Hired Killer Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter
A longtime police informant who last year admitted to the 1989 machine-gun slaying of a flamboyant Los Angeles County strip club owner pleaded guilty Wednesday to manslaughter.
John Patrick Sheridan will receive a 20-year prison sentence in exchange for cooperating with an investigation that led to the conviction last week of the man police say masterminded the killing.
Sheridan told police that he used an Uzi machine gun to kill Horace “Big Mac” McKenna in 1989 outside the club owner’s Brea mansion. Sheridan had worked undercover as a police operative for more than a decade, receiving cash and lenient sentences as payment for his tips about crime suspects.
Last week, an Orange County jury convicted Michael Woods of first-degree murder after testimony that he paid $50,000 for McKenna’s murder. After the killing, Woods gained full control over McKenna’s strip clubs.
A third suspect--Woods’ bodyguard, David Amos--is expected to plead guilty Friday. He also cooperated with investigators.
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