The Final Word on the Legacy of Sam Lonewolf

Fraud is never a victimless crime. Looking across the body of work done by myself and others over the last many years it dawns on me to realize that this endeavor is tireless. There is no way to stop every martial arts fraud. But you can raise awareness to the topic in the community. While ultimately it is up to people to be vigilant and ensure what they are getting is true and accurate there is a larger responsibility on the partial artist who peddles their nonsense. When they are outed (and yes they do get outed for their lies a lot of the time) the frauds either vanish from sight or vanish for a time to retool their stories. They learn from their mistakes and will often pop their heads back up again to be seen once more.

But what about the victims? Many times these brave men and women have to step up and tell their stories to us because the legal industry more often than not can not do anything to help them. It's seen as a business agreement between two parties. And therefore it becomes a civil matter which the victim either has no money to secure representation, or the fraudster themselves have no holdings or assets to reimburse the victims. This is the place where we see their stories told. And they have been told many times across the blogs and websites of the ones of us who take it on ourselves to tell their tales.I think in concluding this story we deserve to hear directly from someone who was most affected by the theft of Sam Lonewolf's martial arts. 

Throughout the entire writing process his daughter Samantha has been my constant ally. Ensuring I was telling the story accurately and showing the facts as they were. And as I have said many times without her help and her support this story would not have been told.

I want to say that if you're reading this now, and you feel you may have been lied to by an instructor reach out to us. Any of us. You can find us and believe me we will tirelessly look into the claims made. Follow the example of Samantha as she defended her father's good name. 

And with that now I want to give you all....

THE FINAL WORD 

on the 

LEGACY OF SAM LONEWOLF

by

Gerald J. Greysmith

......................

Recently on several sites I am a member of I have been asked repeatedly "why do you do this," or "what gives you the right to expose these people?" 

Well my dear readers I believe I have a question in retort to that.

By what right do these men and women who embellish their ranks, stories or histories have to make the claims they do? And furthermore by what right do they have making up entire histories, lineages and more simply to fleece innocent people out of their hard-earned money?

I ask this question: what right did Gary Lee, Donald Miskel and their associates (you know who you are) have to insert themselves into a lineage which is clearly documented, verified and willed to appropriate parties? 

By WHAT authority do they even feel they have to do such a thing? Both Gary Lee and Donald Miskel, himself a member of the Black Dragon Fighting Society, have laid claims down at the feet of the family of the late Master Sam Lonewolf claiming to have had a friendship with him which at the time of this writing has been nothing but disputed and outright disproven.

An email sent to me by Gary Lee on June 8th, 2022 attempting to explain to me his side of the story. Here he claims no affiliation with Frank Dux and doubles down on his claim of friendship with Sam Lonewolf despite his family members having never heard of him before this.

He states in the above email he isn't friends with Frank Dux. While that may be so at this point in history it wasn't always so now was it? It didn't stop him from having rank with the Black Dragon Fighting Society, nor did it prevent him from honoring them regularly on social media regarding that very thing.

 

For someone who has nothing to do with Frank Dux he sure used to promote his relationship to him and the rest of the BDFS, to include Donald Miskel. Miskel saw fit to interject on Lee's behalf when confronted with the very real lies told regarding her father.

You've seen the articles leading up to this one. Gary Lee obtained the materials from the family of Lonewolf through deception and has obviously used them since to sell certificates and to ask for funds for a museum which to this day has seemed to have not moved past his home. 

Read the article here.

It didn't take long after my first article on the story broke in April of 2022 that I was contacted by Randal McFarland. McFarland was a former associate and student of Lee who was concerned for quite a while that his certificates were funny. It wasn't until he saw the article I had put out that he reached out for me as quickly as he could and provided me with his own rank certifications. These were sent to Samantha who admonished them as fraudulent. The chops were wrong, the signature was wrong, and to top it off these were merely copies of the types of certificates which her father had. Randal informed us he had spent several hundred dollars on these. He even told us that Lee, as far back as 2007, had brought in a man to stand in the place of Sam Lonewolf to oversee seminars. A picture he provided me proved that this was most definitely NOT Lonewolf.

His reward? While he did the right thing it didn't take Gary Lee long to throw McFarland under the bus. He told me and Samantha via email that he was a "disgruntled student" who was angry with him. I'd argue that if you'd have taken me for several hundred bucks for toilet paper we would have been discussing a refund. 

So now just outside of his family we start to see a snowball effect of victims coming forward. Doing this we found out that others had been given these sham certificates by Gary Lee and Donald Miskel....they were countersigning for each other....which leads to that almighty phrase of "Martial Arts Circle Jerk" as coined by Lordus Sapiens. 

And that's the case here. What was the grand plan? And by what right did anyone have to bother a widow on the day of her husband's funeral (or thereabouts) and be pushy for things that honestly they had no business asking for??? Lee promised these items would be prominently displayed and when pushed by Samantha for them to be returned he said he burned them or threw them away....depending on which email you read. 

And despite being given every chance to return the chops, belt, gi top and any certificates he has yet again to this day not sent Samantha a tracking number or information where the items may truly be...because we all doubt they were destroyed.

So it is with all this in mind, I now turn the floor over to one person who has hurt the most from this sordid affair. I want you all to allow her to give this statement as it will have far-reaching effects on any who possess certificates in her father's system from here on out. Be warned as I have said, if you have a certificate in Sam Lonewolf's system signed by Gary Lee or Donald Miskel you should ask for your money back, and you're about to find out why.

Samantha Gets the Final Word

There has been a lot written on social media and online about my father Samuel Lonewolf with very little truth behind it. Most who actually trained with my father stay quiet. A lot of them don’t really train any more. There is really only one of my father’s black belts that actually teaches his methods to this day. The rest teach whatever it is they are teaching, while others blatantly lie and fabricate about a relationship with my father. People have made some ridiculous claims regarding my father during the time he was battling his illness. Only the family knows how sick he was and that he wasn't able to do things.

Back in January of this year I sent Gary Lee an email asking him to cease and desist with his fraudulent claims of inheriting my father, Sam Lonewolf’s system. He had spent several years posting a fake 10th degree certificate supposedly from my father along with dozens of posts every year without fail about being the inheritor of my father’s system of Hawaii Kosho Ryu. He has also given out rank under my father’s name and using his forged or photoshopped signature on rank certifcates.

Days after my father’s funeral in January of 2013, Mr. Lee showed up at the home of my father’s grieving widow and being insistent and pushy conned her out of some items belonging to my father. He had told her he wanted specific items and that these items would be displayed in his “Sport Karate Museum”. My father’s items were never displayed in a museum not once nor does it appear that this museum ever actually existed. At some point AFTER my father passed Mr. Lee posts for the first time a picture of 10th dan certificate supposedly signed and given to him by my father.

After I questioned Mr. Lee about his actions in January of this year, Mr. Lee first claimed in his emails that he was sent to my father’s home after he passed away at the behest of a Don Miskel. Mr. Lee also had claimed that Miskel and my father had a relationship that went back years and years. Mr. Miskel may have indeed told Mr. Lee this and Mr. Lee believed it, however, no one in the family had even heard of this Mr. Miskel. In an email to me Mr. Miskel did in fact claim to have known and trained with my father for years. When I challenged Mr. Miskel on this, he realized I didn't buy into his hogwash. In his second email to me he recanted and admitted that he did not know my father or did he meet him like he had originally claimed in his first email.  In his third email he further stated that he had never been to my father’s home or his dojo. 

Mr. Gary Lee and Mr. Don Miskel had no close relationship with my father. They did however take advantage of the passing of my father, to bolster their own agendas. That agenda was to insert themselves into my father’s martial arts history that they had zero-part in. Zero. Neither one is on my father’s list of black belts and weren’t appointed or considered a part of my father’s system in any capacity.

Mr. Lee claimed that he inherited my father's system in a will. The problem with this claim is that my father LEFT NO WILL. Mr. Lee in his latest rash of emails to me tried to spin what he actually meant by inheriting my father’s system. I think any rational human being knows what the word inherit implies. Mr. Lee has also repeated in his last several emails that he inherited nothing from my father. This is the only true statement that he has made regarding my father. 

Mr. Lee displays a 10th Dan certificate supposedly from my father dated in 2006. Mr. Lee can make all the claims he wants, however, this certificate was fabricated by Mr. Lee himself via a photoshopped program. Above are the certificates Mr. Lee claimed my father gave him. Neither certificate are the ones my fathered issued. Apparently, Mr. Lee cannot read the chops or he would realize the glaring mistake none of chops was stamped right side up and were photoshopped onto the certificate. Not only are Mr. Lee's 10th dan certificates that are pictured above fake it wasn't until AFTER my father passed away that he started posting these certificates up on social media. Lastly my father issued no certificates with “Yudansha Certificate” specified on them, everyone regardless of rank got the same certificate. Mr Lee would have known this if he had indeed trained with my father.

It appears Mr. Lee and others fabricated certificates using my fathers name, his chops and stamps and fabricated certificates to attempt to establish and show a history, a fake history mind you, with my father.

Mr Lee, it seems, had also gone out of his way in 2020, to try and discredit one of my father's long time Black belts Barron Shepherd online. He disparaged Mr. Shepherd claiming there was no record of Mr. Shepherd ever training with my father. Mr. Lee did this to further bolster himself as the inheritor of my father's system. http://www.join-usama.com/blog/pot-meet-kettle  The truth is Mr. Lee has never represented my father or his system and is in no way a part of my father's lineage in any capacity. However, Mr. Shepherd did indeed train for a lot of years. Mr. Lee has since recanted his statement in an email and admitted to being wrong about Mr. Shepherd even apologizing to him for it.

The very fact that Gary Lee isn't named on my father's list of black belts is enough to disqualify ALL his claims and statements regarding my father and his system, as well as ANY person Gary Lee has promoted using my father's name. 

Above are certificates from Gary Lee with my father's forged or photocopied signature on it. The certificate is not and never was my father's. This is one that is obviously very cheaply done off someone's personal computer. They are fake and they do not entitle anyone a rank in my father’s system.

There should be no misunderstanding here, ranks issued in my father's system from Mr. Lee or Mr. Miskel are indeed fraudulent. There is absolutely no truth to their claims to my father's methods, fighting system or lineage not even REMOTELY. These two "men" sought to take advantage of my father, his family and ultimately their own students. The intention here was to interject themselves into a lineage they had no involvement in and no right to, just so they could swindle more money out of their own students and followers no less. They didn't only victimize my father's widow and care giver and our family, they also victimized their own students by selling rank to them under false pretenses. Below are fake certificates given by Mr. Miskel. I feel for those of might have been duped or actually spent money on these certificates from these men. However, these rank certificates are not legitimate rank in my father’s system and are not recognized as anything other than fake rank certificates.  

There have been things written online about my father over the years by Mr. Lee and Mr. Miskel that are filled with “inaccuracies” or “falsehoods” and that is putting it as politely as I can. The idea of someone thinking they inherited Kosho ryu Kenpo karate or jiujitsu from my father makes those who actually trained with him smirk and shake their heads. Firstly that isn’t what my father called his system.  Mr. Lee claimed he inherited Hawaii Kosho ryu kenpo from my father. This would mean that my father would have actually inherited Hawaii Kosho ryu at some point himself in his career. This is yet another reason that the inheritance claim made by Mr. Lee makes no sense to anyone who actually trained with my father.

My father spent several years appointing a council and various leadership roles within his system. He had set up who he wanted to carry on his system and how he wanted it to be run. He appointed two councils, a leadership council and a council of elders. All involved were notified by a series of emails that laid out his very wishes.

My father’s system lies in the hands of one person Lewis Sixkiller. Sixkiller was the Native American name given to him by my father, he is of course, of Native American descent. My father had come up with the name Sixkiller because the name was also found in Lewis’s own ancestry. He has been given the rank of Red Belt in my father’s system and everything regarding my father's system will be handled by him. He is the leader and guardian of my father’s system, First nations Fighting Arts, he was my father’s longtime black belt and friend. This decision was approved by the council who were part of the leadership First Nations Fighting Arts. My father Identified as a Native American and this was done in the manner that my father had laid out and wanted things to be done.

Unfortunately we have been given little choice but to do the following: 

Rank certificates from my father wont be accepted at face value. If someone has a rank certificate but isn't on my father's list of black belts then we will not recognize the certificates of rank. I am sure my father may have sent certificates out in some sort of "honorary or respectful capacity". However, the actions of people like Mr. Lee and Mr. Miskel left us no choice but to deal with it in this manner. 

The End?

Samantha Lonewolf has every right to protect her father's name, image, and his legacy. Gary Lee and Donald Miskel on the other hand had no right to insert themselves into anything regarding Sam Lonewolf or his family and certainly had no right to anything that belonged to him.

With that said I would assume certain parties who over the years have made it their business to use the stories generated by Lee and Miskel may want to, how do I say it nicely, remove their bullshit from online and maybe even think about apologizing. Articles which claim Lee is the inheritor are false. All of them. Ranks issues by he and Miskel, bogus. Miskel's friendship with Lonewolf? Unsupported and debunked by the family.

To those of you carrying the ranks issued by anyone except the black belts of Lonewolf it is my sad duty to inform you per his daughter and the elder council appointed by Lonewolf himself that your ranks have as much value as Monopoly money.

If you have been the recipient of one of these certificates please contact me by email at gerald.g.greysmith@gmail.com 

And to Lee and Miskel, you may want to remind your other associates lying isn't a game. It has consequences. As Samantha weighs her options on litigation I would ask you to please, if you have those items...return them. They do not belong to you. You know where to send them as an address has been provided to Gary Lee. Any ranks found from here on out will be outed and the issuer will be EXPOSED and of that you can be assured. It is MY promise. It is, after all, what I'm good at. And I will not hesitate to show the world the truth of the matter no how many chickens you or your friends toss in my yard trying to slow me down.

In honesty you have everything to gain. 

In lying you stand to lose everything.