Worse Than Death: The Dallas Nightclub Murders and the Texas Multiple Murder Law

5 The North Dallas Nightclub Scene

57 c hapter five The North Dallas Nightclub Scene “He is violent even when he is not drinking . But when he does, it’s all over. I used to say, ‘It’s a good thing you can’t get a gun here [in Brussels].’ How did he get one in Texas?” —Jenny, Belachheb’s first wife quoted in the Dallas Morning News I To one of the waitresses he encountered, Abdelkrim Belachheb was merely a five-foot six-inch man with a wig and crooked teeth.1 To some others, he apparently represented romance from the Mediterranean and mystery from Africa. The frequency of his sexual conquests is as much attributable to his tenacity as to his charm. His compulsion for sexual conquests, especially of rich women, took him to the nightclubs that sprang up along the LBJ Freeway; the center of the Dallas construction boom. The wilder action was further north in Addison, where the clubs were louder and more raucous. But those establishments attracted a younger crowd— people emerging from high school and college, with good jobs and plenty of money to spend. 58 • CHAPTER FIVE On the edge of the area, for the middle aged, especially the single and divorced who would rather not spend nights alone at home, there were more formal and quieter places to go. Each of these had a regular clientele, some of whom frequented two or three of these “clubs.” For the most part the customers all knew one another, and they came to know the owners, bartenders, and waiters.2 This nightclub crowd was far from the wealthiest in Dallas, but most of the people who frequented the clubs were comfortable with themselves. Others were “wanna-be big shots.” Either way, they worked for their money. Generally, they had high-paying jobs they depended on to support their lifestyles. Many were living better than they ever thought possible. Ken Kercheval, one of the stars of the television megahit show, Dallas, observed that, “Back then, people [in Dallas] sweat money.”3 Abdelkrim Belachheb had never seen such widespread free spending among so many common people. An anthropologist was to testify later that to Belachheb the women of these clubs represented a great deal of wealth. The accoutrements included nice cars, coiffed and colored hair, bejeweled necks, ears, wrists and ankles, shoes that matched purses, credit cards, “boob jobs,” and buying whatever you want when you want it just because you want it. The men wore shiny dress shoes, had nice three-piece suits, smelled good, and bought drinks for the women. Some of these men had coiffed and colored hair and bejeweled necks, too. For some, the freedom went beyond spending. They were too old to go to the Addison clubs. Yet they were healthy, single or divorced, easily bored watching television, had no parents to answer to—and had normal sex drives. Some of them did what they taught their children, now grown, not to do. They drank and drove, and sometimes made decisions based on urges. The north Dallas nightclub scene had relatively nice places to get picked up by someone from a somewhat “safe” group of people.4 The liquor laws of Dallas County complicated business for these clubs. They were infuriatingly complex because they were codified THE NORTH DALLAS NIGHTCLUB SCENE • 59 and enforced on the precinct level. A career prosecutor for the Dallas District Attorney’s Office once said, “I never did understand all of it.” Some precincts were completely “dry.” The adjacent precinct might allow for the purchase of liquor, but only in licensed liquor stores. The next precinct might allow for the purchase of beer and wine in a grocery store but hard liquor in a liquor store only. The next precinct could be completely “wet.” Some Dallasites had to cross the Trinity River to buy a six-pack of beer. Restaurants and bars had to contend with this local autonomy by getting around the law, which allowed for individuals to buy drinks if they held membership in a private “club.” Some places presented the illusion of a separation of the restaurant, which anyone could enter, and the bar (or the club), which required a membership. Generally, the “membership” fee was not exclusionary; it amounted to a small payment for a card that allowed the holder to buy a drink. “You could afford that on a wino’s salary,” a Dallas policeman was...