Man Killed in Ambush Was ‘First Target’ in D.A. Probe

The former highway patrolman slain in his limousine at his remote Orange County home Thursday was selected for prosecution two years ago as the “first target” in a new program by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to build cases against “full-time criminals.”

Capt. Edmund M. Aleks, chief of investigations for the district attorney’s organized crime section, said Friday that Horace Joseph McKenna was selected, in part, because he was “vulnerable” to successful prosecution and such success would “make an impact.”

“If you talk to people in law enforcement--anyone who’s been around more than a few years--they all knew Horace McKenna,” Dep. Dist. Atty. Pamela A. Ferraro said.

Search Warrant Made Public

The prosecutors said they had no idea who killed McKenna and declined to speculate Friday whether McKenna’s death was somehow linked to his purported ties to prostitution, counterfeiting, narcotics, gambling and topless bars--ties that were uncovered in the district attorney’s ongoing probe. He also had ties to organized crime figures, Aleks said. McKenna was gunned down less than 24 hours after a search warrant disclosing the investigation was made public in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“There are a number of possible suspects just from reading the warrant,” Ferraro said. “And there are probably people who wanted to kill him we don’t know of.”

“It’s going to be a tough one,” said Aleks. “It looks like an execution, and these things are never easy to solve. “

‘Square One’

Brea police admitted that they are “back to square one” Friday in their efforts to determine who killed McKenna, who, Aleks said, ran “the majority of . . . nude bars in Los Angeles County.”

Capt. James Oman, Brea Police Department’s chief of detectives, said his men knew nothing about Horace Joseph McKenna’s purported ties to criminal activities and reputed ownership of a string of topless and nude bars until he read about them in the morning newspapers.

“You’re way ahead of us at this point,” Oman told a reporter.

McKenna’s alleged ties were detailed in warrants and affidavits released Wednesday by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which--along with Los Angeles and Long Beach police, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and the FBI--has been monitoring McKenna’s activities for months.

But Oman said that until McKenna’s murder Thursday morning, Brea police “were only minorly aware of him being in town. . . . There was no clue that he was going to be murdered.”

Oman said he had sent two of his detectives to Los Angeles County on Friday to be briefed on the district attorney’s ongoing investigation into McKenna’s past. But he said that while investigators in Los Angeles “are the ones with all the information” in the case--and he was appreciative of their help--Brea will retain control of the investigation.

“The homicide occurred in Brea,” he said. “They’ve got enough homicides to keep them busy.”

Buena Park police said Friday that there was a chance that McKenna’s death might be connected to the murder of Jimmy Lee Casino, operator of the Mustang Bar in Santa Ana.

“There’s a possibility of all of the things that have occurred in and around the Mustang Bar were all interrelated to McKenna,” Buena Park Police Lt. Dick Hafdahl said.

Tried to Buy Club

A confidential informant told the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office that McKenna tried to purchase the Mustang Club topless bar in 1987, before Casino was killed by gunmen, according to court documents. Casino was shot to death gangland-style in his Buena Park condominium in 1987.

Months later, the Mustang Bar burned down in what authorities say was an arson fire. According to the informant, McKenna once threatened the owner of another topless bar in Los Angeles, referring to past arsons at that club.

Oman said Friday that the only pieces of physical evidence found thus far in McKenna’s death are “more than 20” 9-millimeter shell casings discovered at the gate of McKenna’s 35-acre equestrian ranch in Carbon Canyon. Police believe that the cases are from the automatic weapon used to shoot the flamboyant, 46-year-old horseman.

McKenna, a 6-foot, 7-inch, 300-pound bodybuilder, apparently died instantly from multiple gunshot wounds suffered in the ambush. The shots were fired through a side window of McKenna’s limousine.

Detectives said the shooting took place about 12:30 a.m. as McKenna’s chauffeur, Robert Berg, 42, was returning to the car after unlocking the gated entrance to the estate, known as “Tara Ranch.” Investigators said Berg told them that McKenna was asleep in the back seat at the time of the attack.

Berg and McKenna’s 20-year-old son, Mike--said to be at the ranch house at the time of the attack--were both questioned by police, then released pending further investigation, according to Oman.

Court documents identify Berg as one of the alleged conspirators in the tax fraud investigation being prepared by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office at the time of the murder.

The documents include allegations that at least eight people conspired with McKenna and Michael Woods--himself a former highway patrolman--to skim money and hide profits from several topless and nude bars in the Los Angeles area.

Based on information in search warrants, investigators allege that McKenna and Woods are believed to be the hidden owners of these bars and that police had been monitoring their activities in gambling, prostitution and narcotics for some time.

The district attorney’s office said the tax fraud case was “extremely sensitive” because both McKenna and Woods “have maintained associations with terminated, retired and currently employed law enforcement officers.” The office said this warning was included to advise law enforcement officials that they might inadvertently spill something to someone who knew McKenna.

‘Not Available’

A woman at Woods’ Thousand Oaks home said Friday that he was “not available for comment,” and Oman said Friday afternoon that no attempt had yet been made to find or contact him in connection with the murder.

“We’ll get to him when we get to him,” Oman said. As the district attorney’s probe intensified last summer, Woods retained well-known criminal lawyer Harland Braun to represent him. Braun’s high-profile clients have included John Z. DeLorean and “Twilight Zone” director John Landis.

Woods, Braun said, “doesn’t really know what happened with Mr. McKenna.” Woods himself had received one threat over the phone, Braun said without elaborating further.

As for the fraud investigation, Braun said, “My client tells me there’s no case there.”

Records show that Woods--along with McKenna and Daniel Fenton Sully, a man identified in the affidavits as a functionary in one of the topless bars--all served together in the California Highway Patrol in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. All three were assigned as motorcycle patrolmen in the West Los Angeles area.

Woods, 47, took a disability retirement in October, 1974, after spending his entire tour in the West Los Angeles office. Sully, 55, served in several posts before he took a disability retirement in July, 1975.

Reached by phone at his home Thursday night, Sully denied any knowledge of illegal activity and said he “hardly knows” McKenna. He characterized the tax fraud investigation as “a lot of misinformation,” before refusing to comment further.

McKenna entered the Highway Patrol Academy in June, 1967, and served in the West Los Angeles office until June, 1972. He was dismissed by superiors, but one year later, on an appeal to the State Personnel Board, had his departure reclassified as a “resignation.” A CHP spokesman said state law prohibited them from discussing details of McKenna’s “rather extensive” personnel file.

The initial dismissal of McKenna--remembered by associates, who asked not to be named, as a “tall lanky guy in those days; sort of a goof ball, a clown”--occurred at about the same time he was arrested by Los Angeles police in connection with some sort of theft. The nature of the theft, the disposition of the case and whether it was connected to McKenna’s dismissal were not known Friday.

In April, 1976, McKenna was arrested on suspicion of running a large prostitution ring in the Inglewood and Lennox areas. Later that same year, he was sentenced in federal court to concurrent terms of five and six years for conspiracy and passing counterfeit money.

Served Four Years

McKenna served four years at a prison camp in Arizona on the counterfeiting charges, earning a parole in 1980. Two years later, he was arrested in a San Pedro bar--owned by a former associate--on suspicion of assaulting an off-duty police officer. The charge was reduced, but McKenna was convicted of violating his parole and was sent back to the federal prison at Terminal Island for another two years. Released on parole in 1984, his probation ended in 1985.

Beverly Hills attorney Joshua Kaplan, who represents several figures named in the tax-fraud probe, said the search warrants were unsealed because of demands from himself and other lawyers “representing a number of individuals who had property seized. . . . It’s natural to be curious why the government is seizing your papers.”

Kaplan said the conspiracy claim was fiction.

“The prosecutor’s theory that this industry is controlled by one godfather figure, if you will--McKenna--is contrary to my experience. . . . This has never been a violence-ridden business,” he said.

The lawyer said he had attempted to organize nightclub owners for legal battles but failed because “the animosities exhibited between each business prohibited them to get together and do anything.”

McKenna’s mother, interviewed Friday afternoon on the porch of her modest home in the Crenshaw district, described her son as a “wonderful person.”

“He was . . . a great man to his mother, his father and his family,” she said. “It’s a beautiful man they killed.”

Times staff writers contributing to this article were Scott Harris, Penelope McMillan, Boris Yaro, Hector Tobar and Tracey Kaplan in Los Angeles, and Mark Landsbaum, Dianne Klein and Jim Carlton in Orange County.