The Bobbitts, John Wayne and Lorena, are by now, of course, renowned as the ultimate dysfunctional couple. And they have become symbols: he the violent cad who abused his wife and got his grotesque comeuppance, she the battered wife who took cruel revenge by cutting her husband's penis off with a kitchen knife and inspired debate about marital rape. Now, it seems, both of them will walk away from the train wreck of their marriage. Last November, John was found innocent of marital sexual assault. Last week, Lorena was found innocent of malicious wounding by reason of temporary insanity. She will undergo up to 45 days of psychiatric evaluation before going free. But even though juries acquitted them, it may be that a kind of rough justice was done; after all, they both had to live with each other, and it's doubtful their lives will ever be the same.
Perhaps only the public didn't get justice. It has had to face over 1,300,000 column inches of articles about the Bobbitts and has endured a seemingly endless flow of strained analysis, such as that of writer Gay Talese comparing the trial with a Russian novel: "The heroes are antiheroes and the heroines are not so untarnished by their heroic deeds." And, of course, there are the reports of copycat crimes. Moments before Lorena's jury acquitted her, news was flashed about a woman who got probation for allegedly dousing her husband's penis with nail polish remover and setting him on fire.
