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The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Each week, The Murder Book will present unsolved cases, missing persons, notorious crimes, controversial cases, and serial killers, exploring details of the crime scenes and the murderer's childhood. Some episodes are translated into Spanish as well. The podcast is produced and hosted by Kiara Coyle.
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Stan Cohen Murder Case Part II
What happens when a criminal defense attorney crosses the line from defending clients to joining their illicit activities? Our latest Murder Book episode explores the gripping story of Stan Cohen’s life and untimely death, set against the backdrop of Miami’s 1980s underworld. We'll introduce you to two criminal defense attorneys with very different approaches: the ethical powerhouse Alan Ross and the dangerously entangled Frank Lino Diaz. Discover how the lucrative drug trade blurred the lines between legality and crime, ultimately shaping Miami's legal landscape.
Stan Cohen built a thriving career in Miami’s booming construction industry. His journey from high school hallways to university frat houses laid the foundation for lifelong friendships and professional success. Alongside his business partner and fraternity brother Marvin Sheldon, Stan's SAC Construction Company left a lasting mark on Miami's skyline. But while his career soared, his personal life was a rollercoaster of marriages, bachelor escapades, and loyal connections with friends like Len Levenstein.
When love struck, Stan’s whirlwind romance with Joyce MacDillon led to an elegant wedding that seamlessly blended their differing traditions. Their life in Coconut Grove, filled with family and fraternity bonds, was highlighted by unforgettable fraternity spearfishing tournaments. The shared adventures and enduring friendships within the fraternity painted a picture of camaraderie and loyalty. Tune in to uncover how these elements of Stan’s life set the stage for the dramatic events that ensued.
Thank you, welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, kiara, and this is episode two of the Murder of Stan Cohen. Let's begin. Joyce and Stan Cohen were a couple whose philosophy matched perfectly with Miami's. Miami is a town where people are awed by money as a status symbol of achievement. In Miami, rich always meant new rich. There simply was no old money and few old families to set any standards of restraint or taste and fuel families to set any standards of restraint or taste. Life was an exquisitive race with success measured strictly in material terms. A popular maxim embossed on designer T-shirts and smug little wall plaques and fancy Miami homes said it all he who dies with the most toys wins. It was a game Stan and Joyce were eager to play and win.
Speaker 1:By 1980, miami was awash in money, some of it profits of legitimate commerce. How much from the illicit, you know, but much was from the illicit drug trade. Geographically and culturally, the northernmost capital of the Caribbean, miami was the port of entry for most South American drug traffic. It was a wholesale market that spooned money like a geyser. Drug money flooded South Florida banks and fueled lavish consumer spending banks and fueled lavish consumer spending. Pricey imported cars, enormous houses, huge yachts, even personal jets. After busting a respected Miami businessman for smuggling, federal marshals were astonished to discover a fully equipped nightclub on a subterranean floor of a slavish Coral Gables home.
Speaker 1:Inevitably, the lucrative smuggling trade spawned a new breed of Miami criminal defense attorney the drug lawyer. It began in the heyday of marijuana. Everyone who was busted needed a lawyer. Most of the arrests took place in South Florida port of entry for an estimated 80% of America's imported grass. Sometimes they were made further up the distribution line in southern states, though. You know through which pot was transported to retailers and big cities up north. But whenever the busts went down, it was usually a Miami drug lawyer who got the call to defend the arrested. Their names became talismans on the lips of pilots and drivers offloaders, mules, smurfs and their bosses. As their legal reputations grew, so did their fees Always upfront, always cash. To pay their lawyers' fees, clients sometimes had to throw in property too Deeds to houses, titles to expensive boats, luxury cars, even airplanes but the clients didn't complain. Cars, even airplanes, but the clients didn't complain. Legal defense fees were just a small cost of doing business in the enormously lucrative smuggling trade.
Speaker 1:Attorney Alan Ross was a founding father of the Miami drug lawyer clique. He established his reputation with one big win in Key West. With one big win in Key West, alan Ross's law firm sent him there to represent a small-timer, a man who was picked up with a semi loaded with something like 35,000 pounds of marijuana driving north on US 1, the only artery between Key West and the Florida Peninsula. The defense the driver didn't know what was in the trailer. The cops were not impressed, especially since the man's clothing was covered with what looked like marijuana residue, most likely obtained when he helped load the bills into the trailer.
Speaker 1:Alan Ross tried the case before a jury in Key West. He asked the arresting officers whether they had actually smelled the odor of marijuana in the alleged marijuana residue on the defendant's clothing. So the answer was no, they didn't. When the jury was sent into the tiny jury room to deliberate, ross made sure a bale of the grass that had been seized in the arrest went with them. Look at it, touch it, smell it, ross urged the jurors. Then you decide whether my client could possibly have been covered with marijuana residue if the officers didn't smell it on him.
Speaker 1:As the jurors deliberated, ross pondered his gambit. Fresh marijuana, he knew, has little scent, but deceased head bales had been moldering for months in custody. The marijuana now reeked with an unmistakable pungent odor. He could have negotiated a plea for his client but he thought this was worth the gamble. The jury returned verdict not guilty, of course, this being Key West. Some of the marijuana disappeared from the evidence bill in the jury room during the deliberations there was an investigation into the jury's conduct, but the verdict stood and Ross's client went free. He returned to the community in which he lived and worked and spread the gospel of Alan Ross to his friends and colleagues.
Speaker 1:Suddenly Ross was a big gun, miami drug lawyer At age 27,. One year out of law school, soon Ross was getting drug trials over the Southeast along with his colleagues from Miami. They all wound up in the first class section of the last Eastern Airlines flight back to Miami, swapping war stories, having a few drinks, joking with the flight attendants, usually celebrating victories. But much as Alan Ross enjoyed his practice, he followed one unbearable rule Never get involved with your clients. No business deals with clients, nor entertaining clients, not even having dinner with a client. He knew any involvement could lead to big trouble. For a criminal defense lawyer the only sure way to avoid problems was to follow the ironclad rule. One Miami lawyer who followed no such rule was Frank Lino Diaz, known as Frankie. Frankie not only socialized with his clients, he went into business deals with them.
Speaker 1:Diaz helped drug trafficker Joe Rodriguez buy into a Miami auto agency that imported expensive Jaguars, porsches, bmws all these and Diaz bought himself a piece of the deal while he was at it. Diaz also set up Jamboni, an offshore corporation for the infamous Lainey Jacobs Greenberger, a Miami cocaine trafficker known by the Spanish nickname La Rubia for her blonde hair. Later, greenberger was convicted of ordering the murder of promoter Roy Rathen the so-called Cotton Club murder, rather than the so-called Cotton Club murder. She was also a suspect in the slaying of her drug-trafficking husband, larry Greenberger, in Okeechobee, florida, and eventually Diaz himself was indicted in Miami federal court on a long string of charges, including conspiracy, perjury, mail fraud, bank fraud and witness bribery. Diaz faked his own kidnapping and simply disappeared. Alan Ross, meanwhile, kept his nose clean and his reputation as one of Miami's top criminal defense lawyers intact. But both Ross and Diaz, like Stan and Joyce Cohen, were traveling in Miami's fast lane and it was perhaps inevitable that their paths would cross. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:The Miami drug scene changed radically during the 1980s when cocaine replaced marijuana as the favorite smuggling commodity. Coke is less bulky, easier to conceal, much more lucrative. But the coke traffickers were a different breed from the laid-back marijuana smugglers of the 1970s. Coke deals are done in blood. Not coincidentally, miami became the murder capital of America. In 1980-81, a record of 1,180 murders were committed in Dade County, many related directly or indirectly to the vicious turf wars of rival gangs of Colombian cocaine cowboys.
Speaker 1:The extraordinary crime wave didn't touch the lives of most people from Miami. For Stan and Joyce Cohen and their friends, life was good. Summers were spent cruising the warm waters of Biscayne Bay in Stan's 55-foot boat or at Tony Ocean Reef Resort on Key Largo, or partying in the Bahamas. There were trips to the Caribbean, sometimes on Stan's own jet. The annual Good Friends Party marked the beginning of the Coen's winter social season. They always lined up a great band, good food, plenty of liquor.
Speaker 1:In 1985, the Good Friends Party was held at the Grove Isle Club, a luxurious private club on exclusive Grove Isle and Biscayne Bay. Window walls provided a fabulous view of the southern end of the Miami skyline and the lights of the Rickenbacker Causeway, a sparkling strand across the bay to Key Biscayne. The Coens arrived at the party late. Their social calendar was crowded and they made a dramatic entrance Wearing a tuxedo. Stan looked prosperous and distinguished, his graying temples contrasting nicely with his Florida tan. Joyce was an absolute knockout in a glittering white floor length gown. Absolute knockout in a glittering white floor length gown. With her glossy black hair, dark almond eyes and dazzling smile, she looked like an exotic Polynesian beauty. A photographer snapped them together holding hands. The smiling couple strolled among their friends until it was time to move on to the next party.
Speaker 1:After the festivities, the Coens flew to Wolf Run Ranch, their 650-acre vacation retreat in Stimble Springs. Their Colorado winters were filled with skiing, parties, dinners, friends and family. The Coems, it seemed, had a perfect life. Now there is what is called sack construction. That is Stan's business. Instead, cohen rode his Bronco from one job site to another over South Florida, checking on supervisors in the field, watching subcontractors, always pushing, sometimes bullying. His mere physical presence exuded power and control. Although he stood only 5 feet 10, his barrowed chest and strong build make him seem taller. Stan was not really a handsome man. His sandy brown hair streaked with gray was an unruly bush to which he gave only casual attention. He had a smirky smile and squinty brown eyes. That could be friendly or it could be cold, but he dominated every room he entered through the cheer force of his personality. Even those who didn't like him agree that Stan Coim had charisma. Stack Construction Company was the epicenter of Stan Coen's empire. He was a self-made man and proud of it. Like many Miamians.
Speaker 1:Coen's family came to Miami seeking a better life. Stan, the eldest son, had made that dream come true. Stan, the eldest son, had made that dream come true In 1948, when Julius Cohen, a New York furrier known as Julie, moved his family to Miami wife Frances, son Stanley, 14, author 3, and daughter Barbara called Bobby age 10. Since there was little demand for a furrier in Miami's steamy climate, julie and Frances Cohen opened a women's clothing store, the Little Cotton Shop, in downtown Miami. The store provided a bare living for the Cohens.
Speaker 1:But for young Stan, after growing up on Long Island, miami was a delight, an exotic subtropical seaside city. Stan loved outdoor sports and in South Florida's eternal summer the games overlapped seamlessly. Stan made friends, mostly the sons of middle-class Jewish families like his own, and they play something baseball, football, basketball nearly every day in the city's public parks. The Coems had little money but Stan and his friends always had some cash because they worked hard at after-school jobs delivering newspapers, sweeping floors, washing dishes, stocking shelves. They brought the bus downtown to the movies On Sundays another bus took them across the causeway to Miami Beach, the narrow strip of sand where they swam in the Atlantic's warm blue surf and rough house on the Golden Beach. Warm blue surf and rough house on the Golden Beach.
Speaker 1:When Stan graduated from Miami High in 1951, he had one goal the tree-shaded, red-brick colonial campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, a small town in the rolling hills of Alashua County in rural Central Florida. He pledged Pai Lam Davai, the Jewish fraternity favored by Mayimians. The Pai Lam Brotherhood included Arthur Sheldon and his brother Marvin, who later became Stan's business partner at Sack Construction Company, bob Shevin, president of the fraternity and later attorney general of Florida, fred Wasserman, who became a successful Miami dentist, len Levenstein, a future Miami attorney, and Bob Salzman, a Miami physician. Theirs was an especially close-knit group. Decades later they worked together together, refer business to each other, still call each other by fraternity nicknames and treasure their friendship and their sons also pledged by lamp. Stan cohen's fraternity nickname, which followed him all his life was Crusher. Stan had a habit of sneaking up behind a buddy and squeezing the breath out of him in a massive bear hug rabbit, punching an arm or chopping his neck just his way of showing affection.
Speaker 1:At the university, stan met a girl, a nice Jewish girl from New York named Martha. Martha was content to follow Stan's boisterous lead and the couple married while they were still in school. Stan graduated in 1956 with a degree in civil engineering and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Transportation Corps stationed in Kansas. By then Martha Cohen was already pregnant with her son Gary J Coimbe, who was born on November 3, 1956. By the time, daughter Jerry Sue Coimbe was born on February 6, 1959, stan's army hitch was up and the Coems were ready to come home to Miami. Stan took a job at Fidelity Construction, a company located in an industrial area northwest of the city. By coincidence, old Pilanda fraternity brother, marvin Sheldon, who had earned a building construction degree, work only three blocks away at Webb Construction. Marvin had also married a University of Florida co-ed named Anne. Anne had known Martha slightly in the women's dorm at the university and liked her.
Speaker 1:Now the Coems began to socialize with the Sheldons, playing cards together on Saturday nights in their small apartments while their young children slept nearby. There was no money for babysitters or restaurants or movies. They were young and poor, but they optimistically planned successful futures in Miami. Stan and Marvin began to talk about going into business together someday. Stan and Marvin began to talk about going into business together someday.
Speaker 1:Then, in 1963, stan saw the opportunity he had been waiting for. His boss at Fidelity Construction decided to go out of business. Stan found an investor and scraped together enough money to form a new firm Sack Construction Company Stanley Allen Coem's initials. As soon as he got some work, he asked Marvin Sheldon to join him as a partner. Marvin was delighted. They were ready to build Miami. Theirs was a partnership that worked. Stan was the hustler, the hard-charging front man who brought deals in the floor. Marvin, a quiet, amiable, easy-going guy despite his burly appearance. A quiet, amiable, easygoing guy despite his burly appearance, was the conscientious, detailed man, priced the jobs, negotiated the contracts. Once the contracts were signed, stan made sure the job got done. The timing had been good.
Speaker 1:Miami was growing rapidly. The early 1960s saw the beginning of a trickle which would turn into a flood Immigrants. It started, of course, with Castro's takeover of Cuba. Thousands of Cubans fled to Miami and the strain threatened to rupture the young city's infrastructure of health care, housing utilities and schools. But where others saw problems, stan Cohen saw opportunity. Over the next 20 years SAC Construction built schools, car dealerships, hospitals, warehouses, strip shopping centers all kinds of commercial buildings. The company prospered.
Speaker 1:One of SAC's most celebrated projects was the new courthouse for the 3rd District Court of Appeal, a $1.6 million project at the edge of the Florida Turnpike in Western Dade County, near the Florida International University campus. Judge Thomas Bardot of the 3rd District Court of Appeal worked closely with Stan during construction of the new courthouse and was impressed by his competence and enthusiasm. Stan was on the job site every morning, cheerful, friendly and as he had promised he made sure the job was done right. When the building was finished it won the Florida Governor's Award for Architectural Excellence. Stan Cohen was proud of that courthouse.
Speaker 1:But as his career gained momentum, stan's marriage deteriorated. Finally, martha filed for divorce. For divorce, the children, gary and Jerry, continued to live with Martha in a modest home in the suburban Whispering Pines development and Martha went to work as a bookkeeper. After the divorce, stan moved quickly into the single scene in Miami's bars and he went through a string of sexy young girlfriends, one of whom he claimed was a former Playboy Bunny. There was a brief, tumultuous second marriage, a third that none of his friends knew about, and then another frenetic bachelorhood Stan and a buddy, charlie Wilmont, established a bachelor pad at 2120 Tigertail Avenue, an aptly named thoroughfare that twists languidly through the lush Miami suburb of Coconut Grove. They put a big stone sign out front that read Stan and Charlie's, and it became a social landmark of sorts in the Grove.
Speaker 1:Stan and Charlie fell in with a group of about 20 single guys in the Grove, mostly new bachelors with at least one marriage behind them and enough money to enjoy the single life. Guys like Ed Smith, a self-made man who rose to success at the Poole Kent Company, a mechanical contracting firm in Miami. Smith was recently divorced from his wife, with whom he had three children. Stan helped Ed Smith renovate his bachelor quarters just down the street from Stan and Charlie's. The bachelors in the Grove were joined by Len Levenstein, an old Pile-Lamp buddy from Stan's college days. Also divorced, levenstein had a successful law practice in Miami but, like nearly everyone else in town, it seemed he wanted to get into real estate development. Stan built a strip shop in Center for Land and a bar named the Checkmate Lounge, which became a hotspot for live jazz. Hanging out at the bar, listening to jazz, as they talked and shared beers, stan and Len renewed their college friendship.
Speaker 1:Soon, len recruited Stan as a partner in his favorite sport, big time gambling. With Len's tutelage, stan caught on quickly. They play only blackjack, taking over the table running several hands at once. They always play in partnership and they call each other by movie star nicknames Stan was Butch Cassidy and Len was the Sundance Kid. Together they gamble all over the world Las Vegas, the Caribbean, monte Carlo, world, las Vegas, the Caribbean, monte Carlo. They went on gambling junkets regularly or expensive pay, and they usually took dates. Then Stan finally found someone who made him happy again Joyce, the lovely young woman who became the fourth, mrs Cohen. His life was back on track by the 1980s.
Speaker 1:Stan Cohen was an established Miami success story, a version of local boy makes good. Sack Construction Company had make him rich and he rode Sack to the pinnacle of the Miami construction industry. First he was vice president and president of the South Florida Chapter of Associated General Contractors, the most prestigious professional organization for contractors. He also served as trustee for the organization's pension plan. Inevitably Stan made some enemies in the rough-edge Miami construction trade. He first drew fire as a union buster when he made SAC Construction a non-union shop and there were always disgruntled owners, developers, subcontractors, with whom Stan clashed, sometimes violently. Some of his competitors grumbled that Stan made his money by cutting corners and manipulating construction draws, but nothing seemed to worry Stan. He was riding high and life was good.
Speaker 1:Project managers Ben Abernathy and Jack Jan had come to work for SAC Construction in 1979. Ben tried hard to be just like Stan. If the supervisor was having problems getting men to work on the job, ben would yell at them to get them moving, just like Stan did. He even dressed like Stan and he volunteered to do personal favors for the boss, like taking Joyce Cohen to the airport or to pick up her car somewhere. Ben liked the glamorous Mrs Cohen, but he never felt he really knew her. She was friendly but reserved, not as outgoing as Marvin Sheldon's wife Anne, who always laughed and joked with everyone when she dropped by the SAC construction office. Ben Avernathy knew Stan Cohen was just crazy about his wife like everyone else.
Speaker 1:The bus hung a large gilt-framed photo portrait of her in his office, taken when she was a bride. It was an evocative portrayal Shoulder-length dark hair flowed around her face. Joyce Cohen gazed pensively into the distance over her bare left shoulder a diamond pendant on a thin gold chain circling her neck. Her dark, white set eyes had an exotic tilt. Her full central lips curved slightly in an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile. But despite the artistry, joyce's face seemed curiously closed, a mask that concealed rather than revealed. What's this woman? Betty wondered when he gazed at her picture in the bus.
Speaker 1:Joyce Cohen was a woman who had everything Beauty, style, plenty of money, a career as an interior decorator, a husband who loved her and a comfortable family life. Been Joyce LeMay MacDillon, a secretary at a sack construction project, a divorcee struggling to support her five-year-old son Sean. No one knew much about Joyce. She just seemed to drop into their lives. But Stan's friends had never seen him so happy.
Speaker 1:One night Stan arranged a dinner at Chez Vendôme, an elegant French restaurant in Coral Gabers, and it was an engagement party of sorts. Stan wanted his friends to meet the woman he had decided to marry. She was attractive, charming, affectionate, obviously devoted to Stan. His friends liked her immediately. A few weeks later Stan called his pal Len Levenstein and told him he was ready to marry Joyce MacDillon. Len took charge of the wedding plans for his friend. He called his casino connections in Las Vegas and got a two-bedroom penthouse suite at the Dunes Hotel. And just the four of them were flying out Stan and Joyce, len and his girlfriend, a tall, pretty vivacious blonde, whom everyone calls CJ instead of her given name, cheryl Jane. Cj was outgoing and friendly and she liked Joyce immediately and it was a happy group.
Speaker 1:Once they arrived in Las Vegas, lynn got a marriage license for Stan and Joyce and then found a preacher to perform the wedding ceremony in the Lavish Dunes Hotel Suite. He was the Reverend Bob Richards, whose name was the same as that of a famous athlete, a pole vaulter. Len's next project was a ring for Joyce and he told Stan you got to get her a diamond. And Stan agreed and they all went shopping. Joyce chose a traditional wedding set a gold engagement ring with a modest diamond and a plain gold wedding band. When the rings were worn together they made a design like a little J which appealed to Joyce. It was her first diamond. Stem didn't want a wedding band for himself. He always wore two favorite gold rings his college class ring and a ring made with the initials SAC.
Speaker 1:Len Levenstein planned the wedding ceremony and the party afterward in the suite he ordered acres of flowers, groaning platters of food and cases of Dom Perignon champagne. Len invited all the Mayanians to Stan's wedding and the guest list climbed. Joyce was delighted. It was more like a big glamorous party than a wedding. There were a hundred people at my wedding. She said it was exciting.
Speaker 1:The wedding was pure Las Vegas A penthouse hotel suite, a civil ceremony performed by a preacher with the name of a poll voter, uniting a divorced Catholic and a thrice-divorced Jew, attended by gambling junketeers. The beautiful young bride wore a long pink three-piece neat ensemble. The stocky middle-aged groom wore a rust-colored leisure suit and a loud print shirt no tie. It was, len Levenstein's thought, a nice little ceremony, following Jewish tradition. He put a wine glass at the couple's feet and he said you gotta break the glass. And Stan did. That was December 5th 1974. Stan Cohen was 40. The fourth Mrs Cohen was 24. She was Stan's friend, thought just what he needed and they knew Stan would be good to her. Stan wrapped his big arms around Joyce and said Babe, I'm going to take care of you. Stan adopted Joyce's young son, sean, the child of her prior marriage. That gave him a total of four children Gary J Cohen and Jerry Sue Cohen, the children from his first marriage to Martha Michael Cohen, the adopted son of his second wife and now Sean Cohen.
Speaker 1:Stan found an impressive house for his new family a Miami landmark at 1665 South Bayshore Drive, a prestigious address in the suburb of Coconut Grove. A prestigious address in the suburb of Coconut Grove. In the Grove, one of Miami's oldest neighborhoods, small wooden cottages and huge old Spanish stucco mansions nestled together in dense foliage along narrow, winding tree canopied lanes with names like Leafy Way and Bay Homes Drive lanes with names like Leafy Way and Bayhomes Drive. But the real ambience of the Grove was its bohemian nature. Once an artist's colony, it retained a funkiness that even the recent gentrification of the neighborhood could not entirely obscure, and the Grove had always had a reputation for tolerance of the drug scene.
Speaker 1:The house was large and, by Miami standards, very old, built in 1916-1918, when Miami was only 20 years old, a small town on Biscayne Bay near the mouth of the Miami River, and Coconut Grove was just a cluster of homes further south on the bay, looming above the BC intersection of South Bayshore and Southwest 17th Avenue. The house was built entirely of limestone, which locals call coral rock, which locals call Coral Rock. Its foundation melded into the exposed limestone ridge of Silver Bluff. But despite its size and solidity, there was something romantic and mysterious about the old place. When the house was finally released for sale by the previous owner's estate, stan bought it for $125,000. The price seemed like a bargain, but the interior was in terrible shape Cupwebs everywhere, broken windows, gaping holes in the hardwood floors, antique wiring and plumbing and leaks in the roofamps'. Friends joked that there was so much to be done in the house that only a contractor could afford to buy it.
Speaker 1:As soon as the basic repairs were completed, joyce set about decorating her new home. It was a daunting task, but she learned fast. She had an eye for rich, soft colors and subtle patterns and she chose the very best in fabrics, furniture and carpets. When she was finished, a thick, luxurious cream color area rug covered the polished hardwood floor. In the formal living room, two love seats and a matching sofa in a soft floral design were arranged before the stone fireplace, jadrove porcelain figurines and candelabra adorned the mantel and there were antique clocks in the living room and foyer. The crowning touch was a baby grand piano, which neither Joyce nor Stan knew how to play. Upstairs, smoke mirrors covered the master bedroom wall. Behind a huge brass bed, small oriental rugs assented the hardwood floor. The French doors leading to the outdoor terrace facing Biscayne Bay were hung with custom-made heavy brocade balances and drapes in a rich blue and gold pattern that matched the bed covers. The total effect was quaint, charming, rather country-French, relaxed and comfortable, yet elegant. Everyone who saw what Joyce had done with the old house agreed that she had a flair for decorating. Because of the success with the house, joyce decided to enroll in interior decorating classes at Miami Dade Community College.
Speaker 1:Sean Cohen loved the big house on South Bayshore Drive. South Bayshore Drive. His bedroom was on the first floor in a separate wing, and there was a small room attached to the old garage behind the house where he played army games. Beyond a big stone wall in the backyard was a field where he could throw a softball or football with Stan, and there were secret places in the house A tiny cupboard in his mother's bathroom where she hid his Christmas gifts and a little room behind a door under the stairs to the master suite. There were stories about treasures or bodies buried beneath the house. Sometimes strangers stopped by to ask if they could dig in the front yard or under the foundation for treasure. Stan always laughs and says no. Stan loved what his wife had done with their new home and together with Joyce he spent even more money to fill it with antiques and knickknacks. Pick up on their travels in the Bahamas, the Caribbean Islands, mexico and Colorado. To keep the big house running, the housekeeper and groundskeeper were hired and quartered in the cottage next to the main house. The housekeeper cooked most of Sean's meals.
Speaker 1:At Joyce's urging, sean was enrolled in Gulliver Academy, an expensive private school in Miami. Joyce settled easily into the life of an affluent Miami wife. She learned where to shop for gourmet groceries, expensive trinkets and designer clothes. She was right at home in the Grove, which had become a mecca for the trendy new rich. But the Grove was also home to some of Miami's most desperately poor. The trendy new boutiques rocked shoulders with old neighborhood establishments like the Crest 5x10, which had been run by the same Grove family since 1933. Because nearly all the Grove was a high crime area, the crest stuck some unusual items. Alongside the t-shirts and toiletries was a rack of handheld stun guns that delivered 120,000 volts of electricity from a 9-volt battery. The store had a hard time keeping the guns in stock at $89.95 a piece, like nearly everywhere else in the gruff.
Speaker 1:The Coimbs neighborhood was plagued with breakings and robberies and Joyce was afraid to be alone in the big house at night. She heard noises to be alone in the big house at night. She heard noises creaking floorboards, branches rusting against the roof. Even Stan's grown son, gary, felt the spookiness of the old house Whenever he stayed there alone. He always kept a baseball bat next to his bed at night, at his wife's insistence. No-transcript. There was a perimeter alarm and separately controlled motion and sound sensors. Panic buttons could be reached from the co-em's big brass bed upstairs. If there was a break-in, an audible alarm would ring and a call was sent to the 911 emergency operator automatically. The system was monitored 24 hours a day. The system was monitored 24 hours a day. Finally, the Coems added a big Doberman pincher to the family as pet and protection.
Speaker 1:As Stan's wife's wife, joyce was quickly swept up in the social life of Miami's affluent. Her winter scene revolved around snow, the hardpack base, that deep powder of ski slopes in the Rockies. She and Stan belonged to the Miami Ski Club, which boasted 2,500 members and was said to be the largest snow ski club in America, ironically located in subtropical Miami. Fit, strong and naturally athletic, joyce became an excellent skier. Fit, strong and naturally athletic, joyce became an excellent skier. Stan was pleased and proud of his pretty young wife's prowess. Because of numerous accidents and injuries to his ankles and knees, he could barely turn on skis, but he was absolutely fearless, barreling downhill at breakneck speed.
Speaker 1:The Miami Ski Club sponsors seven ski trips each year. The destinations Aspen, vail, snowmass, snowbird, sun Valley, streamboat Springs all the big resorts. Many Ski Club members had vacation homes in Aspen, vail and Streamboat Springs where they hosted ski parties during the trips. At the start of the ski season each year, the club put on a fashion show in which members modeled the latest upscale ski wear and fur jackets, coats and hats. The show was always near professional quality, with flashy dance routines choreographed to the pounding beat of current rock hits. In one year's show, joyce modeled a form-fitting black ensemble as she danced clutching prop manacles in both hands to destroy the Manhunt number from the Flashdance movie soundtrack. The skate club parties continued during the summer months. Members took their boats out to Stiltsville, a unique collection of party houses on tall stilts in the middle of Biscayne Bay, which could only be reached by boating through a narrow channel across the flats.
Speaker 1:One South Florida event that Stan Joyce and her pals never missed was the Columbus Day Regatta, the largest floating party in Florida. From its rather sedate beginning in 1954 as a race for 25 sailboats in honor of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, the event swelled to 700 racing boats and an additional 1,500 spectator boats. It was organized chaos. Like most of their friends, stan and Joyce motored down to watch the race and party. They were power boaters, not sailors. Beginning early on the second Saturday in October, up to 20 separate fleets of sailboats crossed the starting line and raced south along a zigzagging course to the finish at Elliot Key, nearly 25 miles to the south. Each fleet had a separate start time and an individual course from marker to marker down the bay and an individual course from marker to marker down the bay.
Speaker 1:Stan loved water sports and decided to organize a special event for his buddies, something he called the Jews vs the Christians Spirit Fishing Tournament. Stan was the captain of the Jews and his pal Ed Smith led the Christians. The Jews team thought they were culturally disadvantaged as fishermen, so they were out to prove their mettle. Stan's team comprised his sack construction partner Marvin Sheldon, marvin's brother Arthur and son Eric, and Dr Fred Wasserman, another Pylamp fraternity. Brother Wasserman, now a successful Miami dentist, was a happily married family man with two children in a large, tasteful home in suburban Miami. He stayed in close touch with his fraternity buddies, especially Stan Cohen, with whom he skied in the winter, fished in the summer. Wasserman, still fondly asked, called Stan Crusher, like his whole fraternity nickname For his team, the Jews. Stan ordered t-shirts and blazoned with each member's initials. When the team members lined themselves up in large letters on their T-shirts it spelled J-E-W-S Jews. The team used Arthur Sheldon's fishing boat with Stan as a driver, fred Wasserman dental practice partner and Dr Lavinstein as the lookout partner and Dr Lavinstein as the lookout. After three years the spearfishing tournament ended in a draw. Wasserman kept the final tournament photograph of his teammates squinting into the sun, arms around each other's shoulders, white shirts with red letters spelling J-E-W-S spelling J-E-W-S against the blue backdrop of sky in Biscayne Bay. Teen captains then co-imgranted into the camera so strong, so vital.
Speaker 1:Eric and Dr Fred Wasserman, another Pylamp fraternity. Brother Wasserman, now a successful Miami dentist, was a happily married family man with two children in a large, tasteful home in suburban Miami. He stayed in close touch with his fraternity buddies, especially Stan Cohen, with whom he skied in the winter, fishing the summer. Wasserman still fondly calls Stan Crusher, like his whole fraternity nickname For his team, the Jews. Stan ordered T-shirts and blazoned with each member's initials. When the team members lined themselves up in large letters on their T-shirts it spelled J-E-W-S. Jews. The team used Arthur Sheldon's fishing boat with Stan as a driver, fred Wasserman dental practice partner and Dr Lavinstein as the lookout. After three years, the spearfishing tournament ended in a draw. After three years, the spearfishing tournament ended in a draw. Wasserman kept the final tournament photograph of his teammates squinting into the sun, arms around each other's shoulders, white shirt with red letters spelling J-E-W-S against the blue backdrop of sky in Biscayne Bay backdrop of Skye and Biscayne Bay. Teen captain Stan Coimbe grinned into the camera so strong no-transcript.
