London’s Playboy Club was the embodiment of Hugh Heffner’s fantasy, a celebration of sex and glamour. But in 1975 it was rocked by the brutal murder of a Playboy bunny called Eve Stratford. In 1979 Lynda Farrow, a croupier in a West End casino died in apparently similar circumstances. Some police were convinced the murderer was the same man. I’ve come to question the links between those two killings. The Playboy Bunny Murder II
The original investigation brought Paul Farrow out as a suspect in 1979. He was never charged with the murder of his estranged wife, Lynda. ibid.
Incredibly, key evidence from the Lynda Farrow crime scene had been lost. There was no way of using DNA to determine if her murder was linked to Eve’s. But DNA had turned up from another source that took the Eve Stratford case in an astonishing new direction. ibid.
‘The case of Lynn Weedon who was murdered all those years ago. This was the 3rd September 1975: She was a 16-year-old girl at the time. She’d been out with friends, and towards the end of the school summer holidays, and was on her way home. And she’d walked down the alleyway and was struck on the head with something, hard blunt instrument as we would say. She was then thrown over the fencing around an electricity sub station, where she was sexually assaulted, raped, and left there. ibid. Martin Lee, original cold case review
No Tears Left: Sex-attack girl dies in coma as police hunt for a maniac. ibid. Daily Express, Thursday, 11th September 1975
The DNA link between the murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon was absolutely baffling. The two victims seemed to inhabit different worlds. Eve was an aspiring model who rubbed shoulders with celebrities; Lynne Weedon was a 16-year-old schoolgirl who had gone out with friends to a pub in the suburbs one Wednesday evening in 1975 but never came home. ibid.
And I was about to learn of another potential victim … ‘This is the sad murder scene of Elizabeth Parravicini and she was struck over the head with a blunt object’ … ibid. ex-rozzer
‘This murder was almost a carbon copy of another brutal murder which took place in the same area just 2 years ago. On September 4th 1975 a 16-year-old student, Lynne Weedon, was attacked and raped 50 yards from her home. And the 2 murders took place within a mile of each other,’ ibid. TV news
We’ll call this individual Policeman B … ‘He would have been able to walk to both sites in about half an hour from his home address.’ ibid. ex-rozzer
Policeman B had been routinely questioned in 1977 in relation to the murder of Elizabeth Parravicini. ibid.
This man had been found guilty of a shocking but unrelated crime … Policeman B had perpetrated terrible crimes. ibid.
That person didn’t just go and kill our mum that day; she lost a baby, we lost a brother, they away our childhood … West End Murders I, comment, CI 2024
Lynda Farrow was a mother. She had two daughters when she was murdered. They were 11 and 8 years old. She was pregnant, expecting another baby … She was subjected to a brutal attack which killed her. ibid. Colin
Forensics inside the house – that really came down to some finger marks and some palm prints. ibid.
Gladys [witness] went out to have a look and she said there were three men in that car – Dennis Facey, Douglas Whittaker and Ray Farrow. ibid.
Colin: But what [daughter] did notice was that as soon as the pub was sold, and they got out of the pub, Dennis and Iris have got money. ibid.
Jo: And she’s also aware just before as the pub was sold they are partying at the pub, the family. And she’s thrown out of her bedroom. Both girls are thrown out of their bedrooms and told to sleep on the floor basically while they are partying all around and her dad’s just died. ibid.
It looks like they [family] know. They know what’s gone on here, or certainly a big chunk of it. They know. Yeah, the type of murder, for want of a better phrase, the knife and the cutthroat murder, which is very similar to Eve Statford, 1975. ibid. Mark
Eve Stratford was a bunny girl at the Playboy Club. And in March 1975 she died from an injury absolutely identical to Lynda Farrow. West End Murders II: Eve Stratford, Colin
They obtained two male profiles from Eve’s bindings and clothing. ibid.
Abdul Khawaja [Monty] is described as the ‘unacceptable face of the Playboy Club’. ibid.
The murder of this young lady, Lynne Weedon: Lynne was a 16-year-old schoolgirl and in September, at the beginning of September 1975 she was walking home from a pub close to her house in Lampton Avenue in Hounslow. She was attacked in an ally just 100 yards or so from her house. West End Murders III: Lynn Weedon
There is a DNA link: so the DNA that was found on Eve Stratford’s bindings when it was submitted in the 2000s hit a crime scene sample from the rape of Lynne Weedon. ibid.
Mystery Faces In Bunny Murder: Police hunting Bunny Girl Eve Stratford’s killer showed two Photo-fit pictures yesterday to 250 of the girls’ neighbours. West End Murders IV, Daily Mirror Monday 28th April 1975
[Colin reads from article]: Picture No 1 is of a man in his later thirties or early forties, about 5 ft 5 in tall, with bushy eyebows and a rosy complexion. He was wearing a three-quarter length dark overcoat that was too long for him – listen to this – he had a ‘peculiar walk’. Who does that sound like? … Khawaja. ibid.
Abdul Khawaja [Monty] had some sort of a relationship with Eve [Stratford]. ibid. Colin
Are there other victims the police have yet to discover? ibid. journalist
So I’ve been trying for the last ten years or so to find this link potentially between Khawaja and Whittaker. ibid.
The only person not eliminated scientifically who was linked to Khawaja and therefore both women is Whittaker. ibid.
The Metropolitan Police have now reopened the Lynda Farrow case. ibid.
We can say a man based in Thailand [Whittaker] has been eliminated from our enquiries. ibid. Statement 1st December 2003
WEST, FRED & ROSE: Bernard Manning - David Canter - Janet Leach - Crimes that Shook the World TV - Fred West: Born to Kill? TV - Appropriate Adult TV - Murders that Shocked Britain TV - Fred and Rose: The West Murders TV - Fred West - Fred’s solicitor - News reports - The Unseen Fred West Confessions TV - Crimes that Shook Britain TV - Martin Kemp TV - Public Eye: The Cromwell Street Murders TV - Britain’s Most Evil Killers TV - Inside Story: Inside 25 Cromwell Street TV - Fred and Rose: The Unanswered Questions TV - Fred and Rose West: The One that Got Away TV - Trevor McDonald TV - The Killer in My Family TV - Making a Monster: Rose West TV - Fred & Rose West: The Search for the Victims TV - Fred & Rose West: Reopened TV - Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story TV - Fred West: The Glasgow Girls TV - True Crime Recaps 2021 - Fred & Rose West: Love & Murder TV -
Fred West: the police got him in; they said, ‘How many people have you killed?’ He said, ‘Seven.’ They said, ‘We’ve fucking dug twelve up.’ He said, ‘I know but I’m a builder – that’s just a fucking estimate.’ Bernard Manning
By the time that Fred West met Rose he was already a very dangerous individual who had really found ways of killing and getting rid of the body. Professor David Canter, criminal psychologist
He used to cry and talk to her a lot. Janet Leach, appropriate adult