GRAND MASTER RICHARD HACKWORTH TRUTH
Richard Hackworth and myself in front of the first American Dragon Martial Arts Academy. I’m the athlete on the left. Hackworth is the fat one.
This blog is about Grandmaster Richard Neal Hackworth and my history with him. I mainly want to discuss Hackworth’s qualifications as a martial arts teacher and his business dealings.
By necessity, I will have to discuss events in my own life, separate from Hackworth. I apologize if you feel this is superfluous or self-indulgent.
I’m very good at remembering events but not very good at remembering dates so I may be inaccurate in the times of some events.
1987-1989 Fort Carson
My name is Robert Odell and I used to be Richard Hackworth's business partner. I also used to be his friend. I'm not his friend anymore.
I believe that I am more qualified than anyone to tell the truth about Richard Hackworth. I know him better than anyone, except perhaps his wife and mother, because I spent more time with him than anyone else. I created this blog primarily to warn people about Richard Neal Hackworth so they don’t make the same mistakes I did.
The first thing you should know about Hackworth is that, so far as I know, the rank certificates he has issued are legitimate, but I can't read Korean so I can't say for certain. When Hackworth finished his 18-month tour of duty in Korea, Hackworth had his TKD black belt. After his second tour, he had his HKD black belt.
I first met Richard Neal Hackworth in 1987 at Fort Carson army base in Colorado. I was 18 years old and had only been at Fort Carson, my first duty post, for a short time. Hackworth arrived having just spent 18 months in Korea. None of us could believe the poor physical condition Hackworth was in. At 5'7", Hackworth weighed over 155 pounds. For comparison, I was 5'10" and weighed 135 pounds, all muscle. One of the first things that Hackworth did after arriving at Ft. Carson was to fall out of a fairly easy road march. We all had contempt for him. This was the self-proclaimed "badass" and martial arts master who told us how much tough training he had done in Korea.
I remember looking back at Hackworth as he lagged far behind us and just shaking my head.
Eventually though, Hackworth's personality and sense of humor won over the whole platoon. He and I bonded over our love of martial arts and I was fascinated by Hackworth’s stories of his time in Korea and Japan. That's not the main reason we became friends, however. The truth is that Richard Hackworth helped me a great deal when I was at Fort Carson. When I arrived there, it was not a welcoming atmosphere. Some of the soldiers there were pretty hostile. One in particular seemed to have a problem with me and singled me out for abuse. I don't know what I did to get on his bad side but he had it in for me. I wasn't used to this kind of treatment and didn’t know what to do.
"That guy insulted you?" Hackworth asked. "I'd take that as a compliment. He's garbage." That made me feel a lot better. Until that time, I had taken things very personally.
Things got better after that. New soldiers came in and I became friends with them while the creeps started getting transferred out. Richard Hackworth and I became close friends.
Richard even invited me to his apartment a few times. Hackworth was married, so he got a housing allowance from the Army so he could live off-post instead of in the barracks like I had to. Richard told me that he had spent a year in Japan training at Mas Oyama's school. He showed me pictures from his time in Japan. He also showed photographs from when he was in Korea and he had a story to go with each one. Richard was fluent in Japanese and Korean, so I had no reason to question what he said.
Richard Hackworth (center) in Japan circa 1985, age 17 (approximately)
In 1988, there was a watershed event in the history of martial arts: the near simultaneous releases of Bloodsport and Above the Law, the breakout movies of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal, respectively. I had to take a bus (because soldiers don't get paid enough to own cars) from Fort Carson to Colorado Springs to see the movies. I watched them back to back. I don't remember the reason that I didn't go earlier but I didn't get back to post until late at night. I knew I wouldn't get much sleep. I was so pumped from the movies, I didn't care even though I had to get up at Oh-Dark-Thirty the next morning. Monday morning, I was still excited about the movies. I got a little overzealous showing Hackworth the joint locks that Steven Seagal had used.
At this point in my life, all my martial arts training was in JKD and Kung Fu (Chinese), Bando (Burmese), Muay Thai (Thai), and Escrima (Filipino). I did not have a positive view of Japanese and Korean arts.
My negative view of Japanese arts came from my meeting Karate practitioners who simply weren't good fighters and who, in my opinion did not train in a realistic manner. Also, from the way Japanese arts were portrayed onscreen. The image of Bruce Lee cleaning house at the Japanese school in Fist of Fury had made a big impression on me.
I didn't like Korean arts because I had been to numerous Taekwondo schools and I thought they were all terrible, teaching their students unrealistic techniques and setting up their students for a horrible beating if they ever tried to use their training in a real fight.
Hackworth talked a lot about his adventures in Korea where he'd been stationed for eighteen months. He had a very high opinion of Korean martial arts. I didn't because I had only seen Korean martial artists in America (hint: they're not sending us their best). I tried to explain to Rick that the Korean teachers here were not very good and not very ethical, but he didn't believe me.
One weekend, Richard and I drove around to the various Taekwondo and Karate schools in Colorado Springs and Denver. We pretended that we were novices with no experience in martial arts. It must have killed Hackworth to have to refrain from whipping out his Korean language fluency and blowing away the teachers. Hackworth was aghast at the low quality of these teachers and their schools.
The owners/teachers were unqualified and unscrupulous. They were taking advantage of ignorant and gullible Americans. It was obvious that they were just out for money. Some of the things these teachers said became running jokes between us.
Even though we were young, we both had the same thought: "We can do better than this."
I tried to teach Rick some of the techniques I knew but he usually wasn't interested and only wanted to practice the techniques he already knew. When he did consent to actually learn something new, he had difficulty mastering even the simplest techniques and he would get frustrated and stop. It was as if Hackworth was on a plateau and didn't want to do the work to climb higher. Hackworth still talked like he was a competent fighter. He wasn't. I never saw Hackworth spar with anyone. He was never in a fight with anyone during his time at Fort Carson. Unfortunately, I was forced to mix it up with other soldiers on several occasions. Hackworth is very good at making people like him and I think that's why he never had to fight anyone. Hackworth never sparred with me, under any rules, during my two years at Fort Carson. Richard Hackworth has never sparred with me, ever.
Eventually, my enlistment drew to an end and I prepared to leave Fort Carson. Richard told me that he was going to re-enlist, get trained as a heavy equipment operator, and get stationed in Korea again. I left Fort Carson and we promised to stay in touch.
1989-1991 Columbia MD
Zen Master Seung Sahn says that in this life we must all kill three things: First, we must kill our father. Second, we must kill our mother, Third, we must kill the Buddha.
In 1989, my enlistment ended and I went back home to Maryland. You literally can't imagine how happy I was to be out of the Army. It felt like getting out of prison (not that I've ever been in prison!). For the first time in my life, I felt happy and free. I had never been more miserable than I had been at Fort Carson. The contrast between that hellish experience and being out in the world could not have been more stark. I have to admit that one of the few bright spots during my time at Fort Carson was my friendship with Rick Hackworth.
In the fall, I enrolled in college. I decided to attend Howard Community College because my martial arts teacher Patrick Finley worked there. Pat had been my teacher while I was in high school while he was an undergrad in college. Now Pat was teaching at the college while working on his master's degree. I could train with my teacher while attending college.
My friend Mike and myself at the Howard Community College Martial Arts Club. This photo was taken to illustrate my Black Belt magazine article. It was eventually published using stock photos.
During this time, I maintained a correspondence with Hackworth who was back in Korea. Once, Hackworth sent me a package of souvenirs from Korea. I still have them. I always looked forward to getting letters and even the occasional (long distance) phone call from Hackworth. I wrote to him every chance I got.
For the next two years, I studied in college. I also spent every spare moment doing physical training and training in martial arts. Every martial art. Boxing, wrestling, JKD, Escrima, Bando, Muay Thai, Aikido, Penjak Silat, all of them. Even Tai Chi! I went to every seminar I could afford (which wasn't many). Our college martial arts club hosted seminars by Diony Canete, Dan Inosanto, and Paul DeThours.
After two years, I decided to do the two things I always wanted to do: train with Dan Inosanto on a regular basis and work in the movie business. To do either of these things, I knew I would have to move across the country to Los Angeles.
I remember the incident that provided the impetus to make me realize that I needed to move on. One morning, during Pat's class, another student asked Pat, "What causes a knockout?"
I was about to answer but Pat spoke before I could. Pat gave the answer that I would have given, almost word for word. I realized the reason for that was because Pat had taught me. My answer would have been simply a repetition of what Pat had told me years before. I was at a point in development where I was still mostly parroting what my teachers had taught me instead of learning from my own experiences.
At that time, I realized I needed to move on. As much as I loved and respected Pat, I didn't want to be a clone of him. I had to be my own person and find my own way in life. I needed a new teacher and new experiences. I decided it was time to act on my long-held ambition to move across the country to Los Angeles.
I guarantee that this image was Photoshopped. Hackworth could never kick above waist height.
1991-1994 Los Angeles
long con (plural long cons)
A scam in which the scammer takes a long period of time (usually weeks, months, or longer) to defraud the victim, by first slowly gaining the victim’s trust.
I had two goals in moving to Los Angeles: one was to get work in the entertainment industry, either in front of the camera or behind it. The other was to train at the Inosanto Academy and at the Gracie Academy.
I arrived in Los Angeles with very little money and it didn't get any better from there. I couldn't find any work in the entertainment industry. Even worse, I couldn't get any job that paid a living wage in any field. It was a constant struggle just to pay rent. At one point, I was sleeping in my car. I consoled myself by thinking that Jean-Claude Van Damme lived in his car for months before he became a star. I figured that if Van Damme could do it, so could I.
On payday, I would pay my bills, buy food, and then fill up my gas tank and hope that the gas lasted until the next payday. During the last couple of days before payday, it was always a tense situation. One day I received a letter from Hackworth. I opened it. He had sent me a five dollar bill. In his letter, Hackworth explained that it was all he could spare. For me, it was more than enough. I was so relieved. Just $5 meant so much to me that day.
When I look back at Hackworth's gift, I now have to wonder if it was an act of generosity or if he was just setting me up for the long con.
After two years in Los Angeles, I realized it was time to leave. I wasn't making any progress. I wasn't earning enough money to make staying worthwhile. I packed up my car for the long drive back to Maryland. I felt like a failure. It was the first time I hadn't accomplished my goals. I had one thing keeping me going. My father owned a business. For years, he had tried to get me to work for him. I knew that when I got back to Maryland, I could get a job with him.
When I arrived home, I had no money, no job, no place to live, and my car was falling apart. I had to stay with my mother until I could scrape together the money to move. I sold my car for fifty bucks. I didn't have many options at this point. For years, my father had tried to get me to give up on my dreams and to "get serious" and "get a real job." I intended to do just that. I planned to work for my father for five or ten years and then try again to make a movie. I thought my father would be happy to see me.
I went into his office to talk to him. He didn't hire me. Instead, he sent me to his H.R. guy who also didn't hire me. I left the office empty-handed and still unemployed. I couldn’t believe it. My own father wouldn’t give me a job at the company that HE owned. He knew the precarious financial situation I was in. He could have helped me but didn’t. I was emotionally devastated. I can’t overstate how much this affected me.
“If my own father won’t hire me,” I thought, “who will?” I just couldn’t understand how my own father could do that to me.
I eventually found a job and gradually started to put my life back together.
During this time, I was regularly talking to Hackworth on the phone. While I had been in California, Hackworth had returned from Korea and settled in Central Florida. It was good to talk to a friend. I felt he was the only person I could rely on. Our conversations always made me feel a lot better. A common topic in our conversations was Hackworth's plan to open a martial arts school. He was already teaching classes at a local community center.
Hackworth invited me to join him in Florida and be his partner with a 50/50 split of profits. I agreed and made plans to move south. I asked Hackworth to send a business contract for me to read and sign but Hackworth said that wasn’t necessary. I told him that I thought we should have our agreement in writing so that we would know what our respective duties and obligations would be. Hackworth didn’t think we needed to do that. I had misgivings but I agreed because Hackworth was my friend and I trusted him.
Just before I left for Orlando, I talked to my teacher Pat Finley. At that time, Pat was working on his Master’s degree. He later got a second Master’s degree and a Phd. I asked him why he insisted on getting so much advanced education.
“So I’ll never have to teach martial arts for a living.”
That statement didn’t fill me with confidence. In fact, it gave me second thoughts. I had some serious doubts. If this didn’t work out, I wouldn’t have much to fall back on. Even so, I felt that I had to go. I had made a commitment to Hackworth and I intended to honor it.
Me on the left and Pat Finley on the right,
just before I went to Florida.
For more information on martial arts or Richard Hackworth, visit my YouTube or Rumble channel: SupremeGreatGrandmaster
You can visit my personal website:
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GRANDMASTER RICHARD HACKWORTH TRUTH 2
1994-1998 Florida
Shane Miller, myself, John Pellegrini, and Grandmaster Fatass, circa late 1990s
AMERICAN DRAGON MARTIAL ARTS ACADEMY
While driving from Maryland to Florida, I was very optimistic. After many setbacks, disappointments, and wrong turns, I felt like I was finally going to get my life back on track.
I drove all night and when I arrived in Orlando, I stopped in a parking lot and slept while I waited for Hackworth to meet me. I woke up when Hackworth knocked on my window. I looked over and was shocked at what I saw. Hackworth was standing there grinning. He had been chubby at Fort Carson but now he was really fat. I couldn't believe how much weight he had put on since I had last seen him. He had also grown some goofy sideburns so that he looked like a fat, blonde Elvis Presley.
By contrast, the only change in my appearance was that I had put on more muscle and my hairline had receded a bit (not something I could control). I asked Hack about his weight gain and he brushed it off saying that he worked so much overtime while saving up money for the school that he didn't have time to exercise.
When I saw the school that Hackworth had set up, I was impressed. The first American Dragon Martial Arts Academy. It was a storefront space on the end of a building in a strip mall. Small but big enough for our purposes. I respected the effort that Hackworth had made to get the money for the school. He had worked long hours at a crappy job for a long time while simultaneously spending almost no money. Not many people could do that.
Rick said that he had arranged for me to sleep on the floor at the school while he slept in a bed at his home. What Hackworth didn't mention was that I would be doing all the work and he would be keeping all the money.
I noticed that there was nothing over the windows and no wall between the windows and the training area. Anyone could look in and see our students training. I thought that would make our students self-conscious.
"Don't you think we should hang up some blinds or curtains to give our students some privacy?" I asked.
"No," Hackworth replied, "I want people to be able to look in and see how good our class is."
Remember that.
This set-up also didn’t provide me with much privacy. I only had a small folding shoji screen between me and the floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the school. Anyone could look in and see me any time.
As you may know, it gets quite hot in Central Florida. I had to spend every night in the school. It got to be over 100 degrees at night and there was NO ventilation. I had no choice but to run the air conditioning all night. Of course, this ran up the electric bill which Hackworth constantly complained about. There was nothing I could do. If I didn’t use the AC, I would asphyxiate or die of hyperthermia. The obvious solution to this problem would have been for Hackworth to allow me to sleep at his house but he didn’t want to do that. I didn’t know how long Hackworth expected me to live like this but I hoped it wouldn’t be long.
Before I moved to Florida, Hackworth told me about a local TKD teacher, Y.K. Kim, and how Kim, in the early days of his school, Kim had lived at his school and washed with a hose in the alley behind his school.
“You have to make sacrifices to be successful,” Hackworth told me.
I agreed but I thought that we would both be making the sacrifices, not just me.
Hackworth wanted to teach me some of the Hapkido techniques he'd learned during his second visit to Korea, throws and joint locks, mostly. I stopped him after a few minutes.
"This is all the stuff I tried to teach you at Fort Carson," I said.
"What?," Hackworth asked.
"I tried to teach you this stuff at Fort Carson but you didn't want to learn it. You wanted to stick with the Taekwondo," I said. "Remember?"
Hackworth had a blank look on his face. In the interest of full disclosure, later on, I did learn some things from Hackworth, joint locks and a few other things. So, apparently, he did learn something during his second tour in Korea.
FUN WITH MRS. HACKWORTH PART 1
One afternoon, just a few weeks after we opened, Hackworth and I had finished organizing the school. We had all the equipment and furniture just the way we wanted it when Hackworth's wife, Mi Yi came in. She immediately began rearranging everything. Reluctant to call out another man's wife, I said nothing.
After she left I questioned Hackworth.
"Why did you let your wife ruin all the work we put in?"
Hackworth hung his head and mumbled in a barely audible voice.
"It's better this way."
I'd never seen such a pathetic, whipped bitch. At this point, I was ready to throw up my hands and walk out. Nothing was the way that Hackworth had promised it would be.
HACKWORTH IS A SELFISH BASTARD PART 1
Before I arrived in Central Florida, Hackworth had been making the rounds at the local martial arts schools and becoming acquainted with the other teachers. Richard is very good at ingratiating himself with other people and that’s just what he did.
One of the teachers that Hackworth became friendly with was a man named Frank Nelson. Frank was getting married and he invited both of us to his wedding. Frank had scheduled his wedding on one of the nights when we had class. I don’t know why he didn’t have it on a weekend.
One of us would have to stay and teach class. Hackworth insisted that he should go to the wedding and I should teach class. At this time, I was living at the school and after classes were done, I would go to Hackworth’s house for dinner and to take a shower before going back to the school to sleep. This was supposed to happen after the wedding party as well.
I finished teaching class and waited for Hackworth to pick me up. A couple of hours went by and I figured the party must be going on longer than I anticipated. This was before the age of cell phones so I couldn’t call Hackworth to check with him. Another couple hours went by and Hackworth still didn’t show up. I realized that he wasn’t coming to get me. I went into the restroom and washed up using the sink and then I went to bed.
The next day, Hackworth arrived at the school much later than usual. I asked him why he hadn’t come to the school after the party. He gave me a vague answer about the party going on later than he thought. I asked him why he didn’t call me to at least let me know that he wouldn’t be coming to get me. He said that he didn’t have time. The truth was that Hackworth just didn’t care about me. He was perfectly content to have me do all the work while he partied and got drunk.
HACKWORTH LEARNS THINGS THE HARD WAY PART 1
At this point I was teaching most of the classes and I was also handling the most difficult part of the job: sales. I did the introductory classes and got people to actually sign up. When we had free time, I tried to teach Hackworth some Escrima. Hackworth was always a very reluctant student. For Hackworth, studying a martial art was not about learning and becoming a
better person, it was about showing everyone else how knowledgable and superior he was. He didn’t like being placed in the position where he wasn’t the smartest guy in the room. He struggled to learn the most basic techniques. He would always stop before he had mastered the technique, saying, “I got it! I got it!”, even when he clearly didn’t. Of course, this bit us in the ass later.
One of the other teachers that Hackworth had become friendly with was Richard Maine. Before I moved to Florida, Hackworth and I had been in regular contact by phone. During these many conversations, Richard told me a lot about Richard Maine, none of it good. Hackworth portrayed Maine as goofy idiot without a bit of common sense. I’ll come back to this later.
Hackworth had finagled an invitation from Maine to teach a seminar at Maine’s school. Hackworth was to teach some Hapkido and I would teach Escrima. So, the plan was for Hackworth to go first since he’s so good at schmoozing people. He would win over the crowd and then I would do some actual instruction.
When it came time for us to demonstrate some Escrima, because Richard wouldn’t practice, he messed up everything and I had to try to cover for him. Instead of impressing our audience and exposing them to a new martial art, we ended up just looking incompetent and stupid.
A photo of me with a real martial arts master, Yung Hyun Kim.
Hackworth and me with some students
before he stabbed me in the back.
I'm the one in black. Hackworth is the fat one.
HACKWORTH LEARNS THINGS THE HARD WAY PART 2
One night, I was teaching class as usual while Hackworth sat at the desk. I taught almost all the classes at that time because Hackworth was so lazy. Hackworth had to leave on some errand. He said he would be back in a few minutes. I continued to teach class. At the end of class, I noticed that Hackworth hadn’t come back. I wondered what was taking him so long. I taught another class and Hackworth still hadn’t returned. This was the 1990s so we didn’t have cell phones. All I could do was wait.
Eventually, Hackworth returned and he was in an agitated state. After all the students had left, Hackworth told me what happened. He had finished his errand and pulled into the parking lot. Hackworth saw a man he recognized sitting in a car parked facing the front of our school. The man was a local martial arts teacher and he was watching our classes. When we first opened, I had wanted to put up a divider to prevent this from happening but Hackworth overruled me.
Hackworth sat in his car and waited. After a while, the other teacher left and Hackworth followed him. The teacher went to another martial arts school and watched another class from his car. This process was repeated at two more schools before Hackworth came back to the school.
Hackworth was upset that people could see in and watch our classes. If you’ll recall, when I first got to the school, I told Hackworth that people would be able to see inside and watch our classes and make our students self-conscious and he had dismissed it. He was now determined to build a wall between the front office and the training area.
“I don’t want people to be able to look in and see our classes,” Hackworth declared.
This anecdote may make Hackworth appear to be a stupid person but Hackworth is anything but stupid. He’s actually smart and even clever in some ways.
For instance, Hackworth was looking to get a credit card service so that our customers could pay with a debit or credit card. He took pitches from a number of different companies. A salesman came in and gave a very convincing spiel about the benefits of his company. Hackworth listened patiently until the salesman was finished.
"What number do I call if there's a problem?," Hackworth asked.
The salesman gave him the number and Hackworth dialed it, putting the call on speaker phone. Hackworth was immediately put on hold. We sat there waiting as the salesman became increasingly nervous. After about five minutes, Hackworth hung up. Hackworth glared at the salesman.
"Get out," Hackworth said.
One day, Hackworth and I were shopping in Costco. We passed some of the vending machines that were for sale. The prices ranged from about $1200 to $2000. Quite a bit of money in the early 90s, especially for two guys who were just starting a business.
"Instead of buying those, I'm going to buy a used refrigerator and sell snacks and drinks out of that," Hackworth said, and that's what he did.
Hackworth would often display this kind of incisive, outside-the-box thinking, which made it all the more baffling to me when he would make decisions that only served to sabotage himself. Hackworth did things that he had to know would hurt him in the long run, but he did them anyway.
BETRAYAL
I didn’t want to write about this part of my history with Hackworth for the same reason most people don’t say anything after they’ve been scammed. They’re embarrassed that they got taken in. However, I feel it’s important for people to know about this.
One night when I was still living at the school, I was about to go to bed when Hackworth and his dumpy wife showed up. I hadn’t been expecting them. We had been together at Richard’s house just a few hours earlier. Hackworth’s wife, Mi Yi looked angry and Hackworth had the same sheepish look on his face that he had whenever his wife was bossing him around. I suspected that whatever was going on, Mi Yi was behind it.
“You need to leave,” Hackworth said.
“What?,” I said.
Hackworth told me he was kicking me out and ending our partnership.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Rick had put the business license and building lease in his name only. Legally, he was the sole owner of American Dragon Martial Arts Academy. There was nothing I could do. I had trusted Hackworth and he had betrayed me. By forcing me out of the school, Hackworth was not only taking away my livelihood, he was making me homeless. At this point, Hackworth hadn’t paid me anything. I had no money. Hackworth had no problem kicking out his best friend in the middle of the night.
I took the few possessions I had to my car and tossed them in the back seat. I drove off but not far. Instead, I parked at the far end of the parking lot and watched. Hackworth and his repulsive wife stayed for about an hour. It looked like they were arguing. I slept in my car.
The next morning, I called the only other person I knew in Central Florida, Frank Nelson. Frank was a TKD teacher that we had been working with and training. Frank arranged for me to stay with one of his friends until I could get a place of my own.
I found I a job but I was struggling because I hadn’t planned on having my best friend stab me in the back. I briefly considered returning to Maryland and staying with my mother and stepfather. I remembered what my stepfather had said to me when I returned from LA.
“My whole life I’ve heard you talk about going to LA and how you were going to make it big in LA and you went there and you didn’t do anything and now you come crawling back here. You didn’t accomplish anything out there. Did you think someone was just going to come up to you and say, ‘Have I got a deal for you’?”
That’s not an exact quote but I think you get the idea. You see, since I was a little kid, I had wanted to make movies and I wasn’t shy about letting people know that. Like most little kids, I talked about what I wanted to do constantly. Failing so badly in my life-long ambition was devastating to me so my stepfather chose that emotionally vulnerable moment to throw everything I’d said back in my face. I didn’t want to hear any more of that so I decided it would be best to stay in Central Florida for the time being.
After about a month, I got a phone call from Hackworth. Apparently, running the school without me wasn’t as easy as he’d thought it would be. Hackworth wanted me to teach his classes and this time he would pay me. So, for awhile, I picked up some extra money while I worked at a full time job. Later, I decided to go back to college, but first, I had some fighting to do.
TODO EXTREMO TOURNAMENT
It’s hard for me to remember the exact date but I believe that it was in either 1997 or 1998 when this occurred. Martial arts teacher/professional sociopath Eddie Pagan AKA Edwin Pagan Garcia decided to have a freestyle (MMA) martial arts tournament. Hackworth would host it at his school since he had a ring. As a favor to Hackworth and Eddie, I competed in the tournament.
I lost my first match to Mike Black AKA Michael Linskog. If anyone has a tape or video recording of that match, please contact me at supremegreatgrandmaster@protonmail.com.
I couldn’t help but notice that I was inside the ring while Grandmaster Hackworth was sitting safely outside the ring. You’d think that a martial arts school owner would want to take advantage of this opportunity to showcase his abilities in competition. Imagine all the new students he would get after they saw him mop the floor with his opponents and his current students would be even more motivated to keep training with The Master. Of course, Hackworth didn’t do that because he knew that he’d be instantly exposed as a non-fighter. Even little Kevin Huston was willing to get in the ring.
My only regret in regards to the tournament is not that I lost but that I didn’t compete again. I had competed in the middleweight division. The heavyweight division had been short one competitor, therefore the heavyweight finalist was left without an opponent for the final match. Eddie asked if anyone wanted to fill in for the missing opponent. I considered it but I had already changed out of my uniform. I wish I had taken up the offer. I probably would not have won since I was giving away a considerable advantage in weight and experience but it would have been valuable competition experience. As it was, that was the last time I competed.
GRANDMASTER RICHARD HACKWORTH TRUTH 3
2000-2005 Central Florida
That’s me on the left and Grandmaster Fatass in the middle
After I got back to Orlando, I went to see Hackworth at his school. You might wonder why I would even bother having any contact with the man after the way he treated me. There were two reasons.
One, I made sure that I would never be dependent or reliant on the man in any way ever again. That turned out to be easy. I now had a job teaching at a local college. It was Hackworth who ended up needing me to help him pay his bills.
Two, we shared a history and there were some things I could only talk about with Hackworth because he had been there with me at Fort Carson. Only someone who was there could understand what we went through. I can’t overstate how much Hackworth helped me when I was struggling at Fort Carson. There were times when I had felt like Hackworth was the only person in the world who cared about me. And we had been friends for a long time before he betrayed me.
When I saw Hackworth, I was aghast at his physical condition. He had been in bad shape when I left but now he was massively obese. In spite of Hackworth's many betrayals, I still considered him a friend and still had some residual feelings of loyalty and affection. It hurt me to see Hackworth in this condition. At only 5'7" and 300 pounds, Hackworth was dangerously overweight. I was worried about his health.
I talked to him about this more than once and suggested some actions he could take to improve his condition, including doing some actual martial arts training. He always had some excuse for why he couldn't do what I suggested. Then I came up with an idea.
"Why don't I train you?," I suggested. "That way you'd always have someone to motivate you and make sure you stay on schedule."
"No."
"Why not?," I asked. I couldn't believe he was declining my offer. Hackworth wouldn't tell my why he didn't want my help. Over the next few weeks, seeing that Hackworth wasn't making any progress, I would periodically offer my help again and he would always refuse.
I asked Hackworth why he didn't want my help. Finally, he said that he didn't want me to train him was because, as he said, "I’m afraid you might yell at me."
I couldn't believe it. This was a man who had been in the US Army infantry and was calling himself a Grandmaster of martial arts and he was worried that his friend might raise his voice. At that point, I gave up. If Hackworth wanted to eat himself to death, then I would let him.
FUN WITH HACKWORTH
Richard had decided to move out of the suburbs near his school to a place out in the boondocks of Central Florida. This meant a longer commute for Hackworth as well as more gas, but Hackworth made the move anyway. The first time I drove out to his house, I couldn't find it. It was in a really remote area. He had to meet me halfway and guide me to his home. It was a nice house on a huge property. It was way more than Hackworth could afford and I knew he had to be mortgaged to the hilt. This was a common occurrence with Hackworth. He would always financially overextend himself then come crying to me for money.
The reason that Hackworth had indebted himself to buy this oversized property was because Hackworth had this pipe dream that he would turn it into a martial arts training center complete with dormitories. Hackworth planned to make it the locus for Korean Martial Arts in the West. He really thought that people would come to his center to train and that they would stay in his dormitories instead of at the local hotels which would be the sensible thing.
One day, we were walking around his property and we saw a snake. It was a breed that is common in Central Florida. It's black, about a meter long, and very, very fast. More than once I saw these snakes dart across Hackworth's lawn. No one could outrun one of these things.
Another time, we saw one of these snakes with its front half sticking up from its burrow. The snake was perfectly still, sniffing the air.
"Wouldn't you like to pour some gasoline down that hole and set it on fire?," Rick ventured.
"No!," I responded, shocked that Hackworth would even suggest such cruelty. "Just leave it alone."
A few weeks later, Hackworth told me about another incident involving one of these snakes.
Richard had been mowing his (vast) lawn when he felt an intense pain in his ankle. He looked down and saw that one of these black snakes had sunk its fangs into his leg. Thinking quickly, Hackworth pulled the lawnmower over the snake, severing its head. Hackworth put the snake's head in his pocket and drove to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, Hackworth began to feel the effects of the snake's venom and his vision began to get blurry. He was worried he might pass out before he got there.
Hackworth staggered into the emergency room and told the admitting nurse that he'd been bitten by a snake. She didn't seem too interested in his plight.
"Do you know what kind of snake it was?," the nurse asked in tone that suggested that she did not take this seriously.
"This kind."
Rick pulled the snake head out of his pocket and tossed it in her lap.
Having the snake’s head allowed the doctor to identify the snake more quickly and get Hackworth the right kind of anti-venom right away.
FUN WITH HACKWORTH PART II
Often, Hackworth would invite me to his house to help with his yard work. Hackworth had a needlessly huge yard. He would have his wife cook lunch for us (usually steak) and then we'd sit around and talk. One Sunday afternoon, we were having lunch in Hackworth's well-appointed dining room.
"I had Gerald Beck over here last week," Hackworth said with a mischievous smile.
Gerald Beck was a local martial arts teacher that Hackworth had befriended. Beck was another pretend "Grandmaster". When questioned about his abilities and knowledge, Beck would say, "I'm a basics and forms man", meaning that he chose to focus on the fundamentals rather than practice the advanced techniques you were meant to assume he knew. In reality, Beck had the skills of a yellow belt. He had little to no advanced training or knowledge and that's why he only trained "basics and forms". Hackworth would often mock Beck behind his back.
Hackworth gestured towards the wall behind me.
"You see those things?" he asked.
I looked over my shoulder at the wall of shelves behind me. On one of the shelves sat two cylinders about the size of coffee cans. One was blue and the other red. I had noticed them when I had come in earlier. Hackworth had brought back lots of knick-knacks from Korea and loved to display them so I hadn't paid any attention to these things.
I looked back at Hackworth.
"Yeah," I said.
"I told Beck that those were the Sacred Ancient Scrolls of Korean Martial Arts. The blue one has the Taekwondo scrolls and the red one has the Hapkido scrolls."
"What's really in them?," I asked.
"Tea leaves."
We both had a good laugh.
This was the kind of thing that Richard would do often. He would make you feel that you were part of something secret and special. He made you feel superior, even if it was at the expense of other people. It was one of the ways he manipulated people, including me.
Hackworth would habitually badmouth and insult other martial artists and teachers. He regularly insulted Nick Starks, Frank Nelson, Joseph Connolly, Gary Pointer, Fred Soto, Eddie Pagan, Richard Maine, Shane Miller, JKD people, jiujitsu guys, and especially Kevin Huston. Richard was supposed to be Kevin’s friend but Hackworth just used Kevin as a gofer around the school and then talked crap about him to me. I'm ashamed to admit that I actually laughed at some of the things Hackworth mocked Kevin about. Some of the things Hackworth said about Kevin were so vile, personal, petty, and cruel that I can’t repeat them, even on the internet.
FUN WITH HACKWORTH PART III
One evening, I was at home and I was talking to Hackworth on the phone. He started talking about Nick Starks and, as usual, what he had to say about a fellow martial artist wasn’t good. While Nick Starks is a not a man without flaws, at least he is a competent martial artist and an actual fighter. You can’t say that about Richard Hackworth.
I decided to play a little prank on Richard. I told Hackworth that I had him on speaker phone. Hackworth said that was fine and kept on talking. I then told him that I had Nick Starks there with me.
Hackworth went silent for a moment.
“He’s there now?” asked Hackworth.
I could hear the fear in his voice.
“Yeah,” I replied. “He heard every word you said.”
Rick began stammering.
“Nick heard what I said?”
“Hey, Nick,” I said, pretending that Nick was actually there and was now leaving to go beat the crap out of Hackworth. “Where are you going?”
I could tell Richard was terrified and with good reason. Hackworth wouldn’t last five seconds against Nick.
“Is Nick coming here?” Rick demanded. He sounded like he was about to cry.
“I don’t know but he sure seemed angry when he left,” I replied.
Richard started muttering and I could tell he was desperately trying to think of some way to talk himself out of this situation. Hackworth was usually pretty good at thinking on his feet and coming up with excuses fast but this had really caught him by surprise and he didn’t know what to do.
I couldn’t hold back any longer and started laughing. I had to let Hackworth in on my little joke before he had a heart attack. Later, he acted like he had never been worried.
FUN WITH MRS. HACKWORTH PART II
One afternoon I was at Hackworth’s house and Richard and I were relaxing in his living room. I was sitting on a swivel chair and was casually swinging back and forth while listening to Hackworth. Suddenly, Mi Yi, Hackworth’s short, fat, ugly wife came out of the dining room and pointed at me.
Mi Yi started yelling at me in unintelligible gibberish. I couldn’t tell if she was speaking English or Korean. I couldn’t understand her either way. I was stunned and didn’t know what to do.
I looked at Richard for guidance. He replied in a subdued voice.
“She doesn’t want you to move the swivel chair,” he said.
Mi Yi was glaring at me.
“Oh,” I said.
MiYi went off in a huff. Hackworth explained that while I’d been in college, they’d hired someone to help at the school and when Hackworth had invited this person to his home, the employee had consistently spun around in the swivel chair. Apparently, this bothered Mi Yi quite a bit.
I didn’t see what this had to with me. I didn’t like Hackworth making excuses for his wife’s bad behavior instead of manning up and telling her to shut up and get back in the kitchen. I didn’t think that Mi Yi should be treating me like that when I was bailing out Hackworth financially on a regular basis. I was loaning Hackworth money almost every month. No sooner would he pay me back then he’d be asking for more money. Sometimes I didn’t have enough to cover it and Hackworth would have to go begging to Gary Pointer and other martial artists for money and Mi Yi treated these men just as badly as she treated me. It was just another sign of Hackworth’s lack of gratitude to the people who helped him that he wouldn’t rein in his wife’s bad behavior.
THE INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS
Just after the turn of the century, Richard Hackworth decided that he wanted to make a series of instructional videos. This was something we'd been discussing for some time. Supposedly, the reason that Hackworth wanted to do this was that he wanted to show people the "real" Korean martial arts that he learned in Korea. In reality, it was more about the money. Hackworth wanted an income stream that didn't involve him getting off his butt. We had considered doing this earlier but didn't have the equipment we needed or the money to rent it. Hackworth put a great deal of effort into appearing successful and wealthy but he never had any money and he was always coming to me for short-term loans. With the advent of desktop editing systems and digital video cameras, we could now make the tapes.
The other factor was the sales end of things. By this time, the Ultimate Fighting Championship had been going for over five years. Every UFC competitor had a series of tapes out. People expected you to have proven yourself in the ring if you were going to teach and sell books and tapes.
Richard Hackworth has never been in the ring.
He never competed.
That is why Hackworth was so adamant about his image as the Grandmaster who trained in Korea. It was the only sales angle he could use.
As with most of our collaborations, I ended up doing all the work and Hackworth ended up with most of the money. He couldn't have done anything without me, my equipment, and my expertise. I supplied everything and I did all the work.
The first problem came when I realized that Hackworth had no plan for the videos. He had a curriculum but no plan for how to present the material. Hackworth likes portray himself as a genius who's always on top of things but in real life, Hackworth has no follow-through. He comes up with ideas but when it comes to the details, the nuts-and-bolts of things, he has nothing. Hackworth has to rely on other people to do the actual work. Then he takes all the credit.
So, I had to do do everything for the video series. Not only did I have to plan, shoot, and edit the material, I had to teach Hackworth many of the techniques he would demonstrate in the video.
This was Haemukwan Hapkido, the system Hackworth designed and somehow got the masters in Korea to sign off on. Hackworth didn’t know the techniques in the style that he created. He just wrote “escape from this hold” or “escape from that pin” on the curriculum but didn’t actually know how to do it. I could have just demonstrated the techniques but Hackworth didn’t want that because Hackworth is THE GRANDMASTER and he has to take all the credit.
Hackworth is such an incompetent martial artist that he can’t even fall correctly. In the section on leg and ankle locks, I had to demonstrate all the techniques because my attempts to teach them to Hackworth proved fruitless.
First, I wanted to show how to take down the opponent. So I had Hackworth throw a kick and I would take him to the ground. We had set up a stationary camera on a tripod. When Hackworth fell, he did so in a way that moved us out of frame. I gave his leg a good yank to try to drag his fat ass back into camera range but because I was on the mat and not behind the camera I couldn’t see that I didn’t quite pull him far enough.
I couldn’t demonstrate the locks very well because Hackworth would tap out before I applied any real pressure. I got so frustrated that I really considered cranking down on Hackworth’s leg and seriously hurting him but I’m too nice for that.
When I reviewed what we’d shot, I was very upset. I considered re-shooting that section but I was so mad I thought I might lose my temper and permanently injure Hackworth. At this point, I just wanted to get it over with.
HACKWORTH IS AN INGRATE
Hackworth did come up with one stellar idea for the videos: since neither of us had much of a reputation in the martial arts, we would get other teachers in the Korean martial arts to appear in the videos. The appearance of so many black belts would lend an aura of credibility and authority to the production.
We would shoot the videos on Saturdays. Because I didn’t want to leave my equipment in my car overnight, I would have to get up early, pack everything, being careful not to forget anything because I knew I couldn’t count on Hackworth to anticipate any problems or shortages. Then I had to drive across the city to Hackworth’s school. Obviously, this took a lot of time.
I arrived at Hackworth’s school ready to work and Hackworth confronted me angrily.
“You’re late!,” hissed Hackworth. “I just got done yelling at those guys (the other black belts who were appearing in the video) for being late and then you show up late!”
“Who told you to yell at them?,” I asked. “These people are doing you a favor. You should be thanking them. And I had to drive all the way across the city and bring all the equipment. You couldn’t do anything without me.”
This was just another example of Hackworth lack of gratitude to the people who helped him..
The plan was to shoot in the morning, break for lunch, and then continue filming in the afternoon. After lunch, I was expecting to continue working. Hackworth had other plans.
We got back to the school and I starting getting ready to shoot when Hackworth said he didn’t want to continue. I urged him to keep going but he refused. I pointed out that stopping now would simply result in taking longer to finish the series. Hackworth didn’t want to hear it. I gradually came to understand that the reason Hackworth didn’t want to keep working was because he ate a ton of food at lunch and was now feeling lethargic.
This would become a pattern with Hackworth. During the week, Hackworth would complain about how long it was taking to finish the project and then on Saturday, the day we set aside to shoot the videos, Hackworth would quit working after lunch, which just put us further behind schedule.
HE SAID THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD
Something that was slowing us down was the fact that, initially, we only had one camera (mine). We could have gone faster with two or more. Hackworth had promised that he would buy an additional camera but he never did. This where that fake “Big Spender” thing bit Hackworth in the ass. Hackworth put a lot of effort into maintaining an image of success and acting like he had a lot of money. Of course, Hackworth was never able to back it up because he wasn’t successful and he didn’t have any money. He would brag about his car and the minivan he bought for his after-school program but those were purchased on credit along with his house. I remember, at one point, Hackworth’s minivan was repossessed. If Hackworth put as much effort into his business as he did acting like a big shot, he would have actually been successful.
One of the things that I suggested doing was to shoot the entire curriculum from one angle, then shoot the entire thing from a second angle, and so on, instead of having to move the camera around several times for each technique. This would have been a huge savings in time and effort. Hackworth refused.
“Why not?,” I asked, “Just go through the curriculum from start to finish! You can do that from memory, right?”
Hackworth hung his head.
“No,” he said quietly.
The curriculum we were talking about was Haemukwan Hapkido. This was the system that Hackworth created for himself so that he could be the Grandmaster of a style. Hackworth hadn’t bothered to practice his own art enough to be able to perform it easily and quickly.
So we ended up doing things the hard way which was also the slow way which led Hackworth to complain about how long it was taking to finish.
PRE-SALES
We were taking a break from shooting. Rick was irritated about something. After some prompting from me, Hackworth eventually told me what was on his mind. He was getting impatient over how long it was taking to make the videos because Hackworth had pre-sold the tapes to a lot of people and they wanted to know why they weren’t getting their tapes. One customer had been waiting for nine months!
This was news to me. Hackworth hadn’t said anything to me about pre-sales. This meant that Hackworth had been collecting money from customers, not telling me about it, and not giving me any of the money (which I was entitled to).
Now I knew why Hackworth was constantly complaining about how long it was taking. Of course, we could have done it faster if Hackworth had been willing to work more than four hours a week. We would have been finished by that point if Hackworth hadn’t insisted on stopping work after lunch.
DEFENSE AGAINST A FRONT CHOKE
It came time to record the defense against a front neck grab. Hackworth was massively overweight. He had a grotesque ring of fat around his neck that bulged over his collar. Hackworth's neck fat was disgusting. I didn't want to look at it, much less touch it.
I ventured that Richard should be the attacker, the one grabbing my neck, and I would demonstrate the defenses. I didn't tell Hackworth the reason why, of course. I'm not cruel.
Hackworth said that he should be the one to do the defenses because everything should be about him and how he's the GreatGrandmaster who trained in Korea.
I countered that I should be the one doing the defenses.
Rick insisted that he should do it. We went back and forth until I finally lost my patience.
"I don't want to touch your neck fat," I said.
I could see that what I had said both hurt and surprised Hackworth. I don’t know why. Was he unaware of the gigantic double chin he had? Did he think other people didn’t notice?
As I recall, I finally bit the bullet and agreed to be the attacker for that section.
GRANDMASTER RICHARD HACKWORTH TRUTH 4
Fatass on the left, me on the right.
You can see that even at this early date, Hackworth has already mastered his greatest technique: hiding his gut behind the person standing next to him
HACKWORTH IS AN INGRATE PART II
I don’t remember the exact date this occurred but I’m including this incident because it illustrates Hackworth’s pattern of behavior. Hackworth was going to pick me up so that we could go to some martial arts-related function, a seminar or a tournament or something, I don’t remember exactly. It was morning and I hadn’t eaten breakfast. I decided to grab a couple of donuts. I got chocolate frosted since that’s what I like. When ordering I decided to get six instead of two so that I could share them with Rick.
Rick arrived and I got in his car and we took off. I offered him the donuts and he took one.
What do you think Hackworth said? Do you think he said, “Thanks for thinking of me.”?
He said, “You should have gotten a selection.”
I was tempted to yank the donut out of his mouth and toss it out the window.
MARTIAL ARTS: The Untold Story
Sometime around 2001-2003 I was at Hackworth’s house on a weekend. We were relaxing in his living room after having cleaned up his yard. I had brought a VHS tape with me. A few weeks before I had taped a TV documentary called Martial Arts-The Untold Story. I thought Hackworth would enjoy it so I brought it along.
I labeled the tape simply The Untold Story.
“What’s this?,” Hackworth asked.
“It’s a surprise,” I said.
Hackworth exploded. He started yelling and demanding to know what was on the tape. I sat there dumbfounded that he would get so upset over something so minor.
CONNOLLY’S VIDEOS
Around that same time, Hackworth had worked out a deal with another teacher, Joseph Connolly for me to do a tape on Yudo, one of the arts that Connolly taught. We filmed at Hackworth’s school. Shooting went well. Hackworth had arranged for some local martial artists to attend so that I could record Connolly teaching them. At noon, we took a break for lunch. Everyone but myself and Hackworth left to go to Denny’s. Hackworth sat at a table in an attitude that I can only describe as pouting. I asked him what was wrong.
“I can’t believe nobody offered to buy me lunch,” he whined.
I didn’t say anything. I did have some thoughts though.
They didn’t read your mind. So what?
Who do you think you are? You’re not Chuck Norris. You’re just an overweight school owner with delusions of grandeur.
I remembered how Hackworth had treated me when I tried to do something nice for him and I thought that he probably had done the same thing to these men.
I thought, “Maybe they realized that you’re an ingrate and didn’t bother to try to do anything for you since you never appreciate it.”
I bought lunch for Hackworth. He didn’t thank me.
KICKING KEVIN HUSTON
Just before his school closed, Hackworth told me a story about Kevin Huston. Hackworth was using Kevin as gofer at his school. Hackworth had left some equipment on the school’s training mat and it took up quite a bit of space.
“I told Kevin to move some equipment off the mat and he didn’t do it,” Hackworth told me. “He didn’t do it. My wife said, ‘Now we will only have the number of students for the space left on the mat.”
Apparently, this had something to do with some kind of traditional Korean superstition.
Hackworth eventually moved the equipment himself, but Mi Yi’s prediction came true.
“Even after I moved the stuff, that number of students still left,” Hackworth whined.
I wondered why Hackworth didn’t just move the equipment himself in the first place. There was no gratitude to Kevin for working for free, only complaints that Kevin didn’t do more.
HACKWORTH’S KIDS TOURNAMENT
Sometime in the early aughts, Hackworth decided to have a tournament for children only since most of his students were kids. Some other schools also attended the tournament so there was a pretty big crowd. Hackworth asked me to help out and, as a favor, I did.
Hackworth proudly told me that he and one other person had spent all night painting the squares on the floor that served as the competition rings and they had trouble getting the paint dried in time for the tournament. SO the children were competing on a stone floor. I worried that one of the kids might get knocked down and strike his or her head on the floor and sustain a serious injury.
I pointed this out to Hackworth and suggested that he could have just used mats (which he had) instead and then he wouldn’t have needed to paint the floor. It would also have been safer for the children. I would have told him this beforehand if he’d bothered to ask my advice ahead of time. Hackworth took offense at my suggestion. Hackworth was long past the point where he would take advice from me or anyone else. He was convinced that he knew everything.
HACKWORTH’S MOVIE AND TV “DEALS”
If you’ve been following the adventures of GreatGrandmaster Hackworth via the internet for the past twenty-five years, you may have noticed something. Hackworth loves to announce lots of upcoming TV shows and movies that he’s somehow involved with. You may have also noticed that none of these projects ever come to fruition. Lots of hype. Nothing concrete ever happens. Hackworth has zero follow-through.
Let’s see what we have:
“Born to Compete” movie 2009
One of Hackworth’s many announced-but-never-made productions. Notice that the movie was in its “second phase of production” in 2009, so I guess it should be done by now.
Richard Hackworth’s Martial Arts Success Show
Another atrocity from 2009. Apparently, 2009 was the year that Hackworth was determined to do something since he advertised this show and a movie. If only he’d put that energy into teaching his classes. Try going to the web addresses in the screen shot. You won’t find the “Martial Arts Success Show” at either one of them. Hackworth spends a lot of time trying to sell “Success”, which is strange because success is one thing that Richard Hackworth has never had.
Both of these projects involved the Zaino family in some capacity. I feel sorry for the Zainos. I hope they've moved on and are no longer associated with Richard Hackworth.
“Warrior’s Quest” movie
Another movie. Another failure.
“Triple Threat” movie
Another movie announcement, another nonexistent movie.
Got to love that picture of Big Pimp Rollin’ Rick!
RICK LOVE = RICK HACKWORTH
I feel that I have to mention that Richard Hackworth has found a second career as a Pick-Up Artist/Dating Guru. Although he goes by “Rick Love”, that is still Richard Hackworth.
ABORTED MOVIE PROJECT
Reading about this stuff on the internet brought back some memories. More than once, Richard would tell me about some big, new media project that would make us rich. Of course, nothing would ever come of it. After this happened a few times, I became more skeptical each time Hackworth asked me for help on a new project.
One time, Hackworth told me he had a deal that was guaranteed. This time, it seemed like it might actually happen. Hackworth had apparently befriended a wealthy man who was interested in financing a movie. I would write and direct the movie. It was finally happening! Like a fool, I went around telling everyone that I would be making a movie. I did that because I was stupid enough to trust Richard Hackworth. Of course, nothing came of it. No money was forthcoming. The movie was never made.
PREMEDITATED
A few years after parting ways with Hackworth, I made my own movie, Premeditated.
now available on Etsy.com
It’s amazing how much easier it was to get something accomplished without Richard N. Hackworth dragging you down. Being around Hackworth was like being around a vampire; he drained all your energy and time and took it for himself. Hackworth's presence and his regular demands for money and help, which were never reciprocated, were a continual burden. When I finally cut ties with Hackworth, it freed up all this emotional and mental energy and I was actually able to accomplish things. I was able to make a movie, create this website, and I have other projects on the way.
If you want to watch Premeditated, it’s available now. Just click on the link below.
If you want to help me make more great movies, contribute to my Patreon.
FURTHER ADVENTURES WITH GREATGRANDMASTER HACKWORTH
Around 2004 or 2005, Hackworth told me an anecdote that he inexplicably thought cast him in a good light. Hackworth had been at a local convenience store and had gotten into a dispute with another customer about who was ahead of who in line. The other customer had gotten belligerent with Hackworth and threatened him with violence, admonishing Hackworth with the claim that, “I was trained by Grandmaster Hackworth.”
Hackworth responded with the following:
“Don’t you recognize me?”
The man did not recognize Hackworth, possibly because Hackworth had put on 150 pounds of fat since the man had last seen him.
“Don’t you know who I am?,” Richard asked. “I’m Grandmaster Hackworth.”
According to Hackworth, this caused the man to back off in an obsequious fashion and apologize profusely. Hackworth looked at me with a big grin on his face, quite pleased with himself.
“It’s a good thing that you were his old martial arts teacher,” I said. “Otherwise that guy would have kicked your ass.”
That took the grin right off Hackworth’s face. For some reason, my reaction made Hackworth very upset.
"Most people's problems are self-created."
~ Richard N. Hackworth
HACKWORTH IS AN INGRATE PART III
So... Richard found out the hard way that overeating and never exercising has consequences. He told me that he'd been diagnosed with diabetes. He complained about the high prices that he had to pay for his diabetes medicine.
"You're a veteran," I said. "Why don't you go through the Veteran's Administration. They could probably get the drugs for you cheaper."
Hackworth looked at me with a surprised expression.
What do you think Hackworth said next?
Do you think he said, "Thanks, ol' buddy! Good thing you're here!"?
No.
Instead, Hackworth said,"Why didn't you tell me that before?"
Bear in mind that he had just told me about his diabetes. I made a helpful suggestion and instead of expressing some gratitude, he chastised me for not reading his mind and anticipating his need. Hackworth never thanked me for giving him a way to save money.
Like I said, the man is just a selfish ingrate.
HACKWORTH IS AN INGRATE PART IV
The final anecdote I have to tell about Richard Hackworth starts with Hackworth again calling me to beg for money. In this case, he only needed $50.
A couple weeks later, I got a call from Hackworth telling me he had the money. This was on a Monday. I told him that I would pick it up on Wednesday. After I hung up, I had a strange feeling. It was almost a premonition. I felt that I should go on Tuesday instead. I dismissed it. What difference does one day make?
Wednesday afternoon I went to Hackworth’s school. Hackworth wasn’t there. Nobody was there. The lights were off. The doors were locked and chained shut. I called the school and I called Rick’s home number. No answer. Now I’m out $50, I wasted the time and gas to drive across town and back, and Hackworth is nowhere to be found.
I tried calling him a few more times but he never answered and never called me. Eventually, I just wrote it off. I moved out of state and went on with my life.
Sometime after 2005, out of curiosity, I decided to look up Hackworth on the internet. To my surprise, I saw that Hackworth had opened a new school. I should have known. It’s not like Hackworth has any other useful skills. I called Hackworth and he actually answered. He must not have recognized my new number.
I grilled Hackworth about his disappearance and he told me that he’d had a fight with his wife (eventually leading to a divorce) and it was she who had chained the doors shut. So Hackworth had been locked out of his own business and then abandoned by his wife. He tried to hide it but I knew that had to be devastating for Rick.
I asked Hackworth why he didn’t call me. He said that he didn’t remember my phone number. This from a man who used to call me nearly every day. He knew my phone number. He just didn’t want to pay me.
I continued with my life, making a movie and writing some books. I forgot about GreatGrandmaster Hackworth until I came across the website Martial Arts Frauds and Fakes https://martialartsfraudsandfakes.wordpress.com/. As you might expect, there are a few pages devoted to Richard. Reading about Hackworth and his lies moved me to set the record straight. That was the impetus for me to write this blog.
WHO IS RICHARD HACKWORTH?
What have we learned about Richard Hackworth?
Richard Hackworth is a fraud. Although some of his ranks are legitimate, his training is minimal, definitely not Master level. There’s no evidence that Hackworth ever participated in any tournament or competition. I don’t know that Hackworth ever did any sparring. He certainly never sparred with me. I never saw Hackworth spar or do any martial art training. Hackworth always talked about the tough training he did in Korea but he never did any training in America. I can’t believe he did much training overseas either. Richard Hackworth is not a fighter.
One afternoon, around 2004 or 2005, I stopped by Hackworth’s school to chat for a bit. I parked in front of his school and Richard came out to talk to me. He just leaned on my car window. During the course of our conversation, Hackworth said something I didn’t like and I finally lost my temper with him. I jumped out of my car and got in his face. Hackworth backed off and apologized immediately.
I will remove all of these pages if Hackworth does two things:
1: Pay me the money he owes me, all of it
2: Fight me in a UFC-rules match (no time limit, no rounds) at his school (or anywhere). He doesn't have to win, just fight.
That's all I have to say about Richard Hackworth for now. I may add more to this site in the future.
Before I end this, I want to address a couple of Hackworth's associates. On August 20, 2020, Eric Laino saw my comments at the end of this post at Martial Arts Frauds and Fakes:
martialartsfraudsandfakes.wordpress.com
and this is how Mr. Laino responded.
Eric Laino
on August 20, 2020 at 7:59 pm said:
You’re a liar and a scumbag!
Mr. Laino chose to insult me without ever meeting me or talking with me. I hope this website will show that I am not a liar and that I know Richard Hackworth far better than Mr. Laino ever will.
I looked up Mr. Laino and he seems to be a legitimate martial artist with actual competition experience. This didn’t surprise me. Hackworth likes to keep at least one actual fighter close by to give himself some credibility by proxy and Hackworth is quite good at drawing people into his orbit. I hope that Mr. Laino wakes up and puts some distance between Hackworth and himself.
The other associate of Hackworth that I want to address is Richard's new BFF, one William "Bohdi" Sanders. I've never met Mr. Sanders, but since he is Richard's besty, I feel entitled to point out a few things.
Mr. Sanders has made a name for himself as a self-published author and as a self-proclaimed "wisdom warrior". What is a warrior?
Dictionary definition:
noun
1. One who is engaged in or experienced in battle.
2. A soldier; a man engaged in warfare; specifically, one devoted to a military life; in an especially honorable sense, a brave or veteran soldier.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
There is no record of Mr. Sanders serving in any military. There is no evidence of Mr. Sanders having any martial arts training. I don’t like pretend warriors. My thoughts about Mr. Sanders can be summed up in the images below:
William “Bohdi” Sanders
fake “wisdom” warrior
Rob Odell
actual warrior
(I’m the one in the middle)
CONCLUSION
There is much, much more that I could tell you about Richard Hackworth. What I’ve written here is just the tip of the iceberg but I think this is enough. It’s been a depressing experience reliving all this in order to bring you this information.
Hackworth will say that this is all lies. If he spent as much time training as he does on the internet calling everyone liars, Hackworth wouldn’t be a morbidly obese diabetic. He will say that I never really knew him. That’s why I posted the photos of us together. Of course, if I’m being untruthful, then Hackworth can sue me for defamation, in which case, I’m ready to take him on. My attorney has already vetted every word on this site and he assures me that nothing in these pages would be considered defamatory in a court of law.
The irony is that Hackworth could have been the respected, successful, and famous teacher that he wanted to be if Hackworth hadn't been so lazy, selfish, and deceitful, if he had been willing to share credit and paid people what he owed them instead of keeping everything for himself.
Hackworth is a coward who will not come forward to publicly provide evidence of his claims preferring to complain from behind his keyboard, and try to defame his detractors instead of debate the real issues. Issues which arise from his own actions.
I’ve told you how Hackworth treated me, his only real friend. Imagine what he’ll do to you if you let him.
I would advise anyone reading my words to avoid Richard Hackworth. Don’t engage with him in any way and definitely do NOT give Hackworth any money, not even a dollar. You’ll never see it again. Don’t loan him money. Don’t invest in his scams. Hackworth likes to talk big and act like he’s a player and a wheeler-dealer but he never comes through. He has nothing to back up his talk. He definitely doesn’t have any money.
That’s all I have to say. I may update or amend these pages in the future.
For information about me, visit my personal website:
For more information on martial arts or Richard Hackworth, visit my channel: SupremeGreatGrandmaster
If you want to help support my efforts, go to Etsy.com to purchase my movie.
For more information on Richard Hackworth, you can go to martialartsfaudsandfakes.com
