Edit- Ralph Hall was picked up for violating his parole. For a while, he was behind bars. Word has recently reached me that he was released and has to go in front of a hearing soon to deal with these issues. However, he has started telling the same old lies to people and has even started claiming to be training with a local Bujinkan group. This is of course, not true. Thanks to things like this blog, all the Bujinkan folks in Reno are probably aware of him and some of them seem rather eager to get him back behind bars as soon as possible.

On this Veteran's day, I need to expose and sound the alert for a man who is not only a martial arts fraud, not only a fake veteran, but is also a convicted criminal arrested for sex with an underage student. He is out of jail after serving his sentence, and in the Reno area. But he has not changed his ways, still makes the same false claims and is trying to set himself up as a teacher once again.

Ralph Aaron Hall was arrested for raping his underage student. (Links for the proof of this and everything else are posted at the bottom of the page.) He served time in jail for sexual battery. Now he is out, moved to another state where they don't know him and he is again trying to attract students.

He claims to be a tenth dan in the Bujinkan. Of course, there is no proof he actually even attended a single Bujinkan class. He also claims to be a U.S. Army Ranger. And, of course, sites that are set up to out military frauds say that it untrue as well.

Hall is an example of the types of people who become frauds. A common theme I see in them is a lack of being a real man. Some people can point to great careers, skills, kids or something else they can take a little bit of pride in. Most people need something that they can hold up and say it shows their worth to the world. Hall doesn't seem to have anything really going for him. In the video I link to below, he shows a military ID card, but it is marked "Guard." I take that to mean that it was the ID issued to him at basic training when he enlisted in the National Guard. But according to record searches by those who expose military frauds, he didn't have any career after that. It looks like he managed to bomb out of basic training because it was too tough for him.

(Edit 9-29-17, It looks like I was wrong. He did serve in the local national guard in a rather low level position until he was tossed out with a dishonorable discharge.)

People like Hall try to be what they are not. So, he has reinvented himself as a ninja- commando. The man who could not hack basic training wants people to look on him with the respect due to a man who has tested himself, became really dangerous and risked his life for a greater cause. It is not uncommon to see people who lie about their martial arts skills to also make fake claims about the military. Frank Dux is a case in point, as well as Ron Collins and many others. They can't really be warriors because it is too tough and it scares them too much but they can't accept that and create personas to try to compensate.

A good part of my time in Japan was teaching at the junior high school level. Along the way, I learned that there really are two types of pedophiles. One type can only be attracted to young children. If you sent Jessica Alba into the room wearing a thong they would not be interested. The types we most worried about preying on our charges were mainly men who would have sex with an adult woman if he had the chance, but thought that young girls were easier targets and more manageable. They often really could not handle a real woman and so tried to pick up our kids instead.

So do you think that people that are so insecure in their manliness that they have to lie about being secret ninja teachers and army commandos are more likely to try to prey on young girls? Do you think that is a reason I make a point about outing them whenever I can instead of looking the other way?

Hall is far from the only fake ninja that has molested or tried to molest underage girls. Ron Collins spent time behind bars for essentially trying to get into the pants of a 13 year old girl. Bryce Dallas molested the special needs daughter of one of his students. And they are not the only examples I could name.

People like Hall are dangerous for this reason. But that is not the only reason. When you base your life on a lie, the foundation for your sanity isn't too stable. In Hall's case, his devotion to his fraud is so deep that he got tattoos of the ranger symbol and the Japanese word for ninja. How can he go back to living a normal life, where everyone would know he is a fairly worthless fuck?

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That type of thing is why frauds tend to be more violent than you would think when their world comes crashing around their ears and they are about to be exposed to the world. Con men lie about things, but they don't build up their entire self-image and social life around the lie. They just drop the lie and move on, but frauds like Hall view that in the same way you or I would dying. When Hall was arrested for the rape of his student, he held the police off with a shotgun for a couple hours. So, we have a man willing to consider using a gun and who has sex with kids running around. So you can see why I am a bit concerned and hope people can get the word out and deprive him of any more victims.

Hall's story kind of goes like this. He claims to have been trained by a teacher he won't name or produce (big red flag) as a child (again- red flag) and secretly taken to Japan where he did not train in a Bujinkan dojo where others could have seen him and confirmed his story, but in secret (real big red flag.) He claims to have been taught a ryuha in the Bujinkan that Masaaki Hatsumi does not teach openly anymore, and he is forbidden to give it's name (guess what, red flag.) He was tested in secret and made a tenth dan (Ok, I'll stop pointing out the obvious.)

His military claims include being a ranger, fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan where he killed at least eight people in unarmed combat. If you bother to go through all 48 minutes of the video, you can see him make various silly claims that a reasonable adult would find pretty damn silly. But at the end you see his students….. and they are all fairly young kids.

One thing I should point out to non-Bujinkan members reading this. At the start of the video his "Bujinkan membership card" is shown. It is not a membership card issued by Hatsumi in Japan. It is instead the "International Bujinkan Dojo" which is headed by Richard Van Donk out of California. Van Donk sells video home learning courses to just about anyone. The rules of the Bujinkan prevent people with serious criminal records and such from training. In my case, I always ask if a person could legally buy a firearm. If you have a felony, restraining orders, serious mental issues and a few other things you can't legally buy a firearm. Despite this, I had one student who had been addicted to meth slip through the cracks. He went on a binge which I found out about and now he can't train with me anymore. That type of slip up really is not possible when your 'teacher' lives in another state and I suspect that a lot of people like Hall get some access to Bujinkan through things like this. If Hall were to try to apply again, it is probable that Van Donk would not be made aware of his time in prison and issue him a new membership card. In addition, his name would be put up on Van Donk's web page for mothers to look up and think he was vetted and a member in good standing.

It is for that reason that I urge people to always look at the teacher's teacher and see if you can contact them. If you can't contact them, or anyone that can confirm what they say, then they may be lying about their training or they might be afraid of what their teacher would say about them. If a person will not let you contact their teacher, then ask yourself what they are afraid of. Don't take secrecy for an answer. Don't believe stories about mysterious asian men or training in other countries that can't be documented. Don't take membership cards or authentic-looking certificates be enough for you. If they can't prove their own training, walk away or your daughter might be the next victim of someone like Hall.

What is worrying about Hall is that despite his time in jail, he shows no sign of changing what he is. According to his facebook page and Linkedin profile, he is now living in Reno, Nevada. He has a "Beth Hall" listed as a sister on his facebook page who also lives in Reno. That sister runs a day care center.

If the idea of a convicted sex offender and pedophile having that connection to a day care center doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.

Looking over what he puts up, he still claims to be teaching Bujinkan, still claims to have been a ranger and is trying to start up his "Wolfpack Ninja Academy" in his new home town. His symbol for his wolfpack group on facebook has the Bujinkan judan patch on it as well as the word "Ninpo" in Japanese. I expect that he will try to reach out to Bujinkan groups in the area and maybe attend seminars. He won't actually train at seminars mind you, he would soon be shown to be completely incompetent. But many "instructors" seem to only walk around at seminars now and that would give him the chance to try to attract students…… young students.

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(Note the above photo is as of November 2016, well after he was arrested. Obviously he has not learned his lesson and is still spreading the same lies.)

I do think Ralph Hall is a threat to children still. It honestly looks like he thinks he can run under the radar and not have anyone know what he did in his new location. Nothing about him has changed and he keeps the lies going. The same lack of being a man that causes him to lie is still there, and that is a big reason why he preys on young girls. I don't expect him to announce that he has started a kids class, because there are people like me that will find out and let the police know. But he did it before, and he hasn't changed anything else since then.

If you are reading this blog and a Bujinkan member, please share this with anyone in the area or who might come in contact with him. If you are in the Reno area, please make local martial arts schools/groups aware of this since he may try to set up a class through them. And if you find out about him actually running a kids class, then the police need to be made aware of it. That sort of thing would probably send him back to jail and it looks like he needs to go there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCk696CAOZ8&feature=youtu.be

Police blotter of Ralph Hall's arrest.

http://newstimes.augusta.com/stories/2008/09/21/odd_476374.shtml

Details of Ralph Hall's charges and arrest.

http://mugshots.com/US-Counties/Georgia/Columbia-County-GA/Ralph-Aaron-Hall.1923012.html

His linkedin profile stating that he is in Reno, Nevada and saying his job is a teacher of ninjutsu.

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ralph-hall/83/523/ba

Forum devoted for outing military frauds detailing how Ralph Hall's claims are lies.

http://www.socnet.com/showthread.php?t=63051&page=3

Site where his claims about military service are debunked.

https://armyranger.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=26521

A thread that Ralph Hall popped up on and started making some of his claims.

http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56196&page=6

Ralph Hall's facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/rauf.haul?fref=ts

Update as of November 16th. Ralph is definitely still trying to convince people he was a combat vet with the Rangers and skilled in ninjutsu. Aside from updating the photo of him, I have put together the latest video.

https://youtu.be/bv_Sm35E8KA