Mysterious Target of Fraud Probe Shot Dead at Estate

A body builder and former California Highway Patrol officer, under investigation for tax fraud in connection with four Los Angeles-area nightclubs, was killed in a hail of gunfire early Thursday as he arrived at the gate of his remote Brea home in a chauffeured limousine.

Horace Joseph McKenna, 46, whose sprawling hilltop estate reportedly was sometimes guarded by men with machine guns, died instantly in the gangland-style ambush at 12:30 a.m., police said.

The shooting broke out as McKenna’s chauffeur, Bob Berg, was returning to the car after unlocking the gated entrance to the home, known as “Tara Ranch,” on Carbon Canyon Road, police and employees at the ranch said. McKenna, a hulking 300-pounder, had been asleep in the car, police said. They added that Berg was able to drive to the house, a mile and a half away, unhurt.

McKenna was found dead from numerous gunshot wounds, possibly from automatic or semi-automatic weapons, police said. The motive was unknown.

At 6 feet, 5 inches tall, McKenna was known as “Mac or Big Mac or just Big,” said associates, who described him as a flamboyant and mysterious character who kept exotic animals on his ranch, where he also entertained nightclub dancers. A former CHP officer, McKenna was recently divorced from his wife, Sherry, who feared for her life because he had threatened to kill her, according to her attorney, Richard Debro.

McKenna had a history of confrontation with authorities, including a federal conviction for conspiracy to counterfeit in 1976, a Los Angeles conviction for assault with a weapon in a San Pedro bar in 1982 and a record of arrests for running what was described as a large prostitution ring in 1975.

Los Angeles authorities said Thursday that their investigation of McKenna was under way at the time of his death.

“We suspected that he was the hidden owner of four Los Angeles-area nightclubs or hot spots,” said Andy Reynolds, spokesman for the district attorney’s office in Los Angeles. “We believe (the money) was to support his extravagant life style.”

Debro, the attorney for his former wife, said McKenna “used drugs and became incredibly violent.” He said Sherry McKenna has been in hiding.

‘Threatened to Kill Her’

“I’ve seen her after she had been beaten up (by him), the black eyes, things like that,” Debro said. “The law didn’t mean anything to him.”

“She said she had no doubt in her mind that he would kill her or have her killed” if she insisted on fighting their ultimate divorce case settlement, the attorney said. “He had threatened to kill her with a gun to her head.”

Among those who knew him, several said they were very fond of McKenna.

Neither Bill Gray, 42, owner of the Star Gym in Brea, where McKenna worked out, nor other friends and associates contacted Thursday said they had any idea who would have wanted to harm him. They described McKenna as a big, lovable man building a Shangri La on his ranch for the pleasure of friends and their children.

“There wasn’t a mean bone in his body,” said Gray. “He would take people’s kids up (to the ranch) and give them horseback rides.”

Since buying the property two years ago, McKenna had stocked the ranch with Arabian horses--some worth as much as $20,000, friends said. He remodeled a sprawling, ranch-style home, installed a swimming pool and rose garden and was in the process of completing an Old West-style “ghost town,” complete with a “Main Street” and facades of a saloon, blacksmith shop and bank, they said.

According to Gray, McKenna owned several wild animals, including a leopard, a tiger and an elephant. On June 23, 1988, Department of Fish and Game authorities seized two spider monkeys, a black leopard and a tiger at the property because they were being kept illegally, a department spokesman said.

Mike Tutty, 31, McKenna’s longtime friend and member at the Four Star All American gym in El Segundo, which KcKenna owned, described him as “a very intimidating person. . . . He was a person who commanded attention. He wanted people to know who he was. He had a big ego and he needed fodder for that ego. And he pretty much got it.”

Moreover, Tutty said, “he liked the ladies, there’s no doubt about it. He was very gracious to the ladies.”

According to Dana Sermas, one of several female horse trainers for McKenna, he entertained friends and business associates by taking them on horseback rides and giving them “guided tours of his ghost town.”

McKenna also regularly entertained a group of young women whom he laughingly referred to as “his bimbos,” because they worked as dancers at nightclubs in the Los Angeles area, according to Sermas and Ingrid Locken, another horse trainer.

Locken and Sermas said they were under the impression that the clubs featured topless dancing, and they added that the women whom McKenna brought out to the ranch sometimes were “dressed in sleazy outfits.”

Another member of the El Segundo gym, Pete Cahill, 35, called McKenna “the most lovable gangster in the world. If he was a gangster, I guess that’s the way you’ve got to go.”

Cahill said at the club that it was understood McKenna “owned a lot of topless places. It was an unspoken thing, everybody knew but nobody talked about it.”

Sermas said McKenna was in the process of installing an electronic gate at his home so the chauffeur would not have to get out of the limousine every time they entered. She said that the gate was ready to be installed as soon as Southern California Edison Co. work crews came out to hook it up.

Mysterious Visitors

While police tried to piece together details of the attack, one resident in the area recalled that she had thought nothing of three visitors to McKenna’s home on Wednesday night, although now it seems ominous. About 6:55 p.m., the neighbor said, she watched three people “going over the fence.” One had a flashlight. Police would not immediately comment on that or other details of the case.

A native of New Orleans, McKenna served with the CHP from June, 1968, until he resigned in June, 1972, working in West Los Angeles, a CHP spokesman said.

Riverside County court records showed that McKenna pleaded guilty early in 1973 to one count of credit card forgery; five other counts were dismissed.

On April 14, 1976, McKenna surrendered to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies investigating what they said was a prostitution ring centered in the Inglewood and Lennox areas. McKenna, vice squad deputies said, was being sought as a suspected kingpin of the ring.

They linked McKenna and the prostitution operation to establishments called the Institute of Oral Love, Sexual Relief Center and Wild Mary’s. The latter two were temporarily shut down during the investigation. The outcome of that case was not known Thursday.

McKenna was convicted of conspiracy and counterfeiting on July 16, 1976, and sentenced to serve six years in federal prison.

Staff writers Scott Harris, Dianne Klein, Jim Carlton, Boris Yaro, Hector Tobar and Eric Lichtblau contributed to this story.