Married life is not always as easy as romantic Hollywood movies like to portray. Sometimes, marriage sees you serving a five-year prison sentence for mayhem.
But how does married life get you in jail for mayhem? Well, if you follow Bertha Boronda’s example, you might understand.
The year is 1907, Bertha is 31-years-old and has been married for six years to Frank Boronda, a captain at the San Jose Fire Department. Now, Bertha believes her husband is cheating on her and is preparing to abscond with his mistress.
What does she do? Does she confront him and demand answers? Oh no, because that will mean Frank can explain himself to her. On 31 May 1907, she decided to cut his genitals with a straight razor. What the f*%$k!
But wait, there is more.
While Frank dashed off to the fire station for help, which was fortunately right next door to his and Bertha’s house, she took off. It took authorities a full 24 hours to find her at the San Jose Railway Yard, dressed like a man.
Instead of breaking down in tears or showing fear, she remained rather calm. In fact, she was apparently downright confident. She admitted to the crime and said in a rather confident tone, that it was Frank’s fault. After all, if she wasn’t worried that he would leave her, she wouldn’t have needed to castrate him.
She was charged with mayhem and her court case began in January 1908. But why charged with mayhem? Surely, she deserved to be charged with assault or attempted murder? Well, back in the day, a charge of mayhem is applied to someone who deprives someone of a member of his body or renders it useless.
Bertha was found guilty and sentenced to five years in San Quentin in 1908. Apparently, it only took the jury two-hours to sentence her. With the jury consisting of only men, I think they might have felt a wee bit of Frank’s pain.
She was paroled December of 1909. Funny enough, she and Frank never reconciled. But the two of them did give marriage ago. Frank married a woman 33 years his junior, while Bertha married an elderly widower.
Her second marriage ended in divorce in 1921. But, her second husband was lucky to escape being cut from Bertha’s life like Frank was.
While behaviour like Bertha’s will not stand in a court anymore, it is imperative to think twice before making your wife angry.
Until next week…have yourself an awesome, FREAKY FRIDAY!!
