Bizarre Facts About John And Lorena Bobbitt's Relationship

Most people remember the violent event. An allegedly abused wife cuts off her husband's penis, drives away, and throws the organ out the window. For much of the world in 1993 and early 1994, John and Lorena Bobbitt and their subsequent criminal court cases captivated us. But how much of that event do people actually remember 25 years later?

It seems that many of the details have faded from our collective memory. It might even be that some of these details never made it into our memories in first place. The truth is, there were many strange and seemingly illuminating facts about the Bobbitts' relationship that don't get the airtime, but maybe should have. Was there a forced abortion? Did Lorena reach out for professional help? Did the couple misuse the public interest to make money?

It's expected that everyone has heard the salacious, front-page details about the Bobbitts, but let's dig under the surface a little. Read on to uncover some of the most bizarre facts about John and Lorena Bobbitt's relationship.

Overlooked by some and one of the primary influences for others, Lorena's abortion is an interesting element of the Bobbitt case. According to to John's lawyer, Lorena "just unexpectedly got pregnant and neither one thought it was the right time to have a baby" (via The Washington Post), so they went through with an abortion. Lorena tells a different story. She says that John pressured her to get the abortion. Despite her pleas, however, she was unable to convince her husband to keep the baby, so she went through with it.

In Lorena's testimony, she recalled John taunting her and laughing at her, exaggerating the details of her upcoming procedure while sitting at the abortion clinic. On the night of the incident, as she stood by the refrigerator prior to grabbing the knife, Lorena testified that she remembered John mocking her about "the syringes going through [her] bones and that [she] was going to die." These memories, according to Lorena, haunted her.

Likely because of its high profile nature, the Bobbitt case is one of the landmark moments for marital rape in the United States. For much of the American population, the concept of marital rape was never even considered prior to the Bobbitts. Patricia Ireland, the former president of the National Organization for Women, told ABC News, "The idea of marital rape just didn't connect." She then added, tongue-in-cheek, "You said 'I do,' doesn't that mean you're gonna?"

Yet, while many people remember that Lorena accused John of raping her the night of the cutting, she claims that John sexually assaulted her numerous other times throughout their marriage. The Washington Post reported that Lorena's defense team suggested it was this "constant and relentless violence" that drove Lorena to take action.

During the trials, several people testified that John told them he enjoyed rough sex, with one of his friends using the term "forced sex," according to UPI. Bobbitt allegedly told friends that he liked to "hit women in the behind, make them scream, make them bleed and make them crawl." Just hours before the attack, Lorena reportedly confided in her neighbor, Ella James, who gave her pamphlets about rape. These pamphlets which were found at the crime scene. Lorena also spoke about forced sex with her doctor, as per Dr. Patricia Inman's testimony.  

According to John, Lorena's citizenship played a major role in her attack. At least, that's what he and his family believe. John told 20/20 that he was pressured into marriage in the first place because "[Lorena's] visa was expiring," engaging in what he calls "a marriage of convenience."

But the couple can't even agree on who proposed to who, with John saying Lorena proposed and he "had to bite the bullet and get married," and Lorena claiming that John asked her. Their marriage appears to have been shaky from the start, but, in the days leading up to John's maiming, the topic of divorce took center stage.

Also speaking with 20/20, John's brother Todd Biro said the possible divorce triggered Lorena's violence. "I think at that point in time was when Lorena really realized that her American dream was about to end," he said, "I think that that kind of set Lorena off."

John appeared to agree with his family. "I was leaving her for good," he told Vanity Fair. "It was what my mom said — If she couldn't have me, no one could. And there was the green card, too. That didn't come to my mind at the time, but it's obvious. You have to be married to an American citizen for five years to get one, and we'd only been married for four."

During Lorena's trial for malicious wounding, a comment that she made to police kept coming up. "He always have orgasm and he doesn't wait for me to have orgasm," she reportedly said in the immediate aftermath. "He's selfish. I don't think it's fair, so I pulled back the sheets then and I did it."

At face value, this appears to be a motive. Lorena's prosecution and John's defense often portrayed her as an unsatisfied wife. For example, The Washington Post trial report stated that Lorena "struck out in anger over not being sexually satisfied."

Yet, Lorena claimed that her statement's meaning was lost in translation. "You know, I might've said things I didn't mean to say," she told Washingtonian. "Again, I was still learning English, and I tried to connect the words together, and you know, it was just a mess. I was trying to explain myself that there is no good when a man and woman have non-consensual sex. There was no translator at all, and that's a very important point. Now that I look back at these things, I'm like, Oh, my God, a translator would've been nice."

While Lorena's broken English is often clear in her testimony or really any subsequent interview, she wasn't alone in mentioning the language barrier. Even John stated that, just a few years prior to the incident, Lorena could "barely speak English."

Perhaps because of the sexual nature of the case or because the parties involved were considered good looking, the sex industry took an interest in John and Lorena Bobbitt. Kim Masters, one of the first reporters to interview Lorena after the event, recalled the couple's sex appeal playing a big part in the public interest.

"I do remember my Vanity Fair editor saying, 'If these people were not attractive, nobody would be this amped up about the case,'" Masters told Washingtonian. "But because they were pretty attractive, it had this allure. I was surprised when he said that, but looking back, I think it's true."

After the trials and the acquittals, both Lorena and John were inundated with offers. Lorena claims that she was offered $1 million to pose nude for Playboy, an offer she turned down. John wasn't as disagreeable. He shot two pornography films, John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut and Frankenpenis. According to adult film star Ron Jeremy, his collaborator on both films, Uncut was "among the highest-grossing adult films of all time." Apparently neither film made John any real money, however, because, in Jeremy's words, "the porn industry is a crooked place."

As one of the most infamous cases in American history, the Bobbitts have been the inspiration for many different people. They've been mentioned or alluded to in films, songs, and books, and now there's a Jordan Peele-produced TV docuseries. But not all of the Bobbitt inspirations have been wholesome, and some have been downright strange.

Take the Giant Eunicids, for example, a wormlike marine creature that has been dubbed by some the Bobbitt worm. The name might be a result of the creature's scissor-like jaws, an allusion to the knife and cutting, or it might be because the worm resembles, well... you get the idea. Maybe it's both. Either way, it's a little odd.

Then there are the copycat acts that been committed since, namely those by Catherine Kieu Becker and Brigitte Harris. Both of these women cut off a male's penis and then destroyed the organ, seemingly preventing a successful surgery like John's. According the New York Daily News, Harris claimed that she "researched Lorena Bobbitt's 1993 castration of her husband before taking revenge on her abusive father" and that she "recalled how doctors reattached John Bobbitt's severed penis."

For Lorena, a woman trying to use her platform to help victims of domestic violence, she's looking to inspire people in more proactive ways.