Grossman execution set for tonight in wildlife officer's slaying

Martin Grossman is scheduled to enter the death chamber at Florida State Prison just before 6 p.m. today and utter his final words to a gathering that includes relatives of the woman he killed.

The family of wildlife officer Peggy Park has waited more than 25 years for this.

"We need to see that it's finally finished, it's over and we can move on," said Betsy Park, the victim's younger sister.

Betsy Park, her brother Stephen and their mother, Margaret, 79, plan to drive to the prison in Starke after flying into Jacksonville from Ohio and Maryland.

They're carrying a family decision reached long ago.

"My father always wanted to be there," Betsy Park said. "And seeing how he can't be there, we will be there for him."

Peggy Park was 26, just three years out of college on Dec. 13, 1984, when she decided to question two teenage boys she saw in a van after dark on a back road in what is now Brooker Creek Preserve.

Inside was junior high dropout Martin Edward Grossman, 19, and his 17-year-old companion, Thayne Nathan Taylor.

They had a stolen gun. Grossman was on probation. He'd already been to prison for grand theft and breaking-and-entering and didn't want to go back.

Grossman, a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than Park, attacked her as she stepped back to her vehicle to call in the stop.

Taylor jumped in to help subdue the officer, and though she temporarily disabled him with a kick to the groin, she would ultimately lose the fight with Grossman.

He rained 20 to 30 blows to her head with a large flashlight, then took aim at the back of her head with Park's service revolver.

"This was an execution," said Claudia Gunther, who befriended Park while working as a Pinellas County circuit court clerk. "This was heinous."

Gunther remembers Park as a playful, enthusiastic woman living her dream patrolling the woods of Florida as one of the state's first female wildlife officers. She was petite and friendly but no-nonsense when it came to her job.

Betsy Park said her sister's love of nature and her father's encouragement led her into her law enforcement. They didn't regard it as a dangerous profession.

"She always downplayed that," Betsy Park said. "I guess our family thought she was going to be a park ranger somewhere."

As the search for her killer progressed, 350 law enforcement officers attended Peggy Park's funeral. Days later, a family friend of Grossman's turned him in.

Grossman's accomplice, Taylor, received a seven-year prison sentence, served about two and died in 1995. Anti-death penalty advocates say he committed suicide from guilt-induced depression.

For the past quarter-century, Grossman has spent nearly every day inside a cell. He's had access to cigarettes, snacks, a radio and a 13-inch television.

He does not have cable TV or air conditioning or the company of other inmates. He can take a shower every other day. He can also receive mail.

"My mother is 79," Betsy Park said. "This is hard on her. She had major surgery in the fall and she's still recovering from that so we need it to be done."

Betsy Park said she, her mother and her brother are among 20 or so witnesses scheduled to watch Grossman's death by lethal injection from the viewing room.

She expects a number of wildlife officers to be there, too.

Others who knew Park will mark the moment in their own way in Pinellas County. Said Gunther, "I'll probably have a beer to toast Peggy."

If Grossman chooses to speak, witnesses will hear him through a small speaker.

Said Betsy Park, "We just want it to be over."