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South Florida has a far more extensive history of organized crime – and waves of victims – than is widely known.
Some of the most tragic cases involve young victims, some of whom were completely innocent and some not so much, but none deserving of being murdered. In each case, we have found that they were either direct threats to organized crime or retribution and messages to adults who were.
Our volunteer team of organized crime cold case investigators have discovered cases of apparently accidental deaths, and cases of allegedly “missing” persons, that seem be homicides. Some cases are officially “unsolved” and some are officially “closed” but, as we have found, closed inaccurately or incompletely.
The cases we work on get our focus precisely because we see reason to believe that they are wrongly on the way towards being officially forgotten, virtually erased. In almost all the cases we are working on, there was no official effort on them whatsoever when we embarked on them. The missing person cases of friends Russ Rolnick and Alan Hirsch are among them. In shining a light on their case from decades ago we help to insure that it will not be forgotten, and it will not be erased.
Over four decades ago, on Feb. 24, 1984, 26-year-old Russ Rolnick went missing along with his friend Alan Hirsch. The official story is that the two young men left a waterfront bar in Coconut Grove in Miami, intoxicated, took their small boat from the marina there into a violent storm, and they were lost at sea.
The boat and the victims are said to never have been seen again. Extensive searches by multiple agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard, focusing on the area of the ocean to the south of Coconut Grove, found nothing. Russ’ father was personally involved in demanding that the search continue in that direction.
Media interest waned and the official story never changed. Our team has uncovered information that refutes key details of the long-publicized story. Are Russ Rolnick and Alan Hirsch truly “missing persons?” Were they “lost at sea?” Or are they two more cases of no-body homicides, victims of organized crime?
We discovered information and leads that were never included in any official investigation. Here is a public release overview.
The victims and their boat were not lost at sea. They did not head into a storm out of the Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove. The boat was found about 20 miles north of Coconut Grove. It was along the banks of the Intracoastal Waterway near Haulover in northeast Miami-Dade County. They had just purchased gasoline from the gas station at the Broad Causeway, just south of Haulover. The paper receipt of their purchase speaks for itself.
The empty boat was found by a man on the Intracoastal shore, and he took it to his home in nearby North Miami Beach. He later sold the boat, which was then trailered to Georgia.
We tracked down the people and the boat, but its travels and eventual destination were not nearly as important as the location where it was found along the banks of the Intracoastal in northeast Miami-Dade, far from Coconut Grove and certainly not in the Atlantic Ocean.
Official investigations were deficient or derailed, or both. The prior activities of the victims were never publicly exposed or considered in the “search” for them. The background of Russ family also was not explored. Both of those areas of investigation reveal significant facts, even now.
On Jan. 20, 1984, Russ sent a note to his Dad saying, “I’m going to make you proud of me in the near future.”
We found that Russ’ father was Martin “Marty” Rolnick. Marty constantly carried two firearms and performed numerous tasks for organized crime including arranging for murders. He was a close associate of Meyer Lansky for many years. Meetings at the Lansky home near Gulfstream in Hallandale have been documented.
Our investigation included newly found records and new live interviews with close relatives of Russ Rolnick, the discovery of documents linking key people and events, and piecing together information that reveals the circumstances surrounding the demise of the two young men.
Russ had been involved with bringing cocaine and girls by boat to a yacht at the Turnberry Isle Marina in northeast Miami-Dade County. The yacht, named Monkey Business, later became international news. In 1987, it was where presidential candidate Gary Hart was set up so that he would be removed from the presidential campaign. The Gary Hart/Donna Rice scandal resulted in Hart’s withdrawal from the presidential race.
These two young men certainly are not the only young people whose lives may have ended at the hands of organized crime due to its tactics of concealment, protection, corruption, and retribution.
There are people out there today, perhaps still around in locations we have noted in the case such as Miami, Sunny Isles, Aventura, Turnberry, North Miami, Bay Harbor, who have personal knowledge and may be willing to share it now, all these decades later.
We are listening, make contact.
A salute with deep appreciation expressed here for key cold case volunteers Harvey Lisker, Anthony Blate, Joseph Graubart and David Graubart, who are dedicated to justice and tireless in their efforts. The connections that have been unearthed among numerous cases is a powerful tool in getting to the facts in all of them. We thank everyone who sends input, information, and encouragement for the team’s work.
Visit paulnovacklaw.com.
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