John Keehan (Count Dante)
Dubbed “The Deadliest Man Alive”, Keehan was born on the South Side at the southwestern edge of the city of Beverly, Illinois, on February 2, 1939. As he grew into a young fighter, he boxed at Johnny Coulon’s 63rd Street gym and upon graduating from high school he joined the USMC reserves and later the US army, where he learned and taught hand-to-hand combat and jujitsu techniques.
Keehan then began training under various martial arts masters after joining “the merchant marines and traveled to China. These events occurred in the 1950’s during the infancy of Western interest in Asian martial arts. Once there, his association with former Kokuryukai, Black Dragon Society members in Chicago enabled him to compete in no-holds-barred full contact Kumite (Bloodsport film style matches).
Most notable of the early masters he trained with was Sensei, Robert Trias and Kokuryukai Black Dragon Society member and its former full contact Kumite Champion, Sanzo Tanaka (homage paid him in the martial art classic films, 1988 Bloodsport and Jet Li’s Fearless).
From having association with former Kokuryukai, Black Dragon Society members in Chicago enabled Keehan to compete in no-holds-barred, full contact Kumite matches, even called “secret death matches in Thailand and China where he won by killing opponent after opponent, becoming known to thousands as a Kumite fighter.
John Keehan was the co-founder and mid-west director of the United States Karate Association (USKA) until 1962. He resigned from the organization in 1964 due to civil rights issues with the USKA patronizing “whites only” facilities in conducting its tournaments as well as refusal to promote minorities other than Asians to rank of Black Belt. To this end, Keehan broke ranks and formed the first USA racially integrated martial art association – The World Karate Federation (NOTE: In 1990 a new World Karate Federation unassociated with Keehan’s was formed).
In Chicago, John Keehan co-promoted the first open to the public full-contact Kumite Bloodsport style mixed martial arts tournament held at the University of Chicago, on July 28, 1963. Many other such tournaments were hosted by him during the 1960s, pairing practitioners of different styles against one another.
Joining Keehan was a group of promoters and together they formed the International Fighting Arts Association in cooperation with former members of the Black Dragon Society, who sponsored the event since 1905, in Manchuria, China. Black Belt magazine, November 1980, John Stewart, Kumite: A Learning Experience, points out while not a publicity seeking organization the IFAA is far from being a secret organization, as romanticized.
During the nationwide racial strife of the 1960s, John Keehan was one of the first and few American martial art instructors to openly teach non-Asian minorities. In defiance of the racial prejudice dominating the scene thus preventing minorities from having the ability to access Asian martial arts forming an exclusive martial art clique, Keehan joined forces with like minded instructors and some of his senior students and together they established the Black Dragon Fighting Society, whose membership is open to all.
Keehan got name Count Dante from organizing bare knuckle MMA fights under Dante Street bridge in Chicago, IL.
To spoof the pomp and elitism prevalent on the part of martial art community with their oppressing minorities other than Asian, in 1967, Keehan legally changed his name to Count Juan Raphael Danté. DONE AS A JOKE… mocking the invented pasts and historical lineages of many of his so called peers who then made everyone refer to them as Grandmasters.
John Keehan by his physical appearance is of obvious Irish dissent who began sarcastically explaining (in an Irish baroque at times) the name change occurred because his parents fled Spain during the Spanish Civil War, changed their names, and obscured their noble heritage in order to effectively hide in America. All the while knowing the surname Dante is in fact of Italian origin. Keehan having taken the name (Count) Dantès from the protagonist of Dumas’ 1844 The Count of Monte Cristo, as Keehan saw his role as avenging the wrongs being committed against him and minorities at the height of the civil rights movement – a point to add to mock the whites only hotel tournaments he would show up selling black belts for $15.
He further mocked traditional martial arts lock out of minorities by promoting his alter ego Count Dante 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 also received a free Black Dragon Fighting Society membership card because all are welcome to study and feel they had a right to belong. These comic book ads account for much of Count Dante’s lasting notoriety in pop culture. They read:
Yes, this is the DEADLIEST and most TERRIFYING fighting art known to man—and WITHOUT EQUAL. 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” (THE CROWN PRINCE OF DEATH.
Count Dante died May 25th, 1975. His unexpected death at age 34 is the cause of much deliberation. It is attributed to a perforated stomach allegedly caused by a bleeding ulcer, toxic poisoning. Alternatively, and allegedly, “Dim Mak” poison hand technique that resulted in his untimely death over his tendency to associate with well-known western organized crime figures, bringing dishonor to his clan.
Nonetheless, with his death a young protégé Frank Dux competed in Keehan’s place in the coveted and legendary Kokuryukai, Black Dragon Society Kumite events. The event which forms the basis of the 1988 classic film based on true events in the life of Frank Dux, Bloodsport.