Lorena Gallo, a 19-year old immigrant from Venezuela, met John Bobbitt, a bar bouncer and former U.S. Marine, in a bar in 1988. Within a year they were married. Were it not for the events of the night of June 23, 1993, few would have heard of this couple.

According to Lorena, she was mentally and physically abused during their marriage. On the fateful night, Lorena was sleeping when John came home drunk. He raped her, then fell asleep himself. John denies it. Nobody denies what followed. Lorena went into the kitchen, came back with a knife, pulled the covers down and cut off his penis.

The aftermath. Lorena took off, not with John, but with his now separated member. At one point she chucked it out the car window. Lorena reported to authorities what she had done and where she threw it. Incredibly, a search party went out and found John’s missing part. Even more incredibly, it was successfully surgically reattached.

John was brought up on charges of marital sexual assault. He was found not guilty by a jury. Lorena was charged with assault and was found not guilty by reason of insanity though she was required to submit to a 45-day psychiatric evaluation. They divorced. Lorena resumed using her maiden name, Lorena Gallo.

Gallo would have one other day in court. In 1998, she was charged with assault and battery after a fight with her mother, who she was living with after her divorce. A Washington Post story (April 3, 1998) describes the result:

“After listening to two hours of conflicting testimony about a fight involving shoving, hair-pulling and biting, a Prince William County judge ruled yesterday that the woman formerly known as Lorena Bobbitt did not assault her mother.

“‘If you asked me if I think she’s guilty, I’d say yes,’ Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge James Robeson said of the defendant, who could have faced up to a year in jail for the alleged assault. But, he said, ‘I have reasonable doubt, so I’ll find her not guilty.’”

What do you do after being tagged as the women who cut off her husband’s penis? In Gallo’s case, she has devoted herself to supporting and helping victims of domestic abuse. She volunteers at a shelter for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence and does speaking engagements.

In a 2018 interview with Time Magazine she explained: 

“One of my missions is to educate the public and young women about the red flags in dating an abuser. I go to colleges and talk to sororities. I recently went to Tennessee to do a symposium at a law school; the law needs to be tightened a lot more to protect women, to protect the victim. There needs to be more convictions for abusers. We have to have a background check on who can own guns. There are still a lot of loopholes that need to be closed. I don’t want to see another 25 years pass by and not be able to protect women more.”

In 2007, she founded Lorena’s Red Wagon which later became the Lorena Gallo Foundation. Its mission is to “expand domestic violence and sexual assault prevention education, emergency response resources and community engagement activities that will improve outcomes for survivors and their children.”

The agency that books her speaking engagements lists the topics she can speak about as:

— Domestic Violence Doesn’t Discriminate: It Can Happen To Me.   

— Overcoming Adversity through Resiliency.  The strength you don’t know you have.

— The Lorena Bobbitt Story

Gallo still lives in Manassas, Va. She lives with her partner of 20+ years, David Bellinger, and their teenage daughter, Olivia. She has continued to work as a manicurist and hair stylist.

In a New York Times story in 2019, author Amy Chozick describes Gallo: “For a woman who has been a punch line for most of her adult life, Lorena ‘Bobbitt’ Gallo is a surprisingly sincere person. That is the first thing I noticed about her when we met. She hugged me hello, coming up to my neck in heels, and I was struck at how warm and maternal she was. We talked about being moms and our naturally curly hair.”

And as for Bobbitt, Gallo told Oprah Daily:

“He tried to reach out to me through my foundation, and often posts rude comments and bad reviews on my foundation’s Facebook page—which is a sign of being controlling and mentally abusive, 20 years later. Basically, this man needs help.”

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