Gionis’ Fast Rise, Quick Temper Described by Associates : Suspect Called Case of Blind Ambition

The son of Greek immigrants, Thomas Anastasios Gionis, now accused of masterminding a brutal attack on John Wayne’s daughter and her companion, graduated at age 22 from medical school and eventually built a flourishing practice and a string of clinics from Palm Springs to Beverly Hills.

Yet Gionis, friends and associates said, also has an explosive temper, an acid tongue and an insistence on getting his own way.

Gionis liked to assert that he was the youngest graduate ever from the medical school at the University of South Carolina, they said. He gloried in his Greek heritage, decorating an expansive home in Pomona with copies of antique columns and statuary.

Neighbors said the physician kept to himself but was known for extravagant parties he threw for his daughter, Anastasia, now 2 years old. A red Ferrari parked at the home Wednesday bore a license plate border reading “I Love My Anastasia.”

“I’ve never seen anything but a display of love for that girl,” one neighbor said Wednesday of Gionis. “He adored her.”

But others painted a different picture of the orthopedic surgeon. One former employee said Gionis, 35, berated her in public, sometimes reducing her to tears. Occasionally, she said, he threw patients’ files in fits of rage.

When Aissa Wayne decided to leave him, taking Anastasia, Gionis went into a rage, throwing a chair at a mirror, knocking a hole in a closet door and shouting epithets as she held their screaming baby, according to court documents filed by his former wife.

Threatened With Death

Then, Wayne alleged in court papers filed in the custody battle for their daughter, Gionis threatened to kill her.

Gionis is now accused of hiring someone to make that threat real. He was arrested Tuesday as the alleged mastermind behind an Oct. 3 attack on Wayne and her then-boyfriend, millionaire financier Roger W. Luby, 52, at Luby’s Newport Beach estate.

Wayne, 32, was beaten but not seriously hurt in the attack, while Luby had an Achilles’ tendon slashed by two men who reportedly warned Wayne: “You’re messing with the wrong guy. Next time we kill you.”

Gionis’ lawyers suggested Wednesday that his client knew nothing of the planned attack but was merely pressing his legal rights concerning his daughter. A judge awarded Gionis custody in January, granting Wayne visitation rights.

Divorce Final Last Summer

The couple separated June 4, 1987. Their divorce became final last summer.

In the custody fight, Wayne alleged that Gionis had threatened her life. Gionis countered by alleging that his former wife suffers from paranoia and that she had made the same death-threat allegations against her second husband after the breakup of that marriage.

In court on the custody matter, Gionis’ attorneys pointed to the Oct. 3 attack on Wayne and Luby as an indication of possible danger to the child. A judge concluded that Aissa Wayne was “emotionally immature” and questioned her commitment to parenting.

“It was very clear from the trial that he (Gionis) had a very close-knit family,” Albert M. Graham Jr., co-counsel for Gionis in the divorce, said of Gionis’ close relationship with his sister, Xanthia, and parents, Matthew and Betsy Gionis.

Graham also said Gionis is a dedicated professional who is so widely respected in the medical community that he is frequently called upon to testify as an expert witness in civil cases involving orthopedic surgery.

Able, Competent Physician

Even his critics agree that Gionis is an able and competent physician. But they also say he is driven by greed and a huge ego.

Gionis rose from humble origins in Fond du Lac, Wis., the son of Greek immigrants. He gained entry to Hollywood society after his marriage to Aissa Wayne, associates and employes said. He bragged to friends that he is “the father of John Wayne’s grandchild.”

With the help of her family’s money, friends of the couple said, he set up five medical clinics. He and Aissa moved into what friends described as a “mini-mansion,” an eight-room residence with a pool, tennis courts and spa in the spacious Phillips Ranch area of Pomona. And he began riding in a chauffeured black limousine.

Gionis’ criminal defense attorney, Byron K. McMillan, said Wednesday that his client graduated from high school in Fond du Lac, 90 miles north of Milwaukee. His parents came to the United States from Greece in 1950; Gionis’ father was a plumber, according to McMillan.

Proud of Greek Heritage

Gionis frequently speaks with his parents in Greek and proudly showcases his Greek heritage, associates said.

After his high school graduation, Gionis accompanied his family when they moved to San Diego, McMillan said.

He attended San Diego State University in 1970 and 1971, then enrolled in the University of South Carolina school of medicine, according to school records and his resume.

After earning his medical degree in 1975 at age 22, Gionis interned at a hospital in Orange, Fla., specializing in orthopedic surgery and neurology. In 1980-82, Gionis’ resume states that he was chief resident surgeon at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans.

He then moved to Houston, where he practiced medicine for a suburban medical clinic. Altogether, Gionis obtained medical licenses in Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arizona, Nevada and California, his resume states.

First Marriage Annulled

In Houston, Gionis met the daughter of an insurance executive and married her about a year later. The union lasted just one night, however: The bride, Lisa Boettcher, filed for annulment the next day, said her father, John Boettcher.

“I met him through my roommate at LSU,” Lisa Boettcher said Wednesday. “Her brother was a resident under him (Gionis) in New Orleans.

“I knew him for about a year. The engagement was about 4 months.”

The marriage and the preparations leading up to it, she said, are “nothing I can ever forget. It’s hurt my whole family. It still hurts every time I think of it.”

Boettcher’s father said Gionis arrived nearly an hour late for the wedding, and bride and groom clashed during the reception.

“I was miserable before the reception,” she said. “The whole thing was a nightmare.”

Boettcher said that she had suppressed memories of that period “5 or 6 years ago” and that she did not want to try to remember. “It’s just something that I really prefer to get behind me,” she said.

Father-in-Law Disliked Him

Her father said he disliked Gionis because of what he termed his “egocentric” personality. Gionis kept a poster of himself in his apartment, a blow-up of a picture accompanying a newspaper article reporting Gionis to be the youngest person to graduate from the South Carolina medical school, John Boettcher said.

Gionis returned to California in 1984, working for clinics in Diamond Bar and Chico in Northern California. At those clinics, he met Roy Hulse, a fellow physician. The two specialized in personal-injury and worker-compensation cases. Gionis also obtained a certificate to practice orthopedic surgery.

Hulse, a friend of the Wayne family, remembered that while driving home together in 1986, he suggested that Gionis date Aissa Wayne, who was divorced. The two went out the next night, to the Tower restaurant in Laguna Beach. Within a month they were engaged.

“Whoever he meets, if he wants to be, he can be very charming,” said Hulse, who has since had a falling out with Gionis.

Their February, 1986, marriage made the society columns. Wedding photographs show a beaming Gionis with his radiant, blond bride.

Changed After Marriage

After the marriage, Gionis changed almost immediately, Hulse said. The two colleagues stopped meeting socially, and Gionis began mixing with Hollywood friends of the Wayne family, according to Hulse.

Gionis opened his own clinics in Palm Springs, Indio, Corona, Upland and Beverly Hills. Hulse said he formed a partnership with Gionis in December, 1986, under which Hulse ran the Palm Springs and Indio clinics, treating most of the patients, in exchange for 40% of the profits.

But the two fought over money, and when Gionis abruptly installed his sister as manager of the two clinics in January, Hulse quit and then sued Gionis. That case is pending in Los Angeles.

Gionis treated many of his subordinates with open contempt, several former employees said.

“Sometimes he could be a really nice guy, but if things didn’t go his way he would really blow up,” said Kris Foss, former manager of Gionis’ Upland office, who now lives in Kansas City, Mo.

Doctor Lost His Temper

Foss, who was office manager for Gionis from December, 1986, until July, 1987, said the doctor lost his temper over such problems as a worker-compensation report not being sent when he wanted it filed.

“He would really blow up, in front of patients and other employees,” said Foss, who lost her job in a staff cutback. “He tried to humiliate everybody. He didn’t have any regard for other people’s feelings.”

At home in Pomona, Gionis treated Wayne with contempt, speaking to her rudely, ignoring her in front of friends, said Debra Rayburn, a former nurse for Anastasia.

“I saw bruises on (Wayne), holes in the wall that weren’t there the day before and broken furniture,” Rayburn said. “I could see her always on the verge of tears. One day, she just broke down crying and asked what she could do. She was terrified of him.”