Catherine Kieu, 50, planned every step with a precision that still sends chills down the spine of anyone who reads the case file today. In Garden Grove, California, she prepared dinner for her husband, a 60-year-old man, and mixed it with medication until he fell deeply asleep.
While he slept, she tied his legs and arms to the corners of the bed with ropes. She waited. When he woke up, she pulled down his pants, grabbed his penis, and cut it off with a knife. Then she walked to the kitchen, dropped it into the garbage disposal, and turned it on, completely mutilating the organ before anyone could intervene.
During the trial, prosecutors said Kieu was furious because her husband was seeing an ex-girlfriend and claim she screamed “You deserve it!” during the attack. The reimplantation surgery at UC Irvine Medical Center failed. In 2013, the woman was sentenced to life in prison for torture and aggravated mayhem. Her husband testified at the hearing that she “took away his identity as a man”.