Count Dante

2025-07-06T06:09:35Z

2001:56A:FD44:2100:2991:66FA:AA05:C873:

{{short description|American martial artist (1939–1975)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox martial artist
| name = Count Dante
| image = Count Dante (John Timothy Keehan).jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name = John Timothy Keehan
| birth_date = {{birth date|1939|2|2|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Beverly, Chicago]] Illinois, U.S.
| residence = Chicago, Illinois
| death_date = {{death date and age|1975|5|25|1939|2|4|mf=y}}
| death_place =
| martial_art = [[Karate]]
| teacher = [[Robert Trias]]
| rank =
| spouse =
| children =
| students =
| url =
}}
'''Count Juan Raphael Dante''' (born '''John Timothy Keehan'''; February 2, 1939 – May 25, 1975) was an American martial artist figure during the 1960s and 1970s who claimed he could do extraordinary feats such as [[Dim Mak]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/jared-swilley-black-lips-on-count-dante-aka-the-worlds-deadliest-man/|title=Jared Swilley (Black Lips) on Count Dante AKA The World's Deadliest Man|date=October 24, 2014|publisher=|access-date=December 30, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jetli.com/2016/12/the-magical-realism-dim-mak|title=The Magical Realism of Dim Mak|date=December 15, 2016|publisher=|access-date=December 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230172415/https://www.jetli.com/2016/12/the-magical-realism-dim-mak|archive-date=December 30, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o84DAAAAMBAJ&q=count+dante&pg=PA50|title=Black Belt|date=July 1, 1969|publisher=Active Interest Media, Inc.|access-date=December 30, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNUDAAAAMBAJ&q=count+dante&pg=PA80|title=Black Belt|date=January 1, 1976|publisher=Active Interest Media, Inc.|access-date=December 30, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TdQDAAAAMBAJ&q=count+dante&pg=PA62|title=Black Belt|date=March 1, 1976|publisher=Active Interest Media, Inc.|access-date=December 30, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref>

==Early career==
Keehan was born in [[Beverly, Chicago]], on February 2, 1939, to a well-to-do [[Irish American]] family.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://m.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-life-and-death-of-the-deadliest-man-alive/Content?oid=922605|title=The Life and Death of the Deadliest Man Alive|website=Chicago Reader|access-date=April 16, 2018}}</ref> His father, Jack, was a physician and director of the Ashland State Bank, and his mother, Dorothy, occasionally appeared on the society pages of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''. Keehan attended [[Mount Carmel High School (Chicago)|Mount Carmel High School]] and boxed at Johnny Coulon's 63rd Street gym, and after graduating from high school he joined the Marine Reserves and later the Army, where he learned hand-to-hand combat and jujitsu techniques. He trained under various martial arts masters during the infancy of [[Modern history of East Asian martial arts#Western interest|Western interest in Asian martial arts]] during the 1950s. 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ItQDAAAAMBAJ&q=count+dante+karate&pg=PA56|title=Black Belt|date=July 1, 1977|publisher=Active Interest Media, Inc.|access-date=December 30, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Keehan was the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] director of the [[United States Karate Association]] (USKA) until 1962. He left that organization in 1964 to form a so-called World Karate Federation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PM4DAAAAMBAJ&q=the+trail+of+count+dante&pg=PA16|title=Black Belt|date=April 1, 1969|publisher=Active Interest Media, Inc.|access-date=December 30, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> In 1990, a new [[World Karate Federation]] unassociated with Keehan's was formed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wkf.net/thebook/|title=World Karate Federation - The Book|last=CodexCoder|website=www.wkf.net|access-date=April 16, 2018}}</ref>

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 each other.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/@StPaco/man-you-come-right-out-of-a-comic-book-the-unbelievable-life-death-of-count-dante-b41b5521bf99|title=Man, You Come Right Out Of A Comic Book: The Unbelievable Life & Death Of Count Dante|first=Paco|last=Taylor|date=March 18, 2018|publisher=|access-date=April 16, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QM4DAAAAMBAJ&q=john+keehan+chicago+tournament&pg=PA30|title=Black Belt|date=August 1, 1967|publisher=Active Interest Media, Inc.|access-date=November 13, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref>

==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 became known as the Dan-te system, "Dance of Death" or sometimes the Kata-Dante. Theoretically, by learning all of the steps of Keehan's "Dance of Death", you would thereby become an effective fighting master.<ref name="auto"/>

=="The Deadliest Man Alive"==
In 1967, Keehan legally changed his name to ''Count Juan Raphael Danté'', explaining 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 from Spaniard anti-royalist communists.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VtTIDAAAQBAJ&q=count+dante+karate&pg=PA119|title=Now with Kung Fu Grip!: How Bodybuilders, Soldiers and a Hairdresser Reinvented Martial Arts for America|first=Jared|last=Miracle|date=June 17, 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476663500|access-date=December 30, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> ([[Edmond Dantès]] is the protagonist of Dumas' 1844 ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]''.) Keehan was prone to boasts that furthered his reputation, his most notorious one being that he'd participated in secret "death matches" in Thailand and China, winning by killing opponents in front of crowds numbering in the thousands.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Dan |date=April 24, 2012 |title=The Deadliest Ads Alive! |journal=[[Hogan's Alley (magazine)|Hogan's Alley]] |publisher=Bull Moose Publishing |issue=124 |url=https://www.hoganmag.com/blog/the-deadliest-ads-alive/ |access-date=August 5, 2018 }}</ref>

He began heavily promoting himself via [[comic book]] ads as the ''Deadliest Man Alive''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJ-0nNPAisgC&q=count+dante+hairdresser&pg=PA64|title=Broken Face In The Mirror (Crooks and Fallen Stars That Look Very Much Like Us)|publisher=Dorrance Publishing|isbn=9781434947239|access-date=April 14, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref> One had only to mail order his instructional booklet ''World's Deadliest Fighting Secrets'' (in which he outlined the "Dance of Death") to also receive a free Black Dragon Fighting Society membership card. These comic book ads account for much of Count Dante's lasting notoriety in pop culture. They read
<blockquote>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.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Life and Death of the Deadliest Man Alive |author=Kelly, Dan |newspaper=[[Chicago Reader]] |date=July 13, 2006 |url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-life-and-death-of-the-deadliest-man-alive/Content?oid=922605 |access-date=March 11, 2014 }}</ref>
</blockquote>

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 [[Japan]]ese [[Black Dragon Society]], an ultranationalist secret society during the 1930s and 1940s.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VtTIDAAAQBAJ&q=count+dante+hairdresser&pg=PA119|title=Now with Kung Fu Grip!: How Bodybuilders, Soldiers and a Hairdresser Reinvented Martial Arts for America|first=Jared|last=Miracle|date=June 17, 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476663500|access-date=April 14, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref>

==The Dojo Wars==
The various enmities culminated in the Dojo War incident of April 24, 1970, where Dante and some of his students performed a [[Dojoyaburi|dojo storm]] on 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wbez.org/curious-city/2023/06/02/john-keehan-aka-count-dante-and-the-martial-arts-scene-in-chicago|title=How the ‘deadliest man alive’ stoked Chicago’s infamous ‘dojo wars’|website=[[WBEZ]]|accessdate=March 16, 2025}}</ref> The brief battle resulted in the death of one of Dante's friends and fellow sensei, Jim Koncevic.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wtUDAAAAMBAJ&q=count+dante+story+part+ii&pg=PA78|title=Black Belt|date=March 1, 1976|publisher=Active Interest Media, Inc.|access-date=December 30, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Former mob lawyer [[Robert Cooley (lawyer)|Robert Cooley]] states in his autobiography ''[[When Corruption was King]]'' that he represented Count Dante during the trial following the 1970 Dojo War incident. Cooley recalls that Dante was ultimately acquitted but not before both sides were given a stern lecture by the judge citing everyone at fault. Cooley also suggests that Dante was a mastermind in the notorious 1974 Chicago Purolator vault robbery in which the amount of $4.3 million was stolen. While not one of the suspects in the trial, Dante was allegedly questioned by Illinois grand jury and ultimately passed a lie detector test. Dante died shortly before the trial was completed which resulted in the conviction of all but one person involved.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ayoob |first=Massad F.|authorlink=Massad F. Ayoob |date=January 1976 |title=Count Dante's Inferno |journal=[[Black Belt (magazine)|Black Belt]]|publisher=Rainbow Periodicals |volume=14 |issue=1 |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNUDAAAAMBAJ&pg=1 |access-date=March 11, 2014 }}</ref>

==Death==
Count Dante died in his sleep of internal [[hemorrhaging]] caused by a [[bleeding ulcer]], on May 25, 1975.

==See also==
* [[Modern schools of ninjutsu]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Spirko, Walter. "Rival karate clubs fight on N.W. Side; one killed." ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' (April 24, 1970)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dante, Count}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:Martial artists from Chicago]]
[[Category:American male karateka]]
[[Category:American people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:American hairdressers]]
[[Category:Deaths from ulcers]]
[[Category:20th-century American sportsmen]]

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Count Dante