Count Dante

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Count Juan Raphael Dante (February 2, 1939- May 25, 1975) was a controversial figure in the American martial arts scene of the 1960s and 1970s.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early career

Born John Timothy Keehan in Chicago, Illinois, he trained under various martial arts masters during the infancy of organized American martial arts in the mid 20th century. 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.

John Keehan was the co-founder of the United States Karate Association (USKA) and served as the Head Instructor for the USKA until 1962. He left that organization in 1964 to form the World Karate Federation.

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Count Dante, "The Deadliest Man Alive"

In 1967, Keehan changed his name to Count Juan Raphael Dante and 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. 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 Japanese Black Dragon Society, an ultranationalist secret society during the 1930s and 1940s.

Keehan explained the name change by stating that his parents fled Spain during the Spanish Civil War, changed their names, and obscured their noble heritage in order to effectively hide in America.

[edit] The Dojo Wars

On July 22, 1965, Dante was charged with attempted arson when he and an accomplice (while under the influence of alcohol) were arrested while taping dynamite caps to a rival Chicago dojo. Dante explained this as 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. As a result of this incident, Dante became much more subdued in his activities.

[edit] 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, Grandmaster 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. [1] 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 trademarks and copyrights. Ashida has his own side of story[2]. Aguiar's group is currently headquartered in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Count Dante is one of the many eccentric characters referred to in Robert Rankin's Brentford stories. A number of characters in these stories claim to have learned 'dimac'(presumably a corruption of Dim Mak, a legendary martial arts skill) 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 The Count’s legacy, there is also a rock musician and pro wrestler calling himself Count Dante currently based out of San Francisco, California. The rock and wrestling Count plays Dante as an infomercial huckster that appears to be both a tribute to and a parody of John 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 second Dante’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).

[edit] Trivia

[edit] See also

[edit] Reference

  • Spirko, Walter Spirko."Rival karate clubs fight on N.W. Side; one killed." Chicago Sun-Times (4/24/1970).

[edit] External links

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