Reflections on the Trials of John and Lorena Bobbitt

This blog is going to be non-medical and instead is some of my reflections on the separate trials of both John and Lorena Bobbitt. As many of you know, I was the surgeon who reattached John’s penis back in the 1990’s.

I want to preface my comments by saying that I don’t know what truly happened in their marriage or the night that Lorena intentionally cut off John’s penis and threw it out her car window into a field. I am not a lawyer and I am not paid by anyone to express my views. I want to further stress that the opinions below are my opinions and are not definite “facts,” but I believe them to be correct. I have not consulted with John’s former lawyer and I am remembering things from 25 years ago, so there could be errors.

After re-attaching John’s penis, I quickly learned that he was being charged with rape. I knew that he needed a good lawyer because of the seriousness of the charges. I did not know a good lawyer and I realized that neither did John or his family. An acquaintance of mine recommended Greg Murphy and I passed on that recommendation and John went with him. I have never received any money from Greg for that recommendation, nor any favors. By the way, if you wonder who is smarter – doctors or lawyers… After I reattached John’s penis, he declared bankruptcy and I was never paid. The lawyer’s fee was paid at a later date, after John did his film and he received about $350K – so there’s that! I got to know both John, Greg and Paul (who handled all of the John’s public interactions) very well over the next 6 months or so.

I learned that there were a lot of “facts” (as I recall them and I have not personally verified these things) that the public never heard or have not really paid attention to. In addition, John, often has trouble expressing himself clearly and therefore does not present himself well, at all.

John and Lorena clearly had a terrible marriage and like all marriages that end in divorce, it brought the worst out in both of them. They were also young and immature. The police had been called to their home because they both were very physical in their arguments (Lorena was later charged with assaulting her mother, long after she had cut off John’s penis).

John’s trial was simple and straightforward. He was charged with rape and there was no physical evidence of rape. To say that it took place, with no evidence, has always struck me as odd.

The situation with Lorena is much more complicated. John clearly has made some poor choices after this event. I am not holding up John as a model member of society. He definitely has his flaws, as we all do. However, I do feel that many people are NOT looking at the facts of the case and instead making judgments based on their emotions alone.

1. We know that she was married to John for several years but not the required 5 years in order to get a green card.
2. They had a trial separation where he moved to Buffalo, New York for about a year and she remained in Virginia. Phone records show that she called him over a hundred times. John also said that she had sent him cards at Valentine’s Day, etc. (I obtained his information from John’s legal team and I am remembering this fact from 25 years ago)
3. Many times in an abusive relationship, the woman is dependent on the man – whether it be financially or because of fear of losing her children. However, they had no children. If anything, Lorena was making as much or more money than John. She clearly is more articulate than John. She had an established career doing nails, whereas John was just stocking goods in a retail store.
4. John came down from Buffalo for a trial week together (after spending almost a year apart) at Lorena’s request, to see if they want to work on their marriage or move on to divorce.  Under a deposition which is under oath, she stated that they had consensual sex several times per day, each day for the week leading up to the incident. John told her that day that he did not want to remain married to her and wanted to move on to divorce. I always questioned why she would ever want to spend that week together, after the claims she made.
5. Although she claims that she was raped, she was examined as all rape victims by the police and there was no evidence of rape.
6. Instead of going directly to her friend, Janet’s house, she went to the hair salon at 4 or 5 am. This also struck me personally as odd.
7. Lorena served no time in jail because she got off the charges due to “irresistible impulse”. Isn’t every crime a case of “irresistible impulse”?
8. Lorena has never expressed any remorse for trying to kill John and/or trying to  have him permanently go through life without a penis. It was somewhat of a miracle that despite throwing his penis into a field from her car window (it was in the field for hours,) that an animal had not eaten it first! John might have had to live his life without a penis. He also could have bled to death. Our society is based on a judicial system and we don’t allow people to simply mete out justice as they see fit.
9. I always questioned why she would ever want to spend that week together to see if she could make the marriage work???  If she were truly abused, she would never have reached out to John, even once, let alone many times. She would have been grateful that he was far away from her, living in Buffalo.

This case has been a large part of my life, both personally and professionally. It certainly gave me some notoriety in the 90’s, and it still comes back around to this day, in follow-up media coverage. Below are a few links that may be of interest to you, related to the case:

• How I Came to Know John Bobbitt
• Dr. Berman and the Bobbitt Case: 25 Years Later