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But
by the 1980’s, the offshore powerboat industry Aronow had created
was getting a lot of negative publicity, as speedboats had become synonymous
with drug smuggling. According to an A&E documentary on Aronow’s
life, in the 1960’s the industry had been about “men having
middle-age crises buying the boats, [but] in the 1970’s and 1980’s,
criminals seemed to be the ones buying them.”
In
January 1984 then-Vice President Bush, U.S. Customs Major Malcomb Ferguson,
and Aronow tested a 39-foot catamaran that Aronow had recently constructed
at his latest company, USA Racing Team. Aronow had just sold another company
called Squadron and, under the terms of the sales agreement, was barred
from producing deep-V monohulls. The crafty Aronow simply took the mold
for one of his deep-V designs, split it in two, and created the 39-footer,
which he dubbed Blue Thunder. Despite reports that the boat’s
performance was mediocre at best, Bush and U.S. Customs were impressed
and ordered two in an attempt to curtail the drug running that this type
of boat had made so easy and accessible. U.S. Customs ordered 12 more
of these boats from Aronow and USA Racing Team.
That
same year, in keeping with his modus operandi of starting and selling
companies, Aronow sold USA Racing to Ben Kramer, another high-profile
denizen of Thunderboat Row and owner of Fort Apache Marine on 188th Street,
a man authorities at the time considered to have a questionable background.
“Kramer wanted to be the king of Thunderboat Row and the world champ
of offshore racing but didn’t have the same charisma Aronow had,”
recalls Lipschutz. “He [Kramer] just wasn’t a nice guy.”
Truth be told, Kramer was a recognized money launderer and known by the
DEA to have ties to Columbian drug lords. Not surprisingly, U.S. Customs
refused to do business with Kramer and cancelled its order for the 12
boats. That left USA Racing Team and Kramer with practically no business,
so Aronow was forced to buy the company back from Kramer—at a profit,
of course. That left Kramer with a bad taste in his mouth, a feeling that
only worsened when, following the resale, Customs officials reinstated
the agency’s order, plus 20 additional boats.
At
about 3 p.m. on February 3, 1987, on one of those perfect, 80-degree,
blue-sky days South Florida is famous for, Aronow left the USA Racing
Team office on Thunderboat Row in his white Mercedes sports car. As he
approached Fort Apache Marina, a man driving a dark-colored Town Car pulled
up beside Aronow and fired five bullets into his car, killing him. The
triggerman was, according to subsequent testimony, Bobby Young, who had
been hired by Kramer. According to the A&E documentary, Aronow was
killed the day before he was supposed to appear in court to testify against
Kramer on federal racketeering and other charges. (A persistent but never
corroborated rumor has it that Kramer killed Aronow because the latter
wouldn’t refund money that changed hands under the table as part
of the sale of USA Racing Team.) After a lengthy investigation, Kramer
was charged and pleaded no contest to Aronow’s murder. Much to the
chagrin of those involved in the case, both Young and Kramer were convicted
of manslaughter. At the time of his sentencing nearly ten years later
in 1996, Kramer was already imprisoned, and he is now serving a life sentence
without parole. Young was released from prison but is now back behind
bars for serious drug related charges and faces a possible life sentence.
Next page >
Part 3: The whole sport has been in decline ever
since. > Page 1, 2, 3
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