Bobbit, John, and Lorena

John and Lorena got married in 1989, when the bride was 18 years old. The incident occurred on June 23, 1993. John returned home drunk at night. According to the testimony of Lorena in court, he raped her (the court did not support this accusation and acquitted John). Lorena went to the kitchen to drink water, took a chopping knife, in a state of passion, went into the room where the drunk husband was sleeping, and cut off almost half of his cock. Then she left the wounded husband in the apartment, went outside, carrying his cock in her hand, got into the car, drove out into the field and threw the cock out of the car window. After that, Lorena realized the seriousness of what had happened and called the rescue service 9-1-1 . Rescuers began search work, found John’s penis, put it in ice and drove to the hospital, where Bobbit had already managed to be hospitalized.

There is a large blood vessel in the penis, and if help is not urgently rendered, death from blood loss is possible. John was lucky: because of the blood clot there was little blood loss, and he survived. During the operation, which lasted nine and a half hours, surgeons James Sen and David Berman successfully sutured the penis into place.

Lorena was arrested and told the police when they arrested: “He always has an orgasm, but he does not expect my orgasm. He is selfish! ”At the trial, Lorena gave other testimonies: that her husband repeatedly beat her, raped and humiliated her morally, forced her to have an abortion . Lawyers claimed that their client tried to castrate her husband in a state of post-traumatic stress disorder . During cross-examination, John gave confused testimony refuted by established facts, which made the defense easier: Lorena was declared insane and acted in a state of passion . The defendant was acquitted, but she was ordered to undergo treatment. John, in turn, was acquitted of rape (no other charges).

In 1995, the Bobbits divorced.

After the trial and divorce, John, who needed money to pay for the operation and lawyers, tried in every way to exploit his fame. He created the Cut Off Body Parts group, which was unsuccessful, then starred in the porn movies John Wayne Bobbit: The Uncut Version and Frankenpenis. Then he participated in a talk show, worked in Las Vegas as a bartender and driver. He continued to attract the attention of law enforcement agencies, including for incidents of domestic violence. Already in 1994, not yet divorced from Lorena, he was sentenced to 15 days for beating an ex-bride, and in 1999 he was sentenced to five years probation and 100 hours of community service for participating in a robbery of a clothing store in Nevada; 5 thousand dollars of damage were recovered from him. Then Bobbit was involved in three episodes of violence against his third wife (2004, 2006).

Unlike her ex-husband, Lorena at first did not seek popularity. She returned Gallo's maiden name and very rarely gave interviews to the press. But she did not escape new problems with the law related to domestic violence: in 1997 she was charged with assaulting her own mother, but she was acquitted. In the 2000s, Lorena also began appearing in talk shows, including in the Oprah Winfrey Show , and founded an organization to combat domestic violence.

In May 2009, former spouses first appeared together on screen in the Insider talk show: this was their first meeting after the divorce. Lorena said that John still sends her cards every Valentine's Day .

The Bobbit case drew public attention to the issue of marital rape and domestic violence in general, as well as to the woman’s right to self-defense ^[1] . The feminist movement in the United States provided significant support to Lorena.

Lorena had imitators who also cut off a penis to their husbands or tried to do this (the phenomenon of “copying a crime”) ^[2] .

The surname “Bobbit” became a common noun: the verb to bobbit appeared, meaning “cut off a member” or simply “cut, shred”, the expressions “bobbitized punishment” or “Bobbit procedure” ^[3] . From this verb, the colloquial name of the predatory sea polychaete worm Eunice aphroditois , famous as a ruthless killer with powerful jaws - “bobbit worm” (“bobbit worm”) ^[4] .

Numerous T-shirts with inscriptions appeared, limerics , anecdotes, such as: “Do you know that Lorena was in a car accident? Some horseradish cut her! ” ^[5]

The incident became one of the sources of inspiration for rappers RA The Rugged Man and The Notorious BIG, who together recorded the ironic composition “Cunt Renaissance”, which is a kind of “male” response to such incidents in society.