Mystery Chart No. 16 Revealed
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:11 pm
[Two points: Her story is complicated and the simplest thing to do is to write up the relevant portions of her biography in one post and discuss the astrology in a second. What follows is the best I could unravel in a short time from a very complicated situation.
The second point is the usual disclaimer. If you want to work on the chart without knowing who the native is, stop reading now. Otherwise, read on.]
There is so much to this woman?s story and it is so complicated that I can?t possibly cram it into a single post. The best I can do is to stay close to her part and skim over others that are as important. What we need to keep in mind are the times in which she became famous or infamous depending on your viewpoint. The notorious part of her story takes place from roughly 1961 to 1963. We are at the end of the post war 1950s and just before the era that would become the over-romanticized, over-glorified, wildly exagerated 1960s. The old mores are changing and these events contributed, but not in any way anyone could have foreseen. And most importantly these incidents surround the year 1962 - the year of the Cuban Missile Crises, which brought the world to the brink of a nuclear confrontation between the US and the USSR. Espionage at this time could result in nuclear war. And espionage or at least the charges of espionage figure greatly in the story.
Our native is Christine Keeler, who, born to the lower classes and into poverty, nonetheless became, at the ripe old age of 21, a household name associated with prostitution, sexual escapades, the British aristocracy, and Cold War spying. In 1963, I first heard the phrase ?call girl? defined as an expensive prostitute (as opposed to a streetwalker) and it was associated with Keeler. Yet to this day she denies she ever was a prostitute. From what I could gather doing desktop research, she is probably telling the truth. I believe her.
Christine Keeler was probably not born in London as I erroneously posted, but, according to her autobiography, in Uxbridge, Middlesex, which changes the chart very little. I?ve also found other locations for her birth. Her father left her and her mother during Christine?s infancy. Her mother took up with a man Christine was encouraged to accept as her father. The family lived in an old converted railroad carriage, and her childhood was certainly less than ideal. She was terrified of her step father and went out of her way to avoid being alone with him. She even went so far as to sleep with a knife under her pillow in case he should come into her room. He never did and from I could find he never touched her, but she hated him anyway. She also claimed that the men in the neighborhood used to try to kiss and fondle her when she would baby-sit for their children. She was a very beautiful girl.
At the age of 17 in 1959 she was working, possibly as a topless waitress, in Murray?s Nightclub in London and met Stephen Ward a well connected osteopath. Ward?s address book included people like Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Winston Churchill and other members of Parliament, and British aristocracy. He also had some odd sexual appetites. Christine eventually moved in with him in 1961 when she was 19 and he was 47.
In July 1961 Ward takes her to a party at Lord Astor?s home Cliveden, an historic mansion, where she first meets John Profumo, British Secretary of War. At the party, a very hot night, Keeler went looking for a swim suit and found one that didn?t fit too well. Keeler complained about the fit and Ward jokingly said, ?Why don?t you take it off?? She did and jumped into the swimming pool nude and started cavorting. Profumo and others went to the pool to see what all the splashing and noise were about and they were confronted by a dripping wet and naked Christine Keeler. She found a towel for cover, and Mrs. Profumo found her a better fitting swim suit. Ward had hidden hers. The following day she was introduced to a Russian Naval attach? named Eugene Ivanov who British Intelligence, M15, considered to be a spy. She liked Ivanov and began an intimate relationship with him. Profumo, 46 years old and married, obtains Keeler?s phone number and quickly begins a short lived affair with the 19 year old, but when he learns she is also sleeping with the Russian he breaks it off [Keeler?s version as to why it was broken off and who was working with whom is a bit different].
Rumors spread about Keeler and Profumo and never died, but nothing came of the matter until December, 1962, when a shooting incident (Keeler refused to let an ex-boyfriend, Johnnie Edgecomb, into her home, so he shot the door in an attempt to unlock it) and a curious press investigated and brought out the rumors once more. Profumo was investigated and swore to the House of Commons that he never had anything to do with her and in private muttered things like, ?Who is going to believe a word of that little tart?? Unfortunately for Profumo a letter that he wrote to her surfaced that began ?Darling.? Whoops.
Busted, Profumo resigned in June 1963, investigations galore began because of the possible relationships between Keeler and Profumo and Ivanov. Was she spying for one side or the other and obtaining information from ?pillow talk?? Eventually even the CIA got into the act trying to find out if British security was compromised. After all Stephen Ward introduced Ivanov to the British officials and to Keeler and her eventual roommate Mandy Rice-Davies. Ivanov was eventually recalled to Moscow and never heard from again. Stephen Ward was brought to trial on trumped up charges of living off prostitution (Keeler and Mandy Rice- Davies were the alleged prostitutes), and committed suicide the day the jury reached, but had not yet announced, its verdict (guilty). Keeler was eventually convicted of perjury for a misstated detail in her testimony in the trial of Edgecomb, the man that fired the shots at her door, and she did 9 months in prison. All of this before she turned 22.
This was my initial interest in the chart. How is it that a poorly educated, unsophisticated girl born on the wrong side of the tracks, gets involved in high politics, and causes an international brouhaha at 21? [The ladies reading these words will kindly resist the obvious answer: ?Because men are stupid.?] It had to be more than just her looks. I hoped the chart might show us.
Throughout her life she worked menial and low-paying jobs, but probably never did work as a prostitute. Rice-Davies apparently did work as a prostitute from time to time. The accuracy of these assertions depends on how we define ?prostitute.? If we mean a woman who does this for a living, sees clients at appointed times for regular rates, then I would argue Keeler is telling the truth; she never did that. But Ward did set her up with the rich and powerful and she did go to bed with them and they did give her money and gifts to keep her interested. She and Mandy Rice-Davies, who was engaged in similar activities, used to laugh about it. So she was clearly promiscuous, but not what is euphemistically called today a ?sex worker.?
The last interview with her that I could find was done in 2001. She just published her second book on the ?Profumo Affair,? motivated in part by her following of what the interviewer called ?The Lewinsky Hearings,? and because she needed the money. In this the second book recounting the affair she made some startling new revelations. She said she was made pregnant by Profumo, but aborted the pregnancy without telling him. The affair was over before she knew she was pregnant. She said the emphasis on the sexual side of the scandal and the description of her as a ?call girl? was the invention of Lord Denning the man who headed the official investigation in the affair. She said this was a red herring designed to keep people away from the very real espionage that was going on. She claimed that Ward was a Soviet Agent and so was M15 Director Sir Roger Hollis. She believes M15 and the CIA (is there a boogeyman on earth as ubiquitous as the CIA?) wanted and perhaps still want her dead because she knows too much. All of these claims are somewhat plausible, but completely unverifiable. For the record, I don?t believe them. Vast conspiracy theories are rarely accurate, and usually depend heavily on listener?s ignorance. Espionage at that level would (or should) be too careful to allow a teenager to see and learn so much. My take is that she was a beautiful young woman who attracted men easily and loved the effect she had on them and/or saw this kind of behavior as her ?way out? of the life she so hated. She grew up in poverty and was impressed by the power and money of the people with whom she associated (who wouldn?t?), but lacked the maturity to handle it. Being so young, she had no idea that the consequences of her actions could be so profound. In short she was in way over her head, and people who should have known better took advantage of her. Her belief that Lord Denning, who conducted the official inquiry into the matter, manufactured the prostitution and played up the sex angle to divert attention away from the obvious security lapses is probably correct, but his precise motive cannot be proven. Was he covering up espionage or stupidity? Interestingly Denning managed to get the British government to seal the transcripts of his interviews with Keeler until 2045. He wanted them destroyed.
After the Affair died down a bit, the government of Harold Macmillan fell. Keeler married for the first time and had a son. It didn?t last. She would remarry; give birth to another son and divorce. The eldest was raised by her mother, apparently not by Christine?s choice. She raised the younger one. She worked at a series of low paying jobs, but her past always caught up to her. She assumed a new name, but when her employer discovered who she was, she would be let go often without explanation. Clearly life has not been easy for Christine Keeler.
While she does whine a lot, and has the attitude that everything was someone else?s fault, to be fair to her and her assertions, these men may well have acted in the way she claims, but for reasons other than an elaborate cover-up of treason. Their behavior was an embarrassment to them and to their country. Embarrassing or not, The British, like their American cousins can never seem to get enough of a juicy sex scandal. Relations between Britain and its US ally were endangered as the CIA wondered if British security had been breached, and subsequently wrote a 1000 page report on the matter. True or not they had to hide the perception of the failure of security. According to Keeler the smear was born to hide the breach and espionage at the highest levels. Sex is more interesting to the public than spying, particularly when it is the rich and powerful who are bearing the brunt of the humiliation. The aristocracy counted on their status in society to shield them when it came to a ?he said; she said? standoff. But even that unraveled.
At the Ward trial Keeler?s roommate Mandy Rice-Davies was on the witness stand professing to have been paid for sex by Lord Astor. Astor?s lawyer, whose own eminence in the legal profession probably commanded a great fee, sought to overwhelm the little trollop on the stand. He thundered, ?You are aware that Lord Astor denies the affair and even denies knowing you?? Rice-Davies? confident, smug, immortal response was: ?Well, he would; wouldn?t he?? The presumption of belief that Lord Astor?s attorney counted on for his client was buried under gales of courtroom laughter. The world changed a little bit at that moment. The phrase is still employed today.
Very few people believe there is anything more to this sordid affair than a good old-fashioned sex scandal. Keeler?s claims are only that, claims. No evidence of breaches of security was ever documented. If that actually happened, it was kept well under wraps.
Profumo spent the rest of his life doing charitable work. Keeler noted in her 2001interview, that at age 86, Profumo had a new girlfriend. ?Why ever not,? she said. He died in March, 2006, at the age of 91. As mentioned above, Ward committed suicide and Ivanov disappeared from history. Sir Roger Hollis died in 1972. Macmillan?s Conservative party lost power that it would not regain until the Prime Ministry of Margaret Thatcher. Mandy Rice-Davies (b. Oct 21, 1944, probably London) is, to the best of my knowledge, still alive. She has apparently done some TV and movie acting. She would be 63 as of this writing.
I could not find anything about Christine Keeler on the web after the 2001 interview and publication of her book. She is presumably alive and well and maybe even at peace. I hope so. She does not seem to regret her choices, only the results.
Below is a rough chronology of the major events in Keeler?s life.
Feb 2, 1942: Keeler is born in Uxbridge, Middlesex
1958: Keeler becomes pregnant by an American GI. She tries to abort the pregnancy and fails. The child dies several days after he is born.
1959: Christine Keeler meets Dr. Stephen Ward while she is working as a showgirl at Murray?s Nightclub in London.
September 1960: Mandy Rice Davies begins to work at Murray?s. The meeting between her and Keeler was described as, ?Dislike at first sight.?
Feb. 1961: Keeler moves in with Stephen Ward. Here, she says, she witnessed Ward meeting with Eugene Ivanov, Sir Roger Hollis, and Anthony Blunt.
July 8, 1961: Keeler meets John Profumo at a party at Cliveden, Lord Astor?s mansion in Buckinghamshire.
August 1961: Profumo ends the affair.
December 14, 1962: Keeler?s ex boyfriend tries to shoot his way into her apartment (Ward?s apartment really) at Wimpole Mews. The police are called and the media gets interested in who comes and goes to this flat.
Marc 22, 1963: Profumo makes a personal statement to the House of Commons denying any involvement with Keeler.
June 5, 1963: John Profumo resigns as Secretary of War.
July 30, 1963: On the last day of his trial, Stephen Ward kills himself.
1963: Keeler is imprisoned for 9 months for perjury. She is released in May or June of 1964 after serving nine months. She is the only person involved in the Profumo Affair to go to jail for anything.
That Famous Photograph: While photos of Keeler can be found on the web, there is one that is still a classic. Keeler was working under contract to promote a film by modeling. The film was never released. Her contract called for her to be photographed nude, but she balked when the time came. The photographer, Lewis Morley, chased other workers from the room and suggested that Keeler remove her clothes while his back was turned, and she could sit in a chair facing its back. She would technically be fulfilling her contract as she would be nude. She agreed and he took 10 or 12 photos of her in the chair. One of them became an iconic photo of the ?swinging sixties? and sales of the chair soared. By today?s standards it is tame, but its potent sexuality cannot be denied despite the fact it does not reveal all that much. It can be seen here: http://www.woolamaloo.org.uk/ChristineKeeler.jpg
The second point is the usual disclaimer. If you want to work on the chart without knowing who the native is, stop reading now. Otherwise, read on.]
There is so much to this woman?s story and it is so complicated that I can?t possibly cram it into a single post. The best I can do is to stay close to her part and skim over others that are as important. What we need to keep in mind are the times in which she became famous or infamous depending on your viewpoint. The notorious part of her story takes place from roughly 1961 to 1963. We are at the end of the post war 1950s and just before the era that would become the over-romanticized, over-glorified, wildly exagerated 1960s. The old mores are changing and these events contributed, but not in any way anyone could have foreseen. And most importantly these incidents surround the year 1962 - the year of the Cuban Missile Crises, which brought the world to the brink of a nuclear confrontation between the US and the USSR. Espionage at this time could result in nuclear war. And espionage or at least the charges of espionage figure greatly in the story.
Our native is Christine Keeler, who, born to the lower classes and into poverty, nonetheless became, at the ripe old age of 21, a household name associated with prostitution, sexual escapades, the British aristocracy, and Cold War spying. In 1963, I first heard the phrase ?call girl? defined as an expensive prostitute (as opposed to a streetwalker) and it was associated with Keeler. Yet to this day she denies she ever was a prostitute. From what I could gather doing desktop research, she is probably telling the truth. I believe her.
Christine Keeler was probably not born in London as I erroneously posted, but, according to her autobiography, in Uxbridge, Middlesex, which changes the chart very little. I?ve also found other locations for her birth. Her father left her and her mother during Christine?s infancy. Her mother took up with a man Christine was encouraged to accept as her father. The family lived in an old converted railroad carriage, and her childhood was certainly less than ideal. She was terrified of her step father and went out of her way to avoid being alone with him. She even went so far as to sleep with a knife under her pillow in case he should come into her room. He never did and from I could find he never touched her, but she hated him anyway. She also claimed that the men in the neighborhood used to try to kiss and fondle her when she would baby-sit for their children. She was a very beautiful girl.
At the age of 17 in 1959 she was working, possibly as a topless waitress, in Murray?s Nightclub in London and met Stephen Ward a well connected osteopath. Ward?s address book included people like Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Winston Churchill and other members of Parliament, and British aristocracy. He also had some odd sexual appetites. Christine eventually moved in with him in 1961 when she was 19 and he was 47.
In July 1961 Ward takes her to a party at Lord Astor?s home Cliveden, an historic mansion, where she first meets John Profumo, British Secretary of War. At the party, a very hot night, Keeler went looking for a swim suit and found one that didn?t fit too well. Keeler complained about the fit and Ward jokingly said, ?Why don?t you take it off?? She did and jumped into the swimming pool nude and started cavorting. Profumo and others went to the pool to see what all the splashing and noise were about and they were confronted by a dripping wet and naked Christine Keeler. She found a towel for cover, and Mrs. Profumo found her a better fitting swim suit. Ward had hidden hers. The following day she was introduced to a Russian Naval attach? named Eugene Ivanov who British Intelligence, M15, considered to be a spy. She liked Ivanov and began an intimate relationship with him. Profumo, 46 years old and married, obtains Keeler?s phone number and quickly begins a short lived affair with the 19 year old, but when he learns she is also sleeping with the Russian he breaks it off [Keeler?s version as to why it was broken off and who was working with whom is a bit different].
Rumors spread about Keeler and Profumo and never died, but nothing came of the matter until December, 1962, when a shooting incident (Keeler refused to let an ex-boyfriend, Johnnie Edgecomb, into her home, so he shot the door in an attempt to unlock it) and a curious press investigated and brought out the rumors once more. Profumo was investigated and swore to the House of Commons that he never had anything to do with her and in private muttered things like, ?Who is going to believe a word of that little tart?? Unfortunately for Profumo a letter that he wrote to her surfaced that began ?Darling.? Whoops.
Busted, Profumo resigned in June 1963, investigations galore began because of the possible relationships between Keeler and Profumo and Ivanov. Was she spying for one side or the other and obtaining information from ?pillow talk?? Eventually even the CIA got into the act trying to find out if British security was compromised. After all Stephen Ward introduced Ivanov to the British officials and to Keeler and her eventual roommate Mandy Rice-Davies. Ivanov was eventually recalled to Moscow and never heard from again. Stephen Ward was brought to trial on trumped up charges of living off prostitution (Keeler and Mandy Rice- Davies were the alleged prostitutes), and committed suicide the day the jury reached, but had not yet announced, its verdict (guilty). Keeler was eventually convicted of perjury for a misstated detail in her testimony in the trial of Edgecomb, the man that fired the shots at her door, and she did 9 months in prison. All of this before she turned 22.
This was my initial interest in the chart. How is it that a poorly educated, unsophisticated girl born on the wrong side of the tracks, gets involved in high politics, and causes an international brouhaha at 21? [The ladies reading these words will kindly resist the obvious answer: ?Because men are stupid.?] It had to be more than just her looks. I hoped the chart might show us.
Throughout her life she worked menial and low-paying jobs, but probably never did work as a prostitute. Rice-Davies apparently did work as a prostitute from time to time. The accuracy of these assertions depends on how we define ?prostitute.? If we mean a woman who does this for a living, sees clients at appointed times for regular rates, then I would argue Keeler is telling the truth; she never did that. But Ward did set her up with the rich and powerful and she did go to bed with them and they did give her money and gifts to keep her interested. She and Mandy Rice-Davies, who was engaged in similar activities, used to laugh about it. So she was clearly promiscuous, but not what is euphemistically called today a ?sex worker.?
The last interview with her that I could find was done in 2001. She just published her second book on the ?Profumo Affair,? motivated in part by her following of what the interviewer called ?The Lewinsky Hearings,? and because she needed the money. In this the second book recounting the affair she made some startling new revelations. She said she was made pregnant by Profumo, but aborted the pregnancy without telling him. The affair was over before she knew she was pregnant. She said the emphasis on the sexual side of the scandal and the description of her as a ?call girl? was the invention of Lord Denning the man who headed the official investigation in the affair. She said this was a red herring designed to keep people away from the very real espionage that was going on. She claimed that Ward was a Soviet Agent and so was M15 Director Sir Roger Hollis. She believes M15 and the CIA (is there a boogeyman on earth as ubiquitous as the CIA?) wanted and perhaps still want her dead because she knows too much. All of these claims are somewhat plausible, but completely unverifiable. For the record, I don?t believe them. Vast conspiracy theories are rarely accurate, and usually depend heavily on listener?s ignorance. Espionage at that level would (or should) be too careful to allow a teenager to see and learn so much. My take is that she was a beautiful young woman who attracted men easily and loved the effect she had on them and/or saw this kind of behavior as her ?way out? of the life she so hated. She grew up in poverty and was impressed by the power and money of the people with whom she associated (who wouldn?t?), but lacked the maturity to handle it. Being so young, she had no idea that the consequences of her actions could be so profound. In short she was in way over her head, and people who should have known better took advantage of her. Her belief that Lord Denning, who conducted the official inquiry into the matter, manufactured the prostitution and played up the sex angle to divert attention away from the obvious security lapses is probably correct, but his precise motive cannot be proven. Was he covering up espionage or stupidity? Interestingly Denning managed to get the British government to seal the transcripts of his interviews with Keeler until 2045. He wanted them destroyed.
After the Affair died down a bit, the government of Harold Macmillan fell. Keeler married for the first time and had a son. It didn?t last. She would remarry; give birth to another son and divorce. The eldest was raised by her mother, apparently not by Christine?s choice. She raised the younger one. She worked at a series of low paying jobs, but her past always caught up to her. She assumed a new name, but when her employer discovered who she was, she would be let go often without explanation. Clearly life has not been easy for Christine Keeler.
While she does whine a lot, and has the attitude that everything was someone else?s fault, to be fair to her and her assertions, these men may well have acted in the way she claims, but for reasons other than an elaborate cover-up of treason. Their behavior was an embarrassment to them and to their country. Embarrassing or not, The British, like their American cousins can never seem to get enough of a juicy sex scandal. Relations between Britain and its US ally were endangered as the CIA wondered if British security had been breached, and subsequently wrote a 1000 page report on the matter. True or not they had to hide the perception of the failure of security. According to Keeler the smear was born to hide the breach and espionage at the highest levels. Sex is more interesting to the public than spying, particularly when it is the rich and powerful who are bearing the brunt of the humiliation. The aristocracy counted on their status in society to shield them when it came to a ?he said; she said? standoff. But even that unraveled.
At the Ward trial Keeler?s roommate Mandy Rice-Davies was on the witness stand professing to have been paid for sex by Lord Astor. Astor?s lawyer, whose own eminence in the legal profession probably commanded a great fee, sought to overwhelm the little trollop on the stand. He thundered, ?You are aware that Lord Astor denies the affair and even denies knowing you?? Rice-Davies? confident, smug, immortal response was: ?Well, he would; wouldn?t he?? The presumption of belief that Lord Astor?s attorney counted on for his client was buried under gales of courtroom laughter. The world changed a little bit at that moment. The phrase is still employed today.
Very few people believe there is anything more to this sordid affair than a good old-fashioned sex scandal. Keeler?s claims are only that, claims. No evidence of breaches of security was ever documented. If that actually happened, it was kept well under wraps.
Profumo spent the rest of his life doing charitable work. Keeler noted in her 2001interview, that at age 86, Profumo had a new girlfriend. ?Why ever not,? she said. He died in March, 2006, at the age of 91. As mentioned above, Ward committed suicide and Ivanov disappeared from history. Sir Roger Hollis died in 1972. Macmillan?s Conservative party lost power that it would not regain until the Prime Ministry of Margaret Thatcher. Mandy Rice-Davies (b. Oct 21, 1944, probably London) is, to the best of my knowledge, still alive. She has apparently done some TV and movie acting. She would be 63 as of this writing.
I could not find anything about Christine Keeler on the web after the 2001 interview and publication of her book. She is presumably alive and well and maybe even at peace. I hope so. She does not seem to regret her choices, only the results.
Below is a rough chronology of the major events in Keeler?s life.
Feb 2, 1942: Keeler is born in Uxbridge, Middlesex
1958: Keeler becomes pregnant by an American GI. She tries to abort the pregnancy and fails. The child dies several days after he is born.
1959: Christine Keeler meets Dr. Stephen Ward while she is working as a showgirl at Murray?s Nightclub in London.
September 1960: Mandy Rice Davies begins to work at Murray?s. The meeting between her and Keeler was described as, ?Dislike at first sight.?
Feb. 1961: Keeler moves in with Stephen Ward. Here, she says, she witnessed Ward meeting with Eugene Ivanov, Sir Roger Hollis, and Anthony Blunt.
July 8, 1961: Keeler meets John Profumo at a party at Cliveden, Lord Astor?s mansion in Buckinghamshire.
August 1961: Profumo ends the affair.
December 14, 1962: Keeler?s ex boyfriend tries to shoot his way into her apartment (Ward?s apartment really) at Wimpole Mews. The police are called and the media gets interested in who comes and goes to this flat.
Marc 22, 1963: Profumo makes a personal statement to the House of Commons denying any involvement with Keeler.
June 5, 1963: John Profumo resigns as Secretary of War.
July 30, 1963: On the last day of his trial, Stephen Ward kills himself.
1963: Keeler is imprisoned for 9 months for perjury. She is released in May or June of 1964 after serving nine months. She is the only person involved in the Profumo Affair to go to jail for anything.
That Famous Photograph: While photos of Keeler can be found on the web, there is one that is still a classic. Keeler was working under contract to promote a film by modeling. The film was never released. Her contract called for her to be photographed nude, but she balked when the time came. The photographer, Lewis Morley, chased other workers from the room and suggested that Keeler remove her clothes while his back was turned, and she could sit in a chair facing its back. She would technically be fulfilling her contract as she would be nude. She agreed and he took 10 or 12 photos of her in the chair. One of them became an iconic photo of the ?swinging sixties? and sales of the chair soared. By today?s standards it is tame, but its potent sexuality cannot be denied despite the fact it does not reveal all that much. It can be seen here: http://www.woolamaloo.org.uk/ChristineKeeler.jpg
