With Friends Like These (Part One) - The Blunder Chicken

"Oh Grandmaster, Where Art Thou?"

by Gerald Greysmith

September, 1981 - Kagoshima, Japan

It was a sunny Saturday morning and Insei Saija was awakening from his meditative slumber. Oh, how happy he was this day. His senior (and only) student had just returned to open the first Konigun Ninjutsu dojo outside of country and of all places...Mississippi! He truly hoped that his disciple remembered that it was imperative that he call the art "Konigun Karate," that way he could personally ensure only the best truly became ninja themselves at the rank of fifth degree. 

This day was special as well for another reason. Saija-sensei's good friend Tiger Tanaka had just finished filming on a James Bond film reboot and, like him, was excited also because his own senior student was also on his way to the Bahamas to fight in a very super-secret underground tournament where he would bring fame and honor to their specific and totally unnamed school of the shadow warrior.

Truly, what were the odds of this ever happening in their lifetimes? Two ninja masters, two American students who had learned so much living in Japan with them since their teen years. Though it was unheard of in history for them to teach non-Japanese their ways, both Saija and Tanaka poured all of their knowledge into the men. And along the way kept each other abreast of the other's progress. Neither men had ever met and this was by design of their teachers. It was important that no distractions came to them during these hard and formative years.

Why,  how the martial arts world...no, the world itself would be changed forever as a result of these men and their dedicated trainees. The students who would benefit from them in their native land and the grand lessons that were to come would impact those gaijin in ways unheard of ever before. Saija chuckled at the thought of the dojo which would spring up in small towns where Bryce would perfectly conceal who he was and be able to spread the art into the hearts and minds of those who would carry the torch for him one day. 

Perhaps the upstart little Bujinkan organization would finally remember it's place as a mere impersonation of the real ninjutsu. 

Pish-posh, Saija would say to himself as he thought about the other so-called ninja warriors and masters who resided in a small, unheard of area near Tokyo. Masaaki-something-or-another and his student named Stephanie, or Susanna...something like that. Yes, this pretender to the throne of the true warrior mystics would soon hear of them in the years to come. They would see that these alleged traditions they claimed to hold were simply deflections, a sad pretense in which they said they were one thing but never could they even hold a candle to the truth which people like he himself and his colleagues in the south of Japan were the inheritors of. Iga Ryu schools of ninja fighting were gone. Only the Koga Ryu schools truly remained.

Pouring himself a bowl of Captain Crunch and turning on the television to watch Heathcliff and Marmaduke, a sad Imperialist cartoon about an orange cat getting the best of some random dog Saija looked around and became saddened. The dojo was quiet this day. He realized how much he truly missed his lone student. For nine years they had been inseparable. Smiling, he remembered how he looked upon his former apprentice as he would his own biological son. His heart leapt with joy at the thought of the words that special young man called him..."little father." Yes, his life was truly changed for the better by his adopted (in his heart) son. They had met in a peculiar fashion. Saija's real son had died of dysentery brought upon their time in Oregon was before that saved by this fantastic student from bullies who were part of some low-level southern American hate group who dressed up in a manner to resemble ghosts. 

How Bryce had fought would be a story later retold to him after the incident. At nine years old the savior of Saija's bloodline fought these men hand and foot, tooth and nail. He beat them all back, thirty three in number there were. Saija's own son thought him to be an adult from his height. At the tender age he was the mysterious figure towered over him at a staggering six foot and four inches. This height, he would later tell him, came from his father, a rag tag mercenary who was in the military and due to mold spores in the Amazon his career was cut short. From that they moved back to the family land the child would say. To poverty. To having to use an outhouse. Rampant beatings were the norm. But even these conditions could not slay the dragon inside the boy. No, instead he brought forth from himself a condition to do the right thing no matter what. And it was this attitude that brought him to the attention of the last master of Konigun Ninjutsu...the art of friendly force. 

Saija-sensei looked up at the crucifix on his wall. He reminded himself that he needed to always pray for his charge wherever he went. Konigun was founded by Christian Yamabushi Priests in the mountains nearby as early as 1181 he would tell his son and later his live-in adolescent student. Yes, we will pray daily he remembered telling a teary-eyed mother as he handed her papers to sign formally adopting the young boy who now had grown to manhood. The very man now who would carry the torch for Saija-sensei. 

For you see, like Tiger Tanaka, Saija-sensei was retired now. He never wanted to be bothered with the public life and nor had he ever been. Such is the way of the ninja masters. No...that would fall to his own student. This would be the responsibility of the man the world would know as Shidoshi...Shidoshi Bryce Dallas. Eating his cereal in relative harmony with the universe he would be startled...almost that is...by the sudden ring of a doorbell. Funny, he thought to himself, ninja would never use doorbells in centuries past. 

He smiled in pleasant thoughts to himself as he muttered aloud something about being directly on time.

Opening the door he smiled. Tiger Tanaka stood there, his mustache bristling in the wind. It had been quite a long time and the men embraced for a moment as brothers in the martial way often do. Entering the home Saija shut the door and turned off the television and invited his old friend into the dining room to sit and share tales of their last decade and to see what retirement truly held for both of them. 

"Old friend," he began, "we have so much to discuss."




Oh, That Mysterious Master of the Shadows and Ancient Teachings

One of the most striking things I ever witness amongst the stories I research are the incredible tales of mysterious masters who for the life of me cannot be verified or able to produce real evidence that they truly exist. Of course people have gone to extreme lengths to "prove" the reality they want you or me to believe. The late Dan Harmon was guilty of this. He posted some pictures some years ago of him allegedly with his ninjutsu teacher standing outside what he claimed was the office his master, or as he called him in the pictures, "sensai," worked at.

The late Dan Harmon, pictured on the left, took a break from shooting the straight to DVD release "The Crow: Ninja Domination" to pose with the former stunt double for the late Pat Morita. He would claim this validated his claim to Honzawa Koga Ryu Ninjutsu.

Okay, so now there is a picture here and it was posted on the internet. So obviously this means it was all real, right? Harmon would be vindicated, his system would go onwards and he would be able to call himself a grandmaster or whatnot...yes, this would suffice for him to continue to claim what he taught was legitimate. The proof is in the pudding, correct? 

"HOT DAMMIT!" Harmon would later scream at his phone as he saw that a wild Don Roley had appeared, thereby foiling his plans once again...his claims of cyber-bullying would be seconded by Antony Cummins and Frank Dux, among others.

Yeah, that's a no from me. As it turned out Harmon was posing with what appeared to be a random Japanese dude in front of a Catholic church in Colorado not too far from Roley. Knowing where this was Roley rode down, posed and smiled and then completely collapsed the entire charade out from under Harmon in a video. In response Harmon brushed up on his bo staff skills while watching Napoleon Dynamite and began to menace from the safety of his keyboard anyone else who dared say he was not in fact legitimate.

KIAI!!!

It is also poignant to note that in 2014, around the time that Harmon was refusing to get a haircut or shave in any manner whatsoever he reached out to Konigun Ninjutsu members in Indonesia and attempted to get a foothold with them. I can only imagine as bad as some of those members were how much more dangerous a person Harmon could have been had he been given any measure of "legitimacy" from the likes of those Bryce Dallas "taught." Dallas was a criminal for sure but Harmon? Purely insane and in my own opinion a sociopath who loved leaving pain in his wake. Specifically this is true in regards to his ex-wife and his own children. BSMA has thread upon thread dedicated to the messages between them and how he refused even a moment to think of his son who lay in a hospital. No, he refused to give any medical information on himself to help his child. Instead he took the chance to make this all about him and how he was done so wrong by everyone in the world and began to call himself "famous."

Famous...?

Harmon's story ended on a very sad and tragic note. In a last ditch effort to victimize his loved ones he committed suicide. He also through other "supporters" (so shall we say) had his death blamed on "cyber-bullying," a constant taunt by David Richardson aka Dorian the Magician. Harmon left behind a legacy of pain and suffering because he was unstable, dangerous, unpredictable and unforgiving in his tactics and attempts to remain relevant. Harmon built a life completely founded by lies. And as I have said many times before in numerous articles these lies define them. Once they begin to be ripped away from them the end result is a broken person who has nothing left. And this, my friends, is when they become the most dangerous.

You can read the memorial thread for Harmon here.

It is the legacy they leave behind for others to take up the mantle of their defense. Frank Dux, Ashida Kim, Antony Cummins and many others sought to take revenge and foil the attempts of those who stood up to Harmon and his abuse of others. Despite having the technical skill of a hamster stuck in a wheel he left an indelible impact on the martial arts community and became much like a rallying point for the frauds of the day who sought to undermine the work of legitimate investigators who spend months and sometimes years debunking these people.

The master they want you to think they had.

The master they actually had.

In the scheme of things this empowered people like Ron Collins to run forth from The Shire where even the other Hobbits disliked him and proceed to lash out at any and all who dared to come forth against the undisputed true masters of ninjutsu. Collins, like Harmon sought to make a name for himself under the guise of a mysterious master as well to also include being trained by his mom. Fun fact, it was said Collins lived with his mom in Beckley, West Virginia as her caretaker (so he claimed.) According to one source however Collins was actually living off of her and in his spare time pretending to be a ninja until she got a new boyfriend who had no intentions of putting up with his proverbial bullshit. Hence, Ron was booted from the Hobbit Hole and into the streets. The rest of the story is well-known.

Ron went to fight Barron Shepherd, he cowed. 

He went to face Don Roley. He cowed. 

Ron went to Colorado and was stranded in the streets and BSMA members bought him a train ticket home.

Then he lied on a firearms application and was arrested and now sits in prison. 

He will be out in a few years and this cycle will start over again. 

And the worst part is? He will be enabled by the same people who enabled Dan Harmon and the people who hold Bryce Dallas up as a victim as well. These people never stop and think about the victims they left behind. It's in their DNA. They think only of themselves and the next rank they are going to purchase when they gather at the truck stop and sign hastily printed certificates in obscure arts they made up on the fly.

Excuse me. These weren't made up at all. Why, what was I thinking? They have their ancient and mysterious masters of the hidden death arts to give them all the certification that they require.




September 1981 - Kagoshima, Japan

The masters sat across from each other at the kitchen table. An open pack of Marlboro's sat between them and the ashtray was about half-full. Both men had shared many laughs in the last two hours as well as cleaned out the house of any leftover Captain Crunch. How Tiger Tanaka enjoyed his cereal and was drinking from the bowl the last of his sweetly flavored milk and cereal residue. Saija laughed as he sat it down, a milk mustache appearing on his face where his real facial hair covered his upper lip. These days retirement suited them quite well it would seem.

They talked for what seemed hours in Saija's mind. They compared stories of their prize pupils and their exploits. He learned that Tanaka's student Frank Dux had recently competed in an underground tournament known as Mortal Combat and slain a half-reptilian man and sent another one named after some sort of arachnid back to the depths of hell. Saija, in turn, regaled Tanaka with stories of his student Bryce and how after he had returned to Mississippi fought barehanded against a local Karate master named Roger something-or-another but had beaten him to near death in front of the man's class. He then talked about the amazing number of schools his student had opened as well as the money he was making...almost as though he was printing it on a machine he said aloud. Together they laughed and Tanaka mentioned how blessed they both were to have had students who were like their own children. 

But what about when someone wants to know who we are, Tanaka asked his friend...what happens when the American Imperialists come looking for us...we are retired after all are we not? What shall we do? He mentioned remaining hidden or perhaps faking their deaths in order to stay out of sight and out of mind.

Saija dismissed him with a wave of his hand. No worries was the phrase of their lives now. Akuna Matata and all that stuff. The world would see the skills of their chosen represenatives and only fools would question them. Besides they both had seen the trophies Tanaka's man was taking home. He could only have won those from competing in the tournaments as he claimed. And he was in the military as well! It would appear his integrity was intact regardless. As for Bryce should anyone question his training all they had to do was simply view the medallion on his neck as proof that he existed. And should they eventually track him down one day for a photo-op he would be able to also verify for them the existence of Tanaka without fail. As a last point Saija reminded him that he was on film for God's sake...James Bond was still a viable franchise at the moment. And as long as the suave secret agent existed so, too, would Tiger Tanaka. 

It was at this instance they heard the doorbell. Saija looked up worried. Had someone already came looking for them and disturb their hard-earned retirement already? He looked at Tanaka who was just as wide-eyed as his host...

Saija moved to the door and stood there a long while wondering who, if anyone, would be on the other side of that door. No way he would open it without being sure of the person on the other side. He shuddered as he remembered a month prior in the night how a shadow demon had passed against the door and if not for the medallion he now fingered around his neck he would have been made a victim of the darkest of darknesses...

He asked loudly for the person to answer him and identify themselves. For what seemed an eternity yet was in truth only a few seconds a meek voice at last answered back that he was looking for Saija. The voice spoke perfect Japanese. Could this be a Bujinkan practitioner seeking to exact a pound of flesh for a supposed transgression? Opening the door a small bit Saija glanced through the crack and saw to his surprise a familiar face smiling back at him.

Jack Stern stood at the door and held his arms out.

"Greetings!" he said throught a wide smile, "You going to make me stand here or give me a long and overdue hug?!"


The Basis for Fictional Masters

Where do these people get the ideas for their alleged masters? What person impacted their lives so much that they needed to hide them away from sight so that no one would ever find them and allegedly harass them? I mean, I would love to have found evidence of Saija when Bryce Dallas claimed to have met him way back in 2006 for a trip to Kagoshima Japan. He took extreme steps to prove his teacher was real. He went to the point of finding someone who would pose in a pictures with him and wear a Konigun uniform as well. He even managed to sell the idea to the students who attended the trip with him as well.

Dallas with the alleged Saija moments before he was told to get off the man's lawn.

I believe there are numerous reasons people of this character will make up their teachers. One of the main ones is to simply produce a certain level of credibility for themselves amongst other prominent martial artists. The desire to remain relevant seems to seep into the very beings of these folks. Why train and earn anything of value when you can just make up a teacher, a rank, print a certificate and claim it is from that person and then from there go along your merry way? It is an easy road but it is a dangerous one in the martial arts community. 

On a different note I think it is also a way for them to be different. They can offer a very rare system to the unknowing public and through that gain the relevance they desire so much. And of course the system in question would be rare because it usually (almost always) begins and ends with them. Because they made it up. Along with their teacher.

And lastly I think it can be to rewrite their history and the lineage which they find themselves. Sometimes these people are victims of a fraud and therefore they may feel trapped. Or, they want to distance themselves from the lies of their predecessor and in doing so completely change the entire view for those watching them in order to not be made out to be frauds themselves. In many instances the skills they learned say in system A would translate to system B. All it means is they would need to go to the school for system B and be vetted, trained in a few details perhaps omitted from them and then given the appropriate ranking. 

But no matter the reasoning they find themselves in a pickle most times when the truth is eventually found out. Red flags rise up and holes appear in stories. The usual excuses begin with how they don't owe anyone a response but you're more than welcome to view the proof in their presence without any neutral third party fluent in native language which the "scrolls" are written.

A prime example of this would be Mr. Bret Gordon and to a degree his teacher, Mr. Steven Hatfield, the heads of numerous organizations and for certain a link to a man of questionable character and ranking that was covered in detail in an article named "Papasan" Jack Stern.

Now of course Mr. Gordon was mentioned in my last article and with good reason. He had recently written a very defamatory article about Judo instructor Mr. Barron Shepherd. His current USA Judo credentials clearly indicate him as a qualified coach and instructor. As writer Phil Elmore can attest Barron is far from inadequate in his training in the Japanese art of slamming people into the concrete with excess force. His accolades speak for themselves and at the time of Mr. Gordon writing his article I was also in the process of writing my own article series on Barron and his training myself.

This information will be relevant in a few minutes, but can be viewed at Mr. Hatfield's school webpage.

You see, Mr. Gordon and his instructor have been under scrutiny for some time now from people like Lordus Sapiens. Sapiens has written a very lengthy article about them himself as of recent. As I referenced in my last article on credentials and their importance I touched on a Bullshido thread from 2008 regarding a teenage Gordon and the allegations that he purchased a fourth-degree black belt from the World Black Belt Bureau. With that in mind I want to take you to another article that goes back further than that...all the way to the early 2000's and the Judo teacher which Mr. Hatfield claimed to have trained with.

"Jack Stern, a 67-year old, retired bread-truck driver, wept uncontrollably throughout his sentencing hearing. The Law finally caught up with Jackie Albert Stern. He has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced. The sporadic articles confirming Stern's guilty plea culminated in a three day media frenzy in South Florida over his sentencing. He finally obtained the exposure and recognition through media coverage that he so ardently sought with his lies and made up past."

(Article for Reference here, courtesy of the Internet Wayback Machine)

A little background information on Stern may be in order here. (You can also view a thread which he was the topic here.)

Stern claimed to have been trained in Yudo, Judo and other arts throughout his life. According to his claims he began training as early as 1947 in Japan and Korea. He is seen on his webpage (it is still active and can be viewed here) in various pictures with Mas Oyama, and autographs from various masters such as Gichin Funakoshi of Karate fame. However it would turn out Mr. Stern allegedly had a hidden side to his life regarding the martial arts that was quite embellished and, even more worse still, may have been just plain dishonest if the evidence was to bear out.

Stern, on the right, pictured with Bill "Superfoot" Wallace. It would become clear as years went by that he was not the person he claimed to be.

The article in question tells the tale of a man who wore a Medal of Honor he had not really earned (a huge no-no in the military community) and was eventually brought to court for it. In tears he would admit he was wrong to veterans and martial artists alike. Mr. Stern had lied about his training all along, or at the least claimed more than he really had done.

From the article:

Now Gordon wrote a lengthy blog post about Barron not being qualified in Judo whatsoever. Yet, I have seen his credentials. On the other hand I know Gordon has in the past claimed to have trained in grappling but as it turned out it was only four classes when he was sixteen years of age. Now granted in twelve years he had to have learned some new stuff. I'm almost positive he learned more from his current teacher Mr. Hatfield. 

Remember me saying to keep that blurb in mind, right? Well there was indeed a reason for it.

Hatfield claims directly on his page he was trained in Judo by "Papasan" Stern himself. Right there on his own page he tells that tale. And as if the article I am referencing about Stern isn't disturbing enough, we find something else in there that could be very damning to anyone who ever claimed to have a rank or some training with him.

"The cruelest hoax was the one he perpetuated on his own students. While teaching in the Weston school, he charged everyone for membership in the Korean Yudo Association, who issued rank certificates. This turns out to be an nonexistent organization in the State of Florida. It has no corporation papers, no D.B.A. records, no bank account and has filed no tax returns. Certificates were worthless - just as the similar promotion certificates he supposedly got from Korea are worthless."

So, it would seem according to sources that Stern did indeed have a dark side to his martial career.

Stern was giving ranks in Yudo to students in the Florida area that were not real. At all.

Just as bad his students were paying for them and finding out too late they were not worth the paper they were printed on. They could not and would not be recognized in any dojang or dojo anywhere else.

A letter on Stern's website allegedly from Kyuzo Mifune, 12th Dan in Judo. According to his biography he was actually a 10th Dan. Maybe this was a typo on Stern's part?

In 2016 on the USAMA official page headed by Gordon there is a memorial article for Stern written by author Dell Sharpe. You can view it here for the full text. But it seems either Gordon was not aware of the proof at hand to show that Stern was apparently a liar and had possibly embellished his story, or he knew and may not have cared. Now in his defense he probably had heard of it and according to this portion of the article we see this:

The last thing of substance I can remember him telling me before he passed is this. "Don’t be like me. You have to be better than I was. Do what you do and do it well, and you don’t have to pat yourself on the back Others will do it for you."

So in the end it appears Stern was honest that he had indeed lied about his past to at least a degree. But the articles in question covering his life show a different side of this and I believe he was trying to hide it up until the end. He was only crying at court because he was caught. Did he cry when he took money for those ranks? Did he cry when he carried a Medal of Honor around and made claims to how he earned it? Did he shed a tear as he told his friends and others around him proudly that his own son was competing in the 1987 Olympics for Judo or that he would win a gold medal in games that did not in fact take place in 1987?

No, I'm sure he only cried when he got caught. And this is one of the men that Hatfield and by default Gordon claim a lineage to with regards to Judo. And Hatfield himself once claimed a high rank in Judo and later redacted that statement. Gordon would also call out Barron Shepherd for simply pointing out a Kodokan card does not identify rank. All of these habits smack of something more than just simple errors. No, these trickle down to something more than that with regards to their claims about American Yoshinkan Aiki Jujutsu.

And yes, according to an email between myself and Gordon and a later phone call Hatfield is indeed ranked by Stern as a fourth dan. Per records found at this point I would be skeptical of any ranking given by Stern for any reason. I would go as far as saying that anyone who did receive a rank from him be vetted by a licensed and accredited Judo/Yudo practitioner and ranked accordingly through them and their own legitimate organization respectively.

September 1981 - Kagoshima, Japan

Saija and Tanaka sat quietly after Stern had left. They both liked him, they did. But he had definite questions which came about in his training and made them scratch their heads. They knew he had been in Japan and even travelled to Korea. But he also loved telling them about his Judo training. Saija had trained in Judo as had Tanaka...of course they did as it was and remains a steadfast part of physical education courses in Japan and as children through their teen years they had both taken the training quite seriously. It was easier for them they agreed because of their ninja training. Within a year at most both were respectable shodans and could toss around men and women up to six times their size.

Brewing another pot of coffee for them Tanaka turned back to Saija, a fog of cigarette smoke wafting from in front of his face. This added a very mysterious look to the man who for years had hidden amongst the shadows. What does it say if Stern can find us, he posited out loud to Saija. While I didn't mind the visit earlier today I have to remind you that he found us quite easily. We must do better, do we not?

Saija laughed softly and reminded his old friend that the day was fast upon them when their names would fade from history. Their children would carry their legacy. Their jobs to their own teachers were finished and they were able to quietly slip into the ether of history and never be remembered except on the ancient scrolls they had both updated and placed in the hands of their students. 

That's when it dawned on both of them...Saija stood quickly and ran into his bedroom. He accidentally knocked over a small table and a cat screeched in horror as the man made his way across the house and flung open his bedroom closet. There, on the floor, was the source of his horror.

The scrolls...they were still with him. How could he have forgotten to give them to Bryce? How could a master such as he make such a drastic oversight towards his own student. Bryce would have definitely needed these items to prove his legitimacy. If only email had been invented, Saija would curse under his breath. He had no way to get them to his "son," to do so would invite others like Stern to come by and see them without asking. Students would be a constant irritation. After all the ninja way was not to have numerous students but to instead have the ONE student and bank all your years of experience on them. 

Saija looked up into the doorway of his bedroom and Tanaka stood there wide-eyed. You forgot as well, he asked his friend. Tanaka silently nodded. He had also forgotten to give Dux any kind of evidence of his existence and how he would be able to prove their training now would be a mystery. This was a drastic oversight on both of their ends. Saija sat on the bed and almost wept. He had failed...he had failed in a large way for not only Bryce but also his style. Well, it was now Bryce's style. If only he could afford to send a letter of some sort to him but Mississippi was so big and large that Saija remembered a man could become lost in their forests and hills and never be seen again. He had no idea where his student was at nor would he be able to locate him. Tanaka's own man was in California somewhere and the address he had for him led to a barber's shop. Finding him would be harder than finding Dallas...for all he knew at this point Dux was a movie star or something living the high life in Hollywood.

It was then they were truly caught off-guard. The doorbell rang aloud again...but it seemed if possible to be louder. As if some kind of esoteric force was amplifying the sounds in their heads. Tanaka turned and this time he would make the move to open the door. He silently and with the agility of a cat did a somersault towards the door just in case someone had booby trapped the couch near it and landed gracefully beside the knob. With his right hand he reached for it and slowly turned it. Saija was suddenly beside him and stopped his movement. 

What was it about this day that had went so wrong for the both of them, he whispered to Tanaka..

What have we done to deserve such a karma coming back to us and making our lives seem to crash down around us...we have failed our students and mayhaps the person at this door now is here to train. What if this person is American? 

Saija began to sweat. He went on to say how the other alleged masters will learn of our folly and they will make us the laughing stock of the martial arts worldwide.

Tanaka shook his head side to side slowly. He muttered back to Saija how the person on the other side of this door could be a way to fix the issue at hand.

With courage both of them stood side by side and opened the door wide. To their surprise it was another Japanese man. Saija recognized him. No, he was not a ninja. He was an aikijujutsu master but he was not very well-known. The last time Saija could remember anything about him he was at the Yoshinkan dojo north of them...why would this man be here, now?

"Greetings, fellow sensei," the man said. "I believe you both know of me,"  he said slowly as he gave the customary bow. Returning the bow Saija and Tanaka stood back upright. 

The man was small, and Saija noted how it would be hard to describe him at all. He was not unique in anyway, as nothing stood out about him. You seem familiar Saija would say to him, then added that the man's name escaped him at the moment. 

Puzzled but not in a way that showed any hurt on his end, the man grinned and bowed again, "Masters of the ninja way, I am Yutashi Hasaka, master of the skills of jujutsu."



As stated earlier in this article I was in the process of working with Barron Shepherd very closely on an article series detailing his many accolades over the years. He has been very active in the Judo community for decades. During the course of this, however, Gordon had released an article making obscure claims in reference to him. 

I again reached out to Barron for further information. He informed me that per the advice of his attorney he could no longer assist me in my endeavors at this time but I could continue with my article series as planned if I wanted to with the information he has provided.

I spoke to Mr. Lancaster about the implications of this information. The only logical conclusion we can make is that Barron has decided to possibly pursue legal action against Gordon.




Weblinks - References

1) CNN coverage of Stern's conviction, 1996 - http://www.cnn.com/US/9612/04/medal.without.honor/

2) Jack Stern, The Great Pretender - Ernie Lopez, Ohio TKD  - https://web.archive.org/web/20060428040747/http://www.ohiotkd.net/taekwondoreporter/page5.htm

3) Official Page for Jack Stern - http://homepage.tinet.ie/~kyha/KYHA.htm

4) USAMA Memorial Article - Jack Stern - http://www.join-usama.com/blog/in-loving-memory-of-papasan-jack-stern

5) Lordus Sapien's Article on Bret Gordon and Steven Hatfield - https://martialartsfraudsandfakes.wordpress.com/2020/04/06/may-the-circle-jerk-be-unbroken-part-1/

6) Kokusai Nihon Bugei Rengokai - http://www.nihon-bugei.org/directors.htm

7) USAMA - Bret Gordon Biography - http://www.join-usama.com/bret-gordon.html

8) Colorado Bujinkan Dojo - Blog Post - April 8th, 2020 - Don Roley - http://www.coloradospringsninjutsu.com/Ranting_and_Ravings_2016/Entries/2020/4/8_Lies_in_the_Martial_Arts.html