Dear Don,
Here are some pretty good shots which I hope will bring back some pretty good memories. I
included one signed shot in your packet for [Aronow's pilot] Randy [Riggs]. Also am enclosing a
set of picture [sic] for Willie not having his address or knowing how he spells Myers? Will you
please give them to him and thank him for his part in our wonderful outing. He is quite a guy and I
learned a lot from him on the way up to Miami from the Keys.
Again Don this day was one of the greatest of my life. I love boats, always have. But ever since
knowing you that private side of my life has become ever more exciting and fulfilling. Incidentally,
I didn't get to tell you but my reliable 28 footer Cigarette that is, still doing just fine...no trouble at
all and the new last year engines.
All the best to you and all your exciting ventures. May all your boats bee [sic] number one and may
the hosres [sic] be not far behind.
At the end of this message, before his signature, Bush wrote in by hand, "My typing stinks." [fn 7]
As a result of this outing, Bush is said to have used his influence to see to it that Aronow received a
lucrative contract to build the Blue Thunder catamarans at $150,000 apiece for the US Customs
Service. This contract was announced with great fanfare in Miami on February 4, 1985, and was
celebrated a week later in a public ceremony in which Florida Senator Paula Hawkins and USCustoms Commissioner William von Raab mugged for photographers together with Aronow. The (^)
government purchase was hyped as the first time that the Customs would receive boats especially
designed and built to intercept drug runners on the high seas, a big step forward in the war on drugs.
This was the same George Bush who in March, 1988 hadealers on US or foreign soil." d stated: "I will never bargain with drug
As one local resident recalled of that time, "everyone in Miami knew that if you needed a favor
from Bush, you spoke to Aronow." [fn 8] It was proverbial among Florida pols and powerbrokers
that Aronow had the vice president's ear.
The Customs soon found that the Blue Thunder catamarans were highly unseaworthy and highly
unsuitable for the task of chasing down other speedboats, including above all Aronow's earlier
model Cigarette boats, which were now produced by a company not controlled by Aronow. Blue
Thunder was relatively slow class, capable of a top speed of onlpresence of twin 440-horsepower marine engines. The design of the catamaran hulls lacked anyy 56 miles per hour, despite the (^)
hydrodynamic advantages, and the boats were too heavy to attain sufficient lift. The stern drives
were too weak for the powerful engines, leading to the problem of "grenading" : when the drive
shafts severed, which was often, the engines began to rev far beyond their red line, leading to the
explosion or dithrough the boat. This meant that the boats had to be kept well below their maximum speed. Mostsintegration of the engines and the sharpnel-like scattering of red-hot steel fragments
Blue Thunders spent more time undergoing repairs than chasing drug runners in the coastal waters
of Florida. Blue Thunder was in boating parlance "wet," a complete lemon, useful only for photo
opportunities and publicity shots.
Documents found by Burdick in the Dade County land records office show that USA Racing, the
company operated by Aronow which built the Blue Thunder catamarans for the Customs service
was not owned by Aronow, but rather by a one Jack J. Kramer in his capacity of president of Super
Chief South Corporation. Jack Kramer had married a niece of Meyer Lansky. Jack Kramer's son
Ben Kramer was thus the great nephew and one of the putative heirs of the top boss of the US crime