John Keehan, (Count Dante), The Deadliest Man Alive

On May 25, 1975, a man, formerly known as John Keehan, was dead in his bed and a large box of cash, which he had stored in his closet was missing. An autopsy revealed that the 36-year-old Keehan died from a peptic ulcer. The whereabouts of the missing box of cash has never been resolved. It was just another strange mystery surrounding John Keehan whose whole life was a series of peculiar instances.

Born in 1939, Keehan grew up in a well-to-do family in the Beverly section of Chicago’s South Side. As a teenager he took an interest in the martial arts that World War II veterans brought back to the United States. He initially studied Judo and Karate under Gene Wyka then became a student of Robert Trias where he earned a black belt. In 1964, at the age of twenty-four, Keehan opened his dojo, The Imperial Academy of Fighting Arts.

Keehan and his students pose for a publicity shot

In an interview with Black Belt magazine, Keehan reflected on his previous instructors, who he claimed numbered about twenty, “I don’t think any were any good. But you know, my greatest instructor was myself…”

At his school, Keehan accepted women and African Americans which angered many in the martial arts community. But that was not the only thing that set his dojo aside. While most martial arts schools taught self-defense, students in Keehan’s dojo, learned techniques for street fighting. Sometimes, students would engage in six against one style simulations and learn to defend themselves while attacked from behind sitting on a stool. In addition to fast jabs and lightning quick kicks, he taught eye-gouging and urged students to attack the groin.

John Keehan in an undated photo

In addition to attending tournaments, Keehan sponsored many as well. His students often won their matches using their aggressive full contact style which angered many in the martial arts community who felt he was too rough. He had just as many dissenters as he had followers.

In 1965, Keehan’s behavior became more erratic when he and a fellow instructor named Doug Dwyer attempted to string dynamite to a competing dojo’s store front. When the police arrived both Keehan and Dwyer got into their car and sped off, leading police on a high-speed chase. During the escape, Keehan and Dwyer tossed a box of dynamite blasting caps from the car. Police managed to retrieve the caps and the criminals. Keehan and Dwyer, both drunk, explained that they were getting retribution for unpaid wages when they served as instructors for the school. Both received two years’ probation for attempted arson, possession of explosives and resisting arrest.

Keehan was not satisfied running his dojo’s which now numbered two. He took odd jobs around Chicago, becoming a hairdresser for Playboy bunnies and working as a director of a hairpiece firm. He eventually turned his talents on himself, dying his red hair, jet black and carving swooping sword-like edges into his well-manicured beard.

To further enhance his appearance, he bought a black Cadillac Eldorado and had painted on the doors a specially designed crest, featuring lions. Dissatisfied with an artist rendering of a lion, he purchased a real lion cub from an Illinois zoo and would walk it up and down the street secured with a leash. He took to wearing a black cape with a popped collar, and tight leotards while walking with a gold-leaf cane. To complete the appearance and the transformation he legally changed his name to Count Juan Raphael Dante and explained to those who would listen that he was rightfully going to reclaim the title due to his Spanish family. He was of Irish decent.

Keehan (on the right) posed with his hands in the tiger claw position

On April 23, 1970, for a reason that has never been known, Keehan, now Count Dante, picked up a phone and called the Green Dragon’s dojo and said into the phoneline, “I’m coming over there and I’m bringing a bunch of guys to bust up your joint.”

As promised, Count Dante, arrived with his crew at about 10:00pm and knocked on the door. He declared that he was the police and even had a badge in his pocket to support the ruse. When the door opened, Dante and his crew of five entered to find the Green Dragons were armed and ready. From the walls they had armed themselves with swords and a mace. One of Dante’s fighters, Jim Koncevic, clenched the shirt of Green Dragon, Jerome Greenwald, and kicked his legs out from under him. That was the ignition point. Soon fist and kicks were filling the empty spaces between one another. Green Dragon, Jose Gonzalez, had his eye cut (which he would lose) and Koncevic received several lashes. Dante and his crew fled out the front door, and quickly noticed they were one man short. Koncevic came stumbling out of the door and fell on to the sidewalk. Blood oozed from his thirty-six cuts, and he died. Meanwhile, one of Dante’s students had hurried to a fire station and called for the police.

During questioning, Jerome Greenwald, explained that Koncevic accidentally impaled himself when he lunged himself onto Jerome Greenwald as he was picking up a sword. Greenwald talked himself out of first-degree murder charges but was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Meanwhile, Count Dante received an assault and battery charge.

In court, the judge dismissed every charge, explaining that everyone was equally guilty and shared the blame for the evening’s events.

Dante’s reputation was ruined. Many of his students dropped his class, and he found it difficult to recruit others. With his name tarnished he was unable to form the competitions that had helped him fund his program. He spent what little money he had left on the legal defense of his co-Horts in what became known as the “dojo-war.”

He closed his dojos and opened two bookstores. One sold pornography and another occult. He also invested in a used car lot that may have had ties to the Chicago mob.

Dante managed to expand his influence and persona during this trying time, when he wrote a seventy-two-page manual titled, World’s Deadliest Fighting Secrets and sold it in the back of comic books. In its pages, he taught adolescents his famous full-contact methods for eye-gouging and full-grip groin attacks.

Advert seen in several comic books of the 1970s promoting his pamphlet “World’s Deadliest Fighting Secrets”

While money was coming in, Dante opened a dojo in Fall River Massachusetts and sponsored tournaments, but they did not attract the audiences he had grown accustomed to and became dissatisfied.

His alleged connections to the Chicago mob resulted in questioning by the police for the 1974 Purolator heist but he was never formally charged.

In 1975, Dante and his girlfriend hosted his lawyer and his girlfriend for dinner one night in Dante’s apartment. In the middle of a conversation, Dante told his lawyer that there was something he wanted to show him. He walked him back to the bedroom and showed him a box of one-hundred-dollar bills in a closet. Dante did not explain why he had the money.

Later that night, Dante called his lawyer and left a message, “Bob, Bob, you’ve got to call me. What I showed you wasn’t real money. It was all counterfeit.”

The next call his lawyer received a call from Dante’s girlfriend telling him that Dante was dead. He was mysterious and self-destructive to the end.