Is Tom Turpen Bullshido? A strong case. But, is it wrong?

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 2/20/2007 2:10pm

Originally Posted by xaviertr

Actually Tom's Combatives are completely from video. He stole stuff from Tony Blauer, Kelly McCann, Hock Hockhiem, Krav Maga, etc. that looked like it would work in his kung fu. He has absolutely no clue about the realities of conflict or how to put the combatives into action. I hope for his sake, he never gets into a real altercation, or like Miyagi said- Squished like grape.

Hopefully now that you have exposed Tom Turpen for what he is, his days of teaching any kind of martial art in Ohio will be over. Him continuing to teach is worrisome to me and others, if he teaches a bunch of crap that cannot be applied under pressure and some of his students find themselves in a situation where they have to use it, they could get seriously hurt.

People like him are the reason why CMA, practitioners have such a bad reputation.

FYI while speaking with Master An this weekend I asked him directly if he has a "closed door disciple" in the U.S. For clarification a closed door disciple, by Master An's definition, would be a student that is the favored student of the Master and the sole inheritor of the complete system. This student would have their name added to the lineage chart by the master upon completing training. Master An told me "No, he has no such disciple in the United States and makes an effort to treat all students equally." Thought I should mention this for future reference in case anyone else pops up claiming to be Master An's "closed door disciple"

**Pablo43** · Posted On: 2/20/2007 11:00pm

So, Tom Turpen. He's a lying bastard who tried to pass himself off as something he wasn't and got caught. He then kept on lying to try and cover his tracks and still got caught. I was his top student and his only black sash, but now I got nothing to do with the man. I believed in him and thought that he really was what he said he was. I promoted him to other people and was the point of contact for his school. He took advantage of my good faith, my friendship and lied to me for 2 and a half years and had no conscience whatsoever about taking my money or passing himself off as something he wasn't. He didn't care. I dont know what else to tell you without sounding like I'm repeating what I've already said. I'm not going to rehash what Xavier has said about him because what Xavier has said is true. I did my own research and verified it. The fact that his former top student is speaking out against him should serve as something. And with respect to his fee, he charged us from $100 for the most part but did raise it to $110 briefly. If any of you have any questions, let me know.

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 2/20/2007 11:11pm

Sorry to hear that you got duped, it is unfortunate and unacceptable. It happens a lot in MA these days especially with CMA and KMA. There are other people on this board who have been scammed a lot worse than you for a lot longer, the bright side is you figured it out after 2 years and not 10. According to Xavier, Tom Turpen's school is now defunct and he has maybe 2 students left, which is a step in the right direction, hopefully soon he'll be down to zero.

I see you have combatives in your style field, good luck with your training, if you or any of Tom Turpen's other former students would like to continue your Baji/Gong Fu training let me know and I can give you Master An's location, if you don't have it already.

Thanks for posting.

**xaviertr** · Posted On: 2/21/2007 12:36pm

Just to let everyone know, Tom Turpen's myspace and all of the websites he had up are gone! He must of seen my website about him and is doing away with the evidence, except I have print screened everything! I can prove his lies with his own materials. I am in the process of verifying military, employment, and professional claims and will put it on the website once it has been verified. I have only this to say- Turpen, you can run, but you cannot hide! I am going after every aspect of your life, to expose you for what you are!

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 2/21/2007 12:51pm

Originally Posted by xaviertr

Just to let everyone know, Tom Turpen's myspace and all of the websites he had up are gone! He must of seen my website about him and is doing away with the evidence, except I have print screened everything! I can prove his lies with his own materials. I am in the process of verifying military, employment, and professional claims and will put it on the website once it has been verified. I have only this to say- Turpen, you can run, but you cannot hide! I am going after every aspect of your life, to expose you for what you are!

Good move on print screening everything, I figured it was only a matter of time before he started pulling down websites to try to hide his lies and regroup. Please keep us updated here as new information becomes available and makes it onto your Geocities page. I look forward to reading it all!!

We can officially say that this flag has been planted in Tom Turpen's ass!

:bsflag:

**xaviertr** · Posted On: 2/21/2007 1:03pm

AWESOME!

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 2/21/2007 1:19pm

I just had a thought. After you get all of the information finalized, have you considered trying to get it published in the Other Paper or Columbus Alive? I don't think the Dispatch would be too interested (but you never know), but the other smaller local papers might run with it.

**xaviertr** · Posted On: 2/22/2007 10:37am

Turpen has a short history (since he got caught) of pulling information or changing his websites, only as much as he thinks he must, to save face. He is an acupuncturist, legitimately licensed, yet he still has to lie to push his business. He is still claiming his martial arts mastery and learning from Master An on his acupuncture website-

http://www.integra.homestead.com/turpen.html

He also claims to be a member of the following organizations in his CV, which is not true-

American Academy of Pain Management- (209) 533-9744
American Association of Oriental Medicine- (916) 443-4770
Oriental Medicine Association of New Mexico- http://www.omanm.org (try finding him under "find a doctor" or give them an email.

You cannot claim to be a member of these organizations if you join one year and then never renew your membership, which is what he has done. Just like his martial art claims, he does the bare minimum to give himself something that sounds good (like studying with An or joining an association) and then instead of doing what is needed to become proficient at it, he just lies or changes the facts to make himself seem like an authority. Take the American Academy of Pain Management for instance, they offer a certification for pain management, which he does not hold, yet he writes it in a way that makes you think it is a major thing for him. To someone who does not know better, it makes him seem more qualified, which is his goal.

I just don't understand his need to lie the way he does, as he has enough acupuncture credentials to make himself credible. Maybe it is pathological, maybe he suffers from low-self esteem, but whatever the case- he is a con artist in every aspect of his life- martial arts, acupuncture, religion, even marrying a Chinese wife to add credibility to what he does. Sad, very sad.

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 2/22/2007 11:02am

If he spent as much time actually training in the Arts that he claims to have mastered as he does in lying about his history and distorting the truth, by now he may have actually acheived some credible rank. It's obviously easier for him to lie about it then actually do the work. So his claim of training Kung Fu for 25 years is total BS. It never ceases to amaze me how many people think they can just make up entire bullshit stories like this and think they'll never get caught.

Any new info on the military credential front?

You should really look into getting this into one of the local papers