. 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. He announced that he worked for a rich man who wanted Aronow to build him a 60-foot boat. His co-defendant: Ben Kramer, the racer-turned-drug lord, also guilty. It pulled up to the Mercedes, driver's side to driver's side. "I'd even kill for him.". Michael Aronow Inc. 1988 - Present35 years Port Washington, New York Thoroughbred and Equine Consultants. Not to worry, he explained. . At his boat shop, dopers occasionally visited him. Or it could have had something to do with Ben Kramer, he says. Cuban authorities said they found almost 300 pounds of marijuana aboard. Jacoby never looked for a boat. Young's latest lawyer, Virgil C. Black, says his client is simply a convenient police target. 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. A child of the Depression, Aronow, 59, founded several of the world's hottest speed-boat manufacturing companies. Along Thunder Boat Row, people are reluctant to talk about the extent of the Aronow-Kramer relationship. Saccenti says they didn't talk about Kramer or bad business blood. On the course, Aronow horses -- Mike began training horses after his accident -- were the top winners at Gulfstream Park during the 1985 season. "What do you do for your boss?" "I can't confirm or deny anything that's not public record, " says Walton's lawyer, Paul A. They were Communists. His technique was to establish a company's reputation by winning races (the world. Others raced in the Kentucky Derby. Both were hot-tempered. He backed his Mercedes into the street. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Maybe they never will. 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. UMs Destiny Harden was ill and almost didnt play against Virginia Tech. ", To another officer, Fort Lauderdale Organized Crime Detective Stephen Robitaille, Young said: "I'm a mercenary.". We act in a management and/or Agent capacity in any and all aspects of the industry.. 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. Both liked money, winning, fast toys and the color white. Aronow drove his Mercedes less than a block, over to Bob Saccenti's boat place. . Their livers were missing, Little dragon found on uninhabited Australian island is a new species. An old Bell chopper plucked him from the prison's athletic field -- only to snag on a barbed wire fence and crash. But Aronow may have possessed a darker side that even he could not outrun. They found the Jerry Jacoby the murdered man knew. But his gold Rolex was missing from his wrist. The racers, Aronow and Kramer, had much in common. Kramer turned over land, assets and a Bell helicopter. About two weeks later, Palm Beach SWAT officers coaxed Young out of a five-acre estate. U.S. District Judge James Kehoe gave him 10 years, on top of life. But when the Feds found out they were buying the boats from Kramer, a drug suspect himself, they cringed. By the 1980s, the two men were in the boat business together. A double-dealing mob tale, it might out-Godfather The Godfather -- if, of course, it's not fiction. 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. Conceivably, they could be wrong. Abruptly, he left the office, just as Aronow announced he had to be on his way. Says Michael Aronow, the slain racer's son: "The way my father lived, it (the murder) could have been as casual as a handshake. Aronow drove a white Mercedes, Kramer a white Porsche. In the 1970s, police said, he ran a "floating prostitution" enterprise in St. Louis; Columbia, S.C.; Wheeling, W.Va.; and Las Vegas. Investigators don't have the proof. Don Aronow was a dead set legend. And in the end, he wound up as nothing more than a target for an assassin's bullet. 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. Detectives looked for the watch. 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. Take a look, He found a clam on a Florida beach to make some chowder. "They've been following leads, " says Gary Rosenberg, assistant state attorney. It hasn't been easy. Robert Samuel Young, 41, the suspected hit man, is a "soldier of fortune type, " says Fred Haddad, one of his multiple lawyers. Through the lawyer, Mary Catherine Bonner, Kramer denies involvement in the murder. But he was the wrong one. It could have had to do with the CIA.". 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.". He might or might not be the Jerry Jacoby who has a chauffeur's license from Seminole County. . Panzavecchia ran guns. 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. Aronow's last boat venture, USA Team Racing, was sold in November. 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. 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 . a perplexed Aronow asked. The next day, Young, using the name Bobby Scott, took some shots at Panzavecchia -- four .25-caliber bullets through the skull. This story was originally published April 1, 2009, 10:21 AM. Another lawyer, now disbarred, could be a player in the Aronow investigation, too. He got himself into Cuba -- for smuggling. "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 . A fisherman found his body in a canal in Broward County. Marshall lived. 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. He instructed his employees to accept collect calls from a con in a federal pen. Young liked guns -- rifles, shotguns, Rugers. "I'd do anything for him, " an Aronow employee, Patty Lezaca, quoted Jacoby. For years, Young used different dates and places of birth, different names and occupations. Young's old lawyer, Melvyn Kessler, doesn't represent him anymore because of his own criminal problems. He didn't want to talk to The Miami Herald. Aronow knew a Jerry Jacoby, a racing champion and former partner. They threatened to cancel the Blue Thunder contract if Aronow didn't buy the company back. He refused to identify his employer. "That's hearsay, " Michael Aronow says. It could have been international. He boasted to a cop of running guns "south" and bumping off three Cuban military men. He was holed up with his green- eyed companion, three Rottweilers and a .22-caliber semi- automatic rifle. Panzavecchia still had on his underwear with the words "Be My Baby, " and his gold panther ring. He seemed "agitated, " says Jerry Engelman, Aronow's manager. 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 threw him in jail. 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. But this Jerry Jacoby wasn't that Jerry Jacoby. Panzavecchia took a shot at Young's car. He sold boats to Christina Onassis and Victor Posner and allegedly was a pal of Meyer Lansky, the financial brains of organized crime. 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. Along Thunder Boat Row, they called him the Old Man. He is in jail in Oklahoma City, awaiting sentencing on the federal drug charge. He designed, built and raced the famous Magnum Marine, Cary, Cigarette, Donzi and Formula speedboats. He is Paul K. Silverman, also convicted on a drug charge, also serving time in Oklahoma. 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. A day or two after the murder, Kramer told police how troubled he was to lose his "friend" Aronow. "He just stopped by to see how I was doing, to find out what was going on in the neighborhood, " he says. Once a Boca Raton officer stopped Young's Mercury Marquis and spotted one of the dogs in the back seat. Jesse Jackson, running for president, engineered the release of Young and 21 other Americans, as well as 26 Cuban political prisoners, in June 1984. About 2 p.m. the day of the murder, Don Aronow arrived on Thunder Boat Row. Call girls got him into Leavenworth. "But Kramer took a big loss. . A couple of weeks ago, a federal jury found Kessler guilty of a drug conspiracy charge. "They didn't like each other in the end, " says Dr. Bob Magoon, an eye surgeon, racer and friend to both. He named a Donzi 007. He and two pals agreed to cooperate and testified against Young in the federal drug case, according to attorney Anita Sanders in Oklahoma City. 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. 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. A tall stranger walked in, introducing himself as Jerry Jacoby. According to the Nashville newspapers, Silverman is a federal informant. He was a hero and a genius, a ballbuster and a bully. "Bobby is one of those guys you should be afraid of, " the detective says. An Aronow family lawyer, Murray Weil, won't discuss the racers' financial dealings. One of their horses--named Don Aronow--won more than $200,000 in prize money. Michael, the oldest of three children from Aronow . They looked for the Lincoln. A world-champion boat racer who enjoyed wild success in business, he was also an unapologetic playboy and fabled bon vivant. Bush named a Cigarette Fidelity. "And Don did buy it back, " Michael Aronow says. 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. A shy waitress and a persistent customer put their faith in fortune cookies in this sweet story from the director of Lbs. But Aronow's son explains: In 1984, his dad sold his USA Racing Team firm to Kramer's Apache company. You can arrest me now if you want to. And the street talk is that he also gave Aronow cash -- under the table. "Unless you could hear that directly from Ben or Don, it's guessing.". Then he stopped talking upon the advice of his lawyer. "What they did personally amongst themselves, I have no idea, " says Robert Saccenti, a former pal of both men. . Someone swiped a gold Rolex watch from the dead man's wrist. No one has been charged. "And I'll let the dog chew on him.