John Wayne Bobbitt
and Lorena Bobbitt (née Gallo) was an American couple married on June 18, 1989, whose relationship made
world-wide headlines in 1993 when, after years of being allegedly raped,
beaten, and sodomized by her husband, Lorena cut off his penis with a knife
while he was asleep in bed. The penis was subsequently surgically reattached. John Wayne Bobbitt was acquitted on the
rape charge.
Incident
The incident occurred on June 23, 1993, in Manassas, Virginia. Lorena
Bobbitt stated in a court hearing that, after coming home that evening, her
husband raped her. After he then went to sleep, she got out of bed and went to
the kitchen for a drink of water. She then grabbed an eight-inch carving knife
on the kitchen counter, returned to their bedroom, pulled back the bed-sheets
and cut off his penis.
After this, she left the apartment with the severed
appendage and drove away in her car. After a while driving and struggling to
steer with one hand, she threw it out the window into a roadside field. She
eventually stopped and called 9-1-1, telling them what had happened and where
the penis could be found. John Bobbitt's
penis was found after an exhaustive search, and after being washed with
antiseptic and packed in saline ice, it was reattached in the hospital where he
was treated. The operation took nine and a half hours. Bobbitt went on to star in two pornographic
films in the 1990s, and claims his penis is "back
to normal".
Arrest and trial
When she was arrested the night of June 23, she told the
police, "He always have orgasm
[sic], and he doesn't wait for me ever to have orgasm. He's selfish." This conversation with Detective Peter Wentz was tape-recorded, and the transcript was
read later in the trial by Mary Grace
O'Brien, the Prince William County
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney prosecuting Lorena.
During the trial, the couple revealed details of their
volatile relationship and the events that led to the assault. Lorena stated
that John sexually, physically, and emotionally abused her during their marriage.
She said that he flaunted his infidelities and forced her to have an abortion.
Her defense attorneys, who included the defense lawyer Blair D. Howard, maintained that his constant abuse caused her to
eventually "snap" because
she was suffering from clinical depression and a possible bout of post-traumatic
stress disorder due to the abuse. John
denied the allegations of abuse; however, when he was cross-examined by Howard,
his statements often conflicted with known facts, severely weakening the prosecution's
case.
Lorena testified that John had raped her and physically
battered her on multiple occasions prior to the evening of the severing of his
penis, that they lacked financial stability, and that he stole her earnings and
spent the proceeds. Both the prosecution and defense sides conceded that he had
demonstrated a history of abuse toward her and that this abuse created a
the context for the assault. Expert witnesses for both the prosecution and the
defense testified that "he had
mentally and physically battered her; that the abuse was escalating; and that,
by 1993; she lived in constant fear of him." The defense strategy emphasized her action as
being a mix of self-defense and temporary insanity constituting an "irresistible impulse" due to
the history and pattern of abuse and rape. One expert witness testified that "Lorena believed and was immobilized by
John's threat, 'I will find you, whether we're divorced or separated. And
wherever I find you, I'll have sex with you whenever I want to.'"
John Bobbitt was
later acquitted of rape. He had multiple
versions of what had happened that evening in question, relating at various
times to police and to the court that "they
had not had sex; that Lorena had tried to initiate sex, but he had been too
tired; that they had had sex, but he had slept through it; and that the sex had
been consensual."
After seven hours of deliberation, the jury found Lorena not
guilty due to insanity causing an irresistible impulse to sexually wound John.
As a result, she could not be held liable for her actions. Under state law, the judge ordered her to
undergo a 45-day evaluation period at Central
State Hospital, located in Petersburg,
Virginia, after which she would be released. In 1995, after six years of
marriage, John and Lorena divorced.
Aftermath
John
After the incident, John attempted to generate money from
his renown by forming a band, The Severed
Parts, to pay his mounting medical and legal bills, although the band was
unsuccessful and failed to generate enough money. In
September 1994, he appeared in the adult film John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut, in another attempt to make money. In 1996, he appeared in another adult film, Frankenpenis (also known as John Wayne Bobbitt's Frankenpenis).
In 1994, he was charged with striking Kristina Elliott, a 21-year-old former exotic dancer he met while
in Las Vegas on a publicity tour. On
August 31, 1994, he was convicted of battery and sentenced to 15 days in jail
(75% of the original 60-day sentence was suspended). "I firmly believe you have an attitude problem," Justice of the Peace William Jansen
told Bobbitt. "Your attitude problem
is caused by your drinking."
On August 10, 1998, he appeared on the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE)'s Monday Night Raw is War television program, where he was
featured with Val Venis. Not long after, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where he worked as a
bartender, limo driver, mover, pizza delivery driver, and tow-truck operator.
He also had a stint serving at a wedding chapel as a minister of a Universal Life Church there.
In 1999, Bobbitt received probation for his role in a theft
at a store in Nevada. In 2003, he
was sentenced to prison for violating his probation for the 1999 theft, after
he was arrested on battery charges involving his then-wife, Joanna Ferrell. He was again twice
arrested on charges of battery against Ferrell in 2004, and that same year, he
filed for divorce under the name John W.
Ferrell, which he had been using during his marriage with Ferrell.
In 2014, he was severely injured when he broke his neck in a
vehicular accident in Buffalo, New York.
Lorena
After the trial, Lorena attempted to keep a low profile and
reverted to the use of her birth name, Gallo. In October 1996, she made a visit
to her native Ecuador, where she met
with then-President Abdalá Bucaram for
the official dinner. Sometime later the two would baptize a child as a
godmother and a godfather. Bucaram was
criticized for inviting Lorena to the dinner.
In December 1997, she made news when she was charged with
assault for punching her mother, Elvia
Gallo, as they watched television. She was eventually acquitted of assault, and
her mother continued to live with her. In 2007, she was working at a beauty
salon in Washington, D.C. and in the
same year founded Lorena's Red Wagon
organization, which helps prevent domestic violence through family-oriented activities.
In June 2008, she appeared on the CBS News program The Early
Show, where she talked about her life since the incident. In the interview,
she said that she was in a long-term relationship with Dave Bellinger and that they had a two-and-a-half-year-old
daughter.
Joint public
appearance
Although Lorena told Oprah
Winfrey in April 2009 that she had no interest in talking to John, they
appeared together on the show The Insider
in May 2009. It was their first meeting since their divorce. On the show, he apologized to her for the way
he treated her during their marriage. Lorena claimed that he still loved her
because he continued to send her Valentine's
Day cards and flowers.
Legacy and depiction
in popular culture
The Bobbitt case brought attention to the issue of domestic
violence and marital rape. Within days of the incident, anti-domestic violence
advocates and some feminist groups rallied around Lorena, citing the alleged continuous
abuse she suffered at the hands of John that caused her to attack him, albeit
in an unusual and violent manner.
Media attention surrounding the case resulted in national
debate and also sparked a flurry of jokes, limericks, T-shirt slogans, advertising
gimmicks, as well as Howard Stern
having John Bobbitt as a guest on
his 1993 New Year's Eve special and
fundraising $250,000 to defray the outstanding costs of his surgery. MCI had also unknowingly been drawn into
the fray by running a TV commercial a couple of weeks after the incident
advertising how the Bobbitts, a family from Siasconset, Massachusetts (of no relation to the Bobbitts of
Manassas, Virginia) saved by switching to MCI,
causing jokes to be made of "when
they cut off your service, they mean it".
Shortly after the incident, episodes of "Bobbittmania", or copycat crimes, were reported,
although the incidents were generally self-inflicted wounds or accidents. The
name Lorena
Bobbitt eventually became synonymous with penis removal. The terms "Bobbittized punishment" and "Bobbitt Procedure" gained
social recognition. The Bobbitt worm, which attacks its prey
with scissor-like jaws, is named after the case.
In February 2019, Amazon
released Lorena, a four-part
docu-series produced by Jordan Peele
about the incident, which features interviews with both Lorena and John.
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