David "Race" Bannon

Bannon writes and speaks[2] on art,[3] history,[4] culture,[5] computer technology,[6] business[7] and translation.[8][9][10][11][12] He has appeared on A&E,[13] The Discovery Channel[14] and The History Channel[15] and in The Wall Street Journal.[16]

Bannon held a two-year appointment as curator of Asian art (1992-1994)[17] for the Florence Museum of Art and History in South Carolina, now known as the Florence County Museum.[18]

Bannon translated Korean-to-English subtitles for YA Entertainment and the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation.[19] His original Korean-language poems[20] and translations of Korean poetry and spirituality texts have appeared in consumer magazines,[21] trade publications[22][23] and academic journals.[24] He has published two collections of the writings of Korean Zen master Bopjong.[25][26]

Bannon is an American confessed fraudster who posed for years as a former Interpol agent. In his 2003 book Race Against Evil: The Secret Missions of the Interpol Agent Who Tracked the World's Most Sinister Criminals,[27] he claimed to have worked in Asia as a Mormon missionary who transitioned into a career as a killer and secret agent: "a 'cleaner,'" said Publishers Weekly in a review of the book, "interrogating and 'eliminating' child pornographers who his boss at Interpol had determined were beyond the reach of other law enforcement agencies."[28]

Bannon's claims were debunked after his arrest in Boulder, Colorado on January 27, 2006 on the charges of criminal impersonation, computer crime, and attempted theft. The charges leveled against him asserted that he created a fraudulent history of involvement with Interpol and expertise in human trafficking in order to earn fees for consulting and presenting on these topics. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bannon was paid speaking fees based on his "bogus" credentials; state authorities had confirmed, for instance, that Bannon "had solicited fees in excess of $3,000 for a two-day training course on human trafficking."[29]

The Justice Department also quoted a statement from the Interpol General Secretariat rejecting Bannon's claims:

Interpol's General Secretariat in Lyon has no record of David Race Bannon having been employed and no knowledge of individuals mentioned in Mr. Bannon's book. Interpol exists to facilitate the exchange of information between the world's law enforcement agencies and to provide analysis of criminal data and other services. Accordingly, the claims in Mr. Bannon's book can only be seen as deceptive and irresponsible fantasy.[29]

In February 2006, the martial-arts-related website Bullshido.net published[30] the results of what the Rocky Mountain News called an "exhaustive dissection of Bannon's published claims",[31] conducted by an attorney in Connecticut. That investigation found no basis for Bannon's own claims and also found strong indications that Bannon had used a sockpuppet identity, a supposed journalist named "Jason Putman," to support his claims.[31]

On April 24, 2006, Bannon pleaded guilty to the charge of criminal impersonation before a Colorado judge.[32] His guilty plea was made in exchange for prosecutors dropping the additional charges of computer crime and attempted theft. According to the district attorney prosecuting the case, Bannon was likely facing fines rather than incarceration.[33]

Jessica Autumn Bannon Memorial Film Collection in Chester, South Carolina (2017).

Bannon was born in Tacoma, Washington and grew up in Spokane Valley, Washington. Married twice, he had one child, Jessica Autumn Bannon (November 29, 1988 – January 16, 2015).[34] She died of a fentanyl-laced heroin overdose.[35][36][37] After his daughter's death, Bannon and his wife established The Jessica Autumn Bannon Memorial Film Collection on September 26, 2015 with 1,500 film and television titles. In 2017 the collection consisted of 2,000 titles. The bulk of the collection is housed in the Chester County Library in Chester, South Carolina.[38]

• Introduction to Windows 95/98 (Prentice Hall, 2000)
• Internet & World Wide Web: How To Program Second Edition (contributing editor; Prentice Hall; 2000), ISBN 0130308978
• e-Business & e-Commerce: How To Program (contributing editor; Prentice Hall; 2001)
• Korean-English/English-Korean Standard Dictionary (Hippocrene Standard Dictionary) (Hippocrene Books, 2009), editor; ISBN 9780781812344[39]
• The Elements of Subtitles: A Practical Guide to the Art of Dialogue, Character, Context, Tone and Style in Subtitling (2010), Third edition, 2013; ISBN 9781300667155[40]
• Meditations of a Zen Master (editor and translator; Bilingual Library, 2012), ISBN 1300327405[41]
• Meditations of a Korean Monk (editor and translator; Bilingual Library, 2012), ISBN 1105519201[42]
• Between Fighting Men: Nostalgia and B-Westerns (2013), published in conjunction with the Chester Library film, exhibit and lecture series[43] ISBN 9781300897736
• Darker Than Anywhere: Korean War Reminiscences, (editor; Bilingual Library, 2015); ISBN 9781329686809[44]
• Wounded in Spirit: Advent Art and Meditations, foreword by Philip Yancey (Paraclete Press, 2018); ISBN 9781640601451[45]

• Press release by the US Department of Justice on Bannon's arrest
• Spotting False Martial Arts Claims: Lessons from the David Bannon Case
• David Bannon on IMDb