Episode 112 Ianni's Nightclub Massacre: The Largest Mass Murder in Dallas History

On a hot summer day in Dallas Texas, in an upscale Dallas restaurant and bar, a failure of a man would commit the largest mass murder in the City’s history by shooting seven people, killing six. Just after midnight on June 29th, 1984, Abdelkrim Belachheb took six lives at the Iannis Restaurant and Bar as he had an argument with one patron, Marcell Ford, as she turned away his advances. He then would leave the bar and return with a gun and committed an act that would rock Dallas, alter the victim’s families lives forever, and expose a legal loophole in the State of Texas.

This breakdown of these murders will detail the suspect’s life prior to entering the United States on a false Visa and show his lifetime of aggression and violence that would lead him from Morocco to a Dallas Texas nightclub.

In 1984 it was not a capital death penalty crime to murder one of more persons, a huge oversight in Texas State law.

Retired Dallas Police Officer Tom Hall was the first in the door at the club after the shooting and in this episode he gives us a firsthand account.

Fugitive Unit Sgt, Marcell Ford, was the niece of the suspects first victim and she bears her name in her aunt’s honor. Sgt. Ford sat with us to talk about this events impact on her family that would have a ripple effect through generations.

We want to dedicate this episode to the victims that lost their lives in Dallas Texas, 1984.

• Marcell Ford (deceased)
• Linda Lowe (deceased)
• Janice Smith (deceased)
• Ligia Koslowski (deceased)
• Joe Menasi (deceased)
• Frank Parker (deceased)
• John McNeil (wounded)

Sources used:

DPD case file

The novel, Worse than Death, by Gary M. Lavergne

Incident:

June 29th, 1984, 12801 Midway Rd, Dallas Texas

Suspect would enter Ianni’s Restaurant and Club and shot seven patrons, six of that would die.