The brutal unsolved murder of Playboy Bunny Eve Stratford still haunts her fellow Playboy bunnies to this day
A London Playboy bunn Eve, also known as Eve Van Bock and Bunny Ava, was discovered in her bedroom with eight to 12 lacerations to her throat, bound with a scarf and stockings around her legs, and is believed to have been sexually assaulted.
Recalling the moment she learned of her friend’s savage death, Barbara Haigh who worked alongside Eve as a cocktail waitress describes being overcome with nausea upon hearing the devastating news.
Speaking to Marcel for ITVX’s Playboy Bunny murder, Barbara said: “She would never have done anything to provoke that sort of murder. She’s only a kid and there’s nobody left to defend her. Her parents are dead, her whole bloody family’s dead. There’s no one but us old boilers who were around in 1975 who can protect her.”
At the time, officers investigating the high-profile case stated there were no indications of forced entry, leading them to suspect Eve knew her killer and had let them into her flat.
Singer – and former Playboy bunny – Sheen Doran, now 75, was one of Eve’s best friends and worked with her at the Playboy club on Park Lane, Mayfair, in 1966.
She used to stay overnight at a Leyton flat with the model. She told the BBC : “Her boyfriend was a singer and we used to go the Royal Standard in Walthamstow to support him.”
“It was very good money, but very hard work. You are a glorified waitress. You had to stand for 10 hours in heels. But we felt safe on the job.
“We had room managers and no one was allowed to touch us.
“We even had families there in the daytime. I used to sit with the children and draw. We were a lovely bunch of girls, we stuck by each other and we all got on.”
In March 1975 Eve had been Girl of the Month on the front cover of Mayfair magazine, an adult magazine for men. Police later concluded that the magazine cover had likely enticed her killer.
Sheen said: “I was with another bunny friend when we saw the Evening Standard poster saying ‘Bunny Girl Dead’.
“We ran straight from Oxford Circus to the Playboy Club and into the bunny mother’s office.”
Eve had been murdered after walking home from Leytonstone Tube station at about 15:30 after a meeting with her agent. At 16:30, neighbours heard a male and female voice and then a loud thud. At 17:20 her boyfriend returned – to find her dead.
Six months afterwards, Lynne Weedon, aged just 16, was discovered attacked and raped in an alleyway close to her Hounslow residence at 11pm on 3rd September. Lynne died of her injuries the next day.
The murders of Eve and Lynne were connected after matching DNA evidence was recovered from both victims—though the two had never met.
By 2015, four decades following Lynne’s tragic death, her mother Margaret Weedon appealed to the public for any 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 have died now. Another true life sentence.. “
The crime series also takes a look at the death of Lynda Farrow who was knifed to death in her home in 1979, believed to be by the same killer. She had worked as a croupier in London.
Marcel Theroux has spent the last four years trying to find police files on the case and looking for breakthrough information.. He said: “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? 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.”
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