"Look up his history. Musashi is the hero of Japan, yet he murdered innocent men, women and children for money. He was a 'stone killer' (assassin) They despised him when he was alive and canonised him when he was dead. Mark my words, that's what they'll do to me"

Count Dante speaking to Massad Ayoob in 'Black Belt Magazine' March 1976. <BudoSeek Forums>

1st World Karate Tournament, July 28, 1963, in Chicago. Left to right: John Keehan, Roy Oshiro, Phil Koeppel, George Mattson, Mas Tsuroka, Robert Trias, Ed Parker, Anthony Mirikian, Harold Long, Jhoon Rhee, Kim and Wendell Reeves.
- courtesy R. Trias <Martial Arts Worldwide Network>

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

Born John Keehan, 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 highly skilled karateka and sensei producing many highly skilled teachers.

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

Keehan grew disillusioned with conventional karate instruction's focus on ceremony, tradition and protocol over raw effectiveness and began developing his own style that he would promote as "street-effective". Through these efforts, he developed a heavily condensed but effective system that is now known as the Dan-te system, Dance of Death or sometimes improperly (given Keehan's dislike of traditional kata), the Kata-Dante. Theoretically, by learning all of the steps of this Dance of Death, you were an effective fighting master.

During the mid 60s, John Keehan abrubptly changed his name to Count Juan Raphael Dante and began heavily promoting himself via comic book ads as Deadliest Man Alive. One had only to mail order for his instructional booklet The Worlds 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 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 covered their nobility connections in order to effectively hide in America.   |  continue bio page 2

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