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The Bobbit worm gained infamy after starring in Blue Planet II, but the origin story behind this ambush predator’s name is even more sinister than the hellish worm itself. The sequence showed Eunice aphroditois, a deep-sea bristle worm found mainly in the Atlantic Ocean, lying in wait on the seafloor before snatching a fish with its large jaws. They live in burrows that hide the majority of their mass, and after a successful hunt will drag their prey down inside with them. The same ambush-predation approach is thought to have been identified in another deep-sea giant from 20 million years ago described in a recent study. It’s fair to say that E. aphroditois is quite a sinister character, so it’s perhaps fitting that its nickname – the Bobbitt worm – has sinister origins: an infamous lawsuit from the early 90s involving John and Lorena Bobbitt.
The pair, from America, were married on June 18, 1989, but their fraught union came to a grim climax in 1993 when Lorena cut off John’s penis while he was sleeping. On the night in question, it’s reported that having been violently attacked by her husband, Lorena took a 20.3-centimeter (8-inch) carving knife from the kitchen counter, returned to their bedroom, and removed John’s penis. She then drove away with the severed organ and, when driving with one hand became an inconvenience, decided to throw it out of the window into a roadside field. She eventually called the police to explain what had happened, and after an exhaustive search, the severed penis was recovered.
Incredibly, following thorough decontamination with antiseptic, the penis was packed in saline ice and successfully reattached, but the legal case that followed was far from clear cut. Lorena’s defense put forward the argument that the action had followed years of abuse, including both physical and sexual violence. John denied the allegations, but through the course of the hearing gave many statements that conflicted with known facts while being cross-examined, which weakened the prosecution’s argument. At the close, the jury found Lorena not guilty stating that her mental state brought on by John’s mistreatment made her act impulsively and, as a result, she could not be held liable for her actions.
To pay for his mounting legal and medical bills, John made the unusual move to start a band named The Severed Parts. Far from hindered by the mutilation, John and his reattached penis would go on to star in two pornographic films in the 1990s; one named John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut, and the other: Frankenpenis (also known as John Wayne Bobbitt's Frankenpenis).
Bizarrely, the notorious lawsuit sparked what the media coined "Bobbittmania" as the name became synonymous with violent behavior, penis removal, and our ferocious ambush predator: the Bobbitt worm. Paul later apologized for his mistreatment of Lorena in a televised interview for The Insider which was the first time he’d seen Lorena since their divorce shortly after the case.
