"In 1993, a man annoyed his wife. While he was asleep, his wife picked up a cleaver, lifted the quilt, and cut off his dings..."
Ignoring her husband's wailing behind her, she went out with the bloody thing and drove away. Holding it in one hand and steering wheel in the other, she drove far away, throwing the thing into the field before finally calling the police and turning herself in......"
- The above plot sounds bloody, absurd, and cliché, as if it came from a B-movie with a bad box office, but in fact, it really happened in American history.
The victim, named John Wayne Bobbitt, previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps and worked as a bodyguard in a bar after being discharged.
His wife is Lorena Bobbitt, an Ecuadorian immigrant.
(John, Lorena)
According to Lorena, John had been in a bad temper for years and would rape and abuse her.
On the evening of June 23, 1993, John returned home drunk again and raped her again despite her feelings.
This time Lorena finally couldn't take it anymore, and when John was asleep, she went to the kitchen to drink a glass of water and picked up an eight-inch cleaver......
"Cut it in two", she drove away with the thing.
After driving a long way, she suddenly felt tired of driving with one hand, so she casually threw the thing into the roadside field and continued to drive......
However, as soon as the cold wind blew, she finally calmed down and stopped and turned herself in.
(Lorena in court later)
The police squinted and searched the ground for a long time, and finally found John's nakedness.
There was no first-aid equipment at the scene, so I bought a hot dog box and an ice pack at the nearby 711 and sent it to the hospital in ice-cold.....
Miraculously, after nine and a half hours of surgery, the doctor actually picked up John's ......
While it certainly wasn't a wonderful experience for both of them, it was a black comedy to viewers, and they quickly made headlines across the country.
John became a celebrity overnight, and Lorena was hailed as a feminist hero by some.
Over the next few years, castration began to increase dramatically in countries around the world, with seven each in Italy and the United States, four in the United Kingdom, and two each in Germany, Brazil, and India.
At that time, the Italian media also discovered a very strange phenomenon: none of the seven cases were committed by vengeful women, and even two cases were self-harm......
So they gave the phenomenon a name called "Bobbittmania" (Bobbittmania is John's surname)
(1995 report, "Bobbit Fever")
At the same time, "bobbit" has evolved into a verb specifically used to refer to cutting off important parts.
For example, after the Gulf War, the U.S. military dismantled the tail turret of the B-52 bomber, and the crew jokingly described these bombers as "bobbit";
Another example is when NASA launches a spacecraft, and part of the rocket accidentally detaches during the flight, so it is also nicknamed "Bobbit......
(There were many things like this back then, and there were many films, television, music, and animation works in later generations that used this stalk, but I won't introduce them one by one due to space limitations)
Although John and Lorena's influence reached the world, we still can't ignore the fact that they both committed crimes.
John is guilty of rape, and Lorena is malicious in her assault – there's still a lawsuit to be fought here.
But what makes people speechless is that there were too many fun people in the United States back then, and it directly turned into a fun party outside the courtroom:
Some people are selling cultural shirts with the words "Love Hurts" printed on them, and others are selling chocolate bars with indescribable shapes......
Anyway, if you really want to see the outcome of the trial, not to mention that there is none, it's almost the same.
("Really Hurting Love" T-shirt)
And in the end, the verdict in this case is almost as nonsensical as what happened outside the court:
John's conviction of rape was not established due to insufficient evidence;
Lorena was found insane by a jury and spent 45 days in a psychiatric hospital before being acquitted equally without charge;
In this way, the two returned home one after another, and everything happened, but it seemed that nothing had happened.....
But their marriage definitely can't last.
After the divorce, Lorena returned to Ecuador incognito and lived a low-key life, appearing on television a few times after 2007, but rarely appeared in public after that.
As for John, he was "a blessing in disguise" and succeeded in taking the black-and-red route.....
(John in court)
Having a large amount of money in arrears for medical bills and legal fees, John struggled to make money after the lawsuit, starting with a band called "The Severed Parts."
It sounds funny and gimmicky, but John obviously doesn't have any musical cells, and the "divided part" dies before it can make a splash.
So John resolutely threw himself into adult erotic films. In the 90s, John took advantage of his "unique advantage" to star in a number of adult films.
These American studios are really good at playing homophonic stalks, and what are the names given to the films: "John Bobbit: Uncut (Edition)", "John Bobbitt: Stitching Monster (Frankstein) Tintin.....
(John and several adult actresses)
For decades to come, John lived like a laughing stock, a freak, a comedian, a gimmick, and a clown.
He nicknamed himself "Stumpy" (Stump, the stump left on the ground after a tree was cut down);
He gave autographs to merchants in Las Vegas for promotional platforms;
He served his guests all the sausages in half as an appetizer......
Now, 30 years after that incident, what has happened to John?
It was surprising: he lost more limbs.
(John's Present Situation)
据《太阳报》报道，约翰患上了“中毒性周围多发性神经病（toxic peripheral polyneuropathy）”。
John's nerve damage caused him to develop osteomyelitis, he had skin ulcers that required skin grafts, he didn't feel anything in his feet, and all of his toes were amputated last year.
Speaking of which, his illness also had a lot to do with his career in the Marine Corps.
During his service, John was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, which is notorious in the United States:
During 1953~1987, the tap water in the camp was seriously polluted, and various chemical substances exceeded the standard by 240~3400 times, and many soldiers suffered from cancer, fatty liver, infertility, Parkinson's ......
Later, at least 850 people filed nearly $4 billion in claims against the military, but the lawsuit has not been fought for nearly two decades.
John most likely ended up with an amputation because he drank poisoned water.
(John's Present Situation)
However, John's thoughts are even more extreme than this, and he believes that it was the poisonous water that broke the relationship between him and Lorena:
"I'm not acting in the way I should be. If my cognitive function hadn't been distorted by chemicals, maybe I would have been able to make better decisions. ”
But in reality, is there any basis for his idea?
According to the American Center for Neurological Disorders, the peripheral nervous system is responsible for transmitting signals between the central nervous system and the rest of the body, and the symptoms are varied, but they are basically motor/active and do not affect the cognitive function of the brain......
How to say, to a certain extent, Lorena's knife did benefit John and gave him a long livelihood, but on the other hand, John did not pass this hurdle in his life-
He couldn't get rid of the label "Bobbit", and he couldn't face the reality, so much so that to this day he still thinks, "It's all the fault of those poisonous water......
Although the poisonous water harmed him, it also became an excellent material for him to deny reality.
It can only be said that Lorena's knife cut off more than just the flesh......