Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt

Morbid

The podcast explores the tragic and infamous case of Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt, focusing on domestic abuse, marital rape, and the aftermath of Lorena's act of self-defense. It highlights how media sensationalism over

Key takeaways

• Domestic abuse was severe and prolonged before the incident

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. It is morbid. Nothing. We were just looking until we had like a, like a, we were teaching Ash. We were teaching Ash. me and Aiden about some rock lore earlier. So we just got through all that. That was interesting. I learned a lot. Yeah. It started with Rock of Love. Yeah, I realized I've never seen Rock of Love. I've seen Clips for sure. And I said, oh, honey. But now I want to watch it. We're going to sit you down. Watch a bunch of women fight over Brett Michaels. That sounds like an absolute nightmare, but I love reality television. And you love horror. And I love horror. So perfect. Let's go. Absolutely iconic. Yeah. Do we have any bidness? We do. Oh, we do. We do. We have a fun business. Fun bidness. So our game that we collabed with Henta Killer to come out with, the Salem Slicer. The Salem Slicer. The Salem Slicer is now available on our serious website. Hell yeah. And on Pod Swag. So anybody who is upset that doesn't live in the U.S. or in Canada, you can get it, I think, on Podswag. And that's, like, Internet. shipping that's for you brought to you buy you for you from you and all about you is international shipping exactly yeah and pod swag and thanks for caring yeah thank you for wanting the game it's fucking fun so guys it's really fun and i we we did a special podcast episode for it for the case in the game yeah so when you get the game you get an exclusive morbid pot episode as part of like the solving of it and it's it's so much fun and i think the what the world needs right now now is a bunch of cool people sitting around a board game and solving a fictional murder. I wish you set that up as like, what the world needs now is people sitting a count. We could go so far with that and just lose half our audience. Yeah, that's okay though. But serious, like let's let's get wholesome with it. Yeah, come on. Get wholesome with a fictional murder. Yeah, definitely. You know, let's get analog. Anologue. Sit in front of a board game. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. What does that mean? Why do people say that? I know. It just makes me think of clocks. I mean, sure. Yeah. There's an analog clock. Yeah. Like a wristwatch would be an analog clock. It's something like not digital. Oh, so analog hobbies are things that are like knitting, crocheting, putting together a little miniature, like things that don't involve. don't involve technology. Vinyl. Vinyl. That's what you didn't say. Yes, vinyl is analog. Like things that don't, and I shouldn't say technology, that don't involve, like, digital interference. Like being on the internet. Yeah, like being on the internet. Okay. That makes so much sense. You always say that. You always streaming things is not analog. Screaming things? Streaming things. I was like, screaming things actually feels kind of analog. No, the internet is not analog. I had a feeling. That's what you meant, but I just agree with you so often about going analog that I was like, you know what? I should know what I'm... I love that you didn't know what it meant. I'm going to look up the actual definition for you, just so it makes it clearer. I, like, felt like I knew what it meant, but I was like, let's be totally sure. Yeah, it's a, well, it says a system device or signal that represents data using continuously variable physical quality. I'm glad that you didn't tell me that first, because I would have said, shut up. I don't want to hear anything else. Yeah, they, oh, so this makes more sense. Tell me. Analog devices use physical measurements, like the sweep of a clock hand. Yes. You know, physical measurements. The voltage of a copper wire. Like things you can measure that way. Okay. To, like, show you a value of something. Okay. I love it. So, but, like, people will use, like, analog hobbies as, like, things that don't involve the internet. I like it. I like it. Like an analog life. So let's go analog. Yeah. Not completely, because TV's not analog, right? Well, that one's hard to. Oh, this is fun. Like, VHS. Is it analog? VHS feels it right it feels like it's a little bit in the so if I'm not streaming then it's because obviously like the way we use analog now is a little different from the like exact definition of it's like aesthetic you know what I mean like people have changed that definition a little bit yep um is TV analog considered analog I should say let's see because it's like physical media yeah I think like now it's not considered analog because it's so connected to the internet and so yeah yeah but maybe i can never go fully analog because i love housewives but yeah there was an original analog tv that used like signals to that's cool so that that's a thing so if i watch that way then i'd be i'd be i don't know if they have housewives that way probably not but anyway yeah i like i like some analog things so i can get down with everybody chilling out yeah if you drank every time we said analog um sorry to your your liver say analog again analog okay Okay, anything else? We're going on tour. Yeah. Not for morbid. Not for morbid. Sorry, everybody just shit our break. We're going on a little mini tour. We're not doing that. Honey, we just did Radio City. I need a break. We're going to a few places for the Butcher Legacy. And Ash is my conversation partner. Hi. Because I feel safe with her. Oh, that's cute. I like that. So it'll be fun. And we get to talk about the podcast. book and writing and then I get to meet you and talk about the book and writing some more. And she's live signing at a lot of these. And I'm live signing. So I know a few of them are sold out, but I think you can still get your tickets to some of them. So check out my socials if you need to find the links for places. I feel like I was born to be a conversation partner. Hell yeah. As a Gemini. Oh yeah. And a girlie who was told all the time like, like I got moved away from anybody in class. Because you talk too much. Yeah, they'd move me away from my friends. and then they'd sit me next to somebody else and I'd be like, hey, what's up? What are you doing? Hey, let's start talking. You want to talk about everything? And they'd be like, oh my God, this girl. I am the exact opposite. Yeah, you don't be talking. I'd just be quiet. But we do be talking for a living. We do. We do be conversation partners pretty much every day. But yeah, that's very true. Yeah, we've never stopped conversing. It's worked out. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, I like it. All right. Well, I think that's all we have. So, Jeffrey, mark down your time. Yep. Okay. Today we're going to talk about a pretty famous case. I'd be pretty surprised if you hadn't heard of it. But hey, who am I? Hey, you never know. We're going to be talking about John and Lorena Bobbitt. Ever heard of them? Ever heard of them? If you haven't, here we go. Who boy. And if you have, shall we revisit? Let's go. Let's take my hand. Let's go on a journey together. Yeah. Come with me and you'll see that the world is pretty fucking bleak. I just want to give a trigger warning at the top for rape and sexual assault. It's pretty prevalent in this story. Be he themes of that. So yeah, if that's not something that you want to hear about, just skip to the next episode. We get it. We understand. We'll forgive you for anything. Yeah, duh. Like that. Of course. Yeah. So let's get into it. Lorena Gaya was born in Ecuador in 1969, and she was actually raised in Venezuela. As a child, she watched American movies and American TV, just dreaming that one day she would be able to move to the U.S. Now that day finally came for her in 1987 when she was issued a student visa after enrolling at Northern Virginia Community College. Not long after she arrived in the U.S., she found part-time work as a manicurist at a salon, and she just had a pretty easy time making friends. One night, just a few months after arriving in the country, her friends convinced her to join them for a night out. They were going to go to a nightclub and, you know, do nightclub things. Do nightclub things. That's analog. Yeah. And they were going to, this nightclub in particular was. going to be near the U.S. Marine Corps base at Quantico. It was there that she met Lance Corporal, and I hope I said that correctly, John Wayne Bobbin. He was a Marine from Niagara Falls, New York. Lorena was immediately attracted to John, and the feeling was mutual. They said, you're hot, I'm hot. Let's do this. To Lorena, John was more than just handsome, though. As a Marine in uniform, he represented that classic Americana that she grew up seeing in movies and on TV, like very romanticized. She said, I believed in this beautiful country. I was swept off my feet. I wanted my American dream. I mean, I get it. Yeah. Yeah, and it truly is like the image of like a military man, you know, feels very Americana at the time, you know? You like you meet him one night out and he sweeps you out. You go dancing. That's the thing. You go dancing. You meet a Marine. There's a million movies like that. Of course. Now, John was equally charmed by Lorena at first. Remembering his first impression, he said, she was innocent. She was real, real sweet. So they started dating, and within a year, he claimed that both Lorena and his mother, quote, started pushing the idea of marriage as her visa was about to expire. So after a few months of what he said was pressure, John gave into their demands and agreed to marry Lorena. In a very romantic summation of the decision, he said, had to bite the bullet, I guess, get married. Oh. Americana. Yeah, I was just going to say, wow. American dream. Romance. Bite the bullet. get married. That's nice. Yeah. If I ever heard that my man said said that, that he just said, I guess I had to bite the bullet and marry it. That'd be real upsetting. Jeez. Now, Lorena denies John's account of their road to marriage, though. She claims that he proposed without any pressure and that there was never any mention of her student visa, expiring or anything like that. Regardless of who asked who and for what reasons, they were married on June 18th, 1989, when John was 22 and Lorena was just 20. So they were pretty young. Yeah. At first, the marriage was actually. everything that Lorena wanted it to be and hoped that it would be. But not too, too long after the wedding, the cracks started to show. John later said, Lorena was a good wife a lot of the time, but she was obsessed with having her American dream, her American dream, her American dream. She said it all the time. Her boss had a big house, a cabin cruiser, a Mercedes. Lorena wanted all those things. She just wanted too much, too fast. Hmm. Which like, a girl can't have a vision board? She's just manifesting. Look it up. Yeah. According to Lorena, it was just one month into their marriage when John's attitude toward her started to change. She said in the very beginning, like when they were dating and even in the really early days of their marriage, he was sweet, he was doting. But now she said he was demanding, pushy, and at times just downright cruel. When she made mistakes or did something that he didn't like, she said that he would mock her or even threatened to have her deported. Oh my God. Which is fucked up on an entirely new level. in time the verbal abuse turned physical according to Lorena especially when she declined his demands for sex in a 1993 interview she told a reporter every time he will hit me he will just try to force me into the sex again he trapped me I feel trapped if that's what happened that is fucked up beyond measure it's super fucked up yeah so by the time Lorena Bobbitt went on trial which if you know this case you know why and if you don't you will shortly find out but by the time that happened all the public and the media seemed to be able to focus on were the drastic actions that she took that led to her arrest. But there was a long road from newlyweds to that action to then divorce. And a lot of it was very chaotic and violent. In the four years that followed John and Lorena's wedding, Manassas, Virginia police responded to the couple's home on multiple occasions in connection with domestic violence complaints, one of which resulted in John's arrest for assault and battery, but the charges eventually were dropped. But there's a very clear history here that things were going. It's not like that came out of nowhere. No, things were going poorly. Now, at the same time, friends and clients at the nail salon allegedly started to notice bruising on Lorena's arms and her neck. So with nowhere else to go when things turned violent at home, she would usually seek refuge at the nail salon, either working or when it was too late, she didn't have a key to the salon. So when it wasn't open, she would just park outside and sleep in her car because she just felt safe there. That's so sad. Mm-hmm. Now, in 1991, John was discharged from the Marines and he struggled to find steady work. As a result, she became the couple's sole source of financial support, which, like, that's a lot. Yeah. And, I mean, she's a nail tech. Like, obviously, you can make great money, but she was just starting out. And I don't think nail techs were making what they are today back then. No, I'm sure not. So the stress and tension over their financial insecurity, yeah, insecurity. only made things worse between them, obviously. Financial stress is only going to make things a million times worse. Now it seemed like anything could set off an argument, which often led to verbal abuse and then escalated to physical violence. Now, it should be said, while Lorena claims that John was primarily the one committing the physical abuse, John did call 911 on a number of occasions and accused Lorena of assaulting him. A very volatile relationship. Yeah, and I just point that out because I have to tell both sides. Yeah, because that just is documented. Now, living in a relatively upscale suburb, Lorena's salary from the nail salon quickly became insufficient. And in time, the couple's home ended up going into foreclosure. Desperate for solutions at that point and running out of options, Lorena started falsifying her customers' tickets at the salon to make it seem like she was earning more on each ticket and each service. Her boss eventually discovered that Lorena had taken approximately $7,200 from the salon over time. Wow. Yeah. by that time she had worked at the salon for years and they had become like a second family so when the theft was discovered her