Count Dante
Encyclopedia
Count Juan Raphael Dante (born John Timothy Keehan in Chicago
, Illinois
, 4 February 1939, died 25 May 1975) was a controversial American martial artist figure during the 1960s and '70s who claimed he could do extraordinary feats such as Dim mak.
on February 2, 1939, to a well-to-do Irish American
family. His father, Jack, was a physician and director of the Ashland State Bank, and his mother, Dorothy, occasionally appeared on the society pages of the Chicago Tribune
.
Keehan attended Mount Carmel High School
and boxed at Johnny Coulon's 63rd Street gym, and after graduating from high school he joined the marine reserves and later the army, where he learned hand-to-hand combat and jujitsu techniques.
He trained under various martial arts masters during the infancy of Western interest in Asian martial arts during the 1950s. Most notable of the early masters he trained under was sensei
Robert Trias
. Keehan, after gaining his black belt in karate
, went on to become a sensei himself.
Keehan was the mid-west director of the United States Karate Association
(USKA) until 1962. He left that organization in 1964 to form the World Karate Federation. In 1990 a new World Karate Federation
unassociated with Keehan's was formed.
In Chicago
, Keehan co-promoted America's first full-contact style martial arts tournament at the University of Chicago
on July 28, 1963, and hosted many other such tournaments during the 1960s, pairing practitioners of different styles against one another.
Keehan also worked as a hairdresser and had reportedly worked on some of the hair designs for Playboy
models of the time.
During the nationwide racial strife of the 1960s, Keehan was one of the first American sensei to openly accept Blacks, Hispanics, and other non-Asian minorities as students, and reportedly left Trias because the latter refused to promote black students to black belt.
during the Spanish Civil War
, changed their names, and obscured their noble heritage in order to effectively hide in America (the surname Dante
being in fact of Italian origin). (Count) Dantès
is the protagonist of Dumas' 1844 The Count of Monte Cristo
).
He began heavily promoting himself via comic book
ads as the Deadliest Man Alive. One had only to mail order for his instructional booklet World's Deadliest Fighting Secrets (in which he outlined the "Dance of Death") and they would also receive a free Black Dragon Fighting Society membership card. These comic book ads account for much of Count Dante's lasting notoriety in pop culture. They read
The Black Dragon Fighting Society founded by Count Dante is an American martial arts organization and has no connection with and should not be confused with the Japan
ese Black Dragon Society
, an ultranationalist secret society during the 1930s and 1940s.
. Both claimed to be under the influence of alcohol at the time but Dante explained this was the result of a disagreement with the dojo's owner over payment for a tournament that Dante had arranged there.
The various enmities culminated in the Dojo War incident of April 24, 1970 where Dante and some of his students went to a rival dojo of the Green Dragon Society's Black Cobra Hall. According to press coverage, upon entering the school, they claimed to be police officers and attacked the rival dojo's students. The brief battle resulted in the death of one of Dante's friends and fellow sensei, Jim Koncevic.
Former mob lawyer Robert Cooley
states in his autobiography When Corruption was King
that he represented Count Dante during the trial following the 1970 Dojo War incident. Cooley recalls that Dante was ultimately acquitted but not before both sides were given a stern lecture by the judge citing everyone at fault. Cooley also suggests that Dante was a mastermind in the notorious 1974 Chicago Purolator vault robbery in which 4.3 million dollars was stolen. While not one of the suspects in the trial, Dante was allegedly questioned by Illinois grand jury and ultimately passed a lie detector test. Dante died shortly before the trial was completed which resulted in the conviction of all but one person involved.
s and copyright
s. Ashida has his own side of storyhttp://ashidakim.com/politics.html. Aguiar's group is currently headquartered in Fall River, Massachusetts
.
's Brentford
stories. A number of characters in these stories claim to have learned 'dimac' (presumably a corruption of Dim Mak, the "Touch of Death" advertised by Keehan) from a manual written by Dante. Dante himself is referred to as wearing a mask and living in hiding to avoid murder by the hidden martial masters whose secrets he has made public.
Furthering Keehan's legacy, there is Bob Calhoun
, a San Francisco a rock musician and professional wrestler calling himself Count Dante. Calhoun plays Dante as an infomercial huckster that appears to be both a tribute to and a parody of Keehan's original persona. He wrestled for San Francisco’s punk rock lucha libre promotion Incredibly Strange Wrestling from 1997-2003. The promotion was best known for encouraging its audience to hurl corn tortillas at the wrestlers. Dante's most frequent opponents were The Poontangler and El Homo Loco. The Calhoun's band is called Count Dante and the Black Dragon Fighting Society and they have pressed two self-released CDs: “The Deadliest Man Alive” (1999) and “Fat Power” (2006).
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, 4 February 1939, died 25 May 1975) was a controversial American martial artist figure during the 1960s and '70s who claimed he could do extraordinary feats such as Dim mak.
Early career
Keehan was born in BeverlyBeverly, Chicago
Beverly is one of the 77 official community areas of Chicago, Illinois. It is located on the South Side on the southwestern edge of the city. Beverly Hills was built by English engineers as an exclusive streetcar suburb and the homes and large lots reflect this historic distinction...
on February 2, 1939, to a well-to-do Irish American
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
family. His father, Jack, was a physician and director of the Ashland State Bank, and his mother, Dorothy, occasionally appeared on the society pages of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
.
Keehan attended Mount Carmel High School
Mount Carmel High School (Chicago)
Mount Carmel High School is an all boys, Catholic high school in the city of Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, the school has been operated by the Carmelite order of priests and brothers since 1900...
and boxed at Johnny Coulon's 63rd Street gym, and after graduating from high school he joined the marine reserves and later the army, where he learned hand-to-hand combat and jujitsu techniques.
He trained under various martial arts masters during the infancy of Western interest in Asian martial arts during the 1950s. Most notable of the early masters he trained under was sensei
Sensei
' is a Japanese word that basically means "person born before another." In general usage, it means "master" or "teacher," and the word is used as a title to refer to or address teachers, professors, professionals such as lawyers, CPA and doctors, politicians, clergymen, and other figures of authority...
Robert Trias
Robert Trias
Robert A. Trias was a U.S. karate pioneer, founding the first karate school in the mainland United States. He also developed Shuri-ryū karate, an eclectic style with roots in the Okinawan Shuri-te tradition.-Early years:...
. Keehan, after gaining his black belt in karate
Karate
is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...
, went on to become a sensei himself.
Keehan was the mid-west director of the United States Karate Association
United States Karate Association
The United States Karate Association was the first karate organization on the mainland United States, founded by Robert Trias in 1948.The USKA became one of the largest associations of karate instructors in the nation, and through this organization Trias was also instrumental in setting up and...
(USKA) until 1962. He left that organization in 1964 to form the World Karate Federation. In 1990 a new World Karate Federation
World Karate Federation
The World Karate Federation, or WKF, was formed in 1990 from former WUKO members and is the largest international governing body of sport karate with over 130 member countries. It is the only karate organization recognised by the International Olympic Committee and has more than ten million members...
unassociated with Keehan's was formed.
In Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Keehan co-promoted America's first full-contact style martial arts tournament at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
on July 28, 1963, and hosted many other such tournaments during the 1960s, pairing practitioners of different styles against one another.
Keehan also worked as a hairdresser and had reportedly worked on some of the hair designs for Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
models of the time.
During the nationwide racial strife of the 1960s, Keehan was one of the first American sensei to openly accept Blacks, Hispanics, and other non-Asian minorities as students, and reportedly left Trias because the latter refused to promote black students to black belt.
Dan-te
Keehan grew disillusioned with conventional karate instruction's focus on ceremony, tradition and protocol over what he felt to be "effectiveness" and began developing his own style that he would promote as "street-effective". Through these efforts, he developed a system that is now known as the Dan-te system, "Dance of Death" or sometimes (ironically, given Keehan's dislike of traditional kata), the Kata-Dante. Theoretically, by learning all of the steps of Keehan's "Dance of Death" you were thereby an effective fighting master.Count Danté, "The Deadliest Man Alive"
In 1967, Keehan legally changed his name to Count Juan Raphael Danté, explaining the name change by stating that his parents fled SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, changed their names, and obscured their noble heritage in order to effectively hide in America (the surname Dante
Dante (name)
Dante is an Italian given name and surname. Etymologically, it is short for an old given name, Durante, and was originally made popular by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, whose real name was Durante.Notable people with the name include:...
being in fact of Italian origin). (Count) Dantès
Edmond Dantès
Edmond Dantès is the protagonist and title character of Alexandre Dumas, père's novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.Dumas may have gotten the idea for the character of Edmond from a story which he found in a book compiled by Jacques Peuchet, archivist to the French police. Peuchet related the tale of...
is the protagonist of Dumas' 1844 The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas's most popular work. He completed the work in 1844...
).
He began heavily promoting himself via comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
ads as the Deadliest Man Alive. One had only to mail order for his instructional booklet World's Deadliest Fighting Secrets (in which he outlined the "Dance of Death") and they would also receive a free Black Dragon Fighting Society membership card. These comic book ads account for much of Count Dante's lasting notoriety in pop culture. They read
- Yes, this is the DEADLIEST and most TERRIFYING fighting art known to man—and WITHOUT EQUAL. Its MAIMING, MUTILATING, DISFIGURING, PARALYZING and CRIPPLING techniques are known by only a few people in the world. An expert at DIM MAK could easily kill many Judo, Karate, Kung Fu, Aikido, and Gung Fu experts at one time with only finger-tip pressure using his murderous POISON HAND WEAPONS. Instructing you step by step thru each move in this manual is none other than COUNT DANTE—“THE DEADLIEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED.” (THE CROWN PRINCE OF DEATH.)
The Black Dragon Fighting Society founded by Count Dante is an American martial arts organization and has no connection with and should not be confused with the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Black Dragon Society
Black Dragon Society
The was a prominent paramilitary, ultranationalist right-wing group in Japan.-History:The Kokuryūkai was founded in 1901 by Uchida Ryohei, and was descended from the Genyōsha. Its name is derived from the Amur River, called Heilongjiang or "Black Dragon River" in Chinese , read as Kokuryū-kō in...
, an ultranationalist secret society during the 1930s and 1940s.
The Dojo Wars
On July 22, 1965, Dante was charged with attempted arson when he and an accomplice, Douglas Dwyer (The Second Deadliest Man Alive), were arrested while taping dynamite caps to a rival Chicago dojoDojo
A is a Japanese term which literally means "place of the way". Initially, dōjōs were adjunct to temples. The term can refer to a formal training place for any of the Japanese do arts but typically it is considered the formal gathering place for students of any Japanese martial arts style to...
. Both claimed to be under the influence of alcohol at the time but Dante explained this was the result of a disagreement with the dojo's owner over payment for a tournament that Dante had arranged there.
The various enmities culminated in the Dojo War incident of April 24, 1970 where Dante and some of his students went to a rival dojo of the Green Dragon Society's Black Cobra Hall. According to press coverage, upon entering the school, they claimed to be police officers and attacked the rival dojo's students. The brief battle resulted in the death of one of Dante's friends and fellow sensei, Jim Koncevic.
Former mob lawyer Robert Cooley
Robert Cooley
Robert Cooley is a former Mafia lawyer, government informant and author of the 2004 autobiography, "When Corruption was King."-Early life:...
states in his autobiography When Corruption was King
When Corruption was King
When Corruption Was King: How I Helped the Mob Rule Chicago, then Brought the Outfit Down is a memoir written by Robert Cooley, a lawyer who worked for Mafia criminals in Chicago, U.S.A., but eventually turned in his former clients. The book is co-written by journalist Hillel Levin and was...
that he represented Count Dante during the trial following the 1970 Dojo War incident. Cooley recalls that Dante was ultimately acquitted but not before both sides were given a stern lecture by the judge citing everyone at fault. Cooley also suggests that Dante was a mastermind in the notorious 1974 Chicago Purolator vault robbery in which 4.3 million dollars was stolen. While not one of the suspects in the trial, Dante was allegedly questioned by Illinois grand jury and ultimately passed a lie detector test. Dante died shortly before the trial was completed which resulted in the conviction of all but one person involved.
Death and legacy
Count Dante died in his sleep of internal hemorrhaging caused by a bleeding ulcer, on May 25, 1975. The Black Dragon Fighting Society that he founded came under the directorship of his personally chosen protege and successor, William V. Aguiar. Aguiar died in January, 2005. The Black Dragon Fighting Society is now led by his son, Bill Aguiar III who is co-founder of his own online forum. and hosts the Official Black Dragon Fighting Society website. Through actions taken on behalf of Bill Aguiar III and his lawyer, Ashida Kim's website(s) were suspended on Oct. 5 2005 for his illegal use of the BDFS trademarkTrademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
s and copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
s. Ashida has his own side of storyhttp://ashidakim.com/politics.html. Aguiar's group is currently headquartered in Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located about south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and west of New Bedford and south of Taunton. The city's population was 88,857 during the 2010 census, making it the tenth largest city in...
.
Trivia
Count Dante is one of the many eccentric characters referred to in Robert RankinRobert Rankin
Robert Fleming Rankin is a prolific British humorous novelist. Born in Parsons Green, London, he started writing in the late 1970s, and first entered the bestsellers lists with Snuff Fiction in 1999, by which time his previous eighteen books had sold around one million copies...
's Brentford
The Brentford Trilogy
The Brentford Trilogy is a series of eight novels by writer Robert Rankin. They humorously chronicle the lives of a couple of drunken middle-aged layabouts, Jim Pooley and John Omally, who confront the forces of darkness in the environs of West London, usually with the assistance of large...
stories. A number of characters in these stories claim to have learned 'dimac' (presumably a corruption of Dim Mak, the "Touch of Death" advertised by Keehan) from a manual written by Dante. Dante himself is referred to as wearing a mask and living in hiding to avoid murder by the hidden martial masters whose secrets he has made public.
Furthering Keehan's legacy, there is Bob Calhoun
Bob Calhoun
Robert L. "Bob" Calhoun is an attorney in Alexandria, Virginia and served as a Republican member of the Alexandria City Council and the Senate of Virginia.-Early life and education:Calhoun was born in Oak Park, Illinois on July 22, 1937...
, a San Francisco a rock musician and professional wrestler calling himself Count Dante. Calhoun plays Dante as an infomercial huckster that appears to be both a tribute to and a parody of Keehan's original persona. He wrestled for San Francisco’s punk rock lucha libre promotion Incredibly Strange Wrestling from 1997-2003. The promotion was best known for encouraging its audience to hurl corn tortillas at the wrestlers. Dante's most frequent opponents were The Poontangler and El Homo Loco. The Calhoun's band is called Count Dante and the Black Dragon Fighting Society and they have pressed two self-released CDs: “The Deadliest Man Alive” (1999) and “Fat Power” (2006).
External links
- Article about John Keehan for the Chicago Reader
- Film Website for documentary work in progress about John Keehan/Count Dante
- blog by Floyd Webb on the making of his film, The Search for Count Dante
- Scan of 1975 Detective Comics advertisement
- The Dante Virtual Museum & Library website
- The Dante Virtual Museum & Library forum
- Count Dante and the Black Dragon Fighting Society (band)