John and Lorena Bobbitt: Difference between revisions

John Wayne Bobbitt (born March 23, 1967 in Buffalo, New York) and Lorena Leonor Gallo de Bobbitt (born 1970 in Bucay, Ecuador) were an American couple, married on June 18, 1989, known for a 1993 incident in which Lorena severed John's penis with a kitchen knife.

The incident

On the night of June 23, 1993, Lorena Bobbitt chopped off her husband's penis with a kitchen knife as he lay sleeping in their Manassas, Virginia, home. She then drove off with the severed penis and flung it out her car window. Police performed a diligent search and located it, and it was then surgically reattached.

In statements to police, she explained that she had cut off the penis because her husband "raped her" and "wouldn't stop." John contested these accusations by elaborately detailing his allegedly unsuccessful attempts at talking to her the previous night.

Two trials followed this incident. In the first, John faced charges stemming from accusations of assault against Lorena. He was acquitted of this charge in September 1993.

In the second, Lorena was charged with "malicious wounding" of which she was found not guilty in January of 1994 on the basis of expert testimony that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of her husband's abuse. According to her defense lawyers, on the night of the attack, Lorena's PTSD manifested itself in a form of temporary insanity causing an irresistible impulse to sexually wound her husband. As a result, she could not be held liable for her actions. After the jury issued a verdict of not guilty, Lorena was ordered to spend 45 days in a psychiatric hospital.

Explanations for the incident

One hypotheses for the timing and form of Lorena's attack centers on her testimony of how John has pushed her into an unwanted abortion a year after they had been married, and almost exactly three years before the attack. The theory that this incident was an extreme manifestation of post-abortion trauma was first proposed by David Reardon, Ph.D. In support of this view, Reardon analyzes dozens of facts reported from the trial, three of which are described here. First, Lorena testified that she had experienced flashbacks to the abortion just before picking up the knife used for the attack. Secondly, she testified that she had experienced an anxiety attack and psychosomatic abdominal cramping four days before the attack. Reardon interprets this as evidence that she was experiencing a post-traumatic anniversary reaction, which involves an intensified period of PTSD symptoms. Third, Lorena testified to experiencing fears she would never be able to have children following the abortion. From these and other bits of evidence, Reardon asserts: "It takes no leap of imagination to see how a woman, such as Lorena who, on an unconscious level felt that she had been sexually mutilated by her abortion, would, in a moment of bitter passion, attempt to 'castrate' her husband. Lorena's subconscious decision to limit her attack to his penis, I would suggest, may have reflected an 'eye for an eye' form of justice. He had robbed her of her fertility; she robbed him of his."

Since the incident

Lorena and John were divorced in 1995, after 6 years of marriage.

John

File:Bobbitt Uncut.jpg

DVD Cover of John Wayne Bobbitt … Uncut

After his reattachment surgery, Bobbitt briefly became a porn star, in part to finance the operation to reattach his penis. He appeared in three movies: John Wayne Bobbitt … Uncut, Buttman at Nudes a Poppin' 2, and Frankenpenis. In Frankenpenis, Bobbitt played a character who was made with spare parts (like the monster in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein) and whose penis inexplicably comes off during a rousing session of intercourse. Bobbitt then moans, "Oh no, not again."

In 1996, John Bobbitt moved to Nevada, where he worked in a brothel. While there, he had a brief fling with Taylor Hayes, who subsequently moved to Los Angeles and became a Vivid Girl for adult pornographic studio Vivid Entertainment. He also worked as a bartender, a limousine driver, a tow truck operator, and a minister in a Las Vegas church.

In 2001, he briefly married Dottie Brewer (February 3–February 26). A year later, on March 23, 2002, he married Joanna Ferrell.

In 2002, John Bobbitt was scheduled to fight Joey Buttafuoco on Fox Network's Celebrity Boxing. However he was replaced by Joanie Laurer after Bobbitt was arrested for domestic abuse.[1].

After two trials for domestic abuse against Ferrell in 2004—one ending in conviction for Bobbitt and the other in acquittal—he was arrested for a third offense in September 2005. Days after the third incident, he filed for a divorce from Ferrell. On February 8, 2006, a municipal judge found Bobbitt not guilty, due to insufficient evidence[2].

Lorena

Lorena resumed the use of her maiden name, Gallo. In December 1997, she was charged with assault for punching her mother, Elvia Gallo, as her mother watched television [3]. Four months later, Lorena was found not guilty, as the judge did not find the evidence compelling enough to convict her [4]. She is now employed in the Ashburn, Virginia, area as a hair stylist.

Trivia and popular culture

• The case created a popular sensation at the time and was a frequent subject of jokes and joking references. It even seemed possible for a while that the Bobbitt name might enter the language. For example, Boston Globe architecture critics wrote in 1994 that "An architectural Bobbitt case, Memorial Hall at Harvard University has lacked [the top part of] its tower since September 1956." However, public memory of the case has receded.

• On an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will makes a reference to Lorena Bobbitt while wearing a fat suit that does not have any male genitalia. He says "I guess Lorena Bobbitt got to this suit first, huh?"

• This incident was used to inspire the third verse to "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody song, "Headline News," where we hear the words:

"Once there was this guy who made his wife so mad one night that she cut off his wiener."

• The incident also inspired the Tribe 8 song "Castration Song #22," with its chorus of "Lorena don't take no shit." There is also a song by the crust punk band Ballast, called "Lorena Bobbitt." A parody of the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was made that contained lines such as, "In the bedroom, the quiet bedroom, John Bobbitt sleeps tonight/In the kitchen, the mighty kitchen, Lorena sharpens her knife/A weiney chop a weiney chop..." The incident inspired the song "Bobbitt" by Canadian punk rock band SNFU. The singer-songwriter Tom Paxton also wrote a song about the incident, accurately titled "The Ballad of Lorena Bobbitt."

• An alternate version of the "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" parody song does exist, and is in some places more popular (possibly due to the parts flowing better). In this version, the first verse and the chorus are instead, "In the bedroom, the quiet bedroom, John Bobbitt sleeps tonight/In the kitchen, the mighty kitchen, Lorena grabs a knife/A wiener whack, a wiener whack..." -- "wiener whack" sounds much more like the sounds actually made in the original song.

• Comedian Denis Leary briefly mentions the Bobbitt incident during his 1997 show Lock 'N Load on the topic of male genitals "I love my dick, buh uh, I'm no John Wayne Bobbitt y'know? I mean, if my wife cuts my dick off, I'm not telling ANYONE. I don't even care if the cops show up with the dick!"

• In Robin Williams' 2002 HBO special Robin Williams: Live On Broadway, Robin makes reference to the Bobbitt case during a part of his act where he is talking about how to empower women in Afghanistan. Williams recommends sending a black Brooklyn woman- "...the kind you might see on Jerry Springer—and, if confronted with possible genital mutilation, as had been practiced to some degree in Afghanistan under the Taliban, it would then be "Lorena Bobbitt time." (This acusation is however, untrue, female circumcision has never ever been practiced in Afghanistan) *

• Tyler Durden refers to the incident in the 1999 movie Fight Club. In the first bar scene, Durden says "Hey man, it could be worse; a woman could cut off your penis while you're sleeping, and toss it out the window of a moving car."

• Mention of the incident is also made in the 2004 re-make of film The Ladykillers in which Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans) exclaims, "It's like that dude whose wife cut his dick off and threw it on the freeway!"

• World Wrestling Entertainment has made reference to the incident in a storyline in which Val Venis had an affair with Yamaguchi San's wife. In retribution for the act (and filming it, to be shown to the viewing audience), Yamaguchi San's group Kaienti attacked Val Venis, promising to "choppy choppy" his "pee pee." The group was unsuccessful in their attempt, but this led to John Wayne Bobbitt accompanying Val Venis to the ring and partaking in interviews (each interview being prematurely stopped by the words: "Sorry to cut you off...").

• Lloyd Banks from the musical group G-Unit mentions in the song "Playboy," "I never trust a bitch, I blame Lorena Bobbitt."

• Les Blaireaux, a French music group, made a song called "Le dromadaire (The True Story of John Bobbitt)," which humorously tells a twisted story of what happened to John.

• In a 2004 episode of Sex and the City, one of Samantha's many men referred to Lorena Bobbitt. Samantha was unable to achieve an orgasm because of the noise heard outside her window from a trio of transsexuals. She goes to her kitchen to fill a pot with water to dump on them. As she does this, the man in bed says, "Baby, you're not gonna pull a Lorena Bobbitt, are you?"

• In a 2006 episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Detective Olivia Benson, acting undercover, informs a police officer that a body he has found is the victim of a sex crime. When he asks her, "Is that what it is?", she replies, "Ever heard of Lorena Bobbitt?"

• In SciFi Channel's original series Eureka, one of the characters made the joke, "Let's hope it's not the Lorena Bobbitt virus; it turns your hard drive into a 3 1/2 floppy."

• In the Family Guy episode "Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey," the Thing from The Fantastic Four is a victim of Lorena Bobbitt.

• In an episode of CSI: Las Vegas, a police officer is asked to check the victim of a leg stabbing to make sure the attacker didn't "pull a Lorena Bobbitt."

• In the song "Rap Game" by rap group D12, Bizarre mentions Lorena Bobbitt, via the line "I don't give a fuck about my dick

That's why I'm datin' Lorraina Bobbit."

• In the song "Nuttin' to Do," rapper Eminem mentions Lorena Bobbitt, via the line "Lorena Bobbitt, c'mere, want a souvenir?"

• In the song "U already know" by 112 feat. Foxy Brown,Foxy Brown says "Plus I cut like I trained Lorena Bobbit"

External links

• Documentation of the story from Court TV
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3 (more general information about reattaching a severed penis, and not specific to the Bobbitt case)

• John Wayne Bobbitt at IMDb
• Lorena Bobbitt at IMDb'''