1984 beating video hits Internet

Dumfries investigators are looking into the vicious beating of a man caught on tape nearly 25 years ago.

The disturbing 1984 video, which surfaced on the Web in recent weeks, shows a man engaged in a fight at a Dumfries martial arts dojo. At first, the man appears to be standing his ground against his opponent. But toward the end, he is knocked down and repeatedly kicked in the head.

Before falling to the ground, the man clearly motions to his opponent and tells spectators that he wants the fight to stop. But he is ignored and seconds later is on the floor bleeding.

Then a voice is heard on the video ordering those watching the fight to drag the battered and bleeding man out of the back of the building. The same voice, identified on the Web as Bobby Joe Blythe, owner of the dojo, can later be heard on the video noting the day the incident took place: Dec. 13, 1984.

Nearly 25 years later, the video resurfaced on YouTube and went viral. There are hundreds of posts about the video on one martial arts board alone. The brutality of the beating caused many to speculate that the victim was murdered. But local police say that’s not the case.

“Everybody seems to remember this place and everybody seems to remember Bobby Joe Blythe, but nobody can seem to remember who took the lead on the case or whether it was ever investigated,” said Dumfries police Capt. Ronald Mackey.

Since the video hit the Web, the department has received phone calls from concerned citizens who have seen it on the Internet, and from national news organizations looking to investigate.

Mackey said officers recalled helping the victim out of out of a Dumpster near the dojo, and said many remember that the man walked away from the incident.

“It was definitely not a homicide,” said Mackey.

If there was an original incident report, it was destroyed years ago, a common practice for old paperwork, he said. But to be sure, Mackey checked with the coroner’s office and they showed no record of any unidentified bodies that were found in Dumfries that year.

The dojo was in the Dumfries Shopping Center, near where the Dumfries Neighborhood Library is now located. Blythe may now be living in Hanford, Calif.

The police chief in that city told television reporters there that he is looking into the case, but did not return calls from the News & Messenger.

A court records check did not uncover any criminal charges for Blythe in Prince William, but some veteran county detectives said he may have been imprisoned on federal charges. An FBI spokeswoman did not return calls for comment.

A search of the Potomac News archives for information about the beating proved unsuccessful. An archival search of the Manassas Journal Messenger also yielded no information about the case.

Many on the martial arts forum claim Blythe is an ex-Marine who served in the Vietnam War. A recent photo of him, taken in 2007, now shows him to be in his mid- to late 60s.

YouTube and Facebook accounts which were registered to a Bobby Joe Blythe now show as being canceled.

In a post on what appears to be his old YouTube site, Blythe claims to have met the victim at a local Pizza Hut near the dojo, while he was working as a bodyguard in Washington.

The post also states that he saw the victim at a Napa Auto Parts store near the dojo, and that the man told employees of the auto parts store that he was going to teach “what Jesus taught him” at the dojo.

On the Web, the fight has become known as the “What Jesus taught him” video.

The video can be viewed here. But be warned, it is very graphic and disturbing. In fact, you must verify that your are 18 before watching it.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.