Editing Profumo affair (section)

===Gordon and Edgecombe===
[[File:Wimpole Mews - geograph.org.uk - 606645.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Wimpole Mews. No. 17 is the flat-roofed, brick-faced house, just visible on the right.]]
In October 1961 Keeler accompanied Ward to [[Notting Hill]], then a run-down district of London replete with West Indian music clubs and [[cannabis]] dealers.<ref name="DH250" /><ref>Robertson, p. 27</ref> At the Rio Café they encountered [[Lucky Gordon|Aloysius "Lucky" Gordon]], a Jamaican jazz singer with a history of violence and petty crime. Gordon and Keeler embarked on an affair which, in her own accounts, was marked by equal measures of violence and tenderness on his part.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 100–01</ref> Gordon became very possessive, jealous of Keeler's other social contacts. He began confronting her friends and often telephoned her at unsocial hours. In November Keeler left Wimpole Mews and moved to a flat in [[Dolphin Square]], overlooking the Thames at [[Pimlico]], where she entertained friends. When Gordon continued to harass Keeler he was arrested by the police and charged with assault. Keeler later agreed to drop the charge.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, p. 102</ref><ref>Summers and Dorril, pp. 69–70</ref>

In July 1962 the first inklings of a possible Profumo-Keeler-Ivanov triangle had been hinted at, in coded terms, in the gossip column of the society magazine ''[[Queen (magazine)|Queen]]''. Under the heading, "Sentences I'd like to hear the end of" appeared the wording: "...&nbsp;called in MI5 because every time the chauffeur-driven [[ZiL|Zils]] drew up at her ''front'' door, out of her ''back'' door into a chauffeur-driven [[Humber Limited|Humber]] slipped..."<ref name="Young9">Young, p. 9, quoting from ''Queen''</ref> Keeler was then in New York City with Rice-Davies, in an abortive attempt to launch their modelling careers there.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 103–04</ref>{{#tag:ref|A year later, at the height of the scandal, this visit was investigated by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], in connection with rumours that Keeler had slept with US President [[John F. Kennedy]].<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 206–07</ref>|group= n}} On her return to London in September 1962, to counter Gordon's threats, Keeler met and formed a relationship with [[Johnny Edgecombe]], an ex-merchant seaman from Antigua, with whom she lived for a while in [[Brentford]], just west of London.<ref name="DH258">Davenport-Hines, p. 258</ref> Edgecombe became similarly possessive himself after he and Gordon clashed violently on 27 October 1962, when Edgecombe slashed his rival's face with a knife.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, p. 117</ref> Keeler broke up with Edgecombe shortly afterwards because of his domineering behaviour.<ref name="DH258" />

On the afternoon of 14 December 1962, Keeler and Rice-Davies were together at Ward's house at 17 Wimpole Mews when Edgecombe arrived, demanding to see Keeler. When he was not allowed in, he fired several shots at the front door. Shortly afterwards, Edgecombe was arrested and charged with [[attempted murder]] and other offences.<ref>Robertson, pp. 29–30</ref> In brief press accounts, Keeler was described as "a free-lance model" and "Miss Marilyn Davies" as "an actress".<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, p. 121</ref> In the wake of the incident, Keeler began to talk indiscreetly about Ward, Profumo, Ivanov and the Edgecombe shooting. Among those to whom she told her story was [[John Lewis (British politician)|John Lewis]], a former [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] whom she had met by chance in a night club. Lewis, a long-standing enemy of Ward, passed the information to Wigg, his one-time parliamentary colleague, who began his own investigation.<ref>Irving et al, pp. 76–78</ref>