I’ve heard many stories of many arts that were, shall we say, less than honorable. The one I heard about Kenpo Karate, however, is one of the worst I have heard. Unfortunately, I don’t know how true it is, but with the data I present in this article perhaps some one could let me know if they have any light to shed on the truth or falsity of it.

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

In those days he was actually teaching Shotokan karate, this as illustrated by one of his earliest books. Running out of material to teach his students, he returned to Hawaii and asked his instructor to teach him more, but the founder of the system refused to do so. Rumors have it 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 co-author a book on Kenpo, and Jimmy, while still being lacking in the English language department, spent his days writing the book and teaching Ed and some of his students his art. Jimmy saw a rough translation of the book that Ed was planning on submitting to a publisher, and he couldn’t find his own name mentioned at all. Even though he was partners with Ed, Jimmy was doing all the work, so he was surprised at this fact.

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 teaching, writing, and suddenly, he had been betrayed. Now, is this story true, or is it a pack of lies? If anybody has definite facts, I sure would like to know.

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