The Playboy Murders Season 3 Episode 2
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00:00Linda was a very attractive girl she was so all-american she was there to
00:13photograph the bunny the year contest I couldn't believe it who would do
00:21something like that to this wonderful woman then over the next month four more
00:29women were brutally murdered in Tampa police called the summer of 1983 the
00:38summer of hell if you're one of the bunnies working at the club must have
00:44been terrifying it could have been me or another bunny I was frightened
00:54was I safe
00:57should I watch my back it's one of the most bizarre stories in the history of
01:03Tampa Bay no doubt
01:17it was Monday July 11th 1983 early in the morning around 7 a.m. and a man who was
01:24on his daily morning walk when he spotted something unusual at a dead end
01:32of old Memorial Highway near a creek he found a woman's body she was face down
01:41had a towel over her head and was nude from the waist down he ran to a
01:51neighbor's home to use their phone to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's
01:55Office they looked around and didn't find a purse a wallet or any kind of
02:03identification so detectives were not able to identify who this woman was at the crime scene
02:10she had been shot four times in the head with a small caliber weapon and they were able to find evidence of sexual assault
02:20the same day in Clearwater about half an hour away from where this body was found a group of kids finds this knit purse and turn that person to police
02:37the cash was gone but the credit cards were still in it the police saw that it
02:47belonged to a woman named Linda Lanson who lived in Tampa
02:52police are trying to track down the owner of this purse they reach out to
02:56Lynn's apartment complex and they find that she hasn't been seen for days
03:03but then detectives get a really big clue when they discover where she was last seen in public
03:08and that is at the Suncoast Playboy Club in St. Petersburg
03:18Playboy clubs were huge across the country when the first Playboy Club opened in 1960
03:23people were going out for these long like three martini lunches and they would want this really upscale night
03:30but by the 80s things had really changed people were a lot more casual in their style of going out
03:35Playboy was still this giant worldwide brand that everybody knew super popular
03:41but business-wise they were having a lot of trouble
03:44so the Suncoast Playboy Club was struggling a little bit and in order to get more publicity and attention
03:49they would have publicity stunts like the bunny of the year pageant
03:57in 1983 I met Linda she was there to photograph the bunny of the year contest and I was nominated
04:06I remember her being very pretty and very personable
04:11Linda was a very attractive girl but she didn't try to be flashy she was very shy
04:17she was sweet and nice
04:21Linda moved to Tampa from New York City got married
04:25had a daughter and wound up getting divorced
04:29now she's a 41 year old single mom
04:34renting an apartment in Tampa
04:36and she is trying to build a new life for herself
04:40as a photographer while her 7 year old daughter is spending the summer with her dad in Orlando
04:48she was starting to get some regular gigs with a Tampa radio morning show called Q Zoo
04:54Q's the morning zoo
04:56get up what's the morning Q Zoo
04:58good morning to you from the zoo who's this?
05:01radio was red hot and I was the program director and morning DJ on Q 105 radio station
05:09we would go out and do live shows from different places around Tampa Bay
05:15and I remember our promotion director mentioned to me that we were going to have a new publicity photographer
05:23a girl named Linda Lanson
05:27and she would take pictures of what was going on there
05:30and all the personalities mingling with the fans
05:33she'd be sneaking around taking pictures you never knew when she was going to pop up
05:39I remember I was asking her about why she was so particular about taking so many damn pictures
05:47and she says I wanted just the right pictures because I got to make money
05:53this is my job
05:54I'm a single mom and I don't depend on anybody I do it myself
05:59she kind of didn't quite tear up but she really loved her child
06:05she was looking to grow in this new career
06:08and to be hired to take the photos at the bunny of the year contest at the Suncoast Playboy Club
06:15that would have been an incredible opportunity
06:21the Suncoast Playboy Club opened in the spring of 1981
06:25it was right on the beach
06:27it's a town that caters to a lot of tourists
06:30I was single and I loved Domingos
06:33and Tampa was burning up
06:36Florida was such a huge destination in the 80s
06:41this is like right when Miami Vice was coming out
06:44it was so glamorized
06:46it had a very distinct look
06:48a very distinct style
06:50and everybody was excited to go there
06:52I began working at the Suncoast Playboy Club
06:57when I decided to audition
06:59and I'll never forget the day because I was very excited
07:02I was so broke at the time
07:05I had to borrow a bathing suit
07:07I had to borrow a friend's high heel shoes
07:09there were about 1500 beautiful women that came for the audition
07:15and they hired only I believe 25
07:20and I was one of the original bunnies
07:22I was 23 I was one of the older bunnies
07:27almost all the other girls were 18 19 20 years old
07:32we did a lot of trips where we would go out and maybe do a golf tournament
07:38or a boxing ring and hold the cards
07:41but it was forbidden to fraternize with any of the guests
07:45so when we were out in public
07:48we always hung out with other bunnies
07:54being a bunny is kind of like being in a sorority
07:57because it can be really supportive
07:59but it can get really competitive too
08:02when the bunny of the year contest came around
08:05you're competing against some of your closest friends
08:07so that can definitely bring some tension
08:09I think there was a little bit of jealousy
08:12it was a very prestige position
08:17being named bunny of the year
08:18is like being chosen to be a playboy bunny
08:20but on steroids
08:24the bunny of the year contest was held in each club
08:29and there was quite a significant package
08:32when you won
08:33there were prizes involved
08:34I remember one of them was a diamond ring
08:36and there was a cash prize
08:38what was so special about wanting to be bunny of the year
08:41I think for me personally
08:44was I knew I would get a chance to visit the mansion
08:47in Los Angeles
08:49I would get to meet Hugh Hefner
08:51Hugh Hefner must have been a very mysterious person
08:54to a lot of the bunnies that worked around the country
08:57they would never have met him
08:58he didn't really travel too much
09:00the playmates are so different from the playboy bunnies
09:05the playboy bunny is more of a high-class waitress
09:10a playmate is someone who's in the magazine
09:13and is usually at the playboy mansion
09:17so it was a chance to mingle with the playmates for 10 days
09:24the bunny of the year
09:36was very important for the club
09:38because it generated business
09:40it got a lot of guests involved in picking the winner
09:44it's not only an important night for the club
09:47it's an important night for up-and-coming photographer Linda Lanson
09:51this could potentially be a huge opportunity
09:56on the night of the bunny of the year contest
09:58the nominees were bunny Kim
10:00bunny Shonda and myself
10:02I remember her bunny mother
10:04introducing me to this lovely woman
10:06Linda the photographer
10:07and if we want
10:08we would be able to have copies of the photographs
10:10so I was like very excited about that
10:13bunny Kim bunny Kathy and bunny Shonda
10:17these women all look like the typical 1980s playboy bunny
10:22they've got the big curly hair
10:25they're all very thin
10:27they have that almost like purplish bluish eyeshadow
10:31that was really in style back then
10:33but they all look gorgeous
10:37the bunnies were able to vote
10:39the guests were able to vote
10:42I would give everyone a slip
10:45that they could cast their votes
10:47and I would definitely always put in a plug for Shonda
10:51Bunny Shonda's real name was Carolyn Merricks
10:55she was very good bunny
10:57everybody loved her
10:59she was genuine
11:00she was elegant
11:01she was educated, smart
11:03the customers would come in and ask to sit in her station
11:06I was closest to Bunny Shonda
11:08Bunny Shonda
11:09we weren't the all American girl
11:11blonde, tall
11:13Bunny Shonda was the only African American
11:17that worked at our club
11:19and being of a Latin background
11:23I just felt that I didn't fit in
11:26so I wanted Shonda to win
11:31despite Playboy being a platform for male fantasy
11:38it was progressive on issues like sex and race
11:41Hef was very inclusive for the time
11:44having African American models on the cover of Playboy and in Playboy
11:48you think of that first cover with the first solo African American model
11:52it's so iconic
11:53it's one of the most memorable Playboy covers even to this day
11:58so I can only imagine how exhilarating the night of the Bunny of the Year pageant was for Shonda
12:05it was very exciting
12:08I was literally shaking
12:10they'd call us up individually
12:12why do you want to be Bunny of the Year
12:14gosh I was so nervous
12:16I wasn't used to standing up and speaking in front of a crowd of people
12:21I remember Linda was very capable
12:24moving around quite a bit to get the best shots from every angle
12:28and then they were going to announce the winner
12:31and we're all just anxiously awaiting
12:34they announced Shonda had won the Bunny of the Year
12:40everybody wants to win
12:43but I definitely was happy for her
12:48this is such an exciting, fun, joyous event
12:55and these women have no idea that two of them will be murdered
13:05the sheriff's deputies see the body of a woman lying in the high grass on Memorial Highway
13:20that started an investigation to figure out who she was and what had happened to her
13:26so the police produced a sketch that they issued to the local media
13:31and there was a call out of you think you know who this person is
13:35call us
13:37and Linda Lanson's ex-husband called the sheriff's office
13:42and said that it looked like her
13:46shortly after Tampa police found her car abandoned on a residential street in Tampa
13:53and the windows were down and the keys were in it
13:57now the investigators have Linda's car and her purse
14:02so they bring Linda's ex-husband in to see the Jane Doe
14:07and he confirms that that is the woman he used to be married to
14:15of course they're going to think of Linda's ex-husband as a suspect
14:18but they find out he's got an alibi
14:21so detectives rule out Linda's ex-husband
14:27and when detectives ask her friends and family
14:30none of them can think of a single person who would want to hurt her
14:35Tampa police were able to lift a fingerprint from her car window
14:40but without anybody to compare it to it didn't produce any leads
14:50detectives try to retrace Linda's steps
14:53and they determined that the night before she vanished
14:58she was hired to photograph the bunny of the year contest
15:03at the Playboy Club in St. Petersburg
15:12I came into work and I approached a co-worker
15:16and I said so when do you think we're getting the photographs
15:19I'm so excited to see them
15:22she said well unfortunately it's going to take quite a while
15:24and I said why?
15:25and she said they found the photographer Linda murdered
15:27the night after she left the club
15:31and the police department are keeping the photographs as evidence
15:35I was devastated I couldn't believe it
15:39who would do something like that to this wonderful woman?
15:43when the buddies at the club learned that Linda had been murdered
15:46that must have just been absolutely terrifying
15:49the course detectives went to the Playboy Club
15:52to talk to everyone about anything they might have noticed
15:56since she was found right after photographing that event
16:07I told the detectives Linda left about 1 or 2 a.m. by herself
16:12and I did not see her flirting with anyone or drinking
16:18I told them that when I would leave the Playboy Club
16:21after working a shift
16:22it was usually about 2.33 in the morning
16:25I did not always feel safe
16:27the club could have done better by having security walk us out
16:32because there were times when there were people that were lurking out in the parking lot
16:37when it comes to working at a restaurant environment where there's a bunch of you know scantily clad women
16:44it can be so easy for creeps and criminals to hide in plain sight
16:49when the detectives came to ask questions
16:53it was basically talk to this one talk to that one and okay move on to the next
16:58I really don't feel that the detectives really took it seriously when they interviewed us
17:07and the investigators were not able to speak with Bunny Shonda
17:11because she had already left for her trip to the Playboy Mansion
17:16it was scary
17:19detectives also searched Linda's apartment looking for clues to see if there's any items that will indicate
17:27what led to her murder
17:30detectives find a darkroom in her apartment
17:34she had set up so that she could develop the photographs that she took
17:38when they're looking in Linda's darkroom
17:41they see that she has taken a lot of photographs of Scott Shannon
17:45Linda's friends tell detectives that
17:49she had mentioned having a crush on Scott Shannon
17:53it was a person in her life that the detectives felt like they needed to question
18:01when the detective called me and told me that Linda had been murdered
18:07I was stunned
18:12they started asking me questions whether or not I knew Linda
18:16Linda
18:18and I said why are you asking me
18:20he told me that she had an affection for you
18:24did you have a relationship with her
18:26I'm trying to digest the fact that this girl who I knew
18:30had been brutally murdered
18:32and then they're talking to me like I might be a suspect
18:36I said we worked together and I thought she was wonderful but no I
18:41I did not date her or have any relationship with her
18:45I had no inkling that she had a crush on me at all
18:51the last time I saw Linda was when we were doing our farewell morning zoo show
18:57before I left for New York
18:59she gave me a big hug and said we're going to miss you
19:02I told them that I was living in New York when it happened and I could prove that
19:07they seemed to understand
19:09well after I hung up with a detective from Tampa
19:12I started thinking
19:14who in the hell
19:16would kill that girl
19:19after several weeks the leads just sort of dried up
19:23detectives are no closer to finding the killer of Linda Lanson
19:29and then a month after Linda Lanson was killed Barbara Graham's was murdered
19:39she was 19 and she was attacked and killed while she was walking home from her job at the Tampa Bay Center Mall
19:50and she was found the next morning behind a dentist's office
19:57the crime scene was similar to the Linda Lanson case
20:01Barbara Graham's was also found with no pants on her body and she was barefoot
20:08and it was evident from the scene that she had been disrobed
20:11similar to Linda Lanson the rape test found that she had also been raped
20:20they didn't know if these murders were connected
20:24and then over the next month
20:27four more women were brutally murdered in Tampa
20:32it was a very scary time was I safe should I watch my back was there a serial killer out there
20:46woman after woman after woman
20:56kept turning up dead in public
21:00they were all brutally murdered
21:02some of them were found partially undressed
21:06and some of them were raped
21:08police didn't know if these murders were connected
21:12if these were all separate violent crimes
21:16or if Tampa had a serial killer on their hands
21:20people were scared
21:22police called the summer of 1983 the summer of hell
21:25to know that young women are being targeted and murdered at the rate that they were
21:30I can only imagine if you're one of the bunnies working at the club and you're hearing about all this
21:35it must have been terrifying
21:37we never were alone
21:39we would have a buddy system
21:41downtown was not a place to be by yourself as a woman
21:44in the middle of the night
21:54then in October of 1983
21:57three months after Linda's death
21:59an arrest is made in the murder of 19 year old Barbara Grahams
22:02when the investigators were examining Barbara Grahams's body they take note of a suspicious mark that is on her left cheek and the medical examiner immediately identifies the mark as a bite mark
22:20at that time bite mark evidence was becoming a popular thing in criminal investigations but it wasn't something that the detectives found in the other cases that summer so detectives started talking to different people in the neighborhood and asking them to give samples of their teeth to compare it to the bite mark
22:47the bite mark
22:48they thought if they could find teeth that matched that bite mark they might be able to solve the murder
22:56and they went around taking bite imprints
22:59and they enlisted the help of this famous odontologist Dr. Richard Suverand who had been instrumental in the conviction of Ted Bundy to try to help them match the bite mark
23:15one of the men who agreed to give a sample was Robert DuBois
23:22an 18 year old kid who lived in Tampa
23:26at the time he was working at an auto upholstery shop in Tampa
23:30his family had lived in the neighborhood where Barbara Grahams was found
23:34and as police were investigating that crime one of the witnesses pointed them at Dubois and said that he was somebody they might want to look at because supposedly he was a troublemaker in the neighborhood and so that was enough evidence to say that they had a suspect
23:53Robert DuBois
23:56Robert DuBois is adamant from the beginning that he is innocent but detectives were focusing on this bite mark
24:06it was a few more years before DNA evidence started being used in criminal cases
24:14bite mark evidence in the 1980s was considered to be as good as a fingerprint and when a forensic dentist compared that model to the mark on Barbara Grahams
24:29he opined that it was DuBois teeth that created this bite mark and that became enough for the police to arrest Robert DuBois and charge him with Barbara Grahams murder
24:42he ultimately was found guilty by a jury and he ended up being sentenced to death
24:53detectives aren't able to connect him to Linda Lanson or any of the other women who were killed
25:00but after Robert DuBois is arrested the murders seem to stop
25:07so by that time there isn't a lot else that's happening with Linda Lanson's case
25:18I spent some time thinking about Linda
25:21she was so all-american just a sweet nice kid
25:28and I thought how terrible it was that whoever did it tore her away
25:35so eerie in so many different ways it kind of shook me up
25:45the summer of hell sounds absolutely terrifying
25:48and then in the fall of 1983
25:50the Suncoast Playboy Club closes
25:52they just weren't making the money that they needed to stay open
25:57the trouble with the Playboy Clubs in the early 80s is they weren't really capturing that
26:02aspirational mystique that the Playboy Clubs used to have
26:06we found out quite abruptly and I was really surprised
26:11I was one of the original bunnies I worked from day one I was hired to the day it closed
26:17we were crying on the last night of the club closing
26:21I thought oh this is the best job I ever had
26:24this is going to last forever
26:25you know I wish it would have
26:30it was the end of an era
26:33after the Playboy Club closed several of us would get together and go out
26:46I stayed friends with quite a few of the girls
26:48and we had a little mini sort of reunion
26:52about a year after the club closed
26:54the owners of the club took us out on a boat
26:58Bunny Cathy was there with us
27:01Shonda didn't mention anything about her dating life to me
27:07but she seemed happy
27:10she was working as a cocktail waitress at Tierra Verde
27:13it was a jazz club
27:16but her aspiration was to become a TV news personality
27:23we were all happy to catch up about what we were doing
27:26looking forward to
27:31it was lively it was fun
27:32it was great to see the other girls and just kind of celebrate
27:38the bunnies still maintained a tight-knit sorority forever connected by their time as bunnies
27:43and then the hell that was the summer of 1983 comes crashing back with a vengeance
27:48it's been a year since the Suncoast Playboy Club's Bunny of the Year contest and the murder of Linda Lanson and a woman went to her sister's apartment which was not far from where the Suncoast Playboy Club had been
28:06and saw her sister on the floor covered in blood
28:24she had been stabbed to death
28:27when investigators are on the scene she told them her sister was Carolyn Merrick's
28:39as far as she knew Carolyn wasn't dating anybody or living with anybody at the time
28:45but that she was a cocktail waitress at a resort in Tierra Verde
28:51and she used to work the Suncoast Playboy Club going by the name Bunny Shonda
28:57and she won Playboy Bunny of the Year at the club the year before
29:03it was a total shock to not only us at the club but to the entire community
29:12it made no sense and I was devastated and I still when I think about it I become tearful
29:19it was devastating to hear that something like that would happen to someone like her
29:28and then when we found out some of the details of her being stabbed to death
29:33you think it's personal
29:36another woman is found murdered who was at the Suncoast Playboy Club's Bunny of the Year contest in 1983
29:45but unlike Linda Carolyn's body was found in a private place in her own apartment
29:51there weren't any signs of forced entry
29:55leading law enforcement to believe it may have been someone she knew
29:59and the murder weapon was different
30:02but detectives were looking to find out whether these cases were connected to the Suncoast Playboy Club
30:08and so they reach out to the people who were at the Playboy Club
30:12talking with the investigators
30:17it was definitely an interrogation is what I felt
30:21who did I know who was there who did she hang out with
30:27they really thought it had to be someone inside rather than a stranger
30:34I do remember Sinbad was a good friend of ours that kind of hung out with us
30:41more as protection maybe
30:44however they really focused in on him
30:48could he be someone that might have done this
30:52and of course he was cleared
30:55I also thought it could be due to winning the Bunny of the Year
31:01because Shonda was then sent with all the other Bunnies of the Year
31:06from different clubs out to the Playboy Mansion
31:09I got the feeling that she felt a little uncomfortable being there
31:15because she didn't discuss a lot of what happened there
31:19so there were a lot more things that went on
31:24that maybe she wouldn't have wanted to take part in
31:31I don't know if anything sketchy happened when Shonda went to the mansion
31:35Shonda truly kept her entire personal life private
31:39a lot of people didn't even know where she lived
31:42a lot of people didn't even know she had a child
31:46and that could have been to her demise
31:49because I believe if we would have known more
31:52we might have been able to help
31:54detectives were looking to interview people trying to get to know Carolyn better
32:00to solve her murder
32:02no one wants another summer of hell
32:05but the investigation into Carolyn Merrick's murder went nowhere
32:10her case went cold
32:11total devastation is what her sister must have gone through
32:17it was so tragic
32:20it just becomes frustrating
32:25there were several murders that were still unsolved
32:30including Linda's
32:31when I think about the situation
32:33I think about her daughter
32:35and what it was like to grow up
32:39thinking about your mother and how she was murdered
32:43and then the complications of the whole case
32:48that went cold for so long
32:50oh my god
32:52what an injustice
32:54in Linda's case
32:57there were rape kit slides
32:59that were taken during her autopsy
33:03there was the bloody towel that they found on Linda's body
33:07there was a fingerprint on Linda's car window
33:11but DNA technology was not available in 1983
33:18it didn't become routinely used until really the 90s
33:23it didn't really get advanced until even after that
33:32more than three decades later
33:34there was a big break into of the summer of hell cases
33:40a good afternoon everyone
33:43today is an important day for justice
33:46justice for the family of a victim
33:48and for the man convicted of the murder and attempted rape
33:51of a 19 year old Barbara Grahams back in 1983
33:55even though he was sentenced to death
33:58Robert Dubois always adamantly denied that he was at all involved in Barbara Grahams' murder
34:04for almost 37 years
34:07he had made efforts to try to prove that he was innocent
34:13including asking the courts for DNA testing
34:16and in 2020
34:19Dubois was represented by the Innocence Project
34:23as they conducted their investigation
34:27they became aware that there were samples from the crime
34:33that were taken during Barbara Grahams' autopsy
34:35that were still stored in the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's office
34:41when investigators examine Barbara Grahams' rape kit
34:46they find DNA matching two men
34:51neither of them are Robert Dubois
34:55this is painful and tragic
34:58but it's the truth
35:00and when you tell the truth justice is done
35:03our office has identified a man wrongfully convicted of murder
35:07after spending 37 years behind bars
35:11Robert Dubois was exonerated for the murder of Barbara Grahams
35:16now they had this DNA
35:20and they needed to try to determine
35:24well whose DNA is this
35:26also the investigators were able to identify DNA on rape kit slides
35:35that were taken during the Linda Lansing case
35:38they were able to determine that the DNA was a match
35:42with the DNA that they had in the Barbara Grahams case
35:45so they put the samples into the national DNA database
35:51and when they did that they got a match
35:5737 years after Linda Lansing took the final photographs of her life
36:12at the Suncoast Playboy Club
36:14Tampa investigators have matched the DNA in her rape kit to two men
36:20Amos Robinson and Abron Scott
36:27both Amos Robinson and Abron Scott were serving life sentences
36:31in Florida's prison system for a murder of a young man
36:37they decided to target for a robbery
36:40three months after Linda Lansing was killed
36:43in addition to the DNA from Linda's body
36:48investigators were able to identify the DNA of Abron Scott
36:54on the bloody towel that they found on Linda's body
36:57so detectives go to question Amos Robinson
37:04Amos Robinson completely denied that he was the person responsible for
37:09the murders of Linda Lansing and Barbara Grahams
37:14but in March of 2024 the other suspect in Linda's case
37:19Abron Scott told detectives that he and Robinson are guilty
37:26of Linda Lansing and Barbara Grahams rape and murders
37:30according to the Tampa Bay Times
37:33and they report that he is cooperating with the prosecution
37:38and is going to testify against his former friend in this case
37:45the court case against Amos Robinson and Abron Scott is still ongoing
37:51and so there's certain details that haven't become public yet
37:56from what we now understand with all this new information that's come to light
38:01Linda Lansing after an incredible night photographing
38:07this bunny of the year contest at the Suncoast Playboy Club
38:12was driving home and has a chance encounter with two criminals
38:19who rape her and shoot her in the head
38:24One of the really disturbing and tragic things about the case is it seems like it was a random crime
38:42Linda wasn't doing anything to put herself at risk
38:45it was really just kind of happenstance that this ended up happening to her and it's all the more tragic because of that
38:52In addition to the murder that Amos Robinson and Abron Scott were convicted of in 1983
39:00Abron Scott has pleaded guilty to the murder of Linda Lansing and Barbara Grahams
39:05they are considered persons of interest in one other unsolved case that occurred in Tampa in September of 1983
39:17during the summer of hell
39:20It's clear that Robinson and Scott couldn't have murdered Carolyn Merricks because by the time she was killed in 1984
39:29those two men were already locked up
39:36Carolyn Merrick's murder is still unsolved
39:45you want the victim's families of course to get that closure but then you remember that it never brings that person back
39:51It's such an outrage that Shonda's case remains cold to this day
40:0144 years later when I think about bunny Shonda the pain is still there
40:06and we have a saying
40:08once a bunny always a bunny
40:10because it was so special
40:12and Shonda's there with us in spirit though I do know that
40:15that
40:16is
40:32in spirit
40:40are