Greed is motive in decade-old murder case

"It was about greed and the control of power in the strip clubs, and the growing animosity between business partners," Morton said. "We don't believe it was an organized crime hit. But there were certainly organized crime associations that played into it."

McKenna, a bodybuilder known to friends as "Big Mac" and a suspected gangster, died in a hail of bullets as he sat in a limousine outside his Orange County estate on March 9, 1989.

Charged with murder and conspiracy to murder were Michael Woods, 58, who served with McKenna in the California Highway Patrol in the 1960s and later became his business partner; 42-year-old David Amos, another business associate, and John Patrick Sheridan, 38, former manager of one of McKenna's nightclubs.

The three also were charged with murder for financial gain, making them eligible for the death penalty.

Amos and Sheridan were arraigned Monday and Woods was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court.

McKenna was forced out of the CHP in the 1970s and was sent to prison twice: Once for four years for conspiracy and passing counterfeit money, and later for a parole violation involving a fight with an off-duty police officer.

At the time of his death, McKenna was under investigation by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and the U.S. attorney's office for alleged ties to prostitution, counterfeiting, narcotics and gambling.

"He was a notorious gangster in Los Angeles with connections to Las Vegas," Morton alleged.

Although authorities believe McKenna operated outside the realm of large crime families, court records show Amos had ties to the New York-based Gambino crime family.

McKenna was believed to have interests in at least nine clubs. He and Woods were partners in Southern California clubs such as Bare Elegance in Hawthorne and New Jet Strip in Lennox.

Authorities say Woods masterminded McKenna's death because he wanted to take over the clubs, and offered Amos $50,000 and a share of the businesses to do the killing. Amos then hired Sheridan as the hitman, authorities alleged.

With McKenna dead, Amos and Woods made millions of dollars in club profits, Morton said.

"There was a lot of money at stake," he said.

State corporation records show Woods and Amos are now part-owners in three clubs that McKenna and Woods previously owned.

In a jailhouse interview, Sheridan told the Los Angeles Times that he confessed to investigators a year ago that he was the gunman.

Morton confirmed Sheridan's claim that since the confession, he has been working as an informant for the Orange County district attorney's office.

Sheridan, who claims he was paid $25,000 to kill McKenna, said he wore a wire to record conversations with Woods and Amos.

Almost from the beginning, authorities suspected Woods, but the case only gained momentum when Sheridan agreed to cooperate, Morton said.

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