Lorena Bobbitt Biography

Perpetrator of domestic abuse. Born Lorena Leonor Gallo in 1970 in Bucay, Ecuador. Lorena Bobbitt married John Wayne Bobbitt on June 18, 1989. Five years later, on the night of June 23, 1993, she severed her husband's penis with a kitchen knife while he was sleeping. She then got in her car and flung the penis out the window while driving. It was later found and surgically reattached.

According to police reports, Lorena pleaded self-defense, saying that John had continuously raped her. John adamantly denied her accusations. John was acquitted of charges of assault against Lorena in 1993. In 1994, Lorena was found not guilty based on expert testimony stating that her husband’s abuse had caused her to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, or temporary insanity, at the time of the crime. She was ordered to spend 45 days in a psychiatric hospital.

Lorena and John Bobbitt divorced in 1995. In December 1997, Lorena was charged with assaulting her mother, but was found not guilty. She currently works as a hair stylist in Asburn, Virginia.

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