Real Murders of Orange County (2020): Season 1, Episode 4 - McKenna - full transcript
STUART PFEIFER:
Someone opened fire...
...spraying bullets
throughout the limousine.
TERRI LENÉE PEAKE:
All Mac could say
was "Tell my mom
and dad I love them."
And those were his last words.
NARRATOR:
A larger-than-life
Orange County club owner
was suddenly gunned down.
There were a lot of people
threatening him.
DARRYL FINNEY:
'Cause in business,
you got jealous people.
They had not been getting along.
Had deteriorated fast.
NARRATOR:
Investigators would uncover
a dangerous underworld
of vicious competition.
GRANT GULICKSON:
We started focusing on
who the different players were
at the clubs.
PEAKE:
The police were going in there
and questioning people,
but nobody was talking.
A man from Florida
says he knows something.
RICK BAKER:
He was kind of an outsider.
They didn't expect
this is the guy that would
want to have him killed.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
March 9, 1989 was a quiet night
in the picturesque canyons
of Brea, California.
At the northern edge
of Orange County,
Brea's rolling hills
had allowed one man a view
of his empire to the north
while plotting his expansion
into the gilded south,
until a fateful 911 call
broadcast a tragic turn.
GULUCKSON: I was in bed asleep
when I got the phone call.
There had been a homicide
at the largest and nicest
estate out in Carbon Canyon.
Around 12:35 a.m.,
a limousine meandered
up the canyon
into the foothills of Brea.
Pulls up to the gate
of this massive estate.
Right there,
the gunman opened fire.
GULICKSON:
We headed out to look
at the crime scene
and see what we had
as far as witnesses.
WELBORN:
The guy was shot at
the front gate to his
estate up in the hills.
GULICKSON:
The shooting took place
down at the gate.
When we got to the gate, there
were police officers down there
We had to try to avoid
running over
the shell casings that were
sitting in the driveway.
As I recall,
there were somewhere around
30 empty casings
that were found at the scene.
We later came to discover
that the-the homicide
had a machine gun used
to actually commit the murder.
To my knowledge,
there had never been
a-a homicide using
a machine gun in Brea.
We drove up the driveway
to the house.
When we got up there,
there were a couple
of police officers
there along with a limousine.
That's where the body was.
The rear passenger side window
was shattered.
Numerous bullet holes,
not only in the glass
but also in the door post.
There was a driver
on the scene.
The driver's name was Bob Berg.
After talking to Mr. Berg,
we came to discover
that the victim of the shooting
was Horace McKenna,
also known as Big Mac.
The house, the limo and
everything else at the estate
belonged to Mr. McKenna.
Bob had told us
that they had come home,
he had stopped at the gate,
opened up the gate,
climbed back into the limo
to drive up the hill,
he heard the machine gun go off
Someone opened fire,
spraying bullets
throughout the limousine,
striking McKenna numerous times
GULICKSON:
And at that point,
Bob Berg sped up the hill
to the estate
and called the police.
WELBORN:
At the time that Big Mac
was shot and killed,
Big Mac's son Michael,
he's the only one
up at the top of the hill.
GULICKSON:
Obviously somebody wanted
Mr. McKenna dead,
to be firing that many rounds
that quickly.
That-- It wasn't a warning.
They wanted to make sure
that they took him down.
We had crime scene folks
process the scene.
There was quite
a few cigarette butts
behind the cinder block wall
that supported the gate.
Which made us suspect
that the person had perhaps been
hiding behind that block wall
for the limo to stop.
PFEIFER:
Big Mac McKenna
was able to manage
a couple of words
while he died out there
outside of his home.
PEAKE:
All Mac could say was
"Tell my mom
and dad I love them."
And those were his last words.
WELBORN:
When I was a reporter
at the Orange County Register,
I got a call
from the city editor saying,
"There's been
a murder near you,
and would you mind
checking it out?"
As you're entering the property
you see this six-car garage.
No cars are parked
inside the garage,
'cause inside the garage,
we found out was a live tiger,
and an entire
alligator environment.
And a live jaguar.
It's just beyond our realm
of reality.
Wo, it was quite
an extravagant layout.
NARRATOR:
Wealth is clearly
common in the O.C.
But investigators and reporters
alike were astounded to find
such a flamboyant display
of excess at the crime scene.
Who was Horace McKenna?
And what else
would be uncovered?
WELBORN:
They're trying to build
his background
as much as they could,
and so they're contacting people
in Los Angeles County
trying to piece together
who this guy might've been.
GULICKSON:
We came to find out, after
talking to Mr. Berg and others,
that Horace McKenna was a forme
Highway Patrol officer.
He was an interesting character
from what we had been told.
Horace McKenna,
also known as Big Mac,
was born in Louisiana.
He was Creole.
He moved to California
with his parents as a youngster
Wanted to be a police officer.
He was a leader, for sure.
He was always in charge.
Large and in charge.
But he also had
a great sense of humor.
So, in 1982 when Big Mac
introduced himself to me,
he says, "Hi. I'm Big Mac.
"I understand
you have a boyfriend,
but when and if that changes,
let me know."
He looked like a movie star.
I couldn't stop
thinking about him.
I think I fell in love
right then and there.
FINNEY:
The first time
I met Horace McKenna,
I was about ten or 11.
And he'd pick us up
one at a time and he'd fly down
the street on the motorcycle
with the siren on.
PEAKE:
Big Mac loved
his Harley-Davidson.
He really was an entertainer
at heart.
He was the star of the show.
As I got older, I realized
what an impact he was doing for
the kids in the neighborhood.
He's the kind of a guy
that you want to associate with.
-He's magnetic.
-PEAKE: And he was so handsome
on that bike, yesiree.
WELBORN:
He was a huge man. Six foot six
Maybe close to 300 pounds.
He made Hulk Hogan look small.
BAKER:
He had muscles
that you didn't even know about
But he was not a bully.
PEAKE:
And he had the biggest heart.
All the men wanted to be him
and all the women wanted him.
They couldn't handle him,
though.
(laughs)
NARRATOR:
How did this former
Highway Patrol officer,
regarded by friends
as a gentle giant,
end up living like a king
at the top of Orange County?
Could his rise to riches
have been connected
to his ultimate downfall?
BAKER:
Mac made his money
playing poker.
After three days
of playing cards one time,
Horace McKenna ended up
with $80,000-plus.
WELBORN:
Which started him
in his investment process.
He resigned as a CHP officer
and he went
from this big goofy guy
on a motorcycle
to an investor
in private businesses
and became very wealthy
in a hurry.
GULICKSON:
Well, we were told
that Horace McKenna owned
a number of strip clubs
in Los Angeles County.
PFEIFER:
Big Mac McKenna owned
Bare Elegance,
there was the Jet Strip
and there was Valley Ball.
BAKER:
He was Bill Gates.
You know, he was Bloomberg.
PEAKE:
When I started
working at the Jet Strip
and made friends with Big Mac,
he very much had
a chameleon personality.
When he was at the strip club,
he was the kingpin,
but when we were at the ranch,
away from the clubs,
he wanted to just relax
and be his real self.
Brea is a really slow-paced,
quiet community.
PEAKE:
It was actually
green and beautiful.
It was just rolling mountains
and hills.
We had rattlesnakes
and-and deer
and hawks flying in the air.
NARRATOR:
It's par for the course
for the O.C. business elite
to separate work from home,
regardless of the industry.
And Big Mac's oasis
above Brea was no different.
PFEIFER:
Brea was a nice escape.
He would go home
in his limousine to a hilltop
surrounded by his exotic animals
and live the kind of life
that he wanted to live.
PEAKE:
And it was beautiful.
March 9, 1989,
in the middle of the afternoon.
And I got a call
from Rick Baker.
BAKER:
"Guess what,"
you know, uh,
"Big Mac was just shot."
He said,
"Big Mac's been murdered."
FINNEY:
The day that
that hit me...
whew, I think
I cried like the river.
You know, I don't think
I stopped crying
for a couple of hours.
He was my family.
We have so many people
that loved him.
We lost an honorable man.
He didn't deserve that.
And he deserved justice.
You never expect
someone like that to die.
So strong and so tough.
(sobs)
Sorry, I just miss him so much.
I could have used him
the last 30 years.
You know?
PFEIFER:
This is not Chicago
in the 1920s.
This is a place
where crimes
like this just don't happen.
NARRATOR: This looked like
a premeditated hit on Big Mac,
but who had the motive
to fell the friendly giant
in such a malicious manner?
The first place to look was
at Big Mac's inner circle.
GULICKSON:
Most homicides
are gonna be committed
by somebody
they work with,
live with or play with.
Mac had had one son,
early to mid-20s.
PFEIFER:
There's a lot of crimes
that are centered around cash,
and so the Brea police wondered
whether McKenna's killing
had a lot to do with money
and opportunity
to inherit his wealth.
GULICKSON:
We, of course,
had to consider the possibility
that Michael had been involved
or had knowledge of the homicid
prior to it happening.
WELBORN: Somebody set fire
and burned down
the infamous Mustang Club.
It was the biggest
adult entertainment spot
in Orange County.
It was a cutthroat business.
It was really seedy.
BAKER:
All the other club owners
had a reason
to be jealous.
They had not been getting along
prior to McKenna's murder.
What have we got here?
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
After strip club kingpin
Horace "Big Mac" McKenna
was gunned down outside
of his lavish
Orange County estate,
investigators looked
to whether this was an attempt
by his next of kin
at an early inheritance.
GULICKSON:
When we spoke
to Michael McKenna,
he was very hesitant
to share information.
He was upset
that we were asking questions.
It caused us concern. It seemed
that he stood to gain
some things from his death.
NARRATOR:
Could this have been
an inside job
ordered by the O.C. heir?
Detectives began digging
into what Michael stood to gain
when details emerged
that shaded their suspicion.
GULICKSON:
I was contacted by
a member of the Los Angeles
County D.A.'s Office
who told me
that he had been investigating
Mac and some of the strip clubs
for a while.
They were taking a percentage
off the top
of what the girls
were supposed to be making.
He supposedly was skimming off
the reported income at the door
Anything that you could
short the state on,
anything related
to a-a cash business.
NARRATOR:
Had sordid business practices
led to his ultimate demise?
As it turned out,
Big Mac McKenna had danced
on both sides of the law
for most
of his professional life.
His record went back
long before he was a wealthy
Orange County club owner
to when he was
a Los Angeles motorcycle cop.
PFEIFER:
McKenna
rode a motorcycle
up and down Sunset Boulevard,
enforcing the laws
in one of the most high-profile
electric parts
of Southern California.
BAKER:
He had been arrested,
and he had lost his job
with the Highway Patrol
over in Palm Springs.
He apparently
was passing bad paper,
and he had to spend
some time in jail.
WELBORN:
After his career was over,
several years later,
he was charged with running
a prostitution ring.
And he spent some time
in federal prison off that beef.
NARRATOR:
Big Mac's long rap sheet
meant he couldn't actually own
any of his clubs
in L.A. or Orange County,
and that had major implications
in the investigation,
including Michael McKenna's
potential involvement
in his dad's murder.
GULICKSON:
We knew that, at some level,
Michael stood
to gain some things
from his death.
However,
with Big Mac
not having legal title
on any of the clubs,
we didn't think
that he likely stood to gain
the assets
that McKenna controlled.
We didn't have anything
to tie him to the homicide.
NARRATOR:
So, if Big Mac
didn't own his clubs,
who was holding the legal title
GULICKSON:
During the course
of the investigation,
multiple people
told us that Mike Woods
was the, essentially, front man
for McKenna.
PEAKE:
I was being told Mike Woods
was the owner of the club
and had his own bodyguards
and his own group of friends,
and Mac was the silent owner
that had his own bodyguards
and his own group of friends
and girls,
but that Big Mac
was really the boss of the club,
and what he said goes.
Big Mac and Mike Woods
were partners together
on the Highway Patrol.
PFEIFER:
That's how they got to know
each other.
When McKenna was forced out
of the Highway Patrol,
Woods later followed,
and they decided
to open a nightclub together.
BAKER:
So, he needed Mike Woods
and his clean record to have him
as the licensee
of the entertainment license
and the liquor license.
Neither one of the licenses
were in Horace McKenna's name.
PEAKE:
Mac couldn't have his name
on the paperwork at all
and was a silent partner.
And they would have
a distribution,
obviously,
of the money and the funds.
PFEIFER:
And it was a partnership
that initially
led them to a lot of wealth
and success.
GULICKSON:
From our understanding,
the main person
that was gonna benefit
from Horace being gone
was Mike Woods.
My understanding was
they had not been getting along
prior to McKenna's murder.
PFEIFER:
Big Mac and Mike Woods
were like polar opposites.
Big Mac was
a tall, strapping ladies' man.
Life of the party.
And Mike Woods
looked like a frumpy accountant
who did not have
the type of charisma
or personality
that McKenna did.
But he was good with the books
and with the money.
BAKER:
Mike Woods
was more of an elitist.
He wasn't a common
guy next door.
Mike Woods' nickname
was Mike "Weird."
PEAKE:
When I met Mike Woods, he shook
my hand, and he said,
"How would you like
to go to my sister's club
and do a wet T-shirt contest?"
Just right like that.
That was his only words to me.
And I said, "Okay."
And the girls
told me, "It's okay. He's fine.
He's a little weird,
but he's safe."
So, I went with Mike Woods
in his white Rolls-Royce
to do a wet T-shirt contest.
So, I did
the wet T-shirt contest.
I won that. Got my tips,
and he drove me back
to the Jet Strip.
It was a little mind-boggling,
actually,
that I went
into a stranger's car,
but he was a perfect gentleman.
Mike Woods
was a perfect gentleman.
NARRATOR:
Big Mac and Mike Woods
were a contrast in styles
for sure,
but Woods had no criminal recor
or any history of violence.
Would he really stab his partne
in the back?
The two men
had helped each other rise
from humble chopper cops
to the heights
of upper echelon O.C.
So detectives turned
their attention to enemies
Mac and Woods
might have had in common:
their competitors.
BAKER:
I-In the industry
that Horace McKenna,
Big Mac, was in,
it was a cutthroat business.
PEAKE:
You got to remember, back then,
the '80s were pretty crazy
in L.A.,
so it was all biker guys
that went to those places.
It was really seedy.
BAKER:
Oh, you had characters
that would not hesitate
if necessary
to take you out.
That was not a problem
with a lot of the owners
that were in that business.
GULICKSON:
We started focusing
on trying to find out
who the different players were
at the clubs
and which one of those folks
might have had
the incentive
to either commit the homicide
or hire the homicide out.
The Wild Goose was another club
in the same area
as McKenna's clubs.
We were told McKenna
was actually trying to get
the owners together
and have the same prices,
and, uh, not everybody
was willing to go along.
The Wild Goose suffered a fire
of suspicious nature,
and many people
seem to think that Mac
had a connection to that arson.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
As investigators probed
the brutal shooting
of Horace "Big Mac" McKenna,
rumors floated
that a flaming feud
had resulted in arson.
The story spilled
into the heart of Orange County
where South O.C. power brokers
were known to look down
on their northern rivals.
WELBORN:
The Mustang Club in
Orange County, Harbor Boulevard
was the biggest
adult entertainment spot
in Orange County.
One day, somebody set fire
and burned down
most of the Mustang.
It was pretty much
seriously damaged.
And then three months later,
somebody else came back
and finished the job
and burned it to the ground.
It was never open again.
Was Big Mac
trying to buy the Mustang?
Is there some connection there?
When somebody crossed him,
he would say,
"It could happen to here, too,
just what happened
to the Mustang."
So he kind of used that
in his repertoire of threats.
PEAKE:
There were a lot of people
that hated Mac.
There were a lot of people
threatening him.
There was a lot of bad guys
floating around.
There was a lot of people
had reason to hurt him.
And the police at the time
were going in there
and questioning people,
but nobody was talking.
We did not have a shortage
of potential suspects.
But many of the employees
at the clubs were hesitant
to speak with us.
I think some of the employees
were scared.
And we didn't have
an opportunity
to talk to a lot of patrons.
I'm sure people traveled
from Orange County up to L.A.
to these clubs.
I think some didn't want
to have their name come up
as somebody
who was frequenting these clubs.
NARRATOR:
If no one from Mac's world
was showing up to talk to polic
about his murder,
every one of them seemed to wan
a place at his funeral.
It attracted
a legendary collection
of those who knew, loved
and tangled
with this towering figure
of the Southern California
underworld.
It was a circus.
All the other strippers in town
showed up,
which I wasn't too happy about
because the family
didn't want that.
They wanted to just have
a very private memorial service
for just the family.
FINNEY:
The McKennas were there.
They were
hurt and crying, tears.
It was real hard times,
especially for Mike, his son.
He didn't know
all of his father's business.
All this stuff
thrown in your face right now,
and you got to try to figure out
all of this stuff out.
And I felt sorry for Mike
because Mike wasn't ready.
He didn't know what to do.
NARRATOR:
But while all those
who knew Mac well
or even wanted to
had clamored to show up,
the most likely attendee
was suspiciously absent
from the grieving crowds.
Mike Woods was MIA.
He was missing in action on
the funeral of-of his partner.
This was his partner.
GULICKSON:
Several people
from my police department
attended
the graveside service.
And when Mike Woods failed
to attend the funeral,
that certainly increased
our suspicion.
WELBORN:
The relationship
between Michael and Big Mac
started to deteriorate,
and it deteriorated fast.
Big Mac was skimming more
and living more
of an extravagant lifestyle,
and Michael perhaps knew
that law enforcement
was taking a look
at their activities.
PFEIFER:
Mike Woods
may have also wondered whether
McKenna's personality was gonna
bring the police down on him.
Mike Woods didn't like
Horace McKenna.
Horace McKenna humiliated him
on several occasions.
I literally saw Mac in the
office bitch-slap Mike Woods.
It was really degrading.
And I loved Mac,
but I just-- I really did
feel bad for Mike Woods.
He was terrified
of Horace McKenna.
That even gave me more
of a reason to say,
"This is the guy that would
want to have him killed."
PEAKE:
So, what would happen was
the bodyguards
would kind of step in
to guard their guys and get them
out of the situation.
And English Dave,
he was great
at keeping the situation calm
between Mac and Mike.
GULICKSON:
David Amos,
his name came up
during the investigation.
PFEIFER:
He was a part-time actor
who had a role,
more or less,
as a bodyguard at the clubs.
But that role expanded
to part-time owner
after Horace McKenna's killing.
The fact that Mike Woods
took a guy that was strong-arm
and suddenly he's managing
a club for him,
that was suspicious.
He went from being a bodyguard
to someone who's making
significant wealth.
After the assassination
of Horace,
Mike Woods and English Dave
lived like the prince
and the king.
PFEIFER:
At some point, David Amos
had so much wealth
that he ended up buying a boat
for himself and he named it
Wankers Aweigh.
BAKER:
There was no one month
or six weeks of mourning.
You know, there wasn't
"Let's play it--
Let's low-profile
the-the situation."
No, instead they went sky-high.
GULICKSON:
We strongly believed
that Mike Woods
was behind the murder.
But the fact is that
there's a huge leap between
having suspicion
of somebody's involvement
and being able to prove
that somebody was involved
in something like this.
I'm looking for justice
for the victim and answers
for the family.
We needed to convict
the-the folks responsible
for this,
and we were at a standstill.
♪ ♪
They need a break.
And they got one.
PFEIFER:
This young man came forward.
He's caught up
in a nasty feud.
CURT ROTHSCHILLER: He said,
"How much trouble am I in?"
I never dreamed
he would be involved
in something that evil.
There's an old saying,
"Sometimes, if you want
something done right,
you just got to do it yourself."
ROTHSCHILLER:
So he began working
as a confidential informant
for us.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
Detectives had exposed
years of friction
between beloved
and revered strip club mogul
Horace "Big Mac" McKenna
and his business partner,
Mike Woods.
But Woods wasn't looking
to make their jobs easier.
Did anything connect him
to the crime?
ROB HARLEY:
In this case,
they didn't have very much
evidence against
Mr. Woods except that there was
some problems emanating
between Mr. Woods
and Mr. McKenna.
And so this is potentially
the motive behind it.
♪ ♪
GULICKSON:
We wanted to interview
Mike Woods.
As a suspect, we felt
that he would intentionally try
to avoid us.
Unless he's under arrest,
I don't have the ability
to force him to talk to me.
We did not have the-the evidence
to arrest him.
There really wasn't much further
we could take it with him.
WELBORN:
So they had suspects,
particularly Michael Woods, and
they're looking at English Dave
And they were knocking on doors
but they couldn't get that nexus
that put the investigation
together.
GULICKSON:
By the time 1990 rolled along,
we had pretty much exhausted
every lead that we had.
Majority of folks
would not talk to us out of fea
of either retaliation.
And we were at a standstill.
At the time things went cold,
Mike Woods was still
our primary suspect.
NARRATOR:
Just as Big Mac had exploded
onto the scene in Orange County
he also disappeared
with a bang...
leaving both family
and investigators
shell-shocked for years,
with no way to bring
his suspected killer to justice
PFEIFER:
The Brea Police Department
put in hundreds of hours
on the case.
GULICKSON:
It's extremely frustrating,
having put in that much time
and that much effort into trying
to bring justice for our victim
PEAKE:
Once it became a cold case,
I was so devastated.
I really didn't think
it would ever be solved.
I held out hope all the way
that we would get justice
for Mac's parents
and his son,
that were the nicest people.
FINNEY:
Mike, you know, he asked me
if I would speak
in his father's behalf.
Just...
make sure that the media knew
the Macs that we know.
PEAKE:
I think Big Mac's legacy
was stolen from him.
It's hard to duplicate
a man like that, you know?
FINNEY:
And I made sure
I let that be known.
He was a better man
than what some people may think.
It was very upsetting,
as time went on
and nobody's telling the family
where the investigation
is going, you know?
But I knew somebody would say
something sooner or later.
PFEIFER:
After these crimes,
Mike Woods and David Amos
produced and acted in a movie
called The Takeover
about an ex-con who...
commits murders
to take over a strip club.
It was ridiculous that
he would do something like that.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
Mike Woods
and English Dave's movie
might have seemed to some
to give away the plot,
except it didn't prove anything
that could hold up in court.
A decade passed,
and Big Mac's story
became legend,
a lover and a fighter
who had straddled two worlds,
between the scandalous
strip clubs of South L.A.
and the opulence
of Orange County.
But the legend was still lackin
a lawful ending.
HARLEY:
Every once in a while,
for a case that
hadn't been solved for years,
somebody from Newport Beach
Police Department
will bring it up
to the Orange County
D.A.'s office
to do a cold case review.
WELBORN:
Orange County got one
of the most experienced
detectives in California
about organized crime,
a detective named Rick Morton.
And they need a break.
And they got one.
February of 2000,
a man comes forward
and says he knows something
about what happened to Big Mac.
PFEIFER:
Johnny Sheridan
was a confidential informant
for a police officer
in Ventura County.
And at some point,
he decided
to get this case off
of his shoulders.
I arrested Johnny Sheridan
in 1987
for sales of cocaine.
Johnny decided he would
rather try to help himself out
than to go to prison
at the time.
So he began working as
a confidential informant for us
John Sheridan was a hanger-on,
kind of like
a gofer at different clubs
owned by Big Mac.
ROTHSCHILLER:
Overall, I would say Johnny's
a really good kid.
He's very intelligent,
very quick-witted.
BAKER:
He was never
in the upper echelon
of Big Mac's characters
that he trusted.
He was kind of an outsider
working in security
and working at the disposal
of Big Mac and Mike Woods.
But he was closer to Mike Woods
than he was to Mac.
He actually became a good friend
of, uh, English Dave's.
-Very good friend.
-ROTHSCHILLER: I do believe
Johnny was looking for a big
brother-type, father figure.
I think that's why
he kind of latched on to me.
But I also think
that's kind of why he latched on
to English Dave at the clubs.
I believe it was right around
February of 2000
when John called
and brought up the Big Mac case
After Johnny called
and told me that he wanted
to talk about Big Mac,
he said he'd meet me at the bar
And once I brought up the topic
he told me he was nervous
about meeting with me.
He had heard that Orange County
had opened
the investigation again.
He said,
"How much trouble am I in?"
And I said something like,
"Well, Johnny,
"I've kind of gotten you out
of a lot of arrests
"and a lot of jail time
in the past.
"It kind of depends
on your involvement.
But, you know,
if you're the shooter--"
and I was kind of joking--
"I don't know
what would happen."
And he looked down at the table
and then he looked back up.
And what Johnny said,
it was a shock.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
Ten years after the slaying
of Orange County mogul
"Big Mac" McKenna,
a former bit player
by the name of John Sheridan
came forward
with some startling revelations
I said, "If you provided
the car, not a problem.
"We can work with that.
If you provided the gun,
"it's not a death sentence,
right?
"But, you know,
if you're the shooter,
I don't know what would happen.
And then he looked back down
at the table
and he looked straight up at me
and he shook his head
up and down
and he had his thumb
and his finger out,
simulating a gun
and him pulling the trigger.
At which time, I said,
"Are you kidding me?
"I have no idea
"how we're gonna handle this,
"but I know this guy,
Rick Morton,
"and I trust him and he's...
"involved heavily
in this investigation.
"I think you should sit down
and talk to him,"
which he agreed to at the time.
The conscience
is a tricky thing.
Some people can store
the conscience forever
and some people can't.
This guy
just completely came clean
and talked about doing
this notorious crime himself.
ROTHSCHILLER:
English Dave and Mike Woods
wanted Horace McKenna killed,
and Johnny apparently told
English Dave
that he knew someone,
and they actually gave Johnny
some money.
And then, when Johnny told them
who the target was,
they backed out.
Johnny said he kept getting
pressured from English Dave
to get it done, and he finally
gave in to the pressure,
and decided
he would do it himself.
PFEIFER:
Actually, his quote was,
"There's an old saying.
"Sometimes if you want something
done right,
you just got to do it yourself.
WELBORN:
And he gets an advance,
used the money
to buy an Uzi submachine gun.
ROTHSCHILLER:
While he was explaining it
to us, he was reliving
what happened that night.
WELBORN: March 9,
he goes out and sits there
with his submachine gun, and
waits for Big Mac to arrive.
PFEIFER:
Sheridan said,
"I went and I found
a good hiding place.
"When the limousine stopped
at the gate,
"I jumped out of the bushes,
and I opened fire,
"and I fired enough bullets
that I knew
there's no way
that he could have survived."
I remember kind of
feeling queasy,
because I never dreamed
he would be involved
in something that evil.
As he left the area,
he threw the Uzi
into the harbor,
and I know
that they never found it.
NARRATOR:
Sheridan admitted
to pulling the trigger,
but justice
in a murder-for-hire plot comes
from bagging
whoever ordered the hit,
and with no hard evidence
to achieve that,
detectives needed
to keep digging.
WELBORN:
Can't just use the
co-conspirator's word for it.
They've got to get evidence
against the guy who hired him.
PEAKE:
During the time
that the case was a cold case,
Mac came to me in my dreams
every night for ten years.
In my dreams,
he was always so loving.
NARRATOR:
The former motorcycle cop
turned strip club kingpin
left a multifaceted legacy.
While some felt safer
in his absence,
many missed the wild,
romantic giant
and were relieved as justice
seemed to be on the horizon.
PEAKE:
I am so grateful
that they decided
to pick up this case,
that they felt
the same way that I did--
that he didn't deserve this,
no matter what.
And we want to solve it.
I was happy. Ooh!
The weight was lifted
off of my shoulders
of always wondering.
NARRATOR:
The case was gaining momentum
after John Sheridan confessed
to killing controversial
Orange County icon Big Mac.
Investigators had their sights
set on scheming suspects
Mike Woods and his suave
henchman English Dave.
ROTHSCHILLER:
Johnny felt that he could
get English Dave
to talk about the murder.
The Orange County guys
put together a plan.
They would cover Johnny
while he wore a wire
nights that he worked
at the clubs.
Normally, you have a plan
where you can rescue them
if things go wrong.
In this case,
had they found the wire
with Johnny inside the clubs,
I don't think
any of us were confident
that we would get there before
they could harm Johnny.
There's always that risk.
A lot of recordings
were just normal
strip club business
that we could hear.
WELBORN:
They were coming close.
I mean, they were getting some
bits and pieces on the wire.
But they're not sure
they got 100% enough
to prosecute English Dave.
They finally came up
with this scheme
from this story
about English Dave offering
$50,000, all totaled,
to John Sheridan for the murder
of Big Mac McKenna.
And he only got $25,000.
"They promised you $50,000,
so maybe if you brought that up
"to English Dave, maybe
he'll start talking about it,
and we can get
some incriminating evidence."
NARRATOR:
Johnny would have
to walk a tightrope
by demanding payment
for the murder,
but without raising
the suspicions
of Mike woods
and English Dave.
Would a red flag cause them
to silence him
just like they did
beloved Big Mac?
English Dave didn't give Johnny
a hard time at all. It was,
"Yeah, you know what, Johnny?
You're right.
I'll get the money together."
No hesitancy at all.
HARLEY:
The investigators were able
to set up Mr. Amos
on audiotape and videotape.
The remaining balance of $25,000
was turned over to Mr. Sheridan
by Mr. Amos as satisfaction
of the $25,000 debt
that was owed to Mr. Sheridan
as a result of the murder
that took place back in 1989.
-(siren blaring)
-WELBORN: They swooped in
and picked up English Dave.
And English Dave
suddenly realizes,
"Hey, man, I've been played."
They had enough
to prosecute English Dave.
WELBORN:
But also they know that he's no
the end-all
of the investigation.
He's not the one that organized
the crime itself.
English Dave works
for Mike Woods,
and Mike Woods is the big fish.
PFEIFER:
David Amos had two options--
face a life prison sentence, or
do whatever he could to help
the police get Mike Woods.
To sit down with Michael Woods
and get him to make
an incriminating statement
while wearing a wire.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
An Orange County police sting
had caught English Dave Amos
paying off Big Mac McKenna's
shooter,
but Dave was claiming innocence
leaving investigators no closer
to their real target--
kingpin Mike Woods.
ROTHSCHILLER:
We had a conversation
about whether or not we should
explain to English Dave
that Johnny,
the informant,
was cooperating.
Johnny agreed to talk to Dave
and explain that
he was cooperating, and
English Dave should do the same
After Johnny talked
to English Dave,
Dave's demeanor totally changed
English Dave then turned
on Mike Woods, and said, "Yeah.
"I was the agent. I was the one
who gave Sheridan the money,
"but it was given to me
by my boss, Mike Woods.
"Woods was the one responsible,
orchestrated the whole
assassination."
And it took him
maybe five or six minutes
to then say that he would
cooperate and try to get
Mike woods
to have a conversation
about the conspiracy.
And it was the very next day
on October 27
that Dave Amos met
with Mike Woods.
ROTHSCHILLER:
English Dave arranged
to meet Mike Woods at a deli
in the San Fernando Valley.
The Orange County guys
actually had
the D.A. that was going
to prosecute the case out
on surveillance with them,
listening to the wire
that English Dave was wearing.
PFEIFER:
During that conversation
at the deli,
David Amos looked at Mike Woods
and said,
"If I take the fall for you, ar
you gonna look after my family?
And Mike Woods said,
"Yes, Dave."
That doesn't sound like
the words of an innocent man.
So just after that lunch,
when David Amos was secretly
recording the conversation,
Mike Woods emerged
from the restaurant,
and police swooped in
and arrested him.
NARRATOR:
Over a decade
after Big Mac McKenna was kille
in the quiet hills
of Orange County
he had worked so hard
to attain,
the trio who did him in
were finally brought in
for the gangland lifestyle
Big Mac himself had prescribed.
PFEIFER:
John Sheridan, David Amos
and Mike Woods
had been arrested,
and all three of them
were in jail.
FINNEY:
When I found out
these people had got caught,
well, I went out
for a couple drinks that night.
I was happy.
(Finney whoops)
We knew. We knew it.
On August 22, 2001, Mr. Woods
went to trial.
PFEIFER:
This case
had everything
the prosecution needed--
a secretly-recorded conversatio
in which he makes several
highly-incriminating statements
He had, as they say,
the motive,
the means and the opportunity.
This murder took place
because Michael Woods
wanted it to happen,
because Horace McKenna, Big Mac
was a threat to him, and
David Amos, knowing that he
would get an ownership interest
in the clubs, was more than
willing to make this happen.
WELBORN:
During the trial, the lawyer
for Mike Woods tried
to pin the murder
on John Sheridan.
That didn't work.
Michael Woods was convicted
of first degree murder
for financial gain,
and he was sentenced by
the judge to 25 years to life.
PFEIFER:
I can't say that I noticed
any remorse in Mike Woods the
whole time I watched the trial.
Because of their cooperation,
David Amos and John Sheridan
were eligible
to plead guilty
to lesser charges,
and they received
reduced sentences.
Both of them were paroled
within ten years.
FINNEY:
I knew justice would prevail.
And in Mac's case,
he-he didn't deserve
to have his life taken,
so I knew
there was a brighter light
that was gonna shine for him,
and there would be
some vindication for his family.
PEAKE:
I still read his love letters
and his cards,
and I share them
with my friends and my family.
I think of him every day.
PFEIFER: After the jury returne
its guilty verdict
against Mike Woods,
I interviewed McKenna's son
outside of the courtroom.
He was clearly emotional,
teary-eyed, and he told me,
"My dad can now rest,
I can now rest.
It's finally over."
ANNOUNCER:
For more information on
Someone opened fire...
...spraying bullets
throughout the limousine.
TERRI LENÉE PEAKE:
All Mac could say
was "Tell my mom
and dad I love them."
And those were his last words.
NARRATOR:
A larger-than-life
Orange County club owner
was suddenly gunned down.
There were a lot of people
threatening him.
DARRYL FINNEY:
'Cause in business,
you got jealous people.
They had not been getting along.
Had deteriorated fast.
NARRATOR:
Investigators would uncover
a dangerous underworld
of vicious competition.
GRANT GULICKSON:
We started focusing on
who the different players were
at the clubs.
PEAKE:
The police were going in there
and questioning people,
but nobody was talking.
A man from Florida
says he knows something.
RICK BAKER:
He was kind of an outsider.
They didn't expect
this is the guy that would
want to have him killed.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
March 9, 1989 was a quiet night
in the picturesque canyons
of Brea, California.
At the northern edge
of Orange County,
Brea's rolling hills
had allowed one man a view
of his empire to the north
while plotting his expansion
into the gilded south,
until a fateful 911 call
broadcast a tragic turn.
GULUCKSON: I was in bed asleep
when I got the phone call.
There had been a homicide
at the largest and nicest
estate out in Carbon Canyon.
Around 12:35 a.m.,
a limousine meandered
up the canyon
into the foothills of Brea.
Pulls up to the gate
of this massive estate.
Right there,
the gunman opened fire.
GULICKSON:
We headed out to look
at the crime scene
and see what we had
as far as witnesses.
WELBORN:
The guy was shot at
the front gate to his
estate up in the hills.
GULICKSON:
The shooting took place
down at the gate.
When we got to the gate, there
were police officers down there
We had to try to avoid
running over
the shell casings that were
sitting in the driveway.
As I recall,
there were somewhere around
30 empty casings
that were found at the scene.
We later came to discover
that the-the homicide
had a machine gun used
to actually commit the murder.
To my knowledge,
there had never been
a-a homicide using
a machine gun in Brea.
We drove up the driveway
to the house.
When we got up there,
there were a couple
of police officers
there along with a limousine.
That's where the body was.
The rear passenger side window
was shattered.
Numerous bullet holes,
not only in the glass
but also in the door post.
There was a driver
on the scene.
The driver's name was Bob Berg.
After talking to Mr. Berg,
we came to discover
that the victim of the shooting
was Horace McKenna,
also known as Big Mac.
The house, the limo and
everything else at the estate
belonged to Mr. McKenna.
Bob had told us
that they had come home,
he had stopped at the gate,
opened up the gate,
climbed back into the limo
to drive up the hill,
he heard the machine gun go off
Someone opened fire,
spraying bullets
throughout the limousine,
striking McKenna numerous times
GULICKSON:
And at that point,
Bob Berg sped up the hill
to the estate
and called the police.
WELBORN:
At the time that Big Mac
was shot and killed,
Big Mac's son Michael,
he's the only one
up at the top of the hill.
GULICKSON:
Obviously somebody wanted
Mr. McKenna dead,
to be firing that many rounds
that quickly.
That-- It wasn't a warning.
They wanted to make sure
that they took him down.
We had crime scene folks
process the scene.
There was quite
a few cigarette butts
behind the cinder block wall
that supported the gate.
Which made us suspect
that the person had perhaps been
hiding behind that block wall
for the limo to stop.
PFEIFER:
Big Mac McKenna
was able to manage
a couple of words
while he died out there
outside of his home.
PEAKE:
All Mac could say was
"Tell my mom
and dad I love them."
And those were his last words.
WELBORN:
When I was a reporter
at the Orange County Register,
I got a call
from the city editor saying,
"There's been
a murder near you,
and would you mind
checking it out?"
As you're entering the property
you see this six-car garage.
No cars are parked
inside the garage,
'cause inside the garage,
we found out was a live tiger,
and an entire
alligator environment.
And a live jaguar.
It's just beyond our realm
of reality.
Wo, it was quite
an extravagant layout.
NARRATOR:
Wealth is clearly
common in the O.C.
But investigators and reporters
alike were astounded to find
such a flamboyant display
of excess at the crime scene.
Who was Horace McKenna?
And what else
would be uncovered?
WELBORN:
They're trying to build
his background
as much as they could,
and so they're contacting people
in Los Angeles County
trying to piece together
who this guy might've been.
GULICKSON:
We came to find out, after
talking to Mr. Berg and others,
that Horace McKenna was a forme
Highway Patrol officer.
He was an interesting character
from what we had been told.
Horace McKenna,
also known as Big Mac,
was born in Louisiana.
He was Creole.
He moved to California
with his parents as a youngster
Wanted to be a police officer.
He was a leader, for sure.
He was always in charge.
Large and in charge.
But he also had
a great sense of humor.
So, in 1982 when Big Mac
introduced himself to me,
he says, "Hi. I'm Big Mac.
"I understand
you have a boyfriend,
but when and if that changes,
let me know."
He looked like a movie star.
I couldn't stop
thinking about him.
I think I fell in love
right then and there.
FINNEY:
The first time
I met Horace McKenna,
I was about ten or 11.
And he'd pick us up
one at a time and he'd fly down
the street on the motorcycle
with the siren on.
PEAKE:
Big Mac loved
his Harley-Davidson.
He really was an entertainer
at heart.
He was the star of the show.
As I got older, I realized
what an impact he was doing for
the kids in the neighborhood.
He's the kind of a guy
that you want to associate with.
-He's magnetic.
-PEAKE: And he was so handsome
on that bike, yesiree.
WELBORN:
He was a huge man. Six foot six
Maybe close to 300 pounds.
He made Hulk Hogan look small.
BAKER:
He had muscles
that you didn't even know about
But he was not a bully.
PEAKE:
And he had the biggest heart.
All the men wanted to be him
and all the women wanted him.
They couldn't handle him,
though.
(laughs)
NARRATOR:
How did this former
Highway Patrol officer,
regarded by friends
as a gentle giant,
end up living like a king
at the top of Orange County?
Could his rise to riches
have been connected
to his ultimate downfall?
BAKER:
Mac made his money
playing poker.
After three days
of playing cards one time,
Horace McKenna ended up
with $80,000-plus.
WELBORN:
Which started him
in his investment process.
He resigned as a CHP officer
and he went
from this big goofy guy
on a motorcycle
to an investor
in private businesses
and became very wealthy
in a hurry.
GULICKSON:
Well, we were told
that Horace McKenna owned
a number of strip clubs
in Los Angeles County.
PFEIFER:
Big Mac McKenna owned
Bare Elegance,
there was the Jet Strip
and there was Valley Ball.
BAKER:
He was Bill Gates.
You know, he was Bloomberg.
PEAKE:
When I started
working at the Jet Strip
and made friends with Big Mac,
he very much had
a chameleon personality.
When he was at the strip club,
he was the kingpin,
but when we were at the ranch,
away from the clubs,
he wanted to just relax
and be his real self.
Brea is a really slow-paced,
quiet community.
PEAKE:
It was actually
green and beautiful.
It was just rolling mountains
and hills.
We had rattlesnakes
and-and deer
and hawks flying in the air.
NARRATOR:
It's par for the course
for the O.C. business elite
to separate work from home,
regardless of the industry.
And Big Mac's oasis
above Brea was no different.
PFEIFER:
Brea was a nice escape.
He would go home
in his limousine to a hilltop
surrounded by his exotic animals
and live the kind of life
that he wanted to live.
PEAKE:
And it was beautiful.
March 9, 1989,
in the middle of the afternoon.
And I got a call
from Rick Baker.
BAKER:
"Guess what,"
you know, uh,
"Big Mac was just shot."
He said,
"Big Mac's been murdered."
FINNEY:
The day that
that hit me...
whew, I think
I cried like the river.
You know, I don't think
I stopped crying
for a couple of hours.
He was my family.
We have so many people
that loved him.
We lost an honorable man.
He didn't deserve that.
And he deserved justice.
You never expect
someone like that to die.
So strong and so tough.
(sobs)
Sorry, I just miss him so much.
I could have used him
the last 30 years.
You know?
PFEIFER:
This is not Chicago
in the 1920s.
This is a place
where crimes
like this just don't happen.
NARRATOR: This looked like
a premeditated hit on Big Mac,
but who had the motive
to fell the friendly giant
in such a malicious manner?
The first place to look was
at Big Mac's inner circle.
GULICKSON:
Most homicides
are gonna be committed
by somebody
they work with,
live with or play with.
Mac had had one son,
early to mid-20s.
PFEIFER:
There's a lot of crimes
that are centered around cash,
and so the Brea police wondered
whether McKenna's killing
had a lot to do with money
and opportunity
to inherit his wealth.
GULICKSON:
We, of course,
had to consider the possibility
that Michael had been involved
or had knowledge of the homicid
prior to it happening.
WELBORN: Somebody set fire
and burned down
the infamous Mustang Club.
It was the biggest
adult entertainment spot
in Orange County.
It was a cutthroat business.
It was really seedy.
BAKER:
All the other club owners
had a reason
to be jealous.
They had not been getting along
prior to McKenna's murder.
What have we got here?
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
After strip club kingpin
Horace "Big Mac" McKenna
was gunned down outside
of his lavish
Orange County estate,
investigators looked
to whether this was an attempt
by his next of kin
at an early inheritance.
GULICKSON:
When we spoke
to Michael McKenna,
he was very hesitant
to share information.
He was upset
that we were asking questions.
It caused us concern. It seemed
that he stood to gain
some things from his death.
NARRATOR:
Could this have been
an inside job
ordered by the O.C. heir?
Detectives began digging
into what Michael stood to gain
when details emerged
that shaded their suspicion.
GULICKSON:
I was contacted by
a member of the Los Angeles
County D.A.'s Office
who told me
that he had been investigating
Mac and some of the strip clubs
for a while.
They were taking a percentage
off the top
of what the girls
were supposed to be making.
He supposedly was skimming off
the reported income at the door
Anything that you could
short the state on,
anything related
to a-a cash business.
NARRATOR:
Had sordid business practices
led to his ultimate demise?
As it turned out,
Big Mac McKenna had danced
on both sides of the law
for most
of his professional life.
His record went back
long before he was a wealthy
Orange County club owner
to when he was
a Los Angeles motorcycle cop.
PFEIFER:
McKenna
rode a motorcycle
up and down Sunset Boulevard,
enforcing the laws
in one of the most high-profile
electric parts
of Southern California.
BAKER:
He had been arrested,
and he had lost his job
with the Highway Patrol
over in Palm Springs.
He apparently
was passing bad paper,
and he had to spend
some time in jail.
WELBORN:
After his career was over,
several years later,
he was charged with running
a prostitution ring.
And he spent some time
in federal prison off that beef.
NARRATOR:
Big Mac's long rap sheet
meant he couldn't actually own
any of his clubs
in L.A. or Orange County,
and that had major implications
in the investigation,
including Michael McKenna's
potential involvement
in his dad's murder.
GULICKSON:
We knew that, at some level,
Michael stood
to gain some things
from his death.
However,
with Big Mac
not having legal title
on any of the clubs,
we didn't think
that he likely stood to gain
the assets
that McKenna controlled.
We didn't have anything
to tie him to the homicide.
NARRATOR:
So, if Big Mac
didn't own his clubs,
who was holding the legal title
GULICKSON:
During the course
of the investigation,
multiple people
told us that Mike Woods
was the, essentially, front man
for McKenna.
PEAKE:
I was being told Mike Woods
was the owner of the club
and had his own bodyguards
and his own group of friends,
and Mac was the silent owner
that had his own bodyguards
and his own group of friends
and girls,
but that Big Mac
was really the boss of the club,
and what he said goes.
Big Mac and Mike Woods
were partners together
on the Highway Patrol.
PFEIFER:
That's how they got to know
each other.
When McKenna was forced out
of the Highway Patrol,
Woods later followed,
and they decided
to open a nightclub together.
BAKER:
So, he needed Mike Woods
and his clean record to have him
as the licensee
of the entertainment license
and the liquor license.
Neither one of the licenses
were in Horace McKenna's name.
PEAKE:
Mac couldn't have his name
on the paperwork at all
and was a silent partner.
And they would have
a distribution,
obviously,
of the money and the funds.
PFEIFER:
And it was a partnership
that initially
led them to a lot of wealth
and success.
GULICKSON:
From our understanding,
the main person
that was gonna benefit
from Horace being gone
was Mike Woods.
My understanding was
they had not been getting along
prior to McKenna's murder.
PFEIFER:
Big Mac and Mike Woods
were like polar opposites.
Big Mac was
a tall, strapping ladies' man.
Life of the party.
And Mike Woods
looked like a frumpy accountant
who did not have
the type of charisma
or personality
that McKenna did.
But he was good with the books
and with the money.
BAKER:
Mike Woods
was more of an elitist.
He wasn't a common
guy next door.
Mike Woods' nickname
was Mike "Weird."
PEAKE:
When I met Mike Woods, he shook
my hand, and he said,
"How would you like
to go to my sister's club
and do a wet T-shirt contest?"
Just right like that.
That was his only words to me.
And I said, "Okay."
And the girls
told me, "It's okay. He's fine.
He's a little weird,
but he's safe."
So, I went with Mike Woods
in his white Rolls-Royce
to do a wet T-shirt contest.
So, I did
the wet T-shirt contest.
I won that. Got my tips,
and he drove me back
to the Jet Strip.
It was a little mind-boggling,
actually,
that I went
into a stranger's car,
but he was a perfect gentleman.
Mike Woods
was a perfect gentleman.
NARRATOR:
Big Mac and Mike Woods
were a contrast in styles
for sure,
but Woods had no criminal recor
or any history of violence.
Would he really stab his partne
in the back?
The two men
had helped each other rise
from humble chopper cops
to the heights
of upper echelon O.C.
So detectives turned
their attention to enemies
Mac and Woods
might have had in common:
their competitors.
BAKER:
I-In the industry
that Horace McKenna,
Big Mac, was in,
it was a cutthroat business.
PEAKE:
You got to remember, back then,
the '80s were pretty crazy
in L.A.,
so it was all biker guys
that went to those places.
It was really seedy.
BAKER:
Oh, you had characters
that would not hesitate
if necessary
to take you out.
That was not a problem
with a lot of the owners
that were in that business.
GULICKSON:
We started focusing
on trying to find out
who the different players were
at the clubs
and which one of those folks
might have had
the incentive
to either commit the homicide
or hire the homicide out.
The Wild Goose was another club
in the same area
as McKenna's clubs.
We were told McKenna
was actually trying to get
the owners together
and have the same prices,
and, uh, not everybody
was willing to go along.
The Wild Goose suffered a fire
of suspicious nature,
and many people
seem to think that Mac
had a connection to that arson.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
As investigators probed
the brutal shooting
of Horace "Big Mac" McKenna,
rumors floated
that a flaming feud
had resulted in arson.
The story spilled
into the heart of Orange County
where South O.C. power brokers
were known to look down
on their northern rivals.
WELBORN:
The Mustang Club in
Orange County, Harbor Boulevard
was the biggest
adult entertainment spot
in Orange County.
One day, somebody set fire
and burned down
most of the Mustang.
It was pretty much
seriously damaged.
And then three months later,
somebody else came back
and finished the job
and burned it to the ground.
It was never open again.
Was Big Mac
trying to buy the Mustang?
Is there some connection there?
When somebody crossed him,
he would say,
"It could happen to here, too,
just what happened
to the Mustang."
So he kind of used that
in his repertoire of threats.
PEAKE:
There were a lot of people
that hated Mac.
There were a lot of people
threatening him.
There was a lot of bad guys
floating around.
There was a lot of people
had reason to hurt him.
And the police at the time
were going in there
and questioning people,
but nobody was talking.
We did not have a shortage
of potential suspects.
But many of the employees
at the clubs were hesitant
to speak with us.
I think some of the employees
were scared.
And we didn't have
an opportunity
to talk to a lot of patrons.
I'm sure people traveled
from Orange County up to L.A.
to these clubs.
I think some didn't want
to have their name come up
as somebody
who was frequenting these clubs.
NARRATOR:
If no one from Mac's world
was showing up to talk to polic
about his murder,
every one of them seemed to wan
a place at his funeral.
It attracted
a legendary collection
of those who knew, loved
and tangled
with this towering figure
of the Southern California
underworld.
It was a circus.
All the other strippers in town
showed up,
which I wasn't too happy about
because the family
didn't want that.
They wanted to just have
a very private memorial service
for just the family.
FINNEY:
The McKennas were there.
They were
hurt and crying, tears.
It was real hard times,
especially for Mike, his son.
He didn't know
all of his father's business.
All this stuff
thrown in your face right now,
and you got to try to figure out
all of this stuff out.
And I felt sorry for Mike
because Mike wasn't ready.
He didn't know what to do.
NARRATOR:
But while all those
who knew Mac well
or even wanted to
had clamored to show up,
the most likely attendee
was suspiciously absent
from the grieving crowds.
Mike Woods was MIA.
He was missing in action on
the funeral of-of his partner.
This was his partner.
GULICKSON:
Several people
from my police department
attended
the graveside service.
And when Mike Woods failed
to attend the funeral,
that certainly increased
our suspicion.
WELBORN:
The relationship
between Michael and Big Mac
started to deteriorate,
and it deteriorated fast.
Big Mac was skimming more
and living more
of an extravagant lifestyle,
and Michael perhaps knew
that law enforcement
was taking a look
at their activities.
PFEIFER:
Mike Woods
may have also wondered whether
McKenna's personality was gonna
bring the police down on him.
Mike Woods didn't like
Horace McKenna.
Horace McKenna humiliated him
on several occasions.
I literally saw Mac in the
office bitch-slap Mike Woods.
It was really degrading.
And I loved Mac,
but I just-- I really did
feel bad for Mike Woods.
He was terrified
of Horace McKenna.
That even gave me more
of a reason to say,
"This is the guy that would
want to have him killed."
PEAKE:
So, what would happen was
the bodyguards
would kind of step in
to guard their guys and get them
out of the situation.
And English Dave,
he was great
at keeping the situation calm
between Mac and Mike.
GULICKSON:
David Amos,
his name came up
during the investigation.
PFEIFER:
He was a part-time actor
who had a role,
more or less,
as a bodyguard at the clubs.
But that role expanded
to part-time owner
after Horace McKenna's killing.
The fact that Mike Woods
took a guy that was strong-arm
and suddenly he's managing
a club for him,
that was suspicious.
He went from being a bodyguard
to someone who's making
significant wealth.
After the assassination
of Horace,
Mike Woods and English Dave
lived like the prince
and the king.
PFEIFER:
At some point, David Amos
had so much wealth
that he ended up buying a boat
for himself and he named it
Wankers Aweigh.
BAKER:
There was no one month
or six weeks of mourning.
You know, there wasn't
"Let's play it--
Let's low-profile
the-the situation."
No, instead they went sky-high.
GULICKSON:
We strongly believed
that Mike Woods
was behind the murder.
But the fact is that
there's a huge leap between
having suspicion
of somebody's involvement
and being able to prove
that somebody was involved
in something like this.
I'm looking for justice
for the victim and answers
for the family.
We needed to convict
the-the folks responsible
for this,
and we were at a standstill.
♪ ♪
They need a break.
And they got one.
PFEIFER:
This young man came forward.
He's caught up
in a nasty feud.
CURT ROTHSCHILLER: He said,
"How much trouble am I in?"
I never dreamed
he would be involved
in something that evil.
There's an old saying,
"Sometimes, if you want
something done right,
you just got to do it yourself."
ROTHSCHILLER:
So he began working
as a confidential informant
for us.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
Detectives had exposed
years of friction
between beloved
and revered strip club mogul
Horace "Big Mac" McKenna
and his business partner,
Mike Woods.
But Woods wasn't looking
to make their jobs easier.
Did anything connect him
to the crime?
ROB HARLEY:
In this case,
they didn't have very much
evidence against
Mr. Woods except that there was
some problems emanating
between Mr. Woods
and Mr. McKenna.
And so this is potentially
the motive behind it.
♪ ♪
GULICKSON:
We wanted to interview
Mike Woods.
As a suspect, we felt
that he would intentionally try
to avoid us.
Unless he's under arrest,
I don't have the ability
to force him to talk to me.
We did not have the-the evidence
to arrest him.
There really wasn't much further
we could take it with him.
WELBORN:
So they had suspects,
particularly Michael Woods, and
they're looking at English Dave
And they were knocking on doors
but they couldn't get that nexus
that put the investigation
together.
GULICKSON:
By the time 1990 rolled along,
we had pretty much exhausted
every lead that we had.
Majority of folks
would not talk to us out of fea
of either retaliation.
And we were at a standstill.
At the time things went cold,
Mike Woods was still
our primary suspect.
NARRATOR:
Just as Big Mac had exploded
onto the scene in Orange County
he also disappeared
with a bang...
leaving both family
and investigators
shell-shocked for years,
with no way to bring
his suspected killer to justice
PFEIFER:
The Brea Police Department
put in hundreds of hours
on the case.
GULICKSON:
It's extremely frustrating,
having put in that much time
and that much effort into trying
to bring justice for our victim
PEAKE:
Once it became a cold case,
I was so devastated.
I really didn't think
it would ever be solved.
I held out hope all the way
that we would get justice
for Mac's parents
and his son,
that were the nicest people.
FINNEY:
Mike, you know, he asked me
if I would speak
in his father's behalf.
Just...
make sure that the media knew
the Macs that we know.
PEAKE:
I think Big Mac's legacy
was stolen from him.
It's hard to duplicate
a man like that, you know?
FINNEY:
And I made sure
I let that be known.
He was a better man
than what some people may think.
It was very upsetting,
as time went on
and nobody's telling the family
where the investigation
is going, you know?
But I knew somebody would say
something sooner or later.
PFEIFER:
After these crimes,
Mike Woods and David Amos
produced and acted in a movie
called The Takeover
about an ex-con who...
commits murders
to take over a strip club.
It was ridiculous that
he would do something like that.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
Mike Woods
and English Dave's movie
might have seemed to some
to give away the plot,
except it didn't prove anything
that could hold up in court.
A decade passed,
and Big Mac's story
became legend,
a lover and a fighter
who had straddled two worlds,
between the scandalous
strip clubs of South L.A.
and the opulence
of Orange County.
But the legend was still lackin
a lawful ending.
HARLEY:
Every once in a while,
for a case that
hadn't been solved for years,
somebody from Newport Beach
Police Department
will bring it up
to the Orange County
D.A.'s office
to do a cold case review.
WELBORN:
Orange County got one
of the most experienced
detectives in California
about organized crime,
a detective named Rick Morton.
And they need a break.
And they got one.
February of 2000,
a man comes forward
and says he knows something
about what happened to Big Mac.
PFEIFER:
Johnny Sheridan
was a confidential informant
for a police officer
in Ventura County.
And at some point,
he decided
to get this case off
of his shoulders.
I arrested Johnny Sheridan
in 1987
for sales of cocaine.
Johnny decided he would
rather try to help himself out
than to go to prison
at the time.
So he began working as
a confidential informant for us
John Sheridan was a hanger-on,
kind of like
a gofer at different clubs
owned by Big Mac.
ROTHSCHILLER:
Overall, I would say Johnny's
a really good kid.
He's very intelligent,
very quick-witted.
BAKER:
He was never
in the upper echelon
of Big Mac's characters
that he trusted.
He was kind of an outsider
working in security
and working at the disposal
of Big Mac and Mike Woods.
But he was closer to Mike Woods
than he was to Mac.
He actually became a good friend
of, uh, English Dave's.
-Very good friend.
-ROTHSCHILLER: I do believe
Johnny was looking for a big
brother-type, father figure.
I think that's why
he kind of latched on to me.
But I also think
that's kind of why he latched on
to English Dave at the clubs.
I believe it was right around
February of 2000
when John called
and brought up the Big Mac case
After Johnny called
and told me that he wanted
to talk about Big Mac,
he said he'd meet me at the bar
And once I brought up the topic
he told me he was nervous
about meeting with me.
He had heard that Orange County
had opened
the investigation again.
He said,
"How much trouble am I in?"
And I said something like,
"Well, Johnny,
"I've kind of gotten you out
of a lot of arrests
"and a lot of jail time
in the past.
"It kind of depends
on your involvement.
But, you know,
if you're the shooter--"
and I was kind of joking--
"I don't know
what would happen."
And he looked down at the table
and then he looked back up.
And what Johnny said,
it was a shock.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
Ten years after the slaying
of Orange County mogul
"Big Mac" McKenna,
a former bit player
by the name of John Sheridan
came forward
with some startling revelations
I said, "If you provided
the car, not a problem.
"We can work with that.
If you provided the gun,
"it's not a death sentence,
right?
"But, you know,
if you're the shooter,
I don't know what would happen.
And then he looked back down
at the table
and he looked straight up at me
and he shook his head
up and down
and he had his thumb
and his finger out,
simulating a gun
and him pulling the trigger.
At which time, I said,
"Are you kidding me?
"I have no idea
"how we're gonna handle this,
"but I know this guy,
Rick Morton,
"and I trust him and he's...
"involved heavily
in this investigation.
"I think you should sit down
and talk to him,"
which he agreed to at the time.
The conscience
is a tricky thing.
Some people can store
the conscience forever
and some people can't.
This guy
just completely came clean
and talked about doing
this notorious crime himself.
ROTHSCHILLER:
English Dave and Mike Woods
wanted Horace McKenna killed,
and Johnny apparently told
English Dave
that he knew someone,
and they actually gave Johnny
some money.
And then, when Johnny told them
who the target was,
they backed out.
Johnny said he kept getting
pressured from English Dave
to get it done, and he finally
gave in to the pressure,
and decided
he would do it himself.
PFEIFER:
Actually, his quote was,
"There's an old saying.
"Sometimes if you want something
done right,
you just got to do it yourself.
WELBORN:
And he gets an advance,
used the money
to buy an Uzi submachine gun.
ROTHSCHILLER:
While he was explaining it
to us, he was reliving
what happened that night.
WELBORN: March 9,
he goes out and sits there
with his submachine gun, and
waits for Big Mac to arrive.
PFEIFER:
Sheridan said,
"I went and I found
a good hiding place.
"When the limousine stopped
at the gate,
"I jumped out of the bushes,
and I opened fire,
"and I fired enough bullets
that I knew
there's no way
that he could have survived."
I remember kind of
feeling queasy,
because I never dreamed
he would be involved
in something that evil.
As he left the area,
he threw the Uzi
into the harbor,
and I know
that they never found it.
NARRATOR:
Sheridan admitted
to pulling the trigger,
but justice
in a murder-for-hire plot comes
from bagging
whoever ordered the hit,
and with no hard evidence
to achieve that,
detectives needed
to keep digging.
WELBORN:
Can't just use the
co-conspirator's word for it.
They've got to get evidence
against the guy who hired him.
PEAKE:
During the time
that the case was a cold case,
Mac came to me in my dreams
every night for ten years.
In my dreams,
he was always so loving.
NARRATOR:
The former motorcycle cop
turned strip club kingpin
left a multifaceted legacy.
While some felt safer
in his absence,
many missed the wild,
romantic giant
and were relieved as justice
seemed to be on the horizon.
PEAKE:
I am so grateful
that they decided
to pick up this case,
that they felt
the same way that I did--
that he didn't deserve this,
no matter what.
And we want to solve it.
I was happy. Ooh!
The weight was lifted
off of my shoulders
of always wondering.
NARRATOR:
The case was gaining momentum
after John Sheridan confessed
to killing controversial
Orange County icon Big Mac.
Investigators had their sights
set on scheming suspects
Mike Woods and his suave
henchman English Dave.
ROTHSCHILLER:
Johnny felt that he could
get English Dave
to talk about the murder.
The Orange County guys
put together a plan.
They would cover Johnny
while he wore a wire
nights that he worked
at the clubs.
Normally, you have a plan
where you can rescue them
if things go wrong.
In this case,
had they found the wire
with Johnny inside the clubs,
I don't think
any of us were confident
that we would get there before
they could harm Johnny.
There's always that risk.
A lot of recordings
were just normal
strip club business
that we could hear.
WELBORN:
They were coming close.
I mean, they were getting some
bits and pieces on the wire.
But they're not sure
they got 100% enough
to prosecute English Dave.
They finally came up
with this scheme
from this story
about English Dave offering
$50,000, all totaled,
to John Sheridan for the murder
of Big Mac McKenna.
And he only got $25,000.
"They promised you $50,000,
so maybe if you brought that up
"to English Dave, maybe
he'll start talking about it,
and we can get
some incriminating evidence."
NARRATOR:
Johnny would have
to walk a tightrope
by demanding payment
for the murder,
but without raising
the suspicions
of Mike woods
and English Dave.
Would a red flag cause them
to silence him
just like they did
beloved Big Mac?
English Dave didn't give Johnny
a hard time at all. It was,
"Yeah, you know what, Johnny?
You're right.
I'll get the money together."
No hesitancy at all.
HARLEY:
The investigators were able
to set up Mr. Amos
on audiotape and videotape.
The remaining balance of $25,000
was turned over to Mr. Sheridan
by Mr. Amos as satisfaction
of the $25,000 debt
that was owed to Mr. Sheridan
as a result of the murder
that took place back in 1989.
-(siren blaring)
-WELBORN: They swooped in
and picked up English Dave.
And English Dave
suddenly realizes,
"Hey, man, I've been played."
They had enough
to prosecute English Dave.
WELBORN:
But also they know that he's no
the end-all
of the investigation.
He's not the one that organized
the crime itself.
English Dave works
for Mike Woods,
and Mike Woods is the big fish.
PFEIFER:
David Amos had two options--
face a life prison sentence, or
do whatever he could to help
the police get Mike Woods.
To sit down with Michael Woods
and get him to make
an incriminating statement
while wearing a wire.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
An Orange County police sting
had caught English Dave Amos
paying off Big Mac McKenna's
shooter,
but Dave was claiming innocence
leaving investigators no closer
to their real target--
kingpin Mike Woods.
ROTHSCHILLER:
We had a conversation
about whether or not we should
explain to English Dave
that Johnny,
the informant,
was cooperating.
Johnny agreed to talk to Dave
and explain that
he was cooperating, and
English Dave should do the same
After Johnny talked
to English Dave,
Dave's demeanor totally changed
English Dave then turned
on Mike Woods, and said, "Yeah.
"I was the agent. I was the one
who gave Sheridan the money,
"but it was given to me
by my boss, Mike Woods.
"Woods was the one responsible,
orchestrated the whole
assassination."
And it took him
maybe five or six minutes
to then say that he would
cooperate and try to get
Mike woods
to have a conversation
about the conspiracy.
And it was the very next day
on October 27
that Dave Amos met
with Mike Woods.
ROTHSCHILLER:
English Dave arranged
to meet Mike Woods at a deli
in the San Fernando Valley.
The Orange County guys
actually had
the D.A. that was going
to prosecute the case out
on surveillance with them,
listening to the wire
that English Dave was wearing.
PFEIFER:
During that conversation
at the deli,
David Amos looked at Mike Woods
and said,
"If I take the fall for you, ar
you gonna look after my family?
And Mike Woods said,
"Yes, Dave."
That doesn't sound like
the words of an innocent man.
So just after that lunch,
when David Amos was secretly
recording the conversation,
Mike Woods emerged
from the restaurant,
and police swooped in
and arrested him.
NARRATOR:
Over a decade
after Big Mac McKenna was kille
in the quiet hills
of Orange County
he had worked so hard
to attain,
the trio who did him in
were finally brought in
for the gangland lifestyle
Big Mac himself had prescribed.
PFEIFER:
John Sheridan, David Amos
and Mike Woods
had been arrested,
and all three of them
were in jail.
FINNEY:
When I found out
these people had got caught,
well, I went out
for a couple drinks that night.
I was happy.
(Finney whoops)
We knew. We knew it.
On August 22, 2001, Mr. Woods
went to trial.
PFEIFER:
This case
had everything
the prosecution needed--
a secretly-recorded conversatio
in which he makes several
highly-incriminating statements
He had, as they say,
the motive,
the means and the opportunity.
This murder took place
because Michael Woods
wanted it to happen,
because Horace McKenna, Big Mac
was a threat to him, and
David Amos, knowing that he
would get an ownership interest
in the clubs, was more than
willing to make this happen.
WELBORN:
During the trial, the lawyer
for Mike Woods tried
to pin the murder
on John Sheridan.
That didn't work.
Michael Woods was convicted
of first degree murder
for financial gain,
and he was sentenced by
the judge to 25 years to life.
PFEIFER:
I can't say that I noticed
any remorse in Mike Woods the
whole time I watched the trial.
Because of their cooperation,
David Amos and John Sheridan
were eligible
to plead guilty
to lesser charges,
and they received
reduced sentences.
Both of them were paroled
within ten years.
FINNEY:
I knew justice would prevail.
And in Mac's case,
he-he didn't deserve
to have his life taken,
so I knew
there was a brighter light
that was gonna shine for him,
and there would be
some vindication for his family.
PEAKE:
I still read his love letters
and his cards,
and I share them
with my friends and my family.
I think of him every day.
PFEIFER: After the jury returne
its guilty verdict
against Mike Woods,
I interviewed McKenna's son
outside of the courtroom.
He was clearly emotional,
teary-eyed, and he told me,
"My dad can now rest,
I can now rest.
It's finally over."
ANNOUNCER:
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