Sam Lonewolf: Setting the Record Straight

As long as there is a single misrepresentation online, a single social media post regarding the following matter it will be addressed and the record set straight.

Over the past several months I've read more posts and articles on the net and social media and emails about my father, Sam Lonewolf. His personal history and experience in the martial arts has been infused with deliberately misleading falsehoods and outright lies by the likes of Mr. Gary Lee and a Mr. Don Miskel! Most recently another claims to have known my father in the same manner.  They drop my father’s name to give credence to self-inflated ranks and falsely claim to have high rank bestowed upon them by my father.  The truth is and by their own admissions they have embellished the time spent, which was none at all, training with him.

Mr. Miskel claimed that my father and he crossed ranked students and now Mr. Lee has added this same claim in his most recent email. Mind you neither one of these gentlemen has offered a shred of proof of this “cross ranking” agreement. They have however distributed fake rank certificates with forged signatures promoting a lot of people to judan under my father’s name.

Mr. Lee promoted himself to tenth degree by fabricating a certificate from my father AFTER he passed away. He thought he would be slick and back date it to 2006. However Mr. Lee didn’t realize when he fabricated this certificate that my father was only a 8th dan. This alone eliminates any crazy tenth dan claims. Good Lord!  My father only held two 8th dans one in kenpo and karate and he had a black belt in judo. My father only claimed to be an 8th dan in his own system; he based it off his earned rank in Kenpo and Karate. So where all these Lonewolf tenth dans come from is beyond me.

A couple of years ago Mr. Lee went so far as to go online and disparage one of my father's actual longtime black belts. Mr. Shepherd did train with my father. Mr Lee absolutely did not at any time in any capacity. This was  an attempt by Mr. Lee to set himself up as the "sole inheritor" of my father's system. My father was not a well known martial artist. The only person that the writer of the blogpost could have gotten that information from was Mr. Lee himself. Mr. Lee was the only one making such ridiculous claims online and on his facebook. No one else is or was. I also find it odd that Mr. Lee told me a couple of months ago that he spoke to the blog writer but the blog writer refused to take it down. 

Recently however Mr. Lee sent the following email to the blog writer recanting the statements he made in the blog posts 2 years ago. He wanted to make sure I saw his request and it was forwarded to me.

Now Mr. Lee claims after sending this to the blog writer that he doesn't know who the blog writer is or was?  He seems not to be able to keep a single story straight.

Mr. Lee admits to having destroyed my father's items which were sitting in a garage, not in a museum, rather than return them to the family. Letting me know that if he couldn't have them no one would, not even my father's own grandson. He had told me in a previous email that he had them burnt because he didn't like my attitude. In this email below he blames it all on his students and says it was their decision.

Mr Lee also claims that my father taught him certain things at seminars. He has not to this day shown one shred of proof that he had my father over for any seminar. This is one of many “stories” of his that I highly doubt and am very suspicious of. My father was only known to have attended his grandson’s judo tournaments. He passed on all other martial arts functions, Hall of fame gatherings etc. and it was known that he caught some flak from people for not attending these functions. Now Mr. Lee claims he didn't know what my father's rank was, he also says he never asked. I think this is extremely odd. Have you ever had someone for a seminar or even went to a seminar and you didn't know what the instructor's rank was?

Please, a few hours spent in a seminar situation like Mr. Lee claims, does not translate to being someone's Sensei, much less "inheriting" someone’s entire system. It certainly didn’t give Mr. Lee the right to promote people using my father’s name in any capacity whatsoever. Mr. Lee never had the authority or right to even promote someone to a kyu rank in my father's system. Yet he did this for several years.

After nine years of claiming he had inherited my father’s system now Mr. Lee caught in his lies attempts to spin what he meant by claiming an "inheritance". I think any rational and somewhat educated person knows what the word "inheritance" implies. It isn’t  implied the way Mr. Lee currently tries to explain it. Again he is looking to spin things to avoid  fault and taking responsibility for his very purposeful misrepresentations.

Mr. Lee continues to spin things to squirm out of any legal culpability that he may have for his involvement in selling rank certifcates with my father's name replicated on them. He had originally claimed he was sent to my father's home after he passed away at the behest of Don Miskel. Because Miskel was good friends with my father. When Mr. Miskel admitted in emails that he didn't know or train with my father. In his latest email Mr. Lee now claims he didn't have anything to do with mr. Miskel. Lies and spin appear to be first and second nature with Mr. Lee. 

My Father, in 2009, made it known in emails that he wanted nothing to do with the Black Dragon Fighting Society. My father also forwarded these emails to myself and his own black belts.  Quite frankly it was explained that because of the lies that were permeating thru that organization at that time. My father wanted nothing to do with them. Mr. Lee was involved with them during this time. I have the emails that show my father’s disdain with what certain members were doing.  He saw that there were certain members inserting themselves into other's histories  that they were never involved with in the first place. My father figured then that they might try and attempt to insert themselves into his. This is why he did what he did with his system to protect it from being hijacked. Lastly, in his email to me Mr. Miskel admitted that he had never trained with or ever been to my father’s house or dojo.

Recently yet another Judan certificate has emerged and it appears this person did not ever train with my father, the person who signed off on his certificate a man by the name of Lee Lawrence, has never trained with my father either. He isn’t on my father’s council or blackbelt list and neither is the recipient. This person should probably seek out whoever actually issued him the certificate. How do all these people who were not taught by a single person remotely related to my father or his sytem end up with a higher rank than my father held?

So far not one judan certificate that I have come across supposedly from my father has turned out to be authentic. Now it is quite possible that my father an 8th dan could have given someone a judan certificate. However, a tenth dan certificate coming from an 8th dan could only be considered honorary at the most, not a promotion. Since my father only claimed to be an 8th dan that would mean the recipient purposely misrepresented it to the public or their students as something more than honorary. This does not however explain the fake certificates like the ones pictured above and below.

As for all these people holding these certificates and those who did not actually train in person with my father. I think most can and would understand this. Training in a system under someone takes years of direct in person training!  My father taught and promoted only his own students of long standing in his system. All others have no claim, no exceptions! 

Mr. Lee's most recent email:

Mr. Lee to this day hasn't removed anything. He is more interested in spinning his misrepresentations to avoid any legal culpability for his actions. I dont care how many ways Mr. Lee, Mr. Miskel or other's try to spin things, they never represented my father or his system in ANY capacity at all. They had no claim legal or otherwise to his system or anything else that belonged to my father. They weren't my father's friends close or otherwise. They had no position in my father's council and were not among my father's list of students or black belts. This alone eliminates any and all claims. My father certainly didn't issue certificates after he passed away. They stole from the Lonewolf family and have taken advantage of my father since his passing. 

Not one of my father's longtime personal students and blackbelts holds a tenth dan rank in my father's system. My father wasn't a tenth dan. My father did not claim to be a grandmaster, he did not have hundreds of blackbelts under him. My father had an 8th dan in Kenpo and Karate and he had studied Judo. He did not consider himself a Grand master even in his own system, only a hachi dan (8th degree black belt). My father based his rank in his system on the ranks he already attained in kenpo and karate. He did receive a Meritorious Service award where he was awarded a tenth-degree black belt in his own system posthumously.

My father did not charge for lessons or rank or certificates. He taught for free. Everyone regardless of rank got the same big certificates. It wasn’t a business to him. So those in league with Mr. Lee who are selling these certificates are not honoring my father in any way.

My father’s list of blackbelts is small. It is easy to verify who actually trained with him and who did not. He did not train anyone from 2010 onward, he simply couldn't anymore. He did not refer to his system as “kosho ryu kenpo karate or jiujitsu. He identified as a Native American and things were done very much in the Native American way, even the naming of his system and how it was structured. My father's system and lineage, if you will, is protected and will remain guarded. Out of my father’s blackbelts there is only one person that actually teaches what my father taught, you want a rank go to him train with him. He is the one the system solely lies with. This was decided by the family and by the council that my own father appointed, in other words, done the way my father wanted it to be done. All others have no claims.