It was in the early 1960s, way back in the day, that the popularity of Asia’s martial arts began an infectious spread across America’s then still divided racial and cultural landscape. In Los Angeles in 1961, Master Ark Wong of the Wah Que Studio became one of the first teachers of the martial arts to break the long observed “kung-fu color line,” which barred the teaching of China’s sacred fighting arts to anyone not of Chinese ancestry. Around that same time, Wong’s bold action was being mirrored by an unknown martial artist named Bruce Lee, who had started teaching kung fu to non-Chinese pupils at his Oakland, California studio.

But interest in martial arts was on the rise nationwide, and it was at this same time that the soon-to-be infamous martial artist known as Count Dante began teaching the karate techniques of Japan to the young roughnecks of Chicago.

Black Belt

A former US Marine and Ranger, Count Dante (born John Keehan) began the study and practice of the martial arts in the mid to late 1950s, training under Robert Trias, a former colonel in the US Army C.I.D. Reserves. Trias, who was credited with opening America’s very first karate school in 1946, was author of Hand is My Sword (1956), recognized as the first martial arts book published in the US.

Though trained primarily under Trias, Dante claimed to have also trained for a time at Bruce Lee’s studio around 1961 or 1962. A 7th dan black belt in karate, Dante was said to have been proficient not only in the Japanese, Chinese, and Okinawan open-hand fighting styles but also in judo, aikido, and still other fighting systems.

Count Dante was also an undefeated champion of numerous national kumite or freestyle fighting competitions, the only exception being a disqualification from the North American Championships, held at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

John Keehan aka ‘Count Dante’

As early as 1964, while serving as the head instructor of Trias’ US Karate Association (USKA), Dante was lauded as being one of the top karate instructors in the United States by America’s premiere martial arts publication Black Belt. But he soon abandoned his position at the Trias organization under a heavy cloud of speculation. The fighter would later allege in an interview with Black Belt that the split with USKA was prompted by Trias’ “prejudicial bias” against his African-American students.

“It’s no secret that I have a great many blacks in my school,” the fighter reported. “That was the reason behind my rift with Robert Trias and the USKA. At that time, the USKA didn’t have any blacks in the organization, except mine, and Trias didn’t like that one bit. He even told me that I had promoted the second black in his organization. And, according to him, the first was by mistake. He told me that if he had known this fellow he had named a black belt in the Philippines was black he wouldn’t have done it. He told me that he slipped…the USKA did not award black belts to blacks.”

“John Keehan (aka Count Dante) pissed off the martial arts community in Chicago because he openly taught black and Hispanic students. They weren’t welcome at other martial arts schools. Then they won all the tournaments, took all the trophies.” – Floyd Webb

Acrimoniously separated from Trias in 1964, Dante would move on to become one of the principal organizers of what was then The World Karate Championships, and to also found the Imperial Academy of Fighting Arts and the Midwest Karate Yudanshakai.

In August of 1967, the popular fighter also promoted what was to be this nation’s first “full contact” martial arts tournament. And by competition’s end, he himself would be declared “Worlds Deadliest Fighting Master” by the World Federation of Fighting Arts Committee, for his (allegedly) having bested some of the world’s foremost martial arts masters in the no-holds- barred judo, boxing, wrestling, kung-fu, karate and aikido “death matches.”

But then, shockingly, Dante retired from the ring in 1968 and refused to take on any challenger for the coveted title that he’d soon widely publicize.

During his career, Dante authored a number of articles published by the martial arts magazines of the day, and three booklets, among them the widely advertised World’s Deadliest Fighting Secrets (1968), for which he was best known. Ads for the slim publication were seen by many in the pages of Marvel comics in the mid-1970s, where Dante was billed as the “Supreme Grand Master of the Black Dragon Fighting Society” and the “Deadliest Man Alive.”

“Now the World’s Deadliest Fighting Secrets Can Be Yours!”

On that pulse-pounding ad page, Dante loomed as a badass karate master. Garbed in a black martial arts gi, the fighter’s chiseled arms slithered menacingly from dark nothingness. His fighting stance was punctuated with fierce, fang-like fingers coiled tightly into the dreaded dim mak (death touch). Empty eyes bled down from sharply arched eyebrows, and a black beard, edged sideburns and a pointed widow’s peak ascended into the rounded crown of a faux Afro.

In early photographs that accompanied articles in martial arts magazines like Black Belt, Dante appeared with a much lighter and clean-cut visage than the dramatic image presented in ads for the Worlds Deadliest Fighting Secrets. Surprisingly handsome for a fighter, Dante’s face exuded a boyish, even innocent quality. But under that visage lurked a violent mind that proved Dante to be much more a wolf in a sheep’s clothing than guiltless boy next door.

Deadly Hands of Count Dante

According to writer Massad Ayoob, Dante held an “obscene fascination” with the most brutal aspects of martial arts. From that interest came the fighting system he developed in the late 1960s called Kata Dante (“Dance of the Deadly Hands” or “Dance of Death”). The system, which Ayoob described as teaching more of a fighting attitude than an actual fighting technique, was designed for street combat, and advocated explosive attacks, or counter attacks that oozed with ruthlessness and brutality.

Eager to prove the effectiveness of his fighting system, Dante issued challenges to a number of well-known fighters of the day. On July 28th, 1968, word of one such challenge made the headlines of the gossip rag The National Informer. Bravely — or insanely — Dante showed up at the South Side Chicago home of Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) to challenge the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion to an unanswered duel.

National Informer, Vol. 14, July 21, 1968 • Source: Floyd Webb

Dante’s macho posturing and aggressive taunts lead to several heated verbal altercations between his and various other martial arts schools in Chicago. They quickly escalated into the windows of a number of area institutions being broken out, and then students — as well as some of their instructors — being jumped and beaten.

In July of 1965, Dante and associate Douglas Dwyer, an instructor at the Tai-Jutso School of Judo, were arrested in a failed attempt to dynamite rival school, Judo and Karate Center. Detectives spotted the men while they were in the process of taping a 40-inch dynamite fuse and blasting cap to a window at the school. While running in the dark to evade capture, Dante and Dwyer sprinted blindly into a dead end alley and were soon apprehended.

Explaining the incident to news sources, Dante described the attempted bombing as a “drunken prank,” and claimed that neither he nor Dwyer had any intention of hurting anyone at the school. Dwyer said that he and his would-be partner-in-crime had been drinking at a party before the early morning caper and that the act was a “crazy and stupid stunt.”

Convicted of attempted arson, Count Dante was sentenced to two years probation. But a short time after the man’s probation ended, he was once again involved in another stupid stunt, one that would take a very tragic turn.

On the night of April 22nd, 1970, Dante was embroiled in another of Chicago’s infamous “dojo wars” with Black Cobra Hall of Kung Fu Kempo. The battle was instigated by Dante himself and several of his disciples from the House of Dante.

According to students at the Black Cobra Hall, six unknown assailants entered the school with their leader, who flashed a deputy sheriff’s badge and claimed that the students of the school were all being placed under arrest. Dante then unexpectedly struck Black Cobra Hall instructor Jose Gonzales with an unseen weapon that nearly caused Gonzales to lose his right eye, and a violent free-for-all ensued.

Tipped-off by an anonymous source just minutes after the fight began, police officers arrived just in time to apprehend Dante and his fellow assailants as they were attempting to flee the scene. But officers would also find Dante’s close friend and student, James Koncevic, lying bloodied in a doorway, dead from a knife wound.