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'''Len Pasquarelli''' is an [[United States|American]] sportswriter and analyst with [[ESPN.com]] and a 25-year veteran of covering the [[National Football League|NFL]]. He joined ESPN.com in 2001 and has since become a frequent contributor to the other [[ESPN]] outlets, including ''[[SportsCenter]]'', [[ESPNEWS]], [[ESPN Radio]] and ''[[ESPN The Magazine]]''. His articles reflect his opinions on various football topics.
'''John Wayne Bobbitt''' (born [[March 23]], [[1967]] in [[Buffalo, New York]]) and '''Lorena Leonor Gallo de Bobbitt''' (born 1970 in [[Bucay]], [[Ecuador]]) were an American couple, married on [[June 18]], [[1989]], known for a [[1993]] incident in which Lorena severed John's [[penis]] with a kitchen knife.
Pasquarelli has come under increasing criticism in recent years, by critics who say he relies too heavily on his relationships with player agents -- praising players represented by agents who feed him information, and criticizing players whose agents do not.
==The incident==
{{linkimage|John Wayne Bobbitt lawyer.jpg|Image of John Wayne Bobbitt's severed penis being held up in court.}}
On the night of [[June 23]], [[1993]], Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband's penis with a kitchen knife as he lay sleeping in their [[Manassas Park, Virginia|Manassas Park]], [[Virginia]], home. She then drove off with the severed appendage and flung it out her car window. [[Police]] performed a diligent search and located it, and it was then surgically reattached.
Prior to ESPN, Pasquarelli served as a senior writer for CBS SportsLine.com, which he joined in 1999. He has also covered the NFL for the [[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]] from 1989 to 1999, the [[Fort Wayne News-Sentinel]] from 1985 to 1989, [[Pro Football Weekly]] from 1982 to 1985, and [[Pittsburgh Steelers Weekly]] from 1978 to 1982.
In statements to police, she explained that she had cut off the penis because her husband was "selfish" and "wouldn't give her an [[orgasm]]." John contested these accusations by elaborately detailing his allegedly unsuccessful attempts at [[oral sex]] the previous night.
Pasquarelli is a past president of the [[Pro Football Writers of America]] and has twice won national awards as the NFL Beat Reporter of the Year. He also has won several writing awards, including a first place [[Associated Press]] Deadline Sports Reporting Award in 1988.
She was charged with "malicious wounding," but was found not guilty in 1994 [http://www.courttv.com/archive/casefiles/verdicts/bobbitt.html] on the grounds that she had experienced [[insanity defense|temporary insanity]] causing an irresistible impulse to wound her husband, who had also physically abused her. Therefore, she was not [[liability|liable]] for her actions. She was, however, ordered to spend 45 days in a [[psychiatric hospital]].
Pasquarelli is a [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|Pittsburgh]] native, attended Central Catholic High School, and graduated from the [[University of Pittsburgh]] in 1972. He currently resides in [[Atlanta]], GA and is a great friend of Herman Donatelli, DMD.
John also faced charges stemming from accusations of assault against Lorena. He was acquitted of a charge of marital sexual assault in September 1993.
== Since the incident ==
*[http://sports.espn.go.com/keyword/search?searchString=Len_Pasquarelli&rT=sports/ Pasquarelli’s recent sports columns from ESPN.com]
Lorena and John were divorced in 1995, after 6 years of marriage.
===John===
[[Image:Bobbitt_Uncut.jpg|thumb|DVD Cover of ''John Wayne Bobbitt … Uncut]]
After his reattachment surgery, Bobbitt briefly became a [[porn star]], in part to finance the operation to reattach his penis. He appeared in three movies: ''John Wayne Bobbitt … Uncut'', ''Buttman at Nudes a Poppin' 2'', and ''Frankenpenis''. In ''Frankenpenis'', Bobbitt played a character who was made with spare parts (like the monster in [[Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley]]'s "[[Frankenstein]]") and whose penis inexplicably comes off during a rousing session of intercourse. Bobbitt then moans, "Oh no, not again."
[[Category:American sportswriters|Paquarelli, Len]]
In 1996, John Bobbitt moved to Nevada, where he worked in a brothel. While there, he had a brief fling with [[Taylor Hayes (porn star)|Taylor Hayes]], who subsequently moved to Los Angeles and became a [[Vivid Entertainment|Vivid Girl]] for adult pornographic studio [[Vivid Entertainment]]. He also worked as a bartender, a limousine driver, a tow truck operator and a minister in a [[Las Vegas]] church.
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In 2001, he briefly married Dottie Brewer ([[February 3]] – [[February 26]]). A year later, on [[March 23]], [[2002]], he married Joanna Ferrell.
[[Category:Living people| BobbittPaquarelli, John and LorenaLen]] ▼
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In 2002, John Bobbitt was scheduled to fight [[Joey Buttafuoco]] on [[Fox Network]]'s [[Celebrity Boxing]]. The event was cancelled, after Bobbitt was arrested for domestic abuse. [http://extratv.warnerbros.com/dailynews/extra/05_02/05_15a.html].
[[Category:ESPN Radio|Paquarelli, Len]]
After two trials for domestic abuse against Ferrell in 2004 - one ending in conviction for Bobbitt and the other in acquittal - he was arrested for a third offense in [[September 2005]]. Days after the third incident, he filed for a divorce from Ferrell. On [[February 8]], [[2006]], a municipal judge found Bobbitt not guilty, due to insufficient evidence [http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Feb-08-Wed-2006/news/5773116.html].
===Lorena===
Lorena resumed the use of her maiden name, Gallo. In [[December 1997]], she was charged with [[assault]] for punching her mother, Elvia Gallo, as her mother watched television [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C00E1DA163CF93BA35751C1A961958260]. Four months later, Lorena was found not guilty, as the judge did not find the evidence compelling enough to convict her [http://archives.thedaily.washington.edu/1998/040398/nat.40398.html]. She is now employed in the [[Ashburn, Virginia]] area as a hair stylist.
== Trivia and popular culture ==
The case created a popular sensation at the time and was a frequent subject of jokes and joking references. It even seemed possible for a while that the Bobbitt name might enter the language. For example, Boston Globe architecture critics wrote in [[1994]] that <!--April 17, 1994 p. 10-->"An architectural Bobbitt case, Memorial Hall at Harvard University has lacked [the top part of] its tower since September 1956." However, public memory of the case has receded.
On an episode of [[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]], Will makes a reference to Lorena Bobbitt while wearing a fat suit that does not have any male genitalia. He says "I guess Lorena Bobbitt got to this suit first huh?"
This incident was used to inspire the third verse to [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s parody song, "[[Headline News (song)|Headline News]]", where we hear the words ''"Once there was this guy who made his wife so mad one night that she cut off his [[penis|wiener]]"''. The incident also inspired the [[Tribe 8]] song "Castration Song #22," with its chorus of ''"Lorena don't take no shit."'' There is also a song by the crust punk band Ballast, called "Lorena Bobbitt". A parody of the song "[[The Lion Sleeps Tonight]]" was made which contained lines such as, "In the bedroom, the quiet bedroom, John Bobbitt sleeps tonight; in the kitchen, the mighty kitchen, Lorena sharpens her knife, a weiney wack a weiney wack..." The incident inspired the song 'Bobbitt' by Canadian [[punk rock]] band [[SNFU]]. The singer-songwriter [[Tom Paxton]] also wrote a song about the incident, accurately titled "The Ballad of Lorena Bobbitt."
Comedian [[Denis Leary]] briefly mentions the Bobbitt incident during his 1997 show ''[[Lock 'N Load]]'' on the topic of male genitals "I love my dick, buh uh, I'm no John Wayne Bobbitt y'know? I mean, if my wife cuts my dick off, I'm not telling ANYONE. I don't even care if the cops show up with the dick!".
In [[Robin Williams]]' 2002 HBO special "Robin Williams: Live On Broadway", Robin makes reference to the Bobbitt case during a part of his act where he is talking about how to empower women in [[Afghanistan]]. Williams recommends sending a black Brooklyn woman- "...the kind you might see on [[The_Jerry_Springer_Show|Jerry Springer]]"- and, if confronted with possible genital mutilation, as had been practiced to some degree in Afghanistan under the [[Taliban]], it would then be "Lorena Bobbitt time".
[[Tyler Durden]] refers to the incident in the 1999 movie ''[[Fight Club (movie)|Fight Club]]''. In the first bar scene, Durden says "Hey man, it could be worse; a woman could cut off your penis while you're sleeping, and toss it out the window of a moving car."
Mention of the incident is also made in the [[2004]] re-make of film [[The Ladykillers]] in which Gawain MacSam ([[Marlon Wayans]]) exclaims "It's like that dude whose wife cut his dick off and threw it on the freeway!".
World Wrestling Entertainment has made reference to the incident in a storyline in which Val Venis had an affair with Yamaguchi San's wife. In retribution for the act (and filming it, to be shown to the viewing audience) Yamaguchi San's group Kaienti attacked Val Venis, promising to "choppy, choppy" his "pee, pee." The group was unsuccessful in their attempt, but this led to John Wayne Bobbitt accompanying [[Val Venis]] to ring and partake in interviews (each interview being prematurely stopped by the words: "Sorry to cut you off...").
Lloyd Banks From The Rap Group [[G-Unit]] mentions in the song Playboy "I Never Trust A Bitch, I Blame Lorena Bobbit"
Les Blaireaux, a French music group, made a song called "Le dromadaire" (The true story of John Bobbit) which humorously tells a twisted story of what happened to John Bobbit.
In a 2004 episode of Sex and the City, one of Samantha's many men referred to Lorena Bobbit. Samantha was unable to achieve an orgasm because of the noise heard outside her window, from a trio of transexuals. She goes to her kitchen to fill a pot with water to dump on them. As she does this, the man in bed says, "Baby you're not gonna pull a Lorena Bobbit, are you?"
In a 2006 episode of [[Law and Order: Special Victims Unit]], Detective Olivia Benson, acting undercover, informs a police officer that a body he has found is the victim of a sex crime. When he asks her, "Is that what it is?" she replies, "Ever heard of Lorena Bobbitt?"
In [[Sci Fi Channel (United States)|SciFi Channel]]'s original series [[Eureka]], one of the characters made the joke, "Let's hope it's not the Lorena Bobbitt virus, it turns your hard drive into a 3 1/2 floppy."
In the ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode "[[Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey]]," the [[Thing (comics)|Thing]] from [[The Fantastic Four]] is a victim of Lorena Bobbitt.
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*Documentation of the story from [[Court TV]]
**[http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/severed_penis/index.html Chapter 1]
**[http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/severed_penis/2.html Chapter 2]
**[http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/severed_penis/3.html Chapter 3] (more general information about reattaching a severed penis, and not specific to the Bobbitt case)
*{{imdb name|id=0001956|name=John Wayne Bobbitt}}
*{{imdb name|id=1061991|name=Lorena Bobbitt}}
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