Fine, We Can (Briefly) Talk About John Wayne Bobbitt's Porn Career

Content Warning: This article contains graphic language. It’s been more than 25 years since the fateful night that Lorena Gallo Bobbitt grabbed a kitchen knife and did the unthinkable: lop off her sleeping husband’s penis and toss it out of a moving car. But, thanks Amazon's docuseries, Lorena, produced by horror veteran Jordan Peele (2017’s Get Out and next month’s Us), the story feels as fresh as ever, and ripe for questions of “Where are they now?” The answer to that inquiry has two wildly disparate answers as it pertains to either Gallo, now 49, or her maimed ex, John Wayne Bobbitt, now 51. Following their media circus of a trial, John Wayne Bobbitt starred in porn (yes, that part was very real) and rode the fame wave that followed.

While Gallo kept a relatively low profile (creating a foundation in 2007, the Lorena Gallo Foundation, dedicated to the prevention of domestic violence; speaking at universities and events when called upon; and otherwise living a rather quiet, unassuming life in Gainesville, Fla., with her partner of 20 years, David Bellinger), Bobbitt went full force in the opposite direction, finding ways to stay in the spotlight long after the trial wrapped in 1993. (He and Gallo officially divorced two years later, in 1995).

After police officers famously found his severed penis in a grassy lot across from a 7-Eleven in Manassas, Va., and doctors reattached it that same night in an intricate, nine-hour procedure, the absurdity and improbability of the incident naturally sparked interest from the media and the general public, and Bobbitt seemed happy to indulge that interest.

After the trial ended, he embarked on a 40-city tour during which he made appearances on talk shows ranging from The Jenny Jones Show to The Howard Stern Show and took part in something called “Stump the Bobbitt,” in which he attempted to guess the punchlines to jokes about his mutilation. He also attempted to try his hand at music, forming a rock band, the boldly named Severed Parts, in hopes of generating some money to pay off his growing medical and legal bills. (The band failed to take off and ultimately disbanded). At one point, he even made some extra cash autographing steak knives.

Perhaps most memorably, however, Bobbitt starred in two adult films, both of which show off his headline-making penis. As the story goes, he happened to meet adult film star/director Ron Jeremy at a Playboy party not long after the trial ended; it was Jeremy who pitched him the idea that would eventually lead to 1994’s John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut.

“A porno seemed like the best way to show my penis worked,” Bobbitt told Vanity Fair earlier this year. “Only it wasn’t all-the-way healed yet. I realize now that that was the point.” Uncut was a hit (Jeremy claims it was one of the highest-grossing adult films of all time, and it even merited an actual review by Entertainment Weekly that describes pretty much everything). That led to a second film, Frankenpenis, released two years later in 1996 and so named because Bobbitt got male enhancement surgery following the success of Uncut. (His urologist at the time, Dr. Jim Sehn, said in a 20/20 interview that “it’s not often that our work is displayed in that fashion.”)

Bobbitt’s time in the limelight didn’t end there, however. In 1997, Jeremy introduced the former Marine to Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, the very same Nevada brothel where Lamar Odom overdosed in 2015. There, Bobbitt worked as a greeter, according to Hof. But the gig wasn’t exactly the right fit, as he was fired and re-hired several times.

After being fired for good, Bobbitt made a few more public appearances — on WWE’s Monday Night Raw and as part of the Jim Rose Circus (he starred in the knife-throwing act, of course) — before moving to Las Vegas and working a string of odd jobs: bartender, limo driver, pizza delivery driver, tow-truck operator, and mover. At one point, he even worked as a minister at a wedding chapel.

Most recently, however, he’s been devoting his time to hunting for literal treasure. In a recent interview with 20/20, he explained that he’s searching for a treasure chest that millionaire Forrest Fenn is said to have buried in the Rockies; he believes that if he finds it, he’ll be invited to the White House to meet President Trump in person to express his thanks and support.