The North Korean Pedophile Assassin

Somewhere in Thailand in 1991, an American – a former Mormon missionary in Korea – slit the throat of a North Korean and then, with his partner – a South Korean special ops officer named Lee – killed the remaining two Nork guards with their bare hands. They subsequently rescued 17 small South Korean children who had been kidnapped by the North Koreans and were to be sold to pedophiles in Bangkok to help finance North Korean terrorist acts around the world. The two men and the rescued children were secretly flown to Chinhae naval base where the children were returned to their parents.

Later in an interview, the American described the horrific toll this rescue and others had taken upon him: “With these eyes, I’ve seen it – infants tortured, sexually abused, murdered. Those memories, those thoughts stick with you all your life.”

Who was this American? There are at least a few members of Marmot’s Hole, especially the older members and those with an interest in history, who are aware of his identity. He is said to be fluent in Japanese and Korean and an expert with computers. He first came to Korea as a missionary and was involved in the Gwangju Uprising in May 1981 where he was seriously injured by a Korean student who stabbed him. He then killed the student with his bare hands in self-defense. He was also involved in black-marketing and during an exchange of a crate of Jack Daniels with some armed Korean seamen he was attacked by them and was forced to once again defend himself. He was later caught by the Korean police; sentenced and imprisoned in Taejon for three months where he experienced several ”harrowing hand-to-hand combats” behind bars.

For ten years he traveled and worked around the world but in late 1991 or 1992 he returned to Korea and went to school at Seoul National University. In 1994 he received his doctorate from SNU and received the Korean War Memorial Museum’s King Sejong Award for Excellence for his dissertation. That same year he wrote an article dealing with the role Jan Janse Welteree (a Dutchman stranded in Korea) played in training Joseon Korea’s soldiers in European tactics in the Asian Pacific Quarterly.

Academia, however, was his cover. After he was released from prison in Taejon, he went to work for Interpol as an assassin and was responsible for the deaths or arrests of hundreds of pedophiles. He had a special hatred for pedophiles, especially North Korean pedophiles. Sometime in the early 1980s his French fiancée was killed by North Korean pedophiles while on a mission in Marseilles. He also discovered that his girlfriend in Seoul, Eunmi, was a North Korean agent planning to set off a car bomb at Namsan. He killed her with a stab to the neck before she could set off the bomb but he was captured by two North Korean agents and smuggled off to a North Korean prison camp and tortured. He was released after Interpol and South Korea traded a North Korean agent for him. In 1998, he took part in the notorious Wonderland Club Raid in Florida where some (South) Koreans, a Thai, and some Americans were sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl. He ended up cutting the throat of one of the Koreans.

A Kungfu magazine described him as being 6 foot tall and about 200 pounds: “Ambassadors know his name. He sits with senators on trade round tables, addresses global corporations at technology conferences.”

Still don’t know who he is? You’ll have to read below for the answer.

He is David Wayne Dilley but better known as Dr. David Race Bannon, the author of the very controversal book “Race Against Evil“ and apparently a fraud. He was convicted by Colorado for criminal impersonation and the story is much too long to actually blog about. So I will merely provide the links to some excellent investigative work and writing by others. Also please note – the reference to the Kwangju Uprising as taking place in May 1981 is not mine – it was Dilley’s – I, as well as others who later pointed this out when they attacked his book, know that it took place in 1980.

Jason Putman did Kungfu Agent for Kungfu Magazine in February 2004 and I used it for the opening of the above post. It is a highly favorable article for David Bannon David Dilley. Putman apparently had a lot of contact with David Bannon David Dilley and published this article in Western Libertarian Alliance (PDF File). He was so proud of his work that he personally responded to this blog -Freedom’s Phoenix – and noted that the facts were fully vetted by the attorneys of David’s books and also noted that his own soon-to-be-published book about the world’s special intelligence forces was also being vetted by his publisher (wonder if his book was ever published?)

It would be easy to dismiss Putman’s research as shoddy but apparently Dilley was able to fool a lot of people including radio and tv media and appeared on A&E, Discovery Channel and the History Channel. Here is an audio interview of Dr. David Bannon David Dilley on Prison Planet.com. Here are several audio interviews with Coast to Coast.

Here is Bannon’s (tired of doing the cross out lettering) historical article on Kungfu – naturally enough, in Kungfu magazine. Here is his article on Hwarang warriors from the Silla period. He also wrote an early article (Kungfu magazine again) of his role as an assassin for Interpol and his fight against kiddie-porn.

But not everyone was buying Bannon’s story. Sam Boykin of the Creative Loafing began investigating the story soon after Race Against Empire was published. Boykin’s article of February 26, 2003 is a must read. I like the closing:

Bottom line, Bannon was unable to produce a single document or piece of evidence to prove his claims. But then again, no one has yet to produce a piece of evidence that disproves his story. There is, in fact, no ‘smoking gun’ from either side. ‘I wish there were,’ Bannon says. ‘It’s certainly legitimate for people to ask if this is all real or not. But in the end, people are just going to have to make up their own mind.

That was perhaps the problem – other people began to make up thier own minds that David was lying and not just about his role in Interpol. He apparently lost a job at a technical college for “questionable degree information relating to the education he had obtained in Korea.” There is also some doubt as to his Korean language skill – when asked to speak he muttered a few syllables into his left shoulder and had a strong American accent. Other challenges to his education level and ability appeared (scroll down to “Fake Heroism”).

Ironically, David was soon arrested at an eatery in Colorado and charged with criminal impersonation after he tried to sell the Colorado Bureau of Investigation a training workshop (scroll down to Best Assassin Karaoke). The Rocky Mountain News article in Feb. 2006 gives an indication of how bad things were. Even Kungfu magazine slammed him with an article by Samuel Browning (where is Jason Putman?) entitled Spotting False Martial Arts Claims: Lessons from the David Bannon Case. But it is Bullshido.net that appears to have been the final nail in his coffin. Bullshido took issue with his story from the beginning and called it for what it was -Bullshit!

Eventually David pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years’ probation, ordered to get mental health counseling, get a substance abuse evaluation and serve 100 hours of community service (maybe he gave workshops – who knows). What became of the man who wanted to be a hero is unknown (at least by me) and it is far too late in the night to try and trace this story out even more.

And in closing I would like to say to Scott Burgeson, if you do a revision of your earlier book - I would like to elect David Wayne Dilley, a.k.a. David Race Bannon – former English teacher in Korea, blackmarketer, scammer, and fraud – as the strangest Westerner to dwell in Korea over the last couple of decades.

(H.T. to Henny)

Update: I did manage to find a little more – his Korean skills appear to be very good. See his article at Translation Journal for 2008 and his bio here and here.