Philadelphia Daily News

29 June 1984

A man who "got fresh" with his dance partner at a posh North Dallas night club early today argued briefly with her and then shot her to death, reloaded and killed five more patrons at random in the city's worst mass killing in four decades, police said.

The slaughter left four women and two men dead and a seventh person wounded at Ianni's restaurant and club in an upper-income neighborhood of North Dallas.

Lexington Herald-Leader

30 June 1984

DALLAS - An unemployed waiter, enraged after quarreling with his dance partner at a nightclub, shot her to death early yesterday and then killed five other patrons, stopping only to reload his pistol, police said.

A seventh person was seriously wounded in the shootings, which police called the worst mass murder in Dallas history.

Philadelphia Daily News

30 June 1984

A man rebuffed by a dancing partner blew her a kiss, retrieved a pistol and opened fire, killing six people and leaving a nightclub looking "like a meat market," investigators said.

The suspect, Abdelkrim Belachheb, 39, a Moroccan national, was arrested at a friend's house about 10 miles from the club where six people were killed and another was seriously wounded early yesterday.

Philadelphia Inquirer

1 July 1984

Some describe him as a polite, friendly man who talked frequently about his two daughters overseas. But to others Abdelkrim Belachheb, arrested Friday in the random slaying of six people in a North Dallas restaurant, seemed to enjoy liquor, women and expensive cars.

One friend said that Belachheb, a short man who speaks in broken English, was often depressed and longed to fit into American society. Once he tried to commit suicide, the friend said.

Lexington Herald-Leader

1 July 1984

DALLAS - A 39-year-old unemployed waiter, accused of killing six people at a posh nightclub after a woman called him a "monkey" and refused to dance with him, "needed to kill," a friend said.

Abdelkrim Belachheb, a resident alien from Morocco, was being held yesterday in lieu of $500,000 bond after being charged with the murder of Marcell M. Ford, 34, of Grand Prairie, whom police identified as his dance partner.

Philadelphia Daily News

15 November 1984

A Moroccan national today was found guilty of methodically murdering six restaurant patrons in a shooting spree last summer touched off when two women at the club insulted him.

Rejecting the defense attorney's contention that Abdelkrim Belachheb, 39, was "crazy" when he committed the crime, the jury deliberated last night and for just over an hour today before returning the verdict at mid-morning.

Wichita Eagle-Beacon

16 November 1984

An unemployed waiter was convicted of murder Thursday and sentenced to six consecutive life terms for shooting to death six people at a club, the worst mass murder in Dallas history.

Abdelkrim Belachheb, a 39-year-old Moroccan native who had a history of violence spanning three continents, also was sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempted murder and fined $70,000 - $10,000 on each charge.

Abdelkrim Belachheb

32 year old Marcelle Ford was dancing with Abdelkrim Belachheb, a 39 year old Moroccan, when he seemed to say something that really upset her.  Quite what it was that he said is unknown but she was seen furiously pushing Belachheb away at one point during the night.  Belachheb's response was to stand back and playfully blow her a kiss before he walked away, seemingly indifferent about her rejection.  But a few minutes later it became obvious that he was more than a little upset by her actions.

Belachheb came back into the club with a 9mm automatic pistol which he pointed at Marcelle Ford and fired.  As is usual with gunshots at close range, she fell to the floor where Belachheb emptied the clip into her body.  As soon as he had emptied the gun into her he was off.  But he wasn't gone for very long.  He went outside only to reload the gun, and once that was done he was back inside firing indiscriminately into the crowded, panicked, dance floor.  He managed to hit 6 more people, killing five (Frank Parker, Joseph Minasi, Janice Smith, Linda Lowe & Ligia Kozlowski) instantly.

By the time Police arrived Belachheb was long gone, and somehow Marcelle Ford was still alive, she died on the way to hospital.

Police spent the next few hours trying to find Belachheb, locating his car near his house, but finding no sign of him whatsoever.  But his freedom ended a few hours later as he came to his senses and called police telling them where they could find him and that he was ready to go peacefully.

It seems that he had spent the last few hours of freedom celebrating the final day of Ramadan.  For those that don't know Islam this is the time that Muslims starve themselves during the day and refrain from violence.

On November 15, 1984, Abdelkrim Belachheb was found guilty of 6 murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Friend: Man held in Dallas shooting longed to fit in

Some describe him as a polite, friendly man who talked frequently about his two daughters overseas. But to others Abdelkrim Belachheb, arrested Friday in the random slaying of six people in a North Dallas restaurant, seemed to enjoy liquor, women and expensive cars.

One friend said that Belachheb, a short man who speaks in broken English, was often depressed and longed to fit into American society. Once he tried to commit suicide, the friend said.

Belachheb's resume, obtained by Dallas police, reads like the life of an international businessman: schools in France and Switzerland and jobs in Brussels, Belgium, that took him throughout Europe and the Middle East.

But Belachheb, a 39-year-old Moroccan, exaggerated his accomplishments - overstating the length of two jobs in Dallas and making up a third, employment records indicate. In less than a year, he was fired from one Dallas job and agreed to leave another.

On Wednesday, he left Augustus' Restaurant in Addison, where he was the headwaiter. He picked up his last check and uniform at 7 p.m. Thursday. Hours later, six persons lay dead in one of the worst mass killings in Dallas history.

Belachheb entered the United States in Los Angeles on April 23, 1981. He later married a U.S. citizen and became a permanent legal resident, according to immigration officials.

He worked in a restaurant in Los Angeles for a year, and then came to Dallas in 1982. His life here has been a series of short jobs, often at minimum wage, said Mohammed Benali, a former roommate.

"One day everything would be well, and he'd be happy," Benali said. ''The next day he would be down. He's not ever been able to keep a job."

"Actually, I don't know why he was working with me," said George Candaras, owner of G&C Internationals, a business brokerage company where Belachheb worked for two months in 1983. "He tried to do the business, but he never did. He came and disappeared."

Candaras, who asked Belachheb to leave because of chronic absenteeism, also recalled that Belachheb cultivated the image of a playboy. "He look and dressed like a playboy, and he acted like that, too," Candaras said.

There was yet another side to Belachheb, one he showed at the Center for the English Language, where he dropped out of a course five months ago.

"He was not a real good student here. We were unhappy with his comments," said Rita Mueske, one of his teachers. Mueske said he had a ''generally offensive manner" and attended class with alcohol on his breath and was easy to rile.

Benali, who lived with Belachheb for four months in North Dallas, said Belachheb went to the language school to try to improve his life and learn to fit in with others.

"He was depressed, nervous," Benali said. "He said he'd had a very bad life. He was trying hard to stretch his life, and he was trying hard to do well. . . . He tried to go to welding school and bartending school. That didn't work."

Belachheb's depression was so intense that he once tried to kill himself, Benali said.

People who lived near Belachheb knew little about him. But one neighbor said a limousine that he drove was often outside his apartment.

His wife, Joanne O'Brien Belachheb, owned a home in Pleasant Grove, which she put up for sale on April 30, said Melissa Switzer, a real estate agent. She said that Belachheb told her that his wife had not been living with him at his apartment for six weeks. Police could not locate her Friday.