Famed for the Dojo Wars of the 60's and a lengendary comic book ad where the

Count(John Timothy Keehan) promised to teach students 'The Dance Of Death, Count

Dante was a Martial Arts sensei who, according to childhood friend and former

Chicago Outfit lawyer Robert Cooley was an extremely volatile and confrontational

character. Close friend Douglas Dwyer accompanied the Count on a series of confron

-tations and rivalries in the macho martial arts world that led to them taping

dynamite caps to a rival Chicago dojo. According to Cooley the Count intimidated

business interests to sell at a 'reasonable' cost to expand his empire but things

came to a head in a lengendary battle during which a man was pierced through

the chest with a spear and Jim koncivec was killed. He was arrested shortly after.

Robert Cooley got him off but it wasn't long before the erratic but deadly Count

came into contact with Cooley's Chicago Outfit contacts. During one confrontation

Cooley had to cool things down in a sit down while an Outfit henchman threatened

to put a fork through the Count's eye. The fearless Count stod his ground and

stated proudly he could take his opponent's eyes out with his bare hands.

Sooner or later the erratic nature of Count Dante's life was bound to spiral

dangerously out of control. Dante was a mastermind in the notorious 1974 Chicago

Purolator vault robbery in which 4.3 million dollars was stolen. He called Cooley

to his apartment where he showed him a wardrobe stuffed with bills, perhaps

a million dollars worth. Later that night he rang Cooley and told him that money

was 'fake', and not to worry about it. The next day Cooley found him dead at the

apartment. Cooley suggests he was poisoned as the money and body disappeared with-

out a trace and around 1.25 million dollars was never recovered.

The legend and mystery of the Count lives on to this day. Martial Arts fans for

instance still suspect foul play and a revenge attack from a rival sensei for his

death. To this day he is lengendary in matial arts circles and known in popular

culture for his lengendary antics and crazy comic book 'Dance Of Death' adverts.

Anyone remember this guy?
Here's some more info:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Dante

His story also features heavily in Robert Cooley's Chicago Outfit book:- When Corruption Was King

Here's a link to Cooley's Website which shows Chicago

South Side Irishman Keehan's infamous Black Dragon Society Comic Book ad in all

it's glory:-http://www.whencorruptionwasking.com/characters_dante.html

John Keehan's legacy has also left it's mark on the world of cinema. Martin Kove, who played the character "Kreese" in the film The Karate Kid, apparently took his 'Pain Does Not exist In This Dojo' mantra from his days under the tutorship of the Count in one of his legendary dojos.

The Count's bizarre mixture of talents(which included hairdressing) also made him a major influence on Adam Sandler's Zohan Divir character in his Israeli martial-arts commando turned hairdresser comedy 'Don't Mess With The Zohan'.

Here's a little excerpt from Government rat Cooley's website explaining the Count's amazing range of abilities:-

I have yet to meet anyone with the Count’s amazing combination of talents and flaws. Besides being an expert in the martial arts, he was also a beautician (a supermarket tabloid ran a story about him with the headline, “The World’s Deadliest Fighter Is A… Hairdresser!). In addition to the karate studios, he owned hairdressing schools. Supposedly, he got wrapped up with martial arts while he traveled through Asia for a wig import business. He did hairstyling for Playboy and somehow that gave him an entree to the whole world of pornography, and led to a financial interest in a string of adult book stores. At one moment he could be extremely sophisticated and artistic, and at the next moment crude and ridiculously macho – even more than the Mob guys.


When Corruption Was King © 2004 by Robert Cooley and Hillel Levin