30 Years Ago: Euclid Metal Band Destructor Bassist David Iannicca Slain

If you are at all into local music, or heavy metal, or both, you have probably heard of Euclid-based Destructor. Performing and producing on and off since 1983, they are still actively doing their thing, which is making music.

Destructor and the metal community were struck by tragedy on January 1, 1988, when celebrating the new year and a record deal, bassist 23-year-old David "Holocaust" Iannicca was stabbed to death.

Iannicca, far left, is pictured with Destructor in the mid 1980's

Iannicca grew up in Euclid and was the youngest of eight children. After Christmas Eve mass a week before his murder, Iannicca gave his girlfriend a diamond ring and asked her to be his wife.

Destructor signed the aforementioned deal with Island Records. The band and friends were ringing in the new year at their practice spot near East 200th street in Euclid. Not far away, Robert Bedzyk was drinking at a bar when he heard that band was having a party. He followed a group of people he knew to Destructor's practice hole where he eventually made himself annoying enough to the people around him that he was asked to leave.

Warehouse at 1410 Chardon Rd., Euclid

Bedzyk did leave but hung around the parking lot. Concerned that Bedzyk might do damage to cars parked, Iannicca went out and confronted Bedzyk. Bedzyk stabbed Iannicca with a 10" knife (5.5" blade) twice in the chest. The first stab to the heart was fatal.

Papers reported Bedzyk threw the knife in the bushes and attempted to flee. Police records state that a person showing up to a party witnessed a crowd of people gathered, and saw Bedzyk pushing his arm towards Iannicca, and Iannicca falling to the ground. This same witness said amongst the chaos he saw knife the in the middle of Chardon road, where said witness picked it up and tossed it into the bushes. All accounts state party-goers were able to tackle and subdue Bedzyk, holding him until Euclid police arrived. The witness alerted police to the where he had found the knife in the street, the knife's location in the bushes, and that he had put it there.

The same witness also stated that it appeared that the suspect, Bedzyk, was attempting to instigate a fight with the victim, Iannicca.

Iannicca's fiance said Bedzyk arrived around midnight, that nobody really knew him and he wasn't seen arguing with anyone or causing a problem, but she walked away from him after he'd made an attempt at picking her up. The stabbing occurred about 10 minutes later.

Iannicca died of his injuries later at Euclid hospital.

Band mates were among the pallbearers at Iannicca's funeral, and a procession of 87 cars made their way to the burial at Chardon's All Souls Cemetery.

Bedzyk had a tendency to lie to the police. He gave them a fictitious address, for one, and claimed he had the knife on his person to fix the carburetor on his car, despite having a car-full of mechanics tools.

Iannicca's family, friends, and band waited until July of 1988 for Bedzyk to be found guilty of murder. He was sentenced 15 years to life.

Destructor found it difficult to continue, and took a rather long break. The band got back together in 1999 though, and have been together since.

When Bedzyk came eligible for parole in 2009 and again in 2012, his family and bandmates came out hard and strong against it, with thousands of signatures being obtained in online petitions.

Robert Bedzyk

Bedzyk had a wife and 2-year-old child at home when he stabbed Iannicca. His son, who is now older than his father was when he stabbed Iannicca, wrote a letter to the Ohio parole board in 2009. He doesn't quote or even paraphrase his father, rather mentions that he knows "stories" about that night.

I know only of stories of this fateful night which took the life of David, because I was not present. I feel my father was misreprented (sic) in this case. The stories I was told about this night was that David's fiance was trying to make him (David) jealous by flirting with my father, he was then asked to leave and he was already in his car getting ready to leave and was pulled out of the car by David and his friends. He reached into his tackle box and grabbed the knife to defend himself.
-Anthony James Bedzyk

As of January 2018, Robert Bedzyk was still serving his sentence.

Bedzyk was granted parole as his December 2022 hearing, and has since been released. Thank you for the tip, Anonymous.