Donald Aronow

Donald Aronow
Born	March 3, 1927(1927-03-03) Brooklyn, New York, USA
Died	February 3, 1987(1987-02-03) (aged 59) Miami, Florida, USA
Occupation	Boat designer, builder and racer

Donald Joel Aronow (March 3, 1927 – February 3, 1987) was an American designer, builder and racer of the famous Magnum Marine, Cigarette, Donzi, and Formula speed boats. He built speedboats for the His Imperial Majesty Shah of Iran, Charles Keating, Robert Vesco, Malcolm Forbes, and George H. W. Bush. President Lyndon Johnson - in retirement - owned several 16 ft. Donzi speedboats on his Texas ranch with which he would race his Secret Service agents.

Having made his money in the construction business in New Jersey in the late 1950s, Aronow moved to Miami in 1961 where he began racing boats for a hobby. By the end of 1962, he had formed the Formula Marine boat company which he then sold and in 1964 he started Donzi Marine. In 1966, he founded Magnum Marine with Elton Cary and, in 1970, after campaigning his boat "The Cigarette" around the world and winning the World Championship, he started Cigarette Racing Team using his own designs. Having sold Cigarette for the last time (after having sold it and purchasing it back in the late 1970s), 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. Aronow's close friend at the time, Vice President George Bush, was a former Cigarette owner and was involved in testing out the 39-foot cats prior to government approval.

The great speed of Cigarette boats also made them a popular choice among cocaine runners. On February 3, 1987, Aronow was murdered in his car at the end of 188th Street in Miami (the famous Thunderboat Row) where his boat companies operated. Aronow had just left from a meeting with Bob Saccenti who was part owner of Apache Power Boats together with partner Ben Kramer. Witnesses said that a powder blue Lincoln pulled next to Mr. Aronow's car from the opposite direction and when Aronow rolled down his window the driver opened fire. Another witness tried to follow the Lincoln as it fled but could not catch the killer(s). The Lincoln drove over the grass to get away.

Two men — Ben Kramer, a suspected drug runner who bought Aronow's USA Racing Team and was forced to sell it back to Aronow after the Customs Service refused to do business with him, and Bobby Young — eventually pleaded no contest to manslaughter related to Aronow's murder. Kramer was already in prison at the time of his plea in 1996 and is now serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole.

Aronow's boats won over 350 offshore races and he was a two-time world champion and three-time U.S. champion. He has been elected to every powerboating Hall of Fame in existence and he and Gar Wood were the only two Americans to have ever received the UIM Gold Medal of Honor.

Further reading

• Don Aronow: The King of Thunderboat Row, 1994, by Michael Aronow
• Historic Offshore Race Boat Association - Donald Aronow
• Blue Thunder: How the Mafia Owned and Finally Murdered Cigarette Boat King Donald Aronow, 1990, Thomas Burdick and Charlene Mitchell
• Liquid Smoke, David Samuels, Men's Vogue, January 2007
• The Murder of Speedboat Builder Don Aronow, Matt Meltzer, Miami Beach 411, September 18, 2007
• Rock around the States: Don Aronow by Antonio Soccol

Persondata
Name	Aronow, Donald
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 3, 1927
Place of birth	Brooklyn, New York, United States
Date of death	February 3, 1987
Place of death	Miami, Florida, United States