“Bully” is a book about a group of teens who are so sick of the one person who is a common denominator among all of them: Bobby is an abusive bully. Marty Puccio and his girlfriend Lisa Connelly have had enough and decided to do something about it. Something permanent.
This was first a book and then a movie. The book version of Bobby (something I did not find out right away because I saw the movie first) was a person of color. Bobby is of Iranian decent. He was portrayed by actor Nick Stahl. Marty is Bobby’s best friend and his main punching bag. According to the movie, Bobby seems to be a closet homosexual, or is at least bi-curious. The movie actually opens with Marty (portrayed by the late Brad Renfro) partaking in phone sex with an older man. There are scenes in the movie that show how physically and psychologically abusive Bobby was towards Marty. Whether or not the movie hints at Bobby possibly being gay because he liked to make gay porn isn’t really talked about.
According to an article from 1993, the real reason why Bobby was murdered was because Marty’s girlfriend Lisa was really jealous about how much time Marty would spend with Bobby and decided to plot a way to get rid of him once and for all. It also mentions rumors that Marty and Bobby may have been in a sexual relationship together. In my personal opinion, they more likely may have been “gay for pay”.
The movie Bobby and the book Bobby both had serious issues with explosive anger. The movie does not talk about the reason for it but according to the book and news articles covering the murder, Bobby may have had explosive rage episodes due to taking steroids.
Most of the people involved in the plot were all sentenced to time in prison. Marty was originally sentenced to the death penalty. His sentence was later changed to life in prison.
If you would like to dive deeper, here are some links:
Get the book here: https://amzn.to/3voQZEP
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1993-08-01-9301270191-story.html
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-bobby-kent-murder-photos-20130510-photogallery.html
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