Man Suspected of Slaying Wife and Business Partner Kills Self

A man suspected of killing his wife and a business partner and critically wounding another partner outside a Santa Ana office killed himself outside his home Tuesday as police moved in, authorities said.

John S. Hanna, 56, shot himself to death “as he was being approached by officers” outside his home on East La Costa Circle, said Detective Mike McCarthy of the Upland Police Department.

Police said the apparent suicide followed a daylong shooting spree Monday, and a series of desperate calls Hanna made Tuesday on his car phone to a clergyman who tried to talk him into surrendering, and to his brother, a prominent Toronto surgeon.

The chain of events began Monday when Hanna killed his wife, Irene Hanna, 65, at their home, police said.

Hanna then drove to Corona for an appointment with Herbert Roy Ratch, one of his business partners in a failing company called North American Cogeneration Inc. Hanna was chief executive officer of the company, which had its corporate status revoked by the California secretary of state in July, 1991.

Ratch’s body was found Monday afternoon in a grain storage lot in the 17000 block of Pomona Rincon Road in Chino. “The best we can figure is that he was driven to Chino and dumped,” San Bernardino Sheriff’s Detective Robert Acevedo said. Acevedo would not say whether the 54-year-old Ratch had been shot, pending the results of an autopsy.

Hanna was suing Ratch and other partners in North American Cogeneration in Orange County Superior Court, maintaining that they misrepresented the financial condition of the company when Hanna invested $100,000 to become a majority stockholder.

One of Hanna’s other partners at the firm was Greg Lawyer, 51, who was shot and critically wounded before noon Monday, police said. Lawyer was a plaintiff with Hanna in the suit against Ratch and other partners.

After Hanna and Lawyer spoke briefly at Lawyer’s office at another company, North Canadian Marketing on North Tustin Avenue in Santa Ana, Lawyer was found with two bullet wounds in the upper body. He was taken to a hospital.