All theories about who Playboy Bunny killer is as cops say he's still alive

13 November 2023 , 19:55

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The horrific murder of a Playboy Bunny has remained unsolved for nearly 50 years, with mystery still surrounding the tragic death of 21-year-old Eve Stratford. Tonight, a new ITV documentary titled The Playboy Bunny Murder explores the model's cold case alongside two other victims, who are believed to have been murdered by the same killer.

In 1973, Eve moved to London to work as a waitress at Mayfair's notorious Playboy Club, aged just 19. She had ambitions of becoming a model and was popular among the club's regulars. On Tuesday, March 17, she was found dead in her home by her boyfriend, musician Tony Priest, and his bandmate. Her throat had been slashed around 12 times.

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Playboy Bunny Eve Stratford was murdered in her home in East London in 1975 (Mirrorpix)

All theories about who Playboy Bunny killer is as cops say he's still alive

She featured as Miss March in Mayfair just months before her tragic death

Eve, whose head was almost severed, had horrifically been raped and tied up with her own stockings. There were no signs of a break-in, leading police to believe she knew her killer. Six months after her death, schoolgirl Lynne Weedon, 16, was brutally attacked and raped in an alleyway near her home. She died after being found barely alive the next day. Thirty years later, DNA found at both crime scenes linked the murders.

In 2015, Lynne's mother Margaret Weedon made an impassionate plea for information. She said: "It has been 40 years since our beautiful young daughter Lynne was violently taken from us. We are well aware that whoever murdered Lynne also murdered Eve Stratford. That young lady also had her life snubbed out. Her family has died now. Another true life sentence."

A third victim, 29-year-old croupier Lynda Farrow, is believed to have been killed in 1979 by the same unknown man. Former detective chief inspector Colin Sutton carried out a review of the evidence in Lynda's case in 2002. He said he had no doubt that whoever killed Eve and Lynne also murdered Lynda. "I have no doubt the same man committed all three," he said.

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"I was quickly struck by the similarities with that of Eve Stratford. A woman killed in her own home by having her throat slit? That is rare enough today, in the 1970s it was almost unheard of. For this to have happened twice, with identical wounds, within a few miles of each other was just too much of a coincidence," DCI Sutton continued.

During a 2015 interview, he revealed more: "It has tantalised and burned in me ever since. With Eve Stratford, all the evidence was available, which enabled us to send items away for modern scientific analysis. In Lynda's case, it was the reverse. This was particularly disappointing, as the physical evidence in Lynda's murder has never been checked for DNA, cutting off an important detection route."

Schoolgirl Lynne Weedon sadly died after being attacked six months later (PA)

Lynda Farrow (right) was murdered at her home in Essex in 1979 (PA Archive/PA Images)

The inspector continued to explain that the killer is likely alive and still undiscovered. "The fact that the Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon DNA profile remains unmatched tells us their killer has not been arrested in the past 20 years. I have no doubt the same man committed all three murders," he said. "Did he die, or move abroad? My gut feeling tells me he is still out there somewhere and still nervous about a knock on his door."

Marcel Theroux, who presents the ITV documentary, has spent four years trying to find police files on the case and look for potential breakthroughs. "This is a story that has obsessed me for years. How could a serial killer kill multiple victims in 1970s London and remain unknown? What evidence was missed?" he said. "What clues were the police of the time unable to make use of? As witnesses reach the ends of lives and memories fail, this might be the last chance to get justice for the three victims."

Over the years, detectives have followed hundreds of lines of inquiries, ruling out many men including Eve's boyfriend Tony. Just before her death, Eve appeared in the top-shelf magazine Mayfair, a British rival to the American magazine Playboy, which angered her bosses at the Old Park Lane venue. After being suspended as a bunny due to the photo shoot, she told her manager she didn't mind as she wasn't going to wait tables forever and 'wanted to do something with her life'.

Eve died just days after appearing in the magazine, leading police to question Mayfair's then-feature editor, David Brenner. He wrote the words that accompanied the pictures, which were an explicit chat where she revealed she liked to be dominated in bed but that she didn't like to be 'whipped or tied up'. Mr Brenner was later cleared of involvement after providing a DNA sample.

Ex-intelligence officer Chris Clark is convinced Peter Sutcliffe killed Eve and Lynne (SWNS)

Another man who was in the frame for the murder was Lebanese businessman, Abdul Khawaja, who would have lunch every day at the Playboy Club. Bunny Rosemary told The Times that Mr Khawaja could never shake off the suspicion. He was cleared after his death when police took a DNA sample from his son.

Ex-intelligence officer Chris Clark previously spoke out about his belief that Peter Sutcliffe, who died of Covid-19 in November 2020, is behind at least 30 more unsolved murders, including Eve and Lynne. He told the Mirror just after Sutcliffe's death: "I've been able to link the Ripper by method, motive and opportunity to cold cases that have remained dormant for decades.

"The key to tying these threads together was a timeline of Sutcliffe's life with his wife, Sonia, and his job as an HGV driver travelling across the length and breadth of the UK. The evidence is out there and the victims deserve better." In his book The Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders, Chris says Sutcliffe was in the area of Eve's home for the wedding of his sister-in-law, which was four days after she was murdered.

He added that "tellingly Stratford's murder bore the same crimes signature as some of Sutcliffe's confirmed future killings". Sutcliffe slashed Irene Richardson's throat during her savage murder in 1977, in a similar way to how Eve was left. The murder of Lynne did bare the Ripper's notorious MO. Her skull was smashed from behind and the lower parts of his victim's clothing had been removed.

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Sutcliffe was in London during the week of Lynne's killing too, stopping off at a home in North London before flying out of Heathrow - just four miles from the murder scene. Police only hold mouth swabs and hair in their national databases for Sutcliffe and were unable to take a full blood sample before his death. It has been noted by the former Home Secretary, Lawrence Byford, that Sutcliffe was "probably responsible for numerous attacks on other women between 1969 and 1980".