syndicate, Meyer Lansky. Ben Kramer was also a notorious organized crime figure in his own right.
On March 28, 1990 J(respectively) of federal money laundering charges. In the previous year, Ben Kramer had also beenack Kramer and Ben Kramer were both found guilty of 23 and 28 counts (^)
sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for having imported half a million pounds of
marijuana. Bush had thus given a prime contract in waging the war on drugs to one of the leading
drug-smuggling and money-laundering crime families in the US.
Don Aronow was murdered by Mafia-style professional killers on February 3, 1987. During the last
days of his life, Aronow is reported to have made numerous personal telephone calls to Bush.
Aronow had been aware that his life was in danger, and he had left a list of instructions to tell his
wife what to do if anything should happen to him. The first point on the list was "#1. CALL
GEORGE BUSH." [fn 9] Lpersonal call to the MetroDade Police Department homicide division to express his concern and toillian Aronow did call Bush, who reportedly responded by placing a (^)
request an expeditious handling of the case. Bush did not attend Aronow's funeral, but a month later
he sent a letter to Aronow's son Gavin in which he called the late Don Aronow "a hero."
When Lillian Aronow suspected that her telephone was being tapped, she called Bush, who urgedher to be calm and promised to order an investigation of the matter. Shortly after that, the suspicious (^)
noises in Mrs. Aronow's telephone ceased. When Lilian Aronow received reports that her husband
might have been murdered by rogue CIA operatives or other wayward federal agents and that she
herself and her children were still in danger, she shared her fears in a telephone call to Bush. Bush
reportedly later called Mrs. Aronow and, as she recalled, "He said to me, 'Lillian, you're fine.' Hesaid that 'ex-CIA people are really off.' That's the truth." [fn 10] Later, Mrs. Aronow heard that Gen. (^)
Noriega of Panama was interested in buying some of her boats, and she began to prepare a trip to
Panama in the hope of generating some orders. Before her departure, she says she called Bush who
advised her against making the trip because of Noreiga's involvement in "bad things." Mrs. Aronow
cancelled her reservations for Panama City. But in the summer of 1987, BusAronow by pointedly avoiding her at a Miami dinner party. But during this same period, Bushh snubbed Mrs. (^)
frequently went fishing with former Aronow employee Willie Meyers, whom he had mentioned in
the letter cited above. According to Thomas Burdick's sources, Willie Meyers was also a friend of
Secretary of State George Shultz, and often expressed concern about damaging publicity for Bush
and Shultz that might derive from the Aronow case.
According to Thomas Burdick, Meyers says that Bush talked to him about how the vice president's
staff was monitoring the Aronow investigation. Bush lamented that he did not have grounds to get
federal agencies involved. "I just wish," said Bush to Meyers, "that there was some federal aspect to
the murder. If the killers crossed state lines. Then I could get the FBI involved." [fn 11] Tthe argument is reminiscent of the views expressed by Bush and Tony Lapham during the Letelierhe form of
case.
In May or June of 1987, several months after Aronow had been killed, Mike Brittain, who owned a
company called Aluminum Marine Products, located on "Thunderboat Alley" in the northern part ofMiami (the same street where Aronow had worked), was approached by two FBI special agents,
Joseph Usher and John Donovan, both of the Miami FBI field office. They were accompanied by a
third FBI man, whom they presented as a member of George Bush's staff at the National Drug Task
Force in Washington DC. The third agent, reportedly named William Temple, had, according to the
other two, come to Miami on a special mission ordered by the Vice President of the United States.
As Brittain told his story to Burdick, Special Agent Temple "didn't ask about the murder or
anything like that. All he wanted to know about was the merger." [fn 12] The merger in question
was the assumption of control over Aronow's company, USA Racing, by the Kramers' Super Chief
South, which meant that a key contract in the Bush "war on drugs" had been awarded to a company