If you enjoyed this history story from MixedMartialArts.com, check out more articles on:
• Funny Martial Arts
• Martial Arts on The Street
• History
What you will witness is without doubt the most savage and terrifying self-defense form known to man. It is composed of 57 of the deadliest poison hand techniques ever devised, each one of which is guaranteed to kill, cripple, or maim any attacker. It is not for the squeamish, nor the weak of heart.
Or so the story goes.
The verbiage was part of the marketing for “World’s Deadliest Fighting Secrets,” an instructional booklet sold in comic books during the late ’60s and ’70s. The booklet centers on Kata Dante, or the “Dance of Death.” The sequence of 57 attacks, which somehow leaves out re-stomping the groin, was created by Count Dante. Buyers also received a free Black Dragon Fighting Society membership card.
The author of the booklet is, easily, one of the most colorful characters in the history of martial arts. Count Dante was born on February 2, 1939, as John Timothy Keehan, into an Irish family of means in Beverly, Chicago (his father was an MD). Keehan learned karate from Bob Trias, the father of karate in America, earning a black belt. He ably expanded Trias’ United States Karate Association (USKA), until 1962 when he broke off and eventually formed his own association.
He spent the next decade-plus in a wide variety of ventures. Keehan promoted a number of karate tournaments, including, on July 28, 1963 at the Chicago Fieldhouse, the first World Karate Tournament. It was the first U.S. karate championship of real national significance. The event has been described as full contact. It wasn’t. This video from five years later demonstrates what the sport looked like.
And he ran a martial arts dojo. To his credit, the school was open to African-Americans, a rarity at the time, and contrasts well with the USKA, which had no black members until Keehan convinced Trias to bring in Vic Moore.
Here’s some footage taken in Keehan’s dojo, from 1967:
In 1967, Keehan legally changed his name to Count Jerjer Raphael Dante. His explanation was that he was of royal Spanish blood. His parents, so the story goes, had fled Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and changed their name to Keehan to hide their true identity. For the record, Dante is, in fact, an Italian name.
Then in 1968, those ads started appearing in the back of comic books.
“Yes, this is the DEADLIEST and most TERRIFYING fighting art known to man – and WITHOUT EQUAL,” screamed the text. “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.”
It is not known how many bought the manual and membership card, but everyone knew about it, and the comic book ads were far from the only thing Dante was known for.
It’s normal in most locales for instructors to tell students that their kung fu is the best. However, Chicago takes it to a different level.
On July 22, 1965, Keehan, accompanied by one of his students, the Second Deadliest Man Alive, Douglas Dwyer, was arrested while taping blasting caps to the window of a rival school. He explained that he was drunk.
Then came the most infamous dojo storm of all time.
On April 24, 1970, accompanied by several students, Keehan attacked a rival school, the Green Dragon Society’s Black Cobra Hall. Green Dragon Society students pulled traditional martial arts weapons off the wall, and then Keehan’s close friend Jim Koncevic was stabbed with a spear and died. Represented by mob attorney – and later confidential informant – Bob Cooley, Dante got two years probation for the attempted bombing, and nothing for the deadly dojo storm.
Dante is alleged to have masterminded the $4.3 million Chicago Purolator vault robbery in 1974, under the aegis of The Outfit, the organized crime syndicate that rose to power under Al Capone. At the time, it was the largest robbery in U.S. history. Other efforts that hint at a mob connection include working as an adult book dealer and used car lot manager. Curiously, he worked as a hairdresser, with clients that included Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, and any number of playmates – and all that is in addition to his martial arts exploits.
On Sunday, March 17, 1975, Dante, along with his protege Bill Aguiar Jr., presented the Taunton Death Matches at the Roseland Ballroom in Massachusetts. Decades later, the venue would host some classic New England mixed martial arts events. It was an early attempt at MMA – a karate tournament that allowed full power strikes. No one died; a more accurate name for it might have been the Taunton Bloody Nose Matches.
The event was just one of a number of early attempts at mixed rules events in the U.S. in the 1970s. Frederick Hamilton held his bareknuckle, full-contact “Battle of the Zodiac” in Jamaica, N.Y. Tommy Lee held the “World Series of Martial Arts” in Honolulu, Hawaii. Aaron Banks’ “Oriental World of Self-Defense” had boxing vs. kickboxing, wrestling vs. judo, and even male vs. female; Banks had a name for the new martial art that drew the best from different arts – ketsugo. None of them caught on, but Dante led a remarkable, brief, tumultuous life, truly.
On May 25, 1975, Count Dante died in his sleep, of a bleeding ulcer. He was just 36 years old.
The Black Dragon Fighting Society continued under the direction of Dante’s protege, Aguiar Jr. When he died in January 2005, control of The Black Dragon Fighting Society then went to Bill Aguiar III, who continues to teach to this day in Fall River, Massachusetts. His students took part gamely in early MMA bouts in New England in the late 90s.
However, there were rivals to the throne.
Radford William Davis is unfortunate. His personae include Christopher Hunter, Dr. Ha Ha Lung, and most notoriously, Ashida Kim. Ashida is a Japanese surname, and Kim is Korean. It’s an odd choice, but no odder than Keehan’s legal name change to Dante.
Davis/Hunter/Lung/Kim learned Kata Dante and started teaching it under the Ashida Kim name. Eventually, Davis started awarding membership cards for the Black Dragon Fighting Society.
Aguiar III filed suit, and on Oct. 5, 2005, Ashida Kim’s websites were suspended for violating trademark and copyright law in regards to the Black Dragon Fighting Society. However, Kim/Davis maintains he is better at the Kata Dante than Aguiar.
We’re not so sure – as noted, he doesn’t even re-stomp the groin?! You decide whose “Dance of Death” is deadliest:
Little has been seen or heard of Ashida Kim lately, which is entirely appropriate, because the last anyone can remember, he had become a ninja. You can tell he is a real ninja for several reasons. A central piece of proof is that he has the shoes where his toe sticks out, so he can climb a rope.
Plus, he can actually levitate:
So don’t be alarmed that little has been heard lately from Dr. Ha Ha Lung, the white ninja. Everyone knows, if you see a ninja, he’s not a real ninja, so not seeing one proves he’s real.
The year before Dante’s death, the first major full-contact karate event was held in the U.S. by the PKA. That proved to be something of a kick in the ’80s, only to die down. The next big new combat sport was MMA, in 1993, but it took until “The Ultimate Fighter 1” in 2005 to really take off.
There is a market for nonsensical martial arts, because everyone wants to be tough enough to defend themselves, but not everyone is willing to do the work to get there. So someone will always be there take suckers’ money, teach them hocus pocus, and promise they are deadly. That tug and pull between reality and wanting to become a wizard will likely remain forever, unfortunately.
Share your reactions, on The StreetGround forum at MixedMartialArts.com.
