More Killings in Strip Club Case?

Prosecutors said on Friday they are investigating whether two suspects charged in the 1989 slaying in Brea of a strip club owner also were involved in two other killings.

The allegations are contained in a search warrant affidavit unsealed Friday at The Times’ request. In the document, investigators allege that one of the suspects in the machine-gun slaying of Horace “Big Mac” McKenna boasted of two other slayings.

The records do not elaborate on the killings or identify possible victims, and district attorney’s office spokeswoman Tori Richards said only that prosecutors are actively examining the cases.

The claims mark the latest twist in the sensational McKenna case, which went unsolved for a decade before “cold case” investigators arrested three of the victim’s associates in the Los Angeles nude club business.

Authorities allege that David Amos and another man hired John Patrick Sheridan to kill McKenna. A year ago, Sheridan confessed to his role in the plot and secretly recorded conversations with the other two suspects. In court documents, Sheridan said Amos told him about the two other killings.

Amos’ attorney on Friday attacked Sheridan’s credibility. Sheridan is cooperating with authorities.

“I think that when John Sheridan wakes up in the morning he starts lying and he doesn’t stop lying until he goes to bed at night, and even then he lies to himself in his dreams,” said Amos’ lawyer, Michael Molfetta. “I don’t believe a single thing he says.”

In another revelation from the affidavit, district attorney’s office investigator Doug Kennedy wrote that Amos claimed that a relative who works as a detective for the Los Angeles Police Department gave him inside information about the McKenna investigation before his arrest.

Amos, in a secretly recorded conversation, said the relative told him investigators tapped his telephone and the phone of the other suspect, Michael Woods, according to the affidavit.

“Amos said [the relative] was unable to tell him if [the wiretap] was going on now or if it just happened in the past,” Kennedy wrote.

Investigators have said they relied heavily on Sheridan’s secretly recorded conversations with Amos and Woods, but did not use telephone wiretaps. Still, Amos’ statements concerned Orange County investigators enough that they forwarded the allegations to LAPD internal affairs investigators.

An LAPD spokeswoman said the department temporarily held off its investigation at the request of Orange County investigators, but now the probe will begin, said LAPD Cmdr. Sharon Papa.

“We’ll take appropriate action after we determine what happened,” Papa said.

The relative declined to comment Friday.

The court records unsealed Friday give the clearest picture yet into the case investigators have against Amos, Sheridan and Woods, the alleged mastermind behind the McKenna killing.

Woods and McKenna, both former California Highway Patrol officers, were partners in a string of successful Los Angeles County strip clubs. According to prosecutors, Woods wanted McKenna dead so he could take over the businesses.

Shortly after McKenna was gunned down--he was shot repeatedly while sitting in the back of a limousine outside his hilltop estate--Amos took a 40% ownership in the businesses, according to the affidavit.

Investigators arrested Sheridan and Amos in October, then released Amos so he could secretly record a conversation with Woods at a San Fernando Valley deli. In transcripts of that conversation, released Friday, Woods and Amos talked about how to deal with the pending investigation.

At one point, Woods tells Amos that he will use “the same old story” about why he gave Amos a stake in the clubs after McKenna’s death, according to the records.

“I was scared to death. . . . I didn’t want to go by the clubs. So I said, ‘Here, Dave, you go. You run the clubs. I’ll split it with you.’ And that’s the story I’m going to stick with,” Woods said, according to the transcript.

Woods was arrested outside the restaurant.

Wearing a mustard-yellow Orange County Jail jumpsuit, Woods pleaded not guilty Friday to murdering McKenna. A judge refused to release him on bail.

Outside the courtroom, Woods’ attorney said he does not believe the recorded conversation incriminates his client.

“There’s nothing in that conversation that establishes Mr. Woods’ guilt,” said defense attorney Richard Hirsch.

According to prosecutors, Woods paid Amos $50,000 to have McKenna killed. He reportedly gave $25,000 to Sheridan for killing McKenna.

According to the court documents, Amos paid Sheridan another $10,500 this year. In another meeting in August in the Jet Strip, Amos gave Sheridan a $500 “bonus” and said, “Mum’s the word.”