PASSION: The Truth Behind the Tabloids: The Lorena Bobbitt Case

Hi everyone, before today's episode, we want to tell you about What the Fact. It's a new show from Conor Tomlinson, who you know from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, and Carter Roy from Murder, True Crime Stories. Every week they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Conor's infectious energy will make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on Earth. Follow What the Fact, wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Japan. Hello everyone, welcome back to Crimes of. As always, we have a little game to play. So today we're going to start with a game of Red Flag or Green Flag. My favorite. Today, on this season's final episode, we are going to talk about Lorraine and Bobbitt, a woman who became infamous in the early 90s, protecting some unorthodox revenge against her husband, John. We both picked a real life moment from this case and we're going to ask if you were in a relationship and your partner did this, would you consider it a Red Flag or Green Flag? I will go first. Okay. He invites his down on their luck cousin to move in, but your newlyweds living in an unvernished studio apartment. If there was a time bound, he needs help for three weeks or something and it's all, we're going to all be camping together fine, but if it's just like a, we all share one bedroom and one space forever, here's the thing, like I would just say no. Well, and also, I feel like it's a Green Flag in the sense that, oh, you want a partner who helps out their family and is considerate and giving, yeah, if there's no limitation, if there's no conversation with you and it's not considering your reckoning on the matter, you're just being told, oh, we're all sharing space. Yeah. Then that's a Red Flag. I agree. Okay, here's mine. After a fight, he laughs it off, then tells your friends that you're being dramatic and says you can't take a joke. Absolutely. Red Flag. Yeah. That one's easy. Easy. What do you think? But yeah, these were some of the smaller challenges that Lorena and John Bobbit faced in their early years of their marriage, but the truth is there was so much more and way bigger issues behind closed doors. Their relationship was, um, was chaotic, brutal, became brutal and yeah, so appalling that their relationship and this sensationalized case would come to reshape the public perception of domestic abuse and gender-based violence for years to come. But unfortunately, it did not come easily because as we know, most women's rights haven't. Welcome to Crimes of Passion, a crime house original powered by paved studios. For your hosts, Sabrina Deanna Roga and Corinne Vien. Every Tuesday, we're exploring a different corner of the true crime universe, examining cases that left a permanent impact on society. This season, we are stepping into the world of romance. Where love turns to obsession, where logic slips away, and raw emotion pushes people past the point of no return. If you're loving Crimes of, please follow Ray in Review Us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community and we love hearing from you. To get early access and ad-free listening, subscribe to the Crime House Plus community on Apple Podcasts. You can also catch us on YouTube where we include visuals that bring every case to life. In this episode, we are talking about Lorena and John Bobbitt. On the outside, they seemed like a picture perfect young couple, a former Marine and a hard-working immigrant. But on the inside, tensions between them were rising so quickly that they eventually boiled over into a crime so unprecedented, so unspeakable that the media had no idea how to react. Before we dive into the story of Lorena and John Bobbitt, we do want to provide a content warning because this episode does contain a lot of potentially triggering content, including descriptions of domestic violence, sexual assault, verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, rape, and extreme bodily injury. And this is one of those cases that, similar to last week's The Mole Hall Sisters or The Sisters Sisters as they were called in the press, that you can absolutely understand why it captured headlines and became so sensational, but it's also so heartbreaking in the real story. The real true story behind it all is very upsetting. Yeah. I mean, it's happened three decades ago and people are still referencing it all the time. We're still talking about it. And like most cases this season, it started as a love story. When Lorena Gallo first laid eyes on John Bobbitt, she thought she'd found her happily ever after. Dark hair, blue eyes, a marine. He was a man who promised a future that felt safe. But real life doesn't follow storybook rules. And what came next wasn't a fairy tale, but a waking nightmare. For the course of their marriage, Lorena would face repeated abuse. She was young, isolated, and trapped not only by her husband, but by a societal system that failed her. So Lorena had to take matters in her own hands, and it wasn't just her marriage she had to sever. Do you like that pun? Yeah. Lorena Bobbitt stares straight ahead at the dark road unfolding in front of her eyes. She doesn't register where she is, where she's going, or how long she's been driving. The summer night air slips through the open window, cool against her skin, but she barely notices. Up ahead, a red light glows. Lorena eases her foot onto the brake and comes to a stop. The car idles, the world waits. It is in this stillness that something breaks through and Lorena blinks. She realizes she's holding something. Her fingers tighten instinctively, whatever it is, it's warm. Confused, she looks down, and instantly her shock subsides and the memories come rushing back. The late night, John returning home, he was drunk per usual, aggressive per usual, and he did it again. She said no, over, and over, but he did it, and she remembers slipping out of his arms once he was finally asleep. The memories come quicker now, flashes, her bare feet on the floor, the kitchen light, the low home, reaching for water, then the glimmer of light caught her eye, the knife. She remembers picking it up, carrying it back to their bedroom. Her thoughts spiraling, her chest tight, but only one thought was left. The overwhelming need for it to all stop, for him to stop, so she'd pulled back the sheet from John's sleeping body, and in a single moment, plunge the knife down. Lorena snaps back to the present, her heart now racing as the reality of what she's holding finally registers. She screams and she hurls it out of the window, sending her husband's severed penis into the night. It is so hard not to, like, this is such a tragic, I know, rough story, but it's so hard to not smile at just like the ridiculousness of the whole thing. It, yes. Lorena Bobbitt. I'm not pro-severing penises, but she's severed off her husband's penis and was driving into the night, still holding it in her hand. I mean, this is why the case became so sensationalized because it is so mind, like, it is, it's nothing you heard before. Right. Yeah. A woman severed off her husband's penis. I mean, I was telling you this before, I was like the first episode we did of the season, I even referenced it, where I was like, oh, you know, there's the stories of people in diapers, people throwing the penises out the window, and it's like, this is it, like, this is the, it feels like lore because it's been something that's like, I remember learning about it in middle school, where it was like the big thing, even though you learned about it in middle school. Yeah, like gossip. That's so funny. Good gossip. I mean, while I was like playing the Sims, all innocent, yeah, I was still playing Barbies in middle school, and I was also not innocent with my Barbies. Okay. So it's early morning hours of June 23rd, 1993, while Lorena Bobbit tosses her husband's penis onto the side of the road. Meanwhile, her husband, John Bobbit, is being wheeled into a virginia emergency room with a bloody towel wrapped tightly around his groin. Now, after Lorena had realized what she had done, she does call the police and confesses. And like I said, this is why this case was so sensationalized, a woman severed off her husband's penis. Even the New York Times printed the word penis for, like, the first time when it wasn't for a medical purpose. But Lorena Bobbit didn't dismember her husband's penis just for the fun of it. No, she had endured years and years of physical, sexual, emotional abuse at the hands of John, her husband, and Lorena was continuously failed by a system that did not recognize marital rape or take women's reports seriously. And ultimately, she decided she had to take matters into her own hands. And I know, 'cause even when I was like looking into this case that I wasn't. I was like, well, what the heck happened? Did John get his penis reattached? There's going to be a lot of questions. We will answer them. But first, we're going to talk about John and Lorena's relationship and how they met and what led them to the early hours of June 23rd, 1993. Lorena was born Lorena Gallo in 1969 in a small South American town of Bukai, Ecuador. She was the oldest of three children, and she described her upbringing as being very cheerful, but also a bit sheltered. Her family was devoutly Catholic and especially strict when it came to relationships. So the Gallo children, if they ever went on a date, they always were shop-ruined, pre-marital sex, was a big no-no, and the word "divorce" was-- that wasn't a word. It was never acknowledged, never mentioned. You do not get divorced. Eventually, Lorena's whole family moved to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and in many Latin American countries, teenagers typically have a very big celebration for their 15th birthday, basically like a sweet 16, but when they're 15. And Lorena's parents gave her the choice to either have this huge party to celebrate her turning 15 or take a trip to the United States. So she chose a trip to the USA. Despite growing up pretty sheltered, Lorena was all about expanding her horizons. She liked meeting new people. She wanted to try new things, learn about different cultures. And so it was no surprise that she chose to travel. And when she was traveling, she fell in love with one of the cities that she visited, Washington, D.C. So much so that she actually begged her parents to move there. And they were like, OK, which I love that they supported her. Yeah. So she got to eventually move to Virginia. She lived with a family friend. She took English classes. She started a baby sitting to meet and meet. And now she's living thousands of miles away from her family. She's still in her family, too, put in a lot of effort to remain very tight knit. Yeah. John Bobbitt on the other side, his family and his upbringing was pretty different. John was born in 1967. He grew up in Niagara Falls, New York and was raised by his aunt and uncle after sadly his father left his mom and his mom struggled to raise him and his brothers alone. So he was raised by his aunt and uncle. He struggled in school and decided to join the Marines as a young adult. So by 1988, when John was 21, he was stationed at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. And that is where he met Lorina Gallo. They both happened to be at a club for enlisted soldiers, which I love. I picture this night. They both just wanted a night out to relax and have fun. And it was there that from across the dance club, John saw Lorina for the first time and was immediately struck by her beauty and asked her to dance. At first, Lorina thought John was her perfect man. She herself has stated that when she met him, she thought John was the epitome in the symbol of the American dream that she had always envisioned. Just imagine a lot of love bombing happened here. He's a man in a uniform. Yes. Looking for the security of an American dream. And keep in mind, like you said, she never really had much of a dating experience or like before this. So she's excited about this attention from a man who does appear to be the American dream. And they were married about nine months later in June of 1989. Yeah, she was barely 20 years old in a new country without her family. She'd grown up pretty sheltered, didn't have much experience in dating, no sexual experience prior to her marriage with John. All of a sudden, she didn't have anything really to compare this relationship with John too. Right. So they got married pretty quickly and pretty much immediately their relationship was not healthy. Within weeks of their marriage, John became controlling verbally abusive, increasingly volatile, especially when he was drinking, but she did all the time. And to make matters worse, John and Lorena Bobbitt moved into an unfornished studio apartment. And then John invited his cousin to crash with them just weeks after their wedding, by the way. And Lorena was opposed to this idea. She didn't want it to happen, but she didn't have a say in it. John was like, nope, this is what's happening. He insisted. Which goes back to the game of red flag green flag where on paper, it could be a green flag, but in reality of this case, it was a red flag. She had no say. And also to make matters worse, they didn't have much money. They couldn't even afford a couch. So now all three people are crammed into a studio apartment. It was less than ideal. But worse than living with John's cousin was living with John himself. Yeah, because John did not hide his true colors for very long. One of the big points of contention in the relationship was John's drinking. He definitely had a drinking problem. His cousin became his built-in party buddies. So of course, he wanted his cousin living there. Because they could just, two of them would go out like clubbing every single night. Can you imagine being like a newlywired and being left for a firehouse every night for him to go out, get drunk and party without you? Yeah, horrible. So after a particularly rowdy night, just a month after the wedding, John piled his cousin and Lorena into a car for a joy ride. He was speeding. He was zigzagging between lanes. He was blasting the horn. He was being totally obnoxious and extremely dangerous. Does this dress of, I mean, I have such a fear of dying in a car accident, but like being stuck in that car, where someone is driving that recklessly, gives me so much a guy. It's so, it's so scary. Yeah. And it's like, oh, I feel like it's also used as like a scare tactic. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So Lorena was obviously scared. And according to her, when she asked John to knock it off, he hid her. She was so in shock because he had never hit her before. And when they got home, Lorena claims that the hitting turned to hair pulling, slapping and kicking. But of course, John has a completely different side of the story where he says that Lorena attacked him because they couldn't get into the club that she wanted to. And you'll see this as a theme throughout the entire episode. It's a very, he said she said story in case. Every time Lorena describes John's abuse, John flips the script and basically blames it on Lorena, pointing the finger back at her, which can make determining the truth a little bit difficult. But we're just going to say it upfront. We are advocates of believing women in general and also specifically Lorena because given everything we know and everything that does happen following the incident. And in John's life, I feel like everything points to not to spoil Lorena. There were some documented witnesses of abuse. Yes. So there's ample evidence to support Lorena's allegations of the abuse. Sadly, the abuse in John and Lorena's relationship was not isolated to that joy writing incident. It became a near constant fixture in their marriage. After an especially bad argument over whether to bring home a real Christmas tree or a plastic Christmas tree, which I'm curious to want it, which one. Lorena said that John became so angry that he actually used the torture techniques that he learned from the military on her. He was just so disturbing. So by this point, Lorena's life has been flipped upside down. She thought she was going to have a happily ever after, have this beautiful marriage, but it is a living nightmare. And like, let's not forget that her family, like she's from Ecuador, like she's-- She's far from her family. She's lived so far from her family, like thousands of miles away. This is supposed to be like her person. She was raised to never believe in divorce. Right, and it's probably so confusing. If you study any like cycles of abuse and stuff, it is very hard for women because it's very confusing. And there's moments of like extreme highs and then the extreme lows that disorient you of like, wait, who's the real one that I'm dealing with? Right, yeah. And unfortunately, it was never ending for Lorena here. But then in 1990, when Lorena was 21 years old, she got pregnant, and she was so excited. She was overjoyed. She loved the idea of being a mom and having a kid. And despite the abuse and constant fighting with John, this was sort of like her glimmer of hope for them and that maybe they could get their relationship with family back on track. So excitedly, she broke the news to John by buying a baby bib and tying it around his neck. Oh, the stuff breaks my heart. I know. But John did not react how she had hoped instead of being happy, he was furious. According to Lorena, he said that she would make a terrible mother. He threatened to leave her if she carried the baby to term. And the thought of John leaving her and her being alone was just so terrifying to Lorena. So she didn't really know what to do. She desperately wanted to keep her baby, but she also didn't want her child to grow up without a father figure. And so she agreed to terminate her pregnancy. And the next part, I mean, this whole thing is heinous, but this next part just apparently throughout the entire procedure, John was taunting Lorena. And this next part, we're going to give another content warning because this can be very triggering and fast forward if you want a few, 30, 60 seconds, because there's a lot of language and abuse. around the process of terminating pregnancy here. Yeah, because not only did John Force Lorina to terminate the pregnancy, but during the procedure, he apparently taunted her the entire time, making jokes about how big the needles were, saying that she was probably going to die. It's extremely disturbing. He has no respect. No, I like despise him. In the years following this pregnancy, John and Lorina's relationship continued to deteriorate. They would go on to call in over half a dozen domestic violence claims against each other, which I think is a really important thing to note. There's a trail of evidence here that this was a very toxic relationship. Lorina alleges that John's abuse became not just verbal and physical, but also became sexual. He started forcing her into sex without her consent after almost all of their fights, which of course, John denies. He claims that he never hit her except to protect himself after she hit him first. And he claims he definitely never sexually assaulted her. But even John's friends have called him out on that one because multiple of John's friends came forward to say that John made several comments about enjoying forced sex and watching women's squirm. Not only that, but John also started seeing other women around this time and would even ask Lorina for gas money so he could see his other girlfriends. A woman once survived a fall from more than two miles up because she crashed landed on a nest of furious fire ants. A 13th century pope once condemned black cats as the servants of Satan. A lumberjack once survived near decapitation by his own chainsaw. These aren't tall tales, they aren't urban legends, they're real events. I want to take a quick moment to tell you about the unbelievable, a new podcast from the History Channel and Rewind Studios. Adapted from the hit TV show, every episode opens a cabinet of curiosities to uncover the strangest but true stories in human history, then digs into the historical record to show you exactly how and why they happened. Huge people, odd places, the killer, events. When it comes to history, the truth is always more unbelievable than you think. Follow the unbelievable on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or ever-you-listen-to-podcasts. So to recap, Lorina's allegations against John, he is physically abusive to the point of torture, he's coerced to terminate her pregnancy, he's sexually abusing her, and on top of it, he's cheating on her. And I think it's really- And his own friends will say- I know some of that is definitely true. Right. And again, like with the trail of evidence with, you know, the allegations of domestic violence being called in, there are multiple attempts that Lorina had made to seek help repeatedly. Police were called to their home multiple times, like I said, domestic violence claims were filed against each other multiple times. There's evidence here, it's constantly a system that is not helping. No, and unfortunately, this happened in the early 90s and domestic violence was pretty much like brushed off and ignored, considered a private matter between family and not really a crime. And actually, I like to distinctly remember getting in an argument with my dad a few years ago, because we were arguing about, like, I said something about some law, and he's like, I don't know, like, said what the, what he thought the law was, and I was like, no, it's not. And he was like, well, I took a bunch of law classes in college. I was like, Dad, when you were in college, it was legal to rape your spouse. Yeah. Laws have changed. He was like, that is not true. I googled it. It didn't become like across all 50 US states. It did not become illegal to rape your spouse until 1993. So this is the year that, like, things are starting to turn. But for a lot of states, it was either just like not illegal at all, or there were a bunch of different, like, parameters. So yeah, it was terrible. And victims were often told to calm down and protective orders while they did exist at this time. It took days to process. They were hardly in force. They were definitely not viewed as urgent, especially if it was between a husband and wife. And so victims of domestic abuse were rarely believed, especially with marital rape as well, because basically, at the time, in a lot of different states, and just like with many Americans, as individuals, they believed that marriage implied consent. And that meant let's be very clear. It does not. Yeah. No, it does not. Sex within a marriage does not mean that you just, you sign your marriage certificate, and it's just whenever anyone wants it. Nope. The how it works. Nope. So basically, there was nothing in the law to protect Lorraine a barbit from what was happening to her. We've made improvements with the legal side of things today, but the point is, when Lorraine a barbit tried to get help, the system was just set up to be against her, basically. Yeah. So clearly, Lorraine was really struggling in the marriage. I mean, I can't even imagine how alone she felt. She grew up super religious. Her family was anti-defores, so she probably felt very limited in terms of her options of what to do here, or who to go to for help. And on top of this, a couple was also struggling financially. And Lorraine had a steady job as a manicurist, making $17,000 a year, which in today's money is about $40,000 a year. And John, on the other hand. He left the Marines in early 1991 and seemed to really fall apart without that structure and steady income it had provided. He worked at least 19 odd jobs over the next couple of years, but never really had anything stick. People didn't like being around him. He was scary. Yeah. And I also feel like he had bad habits. I mean, he was out drinking all the time and being a little bit reckless. And then he also had had so many different things happen at work where HR was involved. As a former HR representative, John is my worst nightmare. As an HR business partner, I'm retired. I love when there's certain things in life where you just, you go back to your HR days. You really approach it. That's a raven moment, but I'm seeing it in the past. But John also had a bad spending habit. Lorraine was constantly trying to talk him out of big purchases that they couldn't afford, but like, as we can tell, John just didn't listen. He did whatever the heck he wanted. He didn't know how to be a partner. He wanted to buy a new big house with a huge garage and Lorraine was like, hey, we don't have the money for that. Why don't we buy a townhouse, which even then probably was a financial stretch. But John didn't listen. And since John was unable to keep a steady job, Lorraine was forced to carry the financial burden. Her lawyer later said that John treated her both as his meal ticket and his punching bag, which I think also adds a whole other element here. While John was more than happy to spend all of Lorraine's money, it also deeply pissed him off. And I don't have a degree in psychology, but there are studies that have proven that men have eat, like their egos do get hurt when their partners make more money than that. I do want to say that. I feel like the one, like, it's tiny bit of silver lining here is that he was pushing her to have a job. And while he was taking all of her money and taking advantage of it, she had a source of income. And she had a resume and skills and so many stories like this. And with the abuser ripping, taking everything away from their vector. Yes. And then it's like people don't feel like they can escape because they have no job. They have no money. They have no friends, family. Yeah. It means of living. So I am glad that she at least had that, but it's upsetting. It is. Very. You were referencing a study from 2019 and experts say that this stems from outdated gender roles that directly equate masculinity to providing financially. So that is apparently the reason why there is some heightened emotion there, which that's like more recent 2019. So you can imagine the 90s that was probably worse in the way that society put that pressure on men to be the providers and to like make the money. Well, also I feel like the 90s were kind of a bit of a turning point to where I feel like a lot of women who gave birth in the 90s still exited the career for us for at least a few years to raise kids, but like now it's very much more the expectation that both parties in a relationship work. Yeah, definitely. Well, also because we don't have to. I think the option there, a lot of people would have one provider. I know. I mean, we can talk about gender roles for a very long time, but that's not the point of the episode. But I was just a little side-tandent. I remember when my mom bought her house, and this was in, I don't know, like five years ago, it literally they put on the deed, an unmarried woman. Yes. And I'm like, I'm sorry. If a single man buys a house, they put it on a very unmarried man. It's so down. It's not. It's so ridiculous. Yeah. It's just society. Yeah. We got some work to do. So, Lorraine was struggling naturally, and she began taking home products from the salon that she worked at. Thank you. But not for herself, it was basically a plan to provide extra manicures from home on the weekends to make more money, to make ends meet. She was hustling. She was. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough, and so instead of taking products from the salon, she started taking money. She started embezzling. So she was uptarching customers, she was pocketing the difference. And in the end, she ended up stealing, and today is equivalent, about $15,000 from the salon. Around the same time, Lorraine was also caught shoplifting address from Nordstrom. And also around this time, in October of 1991, John decided to leave Lorraine. And he apparently used a threaten to leave her all the time, because that's a control tactic. But he claimed that in this time, in October of 1991, he left, because Lorraine was a thief, all of which she was doing to help pay for their life and his life. And this is very complex, because on paper, I'm like, oh yeah, he left her. Like Lorraine can move on. But she was heartbroken at the same time. Yes, John was abusive and mistreated her, but she loved him. And she was trying and was doing everything she could to try to make him happy and make the marriage work. And so to make matters worse, while they were separated, John fathered a child with another woman. Oh, yeah. Which this happened less than a year after he had pressured Lorraine to terminate her pregnancy. I can't even imagine the emotional toll that took. I know. And the threat too is always that he's going to leave. So it's really upsetting, because it's like, well, you want him to leave, but she doesn't, she can't see that in this moment. Right. She was heartbroken, and we're not condoning, embezzling money or stealing anything. But the difference here is Lorraine actually tries to make amends. She takes accountability. She completed community service for the stolen dress charges. She worked hard to earn her back her boss's trust. She truly stayed working in the job and made amends with her boss. Yeah. Which also, I don't know the details, and I'm making a huge assumption here. But I'm sure that knowing what she went through and what she was enduring physically, mentally, with all the abuse, I'm sure it was impossible to hide it at work. I'm sure she wore a lot of that at work. People noticed things. So I liked that she got to stay at work that they probably were like, and her boss forgave her. Yeah. And it was the opportunity. Yeah. I do appreciate that. I'm glad that she had that type of person in her life. She earned her boss's trust back. She returned the money that she had stolen with interest. And so she was rebuilding her life. But just as she was rebuilding it, guess who came back to ruin it? John. John and Lorena got back together in April of 1993, and they moved into a tiny apartment. And as expected, almost immediately the physical and sexual abuse began again. It seems as if the time away from John had actually done Lorena some good. Her demeanor had shifted. She was no longer willing to put up with John's abuse in the same way that she was before. So this time she was ready to fight back. She was ready to push a little bit. So she bought a tiny micro cassette recorder, and she started recording John's constant tirades as evidence. He didn't know this. But then he unfortunately did discover it. And according to Lorena, he destroyed the tape and brutally beat her. And I am giving another content morning because the descriptions here are gruesome. But I don't think it's fair to sugarcoded, I think it's important that we share the details as they happened. John apparently kicked Lorena in the face and abdomen and then sexually assaulted her. And this was Lorena's breaking point. It's now late June, just a couple of days after the tape recorder attack, she filed for a protective order against John. But there was a problem because when she filed it, she had to wait for like three hours to pick it up, but she couldn't wait. So she had to come back like she was planning to come back two days later. But that left her extremely vulnerable because there are a lot of statistics here in evidence that the most dangerous time for a victim of domestic violence is when they are leaving their abuser. Yeah. 77% of domestic violence related deaths happened during this separation period. And sadly, just 36 hours after filing for the protective order, Lorena awoke to another horrific act of violence. It's 3am on June 23rd, 1993 and John shoves Lorena awoke. He's clearly drunk and according to Lorena, John jumped on top of her and demanded sex. Lorena later testified, quote, "I said I don't want to have sex and he wouldn't listen to me. He wouldn't let me go." And then here's another very graphic description. If you do choose to fast forward, John allegedly ripped off Lorena's underwear and used his full weight to pin her down. It couldn't scream or even catch her breath as he violently assaulted her. Afterward, Lorena tried to confront him about what he had done to her, but he said he didn't care about how she felt and demanded that she leave him alone. John then passed out, leaving Lorena in shock. She tried to calm her nerves. She went to the kitchen for a glass of water. And that is when she spotted the knife. Her body was very clearly in fight or flight. This was not about revenge. She grabbed the knife and with a single stroke of it, Lorena Bobbitt cut off John Bobbitt's penis. A police officer shines his flashlight across the ground shaking his head. This is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, except in this case, it's a penis in the grass field. But despite how ridiculous this situation is, he has a job to do. And there's still time to get this penis reattached if they can find it in time. The officer can see his partner shuffling the darkness outlined by the light from a 7-11 across the field. He can't help but laugh a little. There's no way they're ever going to get a call like this again. And then he sees it. The officer calls to his partner and he comes running over. They share a look. One of them has to pick it up. His partner raises his hands as if to say, "Hey, you're the one who found it." And the officer says, "puts on a latex glove and grabs the penis." He knows they've got to keep it cold if there's any chance of preserving it. So they run into the 7-11 and the officer grabs the bag of ice. But they can't just plop the penis in there. So thinking fast, his partner hustles to the hot dog station and grabs the baggy. It's so hard, but it's true. All right. Just say it's not hard. Just there. Right for the picking. So bad. Oh. With the penis secured, the two of them sprint back to the patrol car and speed off to the hospital. The officer can't imagine what it would be like to be in this situation. He just hopes that the surgery will work. The detail that really got me because it feels like if you read it in the script, it would be too ironic to like silly the going to the hot dog station in the 7-11 and it really truly happened. Like, this feels like we're watching some movie with like Jonah Hill in it and like the mid-to-daven. Like super bad. Yeah. That's what it feels like. This just feels so ridiculous. I mean, again, like it's absurd and that is why again, highlighting the fact that this became such a sensational case, of course, it became a media circus. Yeah. But underneath all the theatrics of the crime is a heartbreaking story and that's the saddest thing is because of the theatrics and because of the penis and the, you know, all the details. It took away from the violence that was really happening underneath. No, but like it's just keeping you from the hot dog. I know. And being at the 7-11, like with their other patrons in there, the person who's working at the front. Right. But like also the police who have to go search a dark field for a penis. But they also didn't walk in with like a brown paper bag with a penis. They just had a, like I picture it in a clear evidence bag. He's holding it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Actually, picturing is really bringing me back down. Which, you know, this is a perfect time to give you the answers we promised. Like, did they reattach John's penis? And the answer is yes, he did. After a nearly 10-hour operation, it seems like John's penis was successfully reattached. But he did have a very long road of recovery ahead of him. The surgery itself, miraculous, especially given the amount of time his penis was apart from him. Happy Halloween crime house listeners. I'm Vanessa Richardson. Did you know horror films like Abigail and Sinister were based on true stories? Join me every Sunday this month on Crime House 24/7 for Crime House of Horrors. Where I dive into four stories behind some of our favorite scary movies. From Abigail, the autopsy of Jane Doe, Sinister, and the taking of Deborah Logan, you'll find one thing in common. The truth is scarier than fiction. It's in every Sunday on Crime House 24/7, or Join Crime House Plus for all four right now. Add free. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at Crime House Plus dot com. So immediately after the attack, Lorraine stumbled out of the apartment. In shock, took off in her car with a knife. and John's penis for the nail salon where she worked. And that is when she realized at some point when she's driving on Route 28 that she's holding John's penis, throws it out the window because she's not trying to get rid of evidence. She's just like in shock. - I think you can clearly tell she's in shock. I mean, I feel like she's just like moving, heading to work. She doesn't really know what she's gonna do with the nail salon. - Yeah, like what she's gonna do. - The nail salon. - Right. Yes. So she drove to the nail salon and remember this was 3.30 AM. So it's late into the night, the door is locked. She's coming out of her days. She drove then to her boss's house and admitted what she had done. Lorina's boss, a woman of fear is her senior head. Long overlooked the embezzlement incident and had now become kind of like a friend turned mentor to Lorina and she insisted that Lorina immediately call the police and tell them everything that happened. Detailing his rape, his tormenting of her and also her dismembering him and throwing the penis out the window. So this is basically what happened. There was like this amount of time between the events, her coming to her finding where she was going, her confessing everything to someone else and then being convinced to call the police. - Yeah. - So as soon as Lorina confessed, police rushed to the location she described and somehow managed to find John's penis in the field by the 7/11. - So Lorina was then taken to that same hospital that John was in and while John was being prepped for his as I'm calling it the Frankenwean surgery, I'm probably not the first one who came up with that, but Lorina simultaneously underwent a sexual assault forensic exam. And now I think it's very important to again remind you that marital rape was not fully criminalized in the state of Virginia at this time. In 1993, a husband could only be charged with rape if the couple was legally separated or living apart. If the couple lived together even in an abusive marriage, rape charges were completely off the table. On top of that, the test results that Lorina had determined that yes, semen was detected, but there wasn't any blood to indicate forcible assault as if a woman has to be bloody in order to prove that she had been raped. But at this point, the case is being treated as a domestic violence incident and the police were actively investigating it. By late morning, slash early afternoon, local reporters were printing the story about a domestic dispute where a man was seriously injured. Within hours, the anatomical detail became unavoidable and major outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post picked up the story. I mentioned this in the beginning, but prior to this, I really avoided using the word penis unless it was for a medical terminology. But no, they truly couldn't shy away from it. It's the hook of the story. And so people are noticing, when they see the word penis printed in the newspaper as big of a story as this became, people can't look away. John Bobbitt's name was printed pretty quickly, but Lorinas was kept out because most outlets had the practice of not reporting the name of a victim of a sex crime. But within a day, by June 24th, 1993, that changed. After June 23rd, 1993, John spent time in the ICU to monitor his progress and also check for blood clots after the surgery. And he would eventually regain all urinary and sexual function in his genitals. Which medically, that is impressive. Yes, like applauding the doctors. Although I will say the one bit of frustration I had was hearing that as soon as they hear that this man's penis is in a field, please rush to go find the penis. And I'm like, how many horrific things have been called in where they're not believing or they're not rushing or someone is left being attacked or killed or kid missing or something because they're like, oh, well, we'll respond when we have time in a day. Oh, but a man's penis is in the field. Yeah, we will. OK, so yes, John surgery worked on June 24th, 1993. Lorina Bobbitt was charged with malicious wounding. And this is a Virginia specific felony. And Lorina's name is released to the public when she was charged. The brutal intimate nature of this crime combined with some of the more unseeable details like the hot dog recovery bag. It made it very irresistible to the tabloids who then just took the headlines across the nation. It blew up everywhere. Late in TV shows are making jokes about it. Jay Leno, David Letterman, we can update on SNL. And as news spread in the coverage intensified, both John and Lorina Bobbitt retained agents and publicists, which only gave press free reign to publish every sorted detail right alongside their names and their photos. I mean, as you can tell, this case got real messy, real quick. And it also got really loud. So loud that the other side of the story was being overlooked, like the true what caused this incident was being overlooked. Yeah, a bit of abuse over years. And that's not to say that there wasn't this other side because there was another side, the advocates, feminists, legal scholars, and survivor support organizations that did try to step up to reframe this conversation and story, but they were largely drowned out by the other side. Even after John Bobbitt was reportedly caught flirting with a young hospital volunteer, which I think is such a crazy detail. And I think to add to it, it was such a big, aggressive coming on to this woman, while he's in the hospital, that the girl's mother came in. And like, basically yelled at John. I was like, leave my daughter alone. Oh, I hope that that girl didn't have to do his wound care. I, yeah, I hope that after that incident, she didn't have to ever see him again. But if he was doing that to one person, yeah, he's not a great guy. No. The wife, dismembers, has been story with all that people wanted to focus on, and it became such a hit that serious competition broke out among news organizations. That everyone was like, we have to get the first interview. And Lorena wanted to get her story out there. She wanted people to understand why she committed the crime to raise awareness about domestic violence. So she did agree to do some press, but it pretty much all backfired on her. Yeah. And a lot of stuff started to pile up against Lorena. That almost made this narrative of like crazy wife. Like starting with her initial statement to police. On June 23rd, 1993, Lorena was interrogated by police. And while she relayed the events of the night and the crime to the investigators, she said, quote, "He always have orgasm, and he doesn't wait for me to have orgasm." So when this was released to the public, remind you, she's, she's recounting like every horrific detail, this is one small sentence in what she's saying, and was probably like in response to something interrogators were asking. Well, she also English is not her first language. Right. She was not given a translator for her interrogation. And for all we know, what do we know that she was asked? Was she asked like, well, what does he make you bring him to orgasm? I like, what are you, we don't know. But basically this sentence, this statement, is released to the public and people interpret it as Lorena brutalizing her husband because he didn't make her orgasm, or he was bad and bad. She did later clarify that what she meant was that John would have an orgasm, meaning he would basically have sex with her without waiting for her consent. But English is not her first language. She had been up for a long hour. She was probably still in some state of shock, trying to figure it out. But unfortunately, by the time this came out to the public, the damage was already done. And the public had pretty much made up their mind. And her image was quickly becoming one of a sexually frustrated vengeful, fame, hungry, knife-wielding wife from hell. And I think another component that added to it was the fact that she did take on a publicist and started doing all these press interviews. People were like, oh, she just wants the fame. When she was just trying to get her story out there. Right. Yeah, it's so sad. So against the backdrop of the media's field day, there was still a serious crime to deal with, right? So they did have to await their day in court. Two serious crimes. Yeah, technically. Yeah, I guess I forget that Laurence was a crime. I know, I know. Lorraine was charged with malicious wounding. And shortly after being discharged from the hospital, John was charged with marital sexual assault. Both were released on bail. John's trial was scheduled to begin on the 1st of November, 1993. And his attorney later said that the case became so well known that he was fielding calls from everywhere, from Bangkok to Berlin. And when asked why they didn't try to move the trial to a different county, he remarked that it was impossible because there was no place untouched by coverage of this case. He even said, quote, they've heard of this in the Amazon. Which it's kind of true. Everyone. Everyone heard of this case. Yeah. So they did try the case in Manassas, Virginia. It put Manassas Virginia on the map in the worst way possible. Yeah. And while Lorraine was trying to get her story out there leaning into the media, John, the way he went about things, I mean, this is another part of the story that feels fake. It's a testament to who he is. Yes. Lorraine was trying to talk about domestic violence, which unfortunately didn't always present that way, because. She would like, for example, for Vanity Fair, she posed in a swimming pool for like photos, but she was kind of like, "I'll do the antics as long as I can get the true story out." But it didn't always come across that way. But John was just soaking up the fame. He went on various talk shows. He would crack jokes about the situation. He would throw jabs at Lorrainea. Howard Stern seemed particularly fond of John and had him on as a regular guest. And this is so upsetting. And this is not just Howard Stern, but a lot of people on the late night shows would make really, really offensive and ignorant comments. But there is one specific clip that Howard Stern said that he declared that Lorrainea couldn't have been sexually assaulted because she's not that great looking. - Honestly, not nearly as bad as some of the other comments from Howard Stern over the years. - True. - That guy's also-- - But it just, in terms of this case, makes me so mad. - Yeah, yeah, it's terrible. It was a terrible thing to say to anyone who's a victim of anything. - Yeah. - So unfortunately, that's a bit representative of what happens to people in the way that victims of domestic violence and sexual assault are treated at times, especially in the media, and especially in a case where they have something to kind of, a detail to run with that makes it feel less serious than it is. - Yeah. - The idea that a husband could rape his own wife was not a pill that at the time the public seems ready to swallow. While it was legal in some states for a husband to force his wife into sex without her consent, where John and Lorrainea lived in Virginia, John was charged with marital sexual assault and faced 20 years in prison. - And with all the chaos the media had drummed up, it is no surprise that John's trial became a spectacle. Reporters line the courthouse steps waiting for every last update, a group of women set up shop outside the courthouse selling t-shirts with the tagline, Manassas, Virginia, a cut above the rest, complete with a graphic of a bloody knife, the slogans and the shirts, the merch that people were selling, you can look them up online, there's plenty of them. Inside the courtroom, John testified in his own defense, claiming that he'd never physically or sexually assaulted Lorrainea, but he couldn't seem to get his own story straight. First, he said that he and Lorrainea did not have sex at all the night of the attack. Then he said they did have sex, but it was consensual. But then, by the end, he landed on that they did have sex. While one of them was asleep, but he gave conflicting accounts whether it was him or Lorrainea who was asleep. - Is he forgetting that she had a medical, okay, then? - Right. - Like what? - To say they didn't have sex at all. - Yeah. - And then change his mind, you would think that would indicate maybe he's guilty. - Right, or that he's lying, that you can't trust what he's saying. - In all, John's trial lasted only two days, and even with all the inconsistencies, the jury returned its verdict after almost four hours of deliberation and Lorrainea couldn't be in the courtroom. It was too emotional for her. So Lorrainea's boss called her with the verdict. Not guilty, which is tragic and earth-shattering. I just, I was also not surprising, which is also infuriating. - Yeah. - A conviction of marital sexual assault was extremely rare, and then plus the media coverage of this story, and just the way that people viewed John versus Lorrainea, the system was built to be stacked against Lorrainea here, but the nightmare was far from over. - John Bobbitt finds himself with a serious problem. It's September 29th, 1994, and he's double booked. He should be at an invitation only world premiere of his movie, "Filvet Roops," "Flashing Cameras," the kind of night most people only ever dream about. But he's stuck in jail, 30 days courtesy of yet another domestic assault charge. As far as John is concerned, the charge is nonsense. It's just another woman chasing her 15 minutes of fame. Another liar looking to cash in on his name and his notoriety. And now it's standing between John and his big moment. He didn't claw his way into the spotlight just to sit in a cell. He has places to be. The Metallica groan of the sliding cell door snaps John out of his thoughts. A guard stands there, barely looking at him as he delivers the news. John's being released, pending appeal, finally. By nightfall, John is exactly where he believes he belongs. Red carpet under his feet, people shouting his name, some in awe, some in disbelief, all paying attention to him. This is his comeback, proof that he survived, proof that he is still standing, and most importantly, proof that everything works. As the lights dim inside the theater and the soundtrack swells, John relaxes into his seat. He watches himself fill the screen. His face, his body, his manhood. On screen, he nudges his co-star, the actress playing Lorena, and demands sex. Actress, Lorena, pleads with him. I'm too tired. John grins wider and the scene unfolds. He watches himself ignore her answer and sees his on-screen body press forward anyway. Her tired protest dissolves into the background as the scene barrels ahead towards the moment that he knows ends with a knife flashing in different. For most people, it would be unbearable to relive the worst night of your life like this. But not for John. Tonight, he believes he's watching his own legacy take shape. And as the credits roll, John Bobbitt is certain of one thing. This isn't tragedy or trauma. This is triumph. I need to be very clear. That is John watching a pornographic film, an adult film that he made, and he had a premiere for, re-enacting the entire night. - Where he acted as himself too. Yes. I mean, it reminds me very much of like an O.J. Simpson style post-equital confession. But it's a pornographic. So yeah, John is building a career in adult film. And while he's doing that, Lorena is preparing for her own trial because she was facing up to 20 years from malicious wounding. She was offered a plea deal to admit she's guilty and she would get only four months in prison, which a lot of people thought was lenient, but she turned it down. One, she was not guilty. And two, she was afraid that a felony on her record could get her deported back to Venezuela. But most importantly, Lorena couldn't let go of the chance to tell the full story, her story. She thought that by taking the stand on her trial, she could show people exactly what pushed her to such an extreme act. But the problem was, and as we've detailed this whole episode, is that Lorena is fighting against the version of herself that the media has now put out into the world. That is not the true version of her. And as big as a spectacle as John's trial had been, Lorena's turned into an even bigger one. A lot of people did show up to support her. The Latin American community, especially rallied around her organized bond here, taxis, to help get her supporters to the courthouse. But also a lot of people were there just to cash in on the joke. More T-shirt vendors showed up. There were a collection of boxers that said don't cut me short. And during the eight day trial, they claimed that they made a total of $40,000 in today's money. $40,000. It's so wild. It also didn't stop there. The Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile drove by to hand out cocktail hot dogs. And there was a folk music group that made an appearance to sing songs like 50 ways to cleave your lover. So it just seemed like-- It's a spectacle. Oh, and it's just a punchline now. One thing John and his team could not control was the prosecutor. It turned out that the lawyer prosecuting Lorena, Paul Ebert, was the same guy who tried and failed to prosecute John just a couple of months earlier, which kind of feels like it should be a conflict of interest. Now, how was that allowed? Yeah, it's interesting. I don't know. But John's team felt like Ebert was biased towards Lorena and maybe even embarrassed about not getting a guilty verdict in John's case. And honestly, maybe there was something to that. Because before the trial even started, Ebert said that he believed her story over John's. Lorena's lawyers were hoping to convince the journey that Lorena had experienced a brief moment of insanity before, during, and after the incident, which I fully believe, not even in sanity, just like shock and survival. Yeah. Basically, they were trying to argue that she wasn't in her right mind and acted under what's known as irresistible impulse, which is a rare phenomenon, but not unheard of, especially in people who experienced an endured long-term abuse, which we know Lorena has and did. But it was a rarely successful argument, but they did have a lot of evidence to support it. The defense called a psychiatrist who diagnosed Lorena with PTSD. They explained that the final sexual assault on the night of the attack triggered Lorena to relive all of those years of accumulated trauma at once. But the prosecution didn't see it that way. They called the forensic psychiatrist named Dr. Miller Ryan's, who testified that while Lorena showed signs of depression, her actions were deliberate, and she was fully in her right mind the night of the attack. But then they had Lorena take the stand. And she was visibly shaking as she explained to the jury how she had been beaten, assaulted, and tortured. She quietly revealed that John would often force her into anal sex against her will. And after her testimony, this is like the most amazing part of the story, not the most, one of the most amazing. After her testimony, that psychiatrist, Dr. Miller Ryan's, who had testified initially for the prosecution, basically stating that she was in her right mind. After seeing her beak on the stand, he asked to go back up and change his testimony. And basically said, I agree, Lorina has puberty. Yeah, on the stand. Incredible, which I feel like is a massive win, especially in this case. I'm so curious, how has that ever happened again? I hope so. I hope that if you can change your mind at any time, if you get more evidence, I hope you do your due diligence to go back and state it. Well, on top of that, the defense called no fewer than six witnesses who testified that Lorina had told them about John physically abusing her. Four of those witnesses said that they had seen bruises on her themselves. On Lorina's arms, her shoulders, her head, her hips. One of those witnesses was Lorina and John's elderly neighbor. After Lorina had confided in her, she gave her pamphlets about escaping domestic abuse to tread helper. And those pamphlets were found sitting on Lorina's dresser after the attack, like this horrible relic of a woman who was reaching out for help for so long. And the star witness of the defense was actually a client from Lorina's salon. At an appointment just days before the attack, she noticed that Lorina's hands were trembling. And when Lorina rolled up her long sleeves, the client saw deep bruises lining her forearms. So she asked about it. And Lorina admitted to what her husband had done and said that he had threatened to throw her over the balcony of their apartment. Which that brings me back to what you were saying earlier about Lorina's boss, probably seeing a lot of this. - Yeah. - If her clients are seeing it at work, yeah, her boss probably saw it too. After deliberating for six hours, the jury found Lorina not guilty by reason of temporary insanity, but there was a catch under Virginia law at the time. Anyone found not guilty by reason of insanity had to undergo extensive psychiatric treatment. So Lorina was sent straight to the psychiatric hospital. In a way, I'm glad that she got psychiatric help, but it's not in the way that she wanted. Like she reports it being a really, really difficult time. 'Cause she was forced to relive that trauma and face it over and over and over for months. And she also couldn't escape the spotlight while she was there. Other patients knew she was. Media Outland's been as far as paying for helicopter to fly over the hospital outdoor recreation area just to kept glimpses of her. Yeah, she was constantly being re-traumatized. Like this was not like a healing spa weekend. She got to go on. No, like she had to face a lot of that trauma over and over and over again. Thankfully, after six weeks, Lorina was declared stable and was allowed to leave finally as a free woman. Free from the hospital, free from jail. And in 1995, when the divorce was finalized, she was now free from John. Although there is a four-part documentary series that Jordan Peele actually produced, but in that John, like Lorina says, 'cause they interview both Lorina and John, Lorina shows like she has boxes of handwritten cards that John still sends her. He's constantly trying to engage with her. He won't leave her alone. It's so disturbing. So by this time, and John was working in the adult film industry, right? His first film, John Wayne Bobbitt Uncooked, was being widely described as the most successful adult film ever made. And for a fleeting moment, John was living his dream. He finally had fame, money, and manhood to match. And neighbor even allegedly heard him say that the attack was the best thing that ever happened to him. Which also lets us say, let's point out that John, throughout his marriage with Lorina, couldn't really hold a steady job. He also has his newfound fame. He can thank Lorina for that. - Mm-hmm. I just immediately became super concerned for sex workers who he has to be paired with. - Yeah, as you should be. - Yeah. - Because, and we'll talk about some more details on that, but he had a second film, and he took the phrase go big or go home a little too literally, because even though his urologist said, "Hey, don't do this." John decided to get an augmentation surgery, penis enlargement surgery, and guess who helped raise the money for it? Howard Stern. So he goes and he gets this surgery, but it did not go great, and he ends up with an even more Frankenstein-like penis that, listen, I did not care to look up the images, but I think you can look at them up. - I can, I wanna look. - But I might faint. - So maybe I should. - Yeah, maybe it's not worth it. But he basically had to get it undone. He had to go back to his team in Virginia to undo the surgery, and here's a little bit of a carmic justice. Despite how much money John was making in his movies, almost none of it ended up in his pocket, because John's manager basically dragged his credit history in front of a federal judge, and essentially forced him into filing for bankruptcy, which means the manager basically stole all his money. And it wiped out all of John's medical debt, but it also meant-- - Shady people of shady people, right? They probably got along so well in the beginning. - Yeah. - So now he filed for bankruptcy, all of his medical debt is gone, but he gets none of his money. He has no money. - Thanks. - Yeah. - So you would think maybe John has learned a lesson from all of the events of this. - But no, he did not. And instead he continued to claim that he was innocent, even though his actions proved otherwise. The same violence he inflicted on Lorina followed him into every relationship after. - Yeah. - In 1994, he was convicted on two separate domestic violence charges against his fiance, a model named Christina Elliott, after he shoved her against a wall and violently beat her. He was sentenced to just 30 days in jail, and that was a charge that almost led him to miss his movie premiere, which we talked about earlier. In 1999, the cycle repeated again. John was convicted of harassing his girlfriend, Desiree, who was just 19 years old. John was 32. - And this is what you were saying, how you were concerned about the women he had to work with. Like this story is absolutely heartbreaking, and this was a very, very violent. Desiree's account was eerily similar to Lorina's. She said that John beat her, dangled her over their apartment balcony, assaulted her, sodomized her, and tortured her as he held her captive for three days, held her captive. During the assault, Desiree said that he whispered to her, "You are my Lorina now." - Oh my God, the fear you would feel in that moment. - And John barely got a slap on the rest for this horrific assault. He was sentenced two times served. Just four years later, in 2003, he had a new wife and another conviction, this time for breaking his wife, Joanna's, tailbone, and fingers. So like, this is proof, he is an abusive man. - How does he keep getting to do this? - That's the most frustrating thing. - Yeah. A year after that, in 2004, he was again charged, this time for assaulting Joanna's 14 year old son by pushing him to the ground and punching him. And despite all of these repeated convictions, John has never served significant time in prison, and he never has taken accountability for his crimes either, which is the most infuriating, because he denies every accusation. He claims all of the women and children who have accused him of assault and abuse, including Lorina, were just liars who were after fame and money. Lorina, too, was not without her demons. In 1997, when living with her parents, she was charged with assault and battery after a fight with her mother. She was accused of punching her with a closed fist, leaving her mother with a black eye. Once again, Lorina found herself back in the same courtroom that had found her not guilty just a few years earlier. After several hours of testimony, she was acquitted. Afterwards, Lorina went back to school and began working as a legal secretary before getting into real estate. And while she was in school, she met her partner, someone who she's now been with for more than 20 years at this point, and together, they have raised a daughter. But here's the thing. Lorina has taken accountability. She has learned from her mistakes. She has found a way to live with her drama and instead of letting it define her, she uses it to find the life that she wants and deserves. And she's trying to do good. And she's not repeating cycles. - No, whereas John is over there. - Hey John, we're not the jury here or anything, but I feel like people talk about the Menendez brothers a lot and how the years of repeated abuse should change their conviction. But in this case, it just feels like there's so much evidence and she didn't murder him. She attacked the thing that he was using to control and abuse her over and over and over again. - And we're the police never found it. - Me too. - And he was never really held accountable. It has now been some 30 years since that summer night and Lorina's story has remained the same. She's made it clear again and again that domestic violence is not a joke. She's spoken out against the media coverage that seemed way more interested in the male body part than in the abuse that she and so many others endured at John's hands. In 2018, Lorina turned that feeling and frustration into maybe her most important work yet and she founded the Lorina Gallo family. foundation, their mission is to expand education on domestic violence and sexual assault to provide emergency response resources and create community programs for survivors in the Virginia area. Lorraine hopes up by sharing her story and the years of abuse the way that she was demonized by the media and how her suffering was turned into a sick joke in the world that she can help others break free from the cycle of abuse. And I think that's the crux of this entire story that domestic violence takes so many forms. It can be physical, verbal, emotional, mental, financial, sexual, and it should never be made out to be a joke. That is the case of Lorraine and John Bobbitt. Before we say goodbye this week, we want to provide resources. These will also be available in the show notes if you have concerns about being in an abuse of situation or know someone who is there is support available, support that is free, confidential, and available anytime. The National Domestic Abuse Hotline is 1-800-799 Safe and can also be reached by texting start to 8-8-7-8-8. The line for those who are deaf or hard of hearing is 1-800-787-3224 and again all of this information will be in the show notes for more information about the domestic abuse hotline visit the hotline.org and to learn more about domestic violence prevention and to find resources specific to your state or region visit the office on violence against women at justice.gov/ovw/resources-4-survivors. And always remember that it is not your fault and you do not have to face this alone. And that is the story of Chardonnay-Lorraine-Abobit. Man, heavy, it's heavy. And also with that our crime is of passion season comes to an end. Man, so join us next time as we dive deep into a new series of crimes and is unbelievable as some of these were this past season I have to say this next season takes it to a whole new level. And I'm also excited because there's not as much death next season. But if you're not subscribed yet, please make sure to join our community so you never miss an episode. See you next week and until then, bye bye, mommy's! Did you know of Alcano once blocked out the sun and accidentally gave a sprank in sign? Or that the most feared pirate in the Atlantic, the man who terrorized an entire ocean may never have actually killed anyone? Hi, I'm Connor Tomlinson. You might know me from love on the spectrum. History is my thing and has been my whole life. And I'm Carter Roy and this is what the fact. Every week we take three of the wildest true things ever recorded and tell you the whole story behind them. The facts that sound made up, the stories that got buried, the moments that changed everything. Carter brings the history, Connor brings the facts, the tangents and the occasional British accents. The wildest stuff is real and the real stuff is wilder than you think. Two episodes every Wednesday follow what the fact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or subscribe on YouTube at what the fact pod. You know their names, you know their faces, but you've never heard these stories. On celebrity ghost stories and A&E original podcast presented by Rewind Studios, you'll hear spooky stories directly from the actors, musicians and athletes you love in their own words. What do you do when a spirit saves you from the edge of death? When a single night in a strange hotel ends with you running for the door? From angry spirits to haunted houses to unexplainable magic. These are true, first-person accounts told by the stars who lived through them. Those celebrity ghost stories available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Looking for your next podcast? Check out what the fact. It's a new show from Connor Tomlinson, who you know from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, alongside Carter Roy. Follow what the fact wherever you listen or subscribe on YouTube at what the fact pod.