A Crime Worse Than Lorena Bobbitt: How a Costa Mesa Woman Committed the Ultimate Act of Marital Revenge

Crime stories rarely make the national news, but in the few cases they do it is because they involve a terror enough to strike fear into the heart of the general public. It could be a case like Scott Peterson or Ted Bundy, playing off the fear that a seemingly normal, charming man might be capable of murder, or that a mother like Susan Smith or Casey Anthony might actually want to murder the children she brought into the world.

Crime stories play into peoples most primal fears, which is why within hours, the arrest of Catherine Kieu Becker became national news. Spousal abuse cases are rarely noteworthy, but in this case Becker did something dramatic enough to justify both an entire course worth of Freudian studies and a monologue of late-night jokes: she cut off her husbands penis.

Men can rest easy that this is such an uncommon occurrence that when it does happen, it usually becomes national news. The most prominent example of this is the 1993 case of John and Lorena Bobbitt, in which Lorena, after a history of marital abuse, decided in a drunken rage to cut off her husbands penis and throw out the severed member. Lorena was judged not guilty due to temporary insanity, Johns penis was reattached and he starred in several adult films, and Bobbitt became a household name since the incident.

The Bobbitt story may have been on Mrs. Beckers mind when she committed her crime. off her husbands penis, she ensured that it could not be reattached by placing it in disposal. In fact, her entire crime was far better conceived than Mrs. Bobbitts. She husband and tied him up before cutting off her penis, unlike Mrs. Bobbitt, who did so while was sleeping and in a drunken rage.

After cutting the garbage drugged her her husband

Yet while Catherine Kieu Becker undoubtedly had the more accomplished plan compared to Lorena Bobbitt, theres little chance that she will face a jury willing to acquit like Mrs. Bobbitt. As of yet there are no accusations of spousal abuse between the Beckers as in the Bobbitt case; Mrs. Becker was reportedly motivated by a dispute over houseguests with her husband, and the two were planning divorce. Furthermore, Mrs. Beckers planning of the crime suggests premeditation, while the circumstances of Lorena Bobbitts crime were more impulsive; she drunkenly picked up the knife and decided to take her revenge, whereas everything about Mrs. Beckers crime seems carefully planned (drugging her husband and tying him up before cutting off the penis).

Catherine Kieu Becker was charged with several crimes upon her arrest. These include felony torture, aggravated mayhem with enhancements for great bodily injury and personal use of a knife. The charge of torture is relatively self-evident, but for a lay person the charge of aggravated mayhem seems odd.

Mayhem in the vernacular has a broad definition, generally describing any situation in which there is widespread panic or terror, but it actually has a specific common law definition adopted by the state of California.

The term mayhem actually refers to dismemberment, cutting off a part of another persons body. Under California law, one can be convicted of mayhem through the malicious use of force to disable or dismember a part of another persons body, whether slicing off an arm, gouging out an eye or even slitting the nose, ears or throat of a person. Aggravated mayhem, the crime for which Mrs. Becker was charged, involves an extreme or reckless disregard for the physical or psychological well-being of the victim. One suspects that even the most incompetent prosecutor could prove that cutting off a mans penis and then throwing it in the garbage disposal displays an extreme disregard for her husbands physical well-being, let alone his psychological well-being.

The case of Catherine Kieu Becker will therefore unlikely end poorly for both her and her husband. If one can say that a case of penile dismemberment had a happy ending, that is what happened with the Bobbitts: John recovered from his injury and parlayed it into a short-lived fame, and Lorena was acquitted, lived a surprisingly normal life, and later founded an organization for domestic abuse victims. Mr. Becker will in all likelihood not be reunited with his missing body part, and Mrs. Becker faces life in prison for what appears to be a premeditated crime. In this case, there are no winners, except perhaps Jay Leno and Sigmund Freud.

The author brings the case of Catherine Kieu Becker's marital revenge which has turned into a national news. Also comparing her case with that of the Bobbitts, making Domestic Violence Attorney vigilant of such harsh crimes.

By :- Jeremy Ross at Domestic Violence Lawyer