There are many stories of the martial arts that are, shall we say, not very honorable. One of the worst I have heard, however, is the one I heard about Kenpo Karate. Unfortunately, I don’t know the truth or falsity of it, but with the data I present in this article perhaps some one could let me know if it is true.

Ed Parker is credited with being the founder of modern Kenpo, putting on the biggest tournament in the world for years, the Internationals, teaching movie stars, including Elvis, and all manner of other deeds. His prowess is quite well known, and his students are legion. Unfortunately, when he first began teaching, while he seemed to demonstrate a talent as a teacher, he was only a brown belt.

In those days he was actually teaching the Heian forms from Shotokan karate, this as illustrated by one of his earliest books. Running out of material to teach his students, he returned to Hawaii and was told to go take a hike, the founder of the system apparently had lost interest in him as a student. I’m not sure, exactly, what the fall out was, but it was perhaps that Ed was teaching without permission.

Ed then ran into a fellow named Jimmy Wu, whose named might have been Jimmy Woo, who knew authentic and tremendous gung fu, but who was sadly deficient when it came to speaking English. Ed brought Jimmy to Los Angeles, put him up in his house while Jimmy created the techniques and forms of Kenpo. Ed began teaching these forms and techniques as his own.

During this time, Ed asked Jimmy to write a book with him on this new art, and Jimmy spent his days writing a book on Kenpo, teaching Ed and some of his students, all while still being lacking in the English language department. One day Jimmy saw a rough draft/translation of the book that Ed was planning on sending to an agent, and he was surprised to see that his name was not even mentioned in the book. This was surprising, because even though he was partners with Ed, Jimmy was doing all the work.

Why not my name on book, he is supposed to have asked. Ed said he would tell him all about it, but could they take a drive, Ed had an errand to run, and he would explain on the way. Ed drove Jimmy into Hollywood, but Ed didn’t say a word about the book the whole time. On Hollywood Boulevard Ed let Jimmy out of the car, and drove away.

Jimmy had only the clothes on his back and a single quarter in his pocket. With that last quarter he called one of Ed’s students. In his bad English he explained that he didn’t know where he was, or why it had all happened, but that Ed had driven off and left him.

He had been writing and teaching, and creating a whole system for Ed Parker, and he had been betrayed. My question is, is there any truth in this story? If anybody has the straight skinny on it, I sure would like to know.