartthrob. If you needed him, you just hit him on the intercom!, Michael Peters The upstairs apartment above his office was kind of famous. Everything there to me was racing and drug trafficking. Don Aronow called his new boat the Formula. It was late and night during the depths of America's great Depression. Don Aronow's pockets are stuffed with fifties and hundreds. Young died in prison in 2009 after steadfastly refusing for years to testify against Kramer. 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. What are the core values of superyacht builder Sirena Yachts? Bush had long been an admirer of Aronows sleek vessels and had equally been disarmed by the man himself. "Our bow rammed the helicopter's rubber flotation gear," he says. It fuelled an uneasy dynamism. After purchasing Aronows USA Racing Team, Kramer and the latter got into a business dispute, but after the Customs Service refused to do business with him, Kramer was obliged to give it back to Aronow. Nobody really knows [what happened], the only thing for sure is that Dons gone. Further reading. [1] His father owned a gas station and then a taxi company which collapsed during the Great Depression. He has three childrenMichael, David, and Claudiawith Shirley Goldin, his first wife. "So I decided to do a little construction on the side.". 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. 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. He designed, built and raced the famous Magnum Marine, Cary, Cigarette, Donzi and Formula speedboats. 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 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. "It was a pretty informal thing. It says so right there on the bottom of his resume: Has survived three motorcycle crashes, totaled five automobiles and 12 boating mishaps. 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. Saccenti: The real Don was sitting at a business table negotiating deals. After divorcing his first wife, Shirley, with whom he had three children, Aronow married Lillian Crawford, a Wilhelmina fashion model and socialite. And he liked to get the best of people. The weather was cold and he was getting ulcers. WebAronow married twice. Don Aronow is also quite proud of his lovely wife Lillian. He eventually became aggravated with the business. But Aronow may have possessed a darker side that even he could not outrun. Of the World's most recognized racing boat companies, Don Aronow established five; Donzi, Formula, Magnum, Cigarette and You make real money when you sell the company.. "I'd never be married to a beautiful woman like Lillian if I hauled garbage for a living," Aronow adds. Once Aronow was able to formally open his new company, he started Cigarette Racing Team using his own designs in 1970. His father said it had to do with something called the Depression. 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. The guy would say, I want a 28. And Aronow would say, Oh no, were all sold out. And the guy would keep pushing, I wanted one all my life. And Don would say, We dont have any 28s, but Im building a 35 for myself and I could sell that to you. That was classic Aronow., Allan Brown Every boat he sold was built for himself. Don Aronow: (frowning) You mean back when I was a kid? You gotta do your homework. Brown: Our friend Stu Jackson worked for Thunderbird and he received a gold Rolex when he retired. Who is this guy? asked an arriving first responder. Vice President George Bush drives one of Aronow's Cigarettes. Aronow: After he was working with the family for a few years he went off on his own and started building homes, then shopping centers, industrial parks, all over northern New Jersey. Aronow had just left a meeting with Bob Saccenti, part owner of Apache Power Boats together with partner Ben Kramer. Little Don couldn't understand how all his father's taxicabs could get lost at once. And in the end, he wound up as nothing more than a target for an assassins bullet. (ABOVE) RUM RUNNER: The first boat to wear the Formula name was a 233 called Cigarette after a famous rum running boat. WebIn 1964, Brownie worked for Don Aronow at Donzi Marine, the first real sport boat builder. Aronow was murdered in his car at the end of 188th Street in North Miami Beach on February 3, 1987. This is his story in the words of some of the men who knew him best. Brown: Everybody has their own idea about why he was in Miami. ", "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. He came to my basketball games, my football games, he was always around. WebI think it was at this point that Don discovered that he was Jewish. 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. [2] David [7] Don Aronow has actually been married twice in his life. 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. And I seen it, the blood. Don built boats for good guys and he built them for bad guys. Also read:Queen Elizabeth II: Death And Obituary What Happened To Her? Writer: How about a one-word description of the kind of boat you build? He was larger than life. He was very young. Don did not enjoy boating. That was just his personality.. If you are using a VPN, try disabling it. Young died in prison in 2009 after steadfastly refusing for years to testify against Kramer. The bosss wife would lean over my drafting table with her ample bosom and say, Remember, think sex.. WebI think it was at this point that Don discovered that he was Jewish. Miami claimed the nations highest murder rate at 70 per 100,000 residents, and this years pace has been even higher. Youre a businessman, too. Some men had told his father that he'd lost it. [He drove it back and] the boat was sinking at the dock and he stepped off and said The boats a piece of shit kid. He did that a few times. Even though he was caught having affairs outside of his marriage, his son said he was a great dad and a great husband., He went on to say, My dad ended more marriages than anyone else. Since then, Aronow has designed and built some of the world fastest ocean powerboat racers -- including the stubby Maltgese Magnum, the sporty Donzi and the world famous Cigarette. 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. Made quite a lot of money on it in spring of 1964. Hes pointing out the door and theres Don in his car, the engine screaming and hes slumped over the steering wheel. They become friends and Mr. Johnson told my father about the Miami-Nassau race and my father became really interested in it. Don Aronow was a dead set legend. Actor John Travolta as Ben Aronoff in the 2018 crime drama Speed Kills. ), After Aronows brief visit with Saccenti, he got back in his white Mercedes and began to pull away. The race was several days away. Youre a businessman too. That one time, Don said, Alright kid, Ill see ya, and walked out the door. Aronow, it seems, would sell anybody a boat, especially for cash, but if you said you were using it to smuggle drugs, Don wouldnt have anything to do with you, asserted Mike Kandrovicz from USA Racing Team. Bobby Young was the person who did the killing, and he said that Ben Kramer hired him. Some people say he was hiding from the mob. The University of Florida standout athlete Michael was the one who suffered serious injuries in a vehicle accident in 1970. 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. The investigating detectives believed that Kramer was seeking to silence Young in jail, paying his legal bills, even possibly seeking to have Young killed. Don Aronow born in 1927 in Brooklyn New York, left New Jersey in 1961 to relocate in Miami. If you continue to be blocked, please send an email to secruxurity@sizetedistrict.cVmwom with: https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/claudia-aronow/, Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:88.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/88.0, A summary of what you were doing and why you need access to this site. A violent criminal named Bobby Young was fingered as the hitman, and his employeraccording to the courtswas Ben Kramer. Cigarette, Donzi and other Aronow-conceived brands live on, as do the Miami to Key West race and offshore poker runs. Aronow's boats won over 350 offshore races and he was a two-time world champion and three-time U.S. champion. Guys wanted to be him. But it bothered Don Aronow that he couldn't win. Ben establishes his automotive empire in the film after relocating to Miami and changing his perspective to win. He succeeds in a number of major motor races and rises to the position of speedboat tycoon. Only Magnum and a marina (not Fort Apache) are still here. In 1948, he married Shirley Goldin, [1] [6] whom he had met while working as a lifeguard on Coney Island. One of Don Aronow's race horses has just finished first. Dream Symphony: Inside the 10-year build of the world's biggest sailing yacht. And if you had money and you were a coward, hed take as much as possible. His second hull was fiberglass -- its hull shaped in a deep-vee to slash through the waves. Whats the difference between Heesens three superyacht build concepts? Aronow was free to pursue the contessa. They had me in a cage for three years and nine months, with no daylight, no contact with human beings, Kramer said. The year Aronow won his first world championship as an international powerboat driver, he says. When Cigarette founder and powerboat racing champion Don Aronow was shot dead on 3 February 1987 in Miami, the boating world was convulsed, but not everybody was surprised. After buying Aronows USA Racing Team, Kramer had a business dispute with Aronow, but was forced to sell it back to Aronow after the Customs Service refused to do business with him. Read more:David A. Arnold: Death And Obituary How Did Famous Comedian, Actor-Writer &Producer Die? In the movie, Bens personal life is hard, just like it is in real life. Aronow was bigger than life, and he was also a boat designer. 2023 Active Interest Media All Rights Reserved. I think hed really be proud of the boats. You make a living doing that. This sum, Aronow did not return. Dick Bertram was the man to beat both in terms of boat design and the racing itself. How Did He Die? On Tuesday, Smith, the retired detective, called Aronows widow, Lillian, to break the news. Performance boats attract a lot of characters. He was born in 1927, the son of an affluent taxicab owner whose family had emigrated from Russia and been bankrupted by the Great Depression. He was a great dad and a great husband. Aronow was born in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn,[1] the youngest son of Russian-Jewish immigrants[2] Herman and Ruth Aronow. Similar to IMDb, it lists a middling 4.2 stars out of 10. 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. 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. [1], After school, he worked as a physical education teacher for a time until he accepted a job at his father-in-law's southern New Jersey construction business which was booming thanks to demand from returning World War II veterans. "She was gorgous," Aronow says. Check Out Christopher Brineys Unseen Summer I Turned Pretty PhotosYoull Be Surprised! Audiences grew. Aronow went down the canal at 65mph (105km/h) and ended up running into the seawall. 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. 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. And then there's the matter of status by association. He thought he was going to semi-retire to Florida and skindive and fish but he got bored., Michael Peters Aronow looked the part. The contessa was at the wheel of her two-seater Italian sportscar, its tires squealing as she forced the car through the mountain curves. 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