Lorena Bobbitt, now known as Lorena Gallo, is living a quiet life in the suburbs more than three decades after she gained national notoriety for severing her then-husband's penis. Gallo, 56, resides in a rented home in Prince William County, Virginia, with her long-term partner, Dave Bellinger, 56, their daughter Olivia, 21, and their dog.
On June 23, 1993, Gallo, then 24, used an 8-inch kitchen knife to cut off her husband John Wayne Bobbitt's penis while he slept. She then fled their Manassas, Virginia, home with the severed body part and threw it out of her car window into a grassy field near a 7-Eleven convenience store before calling the police.
Bobbitt's penis was recovered by police and subsequently reattached in a four-hour surgery. He has long denied allegations of assaulting his ex-wife. Gallo was found not guilty of malicious wounding by reason of temporary insanity in January 1994. John Wayne Bobbitt was charged and later acquitted of marital sexual assault by a jury in late 1993.
Neighbors describe Gallo and Bellinger as an unremarkable suburban couple, often seen walking their dog or attending church. However, some residents have made light of Gallo's past. "It's fun to talk about. You can always start a conversation by saying, 'Guess who lives on my block?'" one neighbor, Amelia Stern, told the Daily Mail. Another neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, admitted to having misgivings about interacting with Gallo, stating, "I don’t have anything against her, but I can’t see her without imagining her driving around town with a cut-off penis in her hand."
Bellinger has a criminal record that includes offenses such as credit card theft, fraud, and embezzlement, as well as numerous traffic violations, according to the Daily Mail. Gallo and Bellinger met in community college in the late 1990s, several years after her trial.
Gallo has dedicated much of the past three decades to advocating for domestic violence victims, establishing her nonprofit, The Lorena Gallo Foundation, in 2018. John Wayne Bobbitt, after the incident, appeared in adult films in the 1990s, with his penis reportedly functioning normally again within months of the surgery.