BUTLER, Pa. -- A transsexual who was once Tammy Felbaum's husband said Tuesday that she castrated him years ago with his consent, as Felbaum's murder trial continued at the Butler County Courthouse.
Tammy Felbaum (pictured, left), 42, is charged with third-degree homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and practicing medicine without a license in the Feb. 25 death of her husband, James, who was found castrated. The case is being heard by a judge with no jury.
Lynn Barner, a transsexual woman who was the first of Tammy Felbaum's six husbands while known as Tim Barner, said she asked Felbaum to castrate her after their divorce because she could not afford to have a doctor do it.
"We had conversations," Barner (pictured, right) told WTAE-TV's Marcie Cipriani. "She got the valium, the alcohol. She used to be able to go to the drug store and get pharmaceutical ether. She knew how to talk to people. And it just progressed. After I passed out, I don't remember anything until I woke up."
Barner told Cipriani she threw up for about a day after the procedure. She said Felbaum performed similar operations on cats and dogs, and that Felbaum told her to tell police she performed the surgery on herself.
Officials said James Felbaum, 40, died following a "very crude" castration, allegedly performed by his wife in their Marion Township home. The county coroner's office said pain from the castration, along with the effect of painkillers, suppressed his gag reflex and caused him to suffocate on his own vomit.
The victim's brother told Cipriani outside the courtroom that Tammy Felbaum often threatened to hurt her husband.
"She said, 'If you ever cheat on me, I'll castrate you and leave you for dead,'" Thomas Felbaum said. "She made the threats right in my house. She also said she would get away with it if she did it."
Thomas Felbaum said he doubts the authenticity of a note that police fund, which says the defendant had no part in the castration and is signed "James Felbaum."
Cipriani reported that the letter said, "I, James Felbaum, in a fit of rage because my wife Tammy accused me of being unfaithful, stabbed myself in the testicles. Because of the bleeding and the pain, I allowed my wife to remove my damaged testicles because of her vast knowledge of medicine. I only hold myself responsible for this. I begged her to help me."
"She has a very unique way of writing," Thomas Felbaum said of Tammy Felbaum. "If you ever see it one time, you know her writing from anybody else's."
Defense attorneys said Tammy Felbaum wrote the letter, but James Felbaum signed it.
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