"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.

Count Dante Bio
incomplete and, as yet, not fully verified by our research. As we discover new information we will amend this bio to correct or confirm accusations and mythologies regarding him.

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In the 1960s and 70s, his scowl was unmistakable and his kung fu pose conveyed a menace that went beyond martial arts mastery. He called himself Count Dante and he claimed to be “The Deadliest Man Alive” in garish comic book ads and gruesome instructional manuals. While his name and title may have been more show biz than lineage, his drive to live up to his fearsome reputation left one man dead and a promising career in ruins.

Count Dante’s real name was John Keehan and he grew up in a posh section of Chicago. In the early 1960s he was one of the most intriguing figures in America’s nascent martial arts scene. Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris were his contemporaries, but Keehan’s appetite for self-promotion was greater than a movie star’s. When he wasn’t putting on karate tournaments, he was styling hair and courting Playboy Bunnies. He was one part “Black Belt Jones” and one part Warren Beatty from “Shampoo.” He challenged Muhammad Ali, tested his hand speed against a quick draw artist, and kept an African lion as a house pet.

But as the 1960s gave way to the 70s, Keehan could no longer separate himself from the macho marketing tool that he created. Rival dojos were stormed, the life of Keehan’s best friend was lost and Dante became involved in the Purolator Armored Car Robbery in 1974 that netted four million dollars. Soon after the robbery, Dante mysteriously died and was buried in an unmarked grave.

The documentary film “The Search for Count Dante” is filmmaker Floyd Webb’s personal journey into the Dante legend. Webb explores how a rich kid from Chicago became the self-proclaimed “Crown Prince of Death” all told against the backdrop of social change during the 1960s and 70s and the emergence of martial arts in American popular consciousness.

For this film, Webb has interviewed a cast of characters that is as colorful as The Count himself that includes karate champions, mob informants and trash talking tai chi masters. Count Dante’s story is one that begins with the promise of athletic glory and ends with one of the most lucrative heists in the history of American criminal enterprise.

Our story begins April 24, 1970 with the infamous "dojo war" that ended in the brutal stabbing death of Jim Koncevic, friend and student of the infamous Count Dante, at the Green Dragon's Black Cobra training hall in Chicago.

Count Dante aka John Keehan is an urban legend in the history of martial arts. He is the promising child fallen from grace, from acolyte to huckster in a few short years, suspected mob associate, hairdresser extraordinaire for Playboy Bunnies, co-founder of the United States Karate Association with Robert Trias, head of the "Black Dragon Society and martial arts "Charles Atlas" to three generations of comic book fans around the world. Was he a good martial artist or just a loud mouth business man? Why did he teach "undesirables" like Blacks and Hispanics martial arts when others refused them? Was he really connected to the mob in Chicago?

“Probably the most infamous was John Keehan, alias "Count Dante." He professed to be the most deadly man alive, and advertised as such in a variety of periodicals of the day. The rumors and infighting that were instigated by Keehan within some of the Chicago schools of the early and middle 1960s, resulted in street fights and attacks by one school on another. Many injuries and at least one death were attributed to these clashes. "
(ref: "History of the American Karate System")

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