Abortion Issue Pulled 2 Parallel Lives To Fatal Meeting -- Griffin, Gunn: Men Were More Than Symbols

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Both grew up in middle-class, conservative, churchgoing families. Each was the father of two children, and each struggled with marital strife. Both were usually quiet and reserved, although each had a confrontational streak.

These two men - Michael Griffin and Dr. David Gunn - had this much in common, and one more thing: They were passionately involved in abortion.

But Gunn performed them and Griffin abhorred them, and that is why these parallel lives intersected, violently, at 10 a.m. last Wednesday, just behind the Women's Medical Services clinic in Pensacola.

In an instant, these two men became symbols. Abortion foes said they deplored violence, but that Gunn had "killed" thousands by performing abortions; the other side decried what it called anti-abortion terrorism.

But to their families, these they remain all-too-human beings.

Gunn, 47, of Eufala, Ala., the polio victim who grew up in Kentucky, the son of an insurance agent; Griffin, 31, a chemical worker, son of a dentist and nurse in this Panhandle city.

"It's hard," said Eugene Presly, Griffin's father-in-law. "Now we've got to take care of two grandchildren."

"We were quite shocked," said Pete Gunn III, a Benton, Ky., insurance agent, who did not know his brother was an active abortionist. "My brother never discussed it with anybody in the family."

The men of the Gunn family gather each Thanksgiving for a retreat in Pickensville, Ala. Only once did David Gunn hint at what he did.

Gunn had come a long way. When he was just 27 months old, he was stricken with polio; one leg was paralyzed, and he wore a brace.

He was raised in the conservative Church of Christ and graduated from Vanderbilt University and the University of Kentucky's medical school. An early marriage ended in divorce. There were two children, David, now 22, and Wendy, 18.

He was in the process of divorcing his second wife, Mary Sibert, a Eufala pediatrician.

Specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, Gunn practiced in a family clnic with his wife. But years ago he stopped delivering babies, in part because of high liability insurance premiums.

The doctor's services were in high demand in the Bible Belt, where few physicians are willing to do abortions. Gunn traveled regularly from one town to another in Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle to perform his specialty.

He usually was businesslike and quiet, although Abortion opponents made him a marked man, putting his face on a "wanted" poster.

Gunn routinely ignored the protesters that he encountered nearly every day at the clinics and outside his home. Friends say, though, that he was rattled last January, when a protester in Montgomery refused to move from Gunn's path and claimed the doctor hit him with his car.

A week later, on the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Roe vs. Wade abortion ruling, Gunn drove his car to the Beacon Women's Center in Montgomery as usual

He abruptly stopped in mid-lot, pulled out a megaphone and told the protesters he was going to sing for them. "Happy Birthday Roe vs. Wade," he sang. Then, he pulled out a boombox and began blaring what he introduced as "my new theme song" - rocker Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down."

Gunn later repeated his act outside The Ladies Center, another Pensacola clinic, and "did a little jig," said Debbie Myers, a National Organization for Women activist.

Griffin, of late, had joined the protesters against Gunn's work. Police were called to The Ladies Center a week before the shooting when Griffin blocked cars trying to get in the parking lot, said clinic director Linda Taggart. She said he stopped before officers arrived.

Griffin grew up "privileged as Theo Huxtable and as straight as Wally Cleaver," said boyhood friend Dave Flamand.

He lived in a large house with a swimming pool, got a new bike every year and was active in the First United Methodist Church.

He graduated from Woodham High School and served five years stateside in the Navy before returning home. He has worked at Monsanto Co. since February 1990 as a chemical operator in the casting of polymer for nylon carpet fiber, Court documents indicated he earned $29,220 annually.

Griffin's religious beliefs had grown more fundamental, but he kept a low profile, friends and neighbors said. He refused to send his children to public school, teaching them at home.

A year and a half ago, in August 1991, Griffin filed for divorce from his wife, Patricia, asking for joint custody of their two daughters, now 11 and 8.

The couple had separated earlier that year; Mrs. Griffin obtained a restraining order against her husband, accusing him of trying to throw her out of their home and of verbally and emotionally abusing her and the children.

She filed a counterpetition in the divorce proceedings, asking for sole custody. She wrote that her husband "suffers from great fits of violence" - a charge that Griffin denied. But they reconciled, and the divorce was dropped.

On March 6, Griffin asked the Rev. Michael Collins to say a prayer for Gunn, and wept as the minister prayed that Gunn stop his work.

The next day, last Sunday, Griffin prayed for Gunn's soul at the Whitfield Assembly of God Church in neighboring Santa Rosa County.

Griffin stopped off Wednesday to make a payment for treatments one of his daughters was receiving. Minutes later, he walked over to the nearby Women's Medical Services clinic, where a demonstration was taking place.

John Burt, a lay minister who led the demonstration, said Griffin wasn't part of the protest. Witnesses said Griffin walked alone to the back of the building where Gunn was emerging from his car, pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and, without uttering a word, shot the doctor three times in the back at point-blank range.

Then, he waited for police to arrest him.

Yesterday, about 60 people gathered in Winchester, Tenn., for the closed-casket service for Gunn, which was delayed almost an hour by a fierce storm.

Said his mother, Mae Trevathan Gunn, "He was a fighter. After all he overcame, I think it made him want to help other people."